Grace Swings Clara

Grace pushes Clara on the swing at the park!  They are both enjoying it immensely.  Clara immediately loved the swing, whereas Grace is still too cautious to try it on most days.  It is fun to see how they are different.  Clara might be the one on the back of a motorcycle someday, much to her parents chagrin!

Spinning and Somersaults

I have a couple new videos for you!

Clara loves to push things around.  She likes to drive cars, stools, the riding horse and anything that will slide!  She also loves to spin in circles.

Grace has been taking tumbling lessons, and she has learned to do a somersault!  She is usually reluctant with new activities, but when she decides to try it, she dives in with abandon!

11 Months Old!

Clara turned 11 months old yesterday!

We are almost there!  She is saying more and more things that sound like words.  She can copy words we say and she also purposefully says some words to communicate.  I think she says several new things:  all done, down, up, this, milk, cheese.  Yes, cheese.  She has started eating a lot more and she loves cheese!  She must be a Tillamook girl at heart!

She is working on her 4th molar.  Crabbiness happens and I end up carrying her around a lot.  I think I've injured my right wrist doing this.  She has gotten quite heavy!

She is very comfortable with kneeling and can do it without holding onto something.

She also stands on one leg a lot.  Just in the last few days, we have seen her stand up completely while bracing on something but I haven't caught that on camera yet!

Cruising and then walking can't be far.  In the meantime, she has a blast walking with Daddy's help.

The other new event is that we purchased a bunk bed for Grace.  She loves her new bed!  Clara models it while playing with a tissue, a favorite pastime of both girls.  It keeps mom swiffering constantly!  We also have the girls sleep together at night now.  Grace has been difficult because she keeps Clara up by talking and playing.  It has been slowly getting better, and we are hopeful that they will get used to it.  We haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately but hopefully we all will soon!

Things are a bit overwhelming at times right now.  Work, auditions, housework, yardwork and meal preparation are daily challenges and stresses, not to mention a broken refrigerator and other little bumps here and there.  Good thing it is worth it for these girls!  We can't wait for the summer!

Easter Bunny

I finally got a good picture of Clara in this bunny hat with the help of Erica!

Erica is good at charming our babies!

Erica had the great idea to dye eggs.  The girls had a fantastic time putting them in the bowls and stirring them around.

After they dried, we hid them and the girls loved finding them.

Grace enjoyed it so much, she starting hiding the eggs after she found them so that we could do it all over again!

Swim Lessons

Grace just completed her first session of swim lessons!

Here she is, looking adorable in her swim suit from GG!

Avery did swim lessons with us also.  It was great having a good example in class!  Avery has no fear.  She had her arms outstretched every time the instructor was near, longing for her turn.  Grace on the other hand was a little reluctant sometimes.

Mom was always close by!  

I think she gained some confidence taking this class.  She loved her instructor Miss Allie, and she is much more confident in the water.  Grandma and Grandpa's swimming pool, here we come!  (well not right away but sometime not too long from now, hopefully!)`

I feel a bit guilty that I laughed at this, but I think the swim instructors brought this on themselves.  They got out this large raft for the swim class and floated everyone up and down, but it was over so quickly and Grace and Avery did NOT want to get out!  They eventually had to just grab Grace and pull her out against her will.

I thought I should include a video of her actually swimming also:

It's a start!  Next, we are trying Tumbling!

Grace's Orchestra

I found a poster in the green room for the symphony concert Grace saw last month and I put it in her room.  I think it reminds her of the experience!

10 Months Old!

Clara turned 10 months old two days ago!

You can really see that molar in this picture.  She is working on two more!

She learned how to crawl this month, and she is all over the place!  She gets into everything!

It was hard to take pictures of her this month because she keeps speed crawling to my camera lens and trying to grab it.

She is also more interactive and has figured out toys such as this car track.  She babbles all the time, and often I think she is copying something I said.  I could be imagining it being her proud mama, but I think she is trying to tell us things!

Of course, she is constantly getting in Grace's business.  Sometimes it drives Grace crazy but sometimes they play and laugh!