Month: January 2012
Favorite Books
In the continuing series of “What we’re reading at our house” here is the January 2012 edition. I’ve noticed we’re reading less these days – maybe only six books a day as compared to over a dozen at the high point. However, Clare’s books and attention span have gotten longer so we still spend quite a bit of time reading. Clare also loves to “read” on her own, study the pictures and “read” to her stuffed animals and dolls.
Clare calls this book “Amos McGee!” and it’s become one of my favorites as well. It’s a pretty simple little story about a zookeeper whose animal friends visit him when he gets sick, but it has really sweet illustrations and nice descriptions. Clare’s a sucker for an animal book, and the illustrations are complex enough to give us something to talk about. A new development with reading books together is the conversations we have around why characters do certain things, how they are feeling, what we like or don’t like, etc. It’s pretty fun.
I’ve loved Olivia ever since I managed the children’s section at a book store 12 years ago, I’ve loved the Olivia books. I brought this one home to Clare and it immediately became a favorite. Olivia is also a feisty, imaginative little pig (much like a feisty imaginative girl I know). It’s another one of those books where the pictures tell a much bigger story than the narration does, so it’s as much a conversation starter as a simple read through. Clare’s gotten to where she can recite each page, and will often start reciting the book at various times through the day.
“The Moose Book!” Grandma T brought this book on her last trip and may have lived to regret it, since I think she probably read it 50 times in her five days here. Since then we’ve limited it to reading it no more than once a day and its popularity is starting to wane, however she still loves it. It’s a fun book because there are hidden moose on specific pages that Clare likes to point out. It’s also a repetitive book with silly phrases and made-up words – all the things a silly two year old loves.
The Sneetches book has several stories in it, and Clare’s favorite is the last story called What Was I Scared Of? It’s a cute little story about being afraid of a pair of person-less pants. The story begins with the narrator being afraid of the pants and by the end of the story the narrator realizes that the pants aren’t scary and are, in fact, friendly. Since Clare is prone to being occasionally nervous and scared of the unknown this is a nice story to begin conversations about feeling scared and being brave in spite of fear.
I bought The Snowy Day before our trip to Tennessee. It’s a classic story and very simple but Clare loves it. I think she can really relate to little Peter in the story and his adventures. It’s nice to have a shorter favorite book in the rotation for hurried reading sessions.
Lastly, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. J’s been reading this one to her for over a year, even though I’m not sure she understood it back then. It’s a fairly complex story but Clare has always loved it. It’s not very character-driven, and she prefers character-driven stories, but I think she likes the illustrations of food falling from the sky. She’ll also quote this book periodically, especially when we’re eating.
Clare at Two and a Half Years
I’ve noticed that my blog posts have become more perfunctory and not as well-written. Sorry. I blame the sleep deprivation and general busy-ness of two kids. Hopefully my story telling will improve in the next few months – either that or I’m going to have to start taking even cuter pictures to keep this blog interesting 
OK, with that out of the way here are some things I want to remember about Clare as a two-and-a-half-year-old.
- Her absolute favorite food right now is bread. But not just any bread, toast with peanut butter and jelly. She could literally eat this three times a day (and often requests it for every meal). I limit it to once a day but she thinks that she has to eat a toasted peanut butter sandwich every day.
The other day we had a friend baby-sitting for Clare and when they had gas Clare asked if they had “frogs in their pants. The frogs are barking!”
- She seems to say the funniest things in the car. On the way home from the airport she, she out of the blue, rapturously declared “I love my vitamins!” The other day in the car she started a stream of consciousness chatter that included “I love hummingbirds. I’m a hummingClare!”
- She is a very sweet big sister to Sam but she’s desperate for him to play with her. The other day she asked me “can I take Sam into my room? We want to play.” I often find her laying next to him in his little baby gym or on my blanket, batting at his toys along with him, trying her best to make his baby “play” a two person activity.
