Like rearranging the furniture, opening drawers and cupboards, pushing around the laundry basket, inspecting anything new in the house (like boxes, bags, and magazines), finding things on the floor, crawling under the table and chairs, chasing the dog, and pushing all of the buttons on the remote control. Whew! Sometimes I wonder why I buy this child toys, since she’d much rather play with household objects than her toys. The other day she got a hold of a wet washcloth from the kitchen and played with it for a good 20 minutes.

Behind these sweet little smiles there is a strong-willed little girl. One of her latest words is “no.” She doesn’t say it defiantly yet, because, honestly, she doesn’t need to. Her whole little attitude is pretty defiant. When we tell her not to do something then she views it as a challenge to continue doing exactly what she was doing. When I tell her “no no” to something like running into the street she giggles and says “no no no no no!” while running even faster. For the most part our little girl is a joy, but I can tell that “obedient” and “compliant” are not words we will ever use to describe her. I try to remind myself that’s OK, to follow the old saying that “well-behaved women rarely make history,” but the other old saying is that “challenging children give their parents gray hair.”

Clare is starting to really imitate us lately. In this picture she has a hold of J’s iPhone and is having a very serious “conversation” with someone. I’ve also seen her wiping her nose with Kleenex and then throwing it away (imitating my allergies), and trying to put on our shoes. She’s also sometimes pushing her little cars around saying “vroom vroom” and other signs of the beginning of imaginary play.

Lastly a picture of Clare and I cuddling. I can’t get enough of this girl!