A not-so-cute development is that she sometimes get into serious contrary phases where she says “no” to EVERYTHING. Even if it’s something that she wants, her first impulse will be negative. I can walk into her room and say “Clare, it’s time for breakfast. Let’s go get some oatmeal.” Her response will be “No! I don’t like breakfast. I won’t get oatmeal!” Then a minute later she’ll be in the kitchen climbing into her chair for oatmeal. One night I heard her say “No! I won’t do that!” while she was sleeping. She was literally being contrary in her sleep.
Sam at 2.5 months
We took Sam for his 2 month pediatrician appointment today (even though he’s officially 2.5 months old) . He’s off the charts – literally weighing in at 16 lbs. 11 oz. and 25 inches long. He’s more than doubled his birth weight and has grown 4 inches in 10 weeks. He’s growing so fast it’s absolutely ridiculous – in a good way He’s also off the charts cute.
He’s also off the charts cute.
As he’s getting older, he’s starting to interact with his world a little more. He’s batting at his toys, trying to grab them, smiling and cooing at us, and watching everything with wide eyes. He has a very sweet, relaxed way about him but we’ve noticed that he’s always moving. Considering how strong he is my guess is that once he wants to become mobile there won’t be much that will get in his way.
The pediatrician told me that Sam is showing signs of very early teething. He’s not getting teeth or anything but he’s drooling a little bit and showing other signs that his teeth may come sooner rather than later. She also mentioned that we’ll probably talk about starting solids at his four month appointment, which is something that has occurred to me as well. Of course I’ll follow his lead on it, but I just have a hunch that he’ll be asking for food earlier rather than later.
Because it’s entirely possible that Sam will be my last baby, it makes me a little bit sad that he is growing up so fast. Fortunately he’s extra cuddly and I’m well aware of how fast babies grow into busy kiddos. We spend lots of time snuggling and Sam is really turning into a Mama’s boy. Last night J and I went to a parenting class and fabulous Auntie Carrie watched the kids (both of them at once! Carrie is amazing!). At one point Sam was fussing and Clare told Carrie “Sam doesn’t want you. He wants his Mama.” It seemed like she was onto something because when we got home I took Sam into my arms and he immediately fell asleep. While on one hand I love this, I know that this will make things harder for Adam once I go back to work. We may need to work on getting Sam to bond to other people.
Here We Go A-Travelin’
Another year, another trip to Tennessee to visit with family and show off a new baby. Of course it’s never that routine as it’s always a wonderful, special time to see people we wish we could see more of.
Besides our usual visit, we had a few special experiences not the least of which was introducing Sam to everyone. Of course everyone loved him – was there any question?
Clare and Hannah just bonded immediately – at the beginning of our first dinner together Clare was playing shy (I’m pretty sure Hannah has never “played shy” a day in her life) and by the time the entrees arrived they were sitting next to each other, coloring together and chatting. There is over a six year age difference, but it didn’t seem to matter. Clare followed Hannah around like a little shadow and imitated her every move. Hannah, for her part, took great care of Clare and was very sweet playing with her.
We’re fortunate to have four generations of McPhersons. Nanny is doing well and loves having another great-grandson. Of course he has to compete for attention from his Papa and Oma with Miss Clare around. She requests demands their undivided attention and usually gets it. She’s been talking about Oma, Papa, Nanny, Jayden, and the horses, fish, dogs, and Hank the Bird since we’ve been home.
Another HUGE treat on this visit was Auntie Donna the Great and Uncle Mike driving up from Alabama and Brenda and Hannah coming down into Nashville for everyone to stay together. It was a chance for Clare and I to meet Brenda and Hannah.
Clare and Hannah just bonded immediately – at the beginning of our first dinner together Clare was playing shy (I’m pretty sure Hannah has never “played shy” a day in her life) and by the time the entrees arrived they were sitting next to each other, coloring together and chatting. There is over a six year age difference, but it didn’t seem to matter. Clare followed Hannah around like a little shadow and imitated her every move. Hannah, for her part, took great care of Clare and was very sweet playing with her. 
Traveling with two kids added extra challenges (waking up two children at 5 am for an airport run, for example) but in general the whole trip was very smooth. Clare does so well in airports and on planes, and Sam as content so long as he was fed and being held. The logistics of eating, sleeping, transportation, gear, packing, etc. wears me out but, with the exception of not bringing our infant car seat, we had everything we needed. It’s nice that Sam’s so flexible at this age. In the picture above, you can see we made a bed for him in a laundry basket at Oma and Papa’s.
Clare Stories
Cute stories from the almost-two-and-a-half-year-old Clare.
We went to Bend for New Years, and I was intent on taking Clare sledding for the first time. There wasn’t a lot of snow in Central Oregon, but we found a popular sledding hill up the mountain. I stayed at the bottom with Sam and Clare drug Grandma, Grandpa and Daddy up the mountain again and again. In typical Clare fashion, she was a very serious sledder. She smiled a little bit, but was pretty much all business of getting down the hill over and over again.
Nothing better than post sledding cuddles and hot chocolate and snacks. (We won’t talk about the bangs… it’s a hair cut gone wrong…)
While we were in Bend, a couple of the neighbors granddaughters came over to visit. Clare was thrilled to see them and immediately invited them to play with her. One little girl was wearing an owl hat and the other had flowers on her shirt. Clare forgot their names, or didn’t hear them, and at one point they paused their playing and Clare said to them “Your name is Owl and yours is Flower.” 
We’re exploring new parenting techniques in the face of the toddler years (Oh the whining! Oh the power struggles! Oh the defiance!). One technique is to offer her choices when we have them available. I say “Clare, would you like X or Y” several times a day. “Clare, would you like to wear your brown shoes or your white boots?” “Would you like to paint or color?” “Would you like to go to the playground or walk around the neighborhood?” She’s starting to repeat it back to me, which is funny because she doesn’t always understand the context. The other day she walked into the kitchen and said “Mama, you make or eat dinner?” She’s also been overheard negotiating with G in their playing, saying “OK G, I will play cars with you but after we paint.”
Sam at Two Months
Sam is Smiling! All of a sudden last week he started holding eye contact longer, smiling, cooing and “talking” back to us. He follows us with his eyes as we walk around and is just becoming much more social. We spent a lot of the holidays with my parents, and my dad mentioned that it seemed like literally overnight he became a different baby. Rather he went from being a squishy newborn to a being a more active and interactive infant. As I recall these next few months are so fun because the baby is fun to play with and show the world, but not mobile yet.
As we’re learning more about Sam’s personality, he continues to be Mr. Mellow. His whole demeanor is very relaxed and fairly calm, though when he gets riled up he can throw a good fit. He’s super snuggly and loves to be held and talked to. When he’s upset about something, and he’s not hungry, a good cuddle will calm him back down.
Sam is a BIG BOY, so all of the cuddling and carrying him is giving me some biceps. In a few weeks we have his two month pediatrician appointment and I’m curious to see what he weighs. My guess is about 15 lbs. since this is about what Maddy weighs and the two of them were about the same heft at Christmas. He’s also in his six month size clothes now. Yes, I will repeat that my two month old is wearing six month size clothing. I’m starting to wonder about when he’s going to outgrow his car seat, bouncy seat, swing, etc. I also need to do some baby clothes shopping.
While I cringe to actually “write this out loud” I will say that Sam has turned into a good sleeper. I was concerned based on his first few weeks (which are a bit of a sleep-deprived blur in retrospect) but now he usually only wakes up once a night to eat and easily falls back to sleep. Occasionally he’ll wake up twice, but he’s not up for very long so we are slowly, slowly catching back up on sleep. More often then not, he still ends up sleeping in bed next to me for part of the night because I’m to lazy to take him back to his crib at 3 am. I like our midnight snuggles and he does too.
As Sam’s getting more aware of his world, he and Clare are starting to interact a little more. She’s a very proud big sister and is very good with him. He smiles whenever he sees her and tries to watch her as she flitters around the house.
