Hi Airplane!

Pete and Clara hung out while Henry was in sports class and I tried to sleep off a nasty headache yesterday evening.

Kefir!

Pete loves the way Clara says "kefir," which is something she requests often. So, by letting her have her snack at the coffee table, I was able to get a little video of her saying it. It sounds kind of like "feh-fuh". She's also kind of into Cookie Monster lately.

Rudolph the Red Nosed

For your listening and viewing pleasure:

Washing Machine Fun

Lots of laundry was done today. Henry and Clara's lovies went in the first load. Clara was unsure, as it was Ellie's first wash. They like watching the washing machine anyway, but this made it especially gripping. Don't miss Clara telling me that Ellie was in the wash. She makes her elephant noise while Henry's talking.

Instructional Video

Henry wants everyone to know how to make their very own treasure box.

Recent Activities

Clara has created a new activity for herself. She passes many quiet moments taking all of the crayons out of the box and placing them in a nice, tidy little stack. She then puts them back in the box and starts all over again. Sometimes there is soft talking to herself while she does this. It's very cute.
It's been very hot these last couple of days. Yesterday we were inside most of the day, with the air on. By the time I was getting ready to fix dinner I thought the kids should get outside again, so I asked Pete to take them out for some water play. I'm not sure the water from the rain barrel was quite as refreshing as hose water would be, and I'm a little concerned that the kids might be getting malaria after putting various water toys in their mouths after the water had been out in the heat for at least 24 hours...
Pete was away for dinner tonight, so Henry and I made our favorite tortilla pizzas. He gave his a face. It's almost as cute as his own.
Clara also did some work in the kitchen.
She was delighted to show me what she had cooking.
After enjoying our delicious creations I got some video of Clara sharing some of her "words". I'm a little impressed with her level of cooperation and cuteness in these videos.




After dinner we went out in the yard. I did a little watering and then there was quite a bit of hose play. Henry actually ran through the "rain" I made for him. This is new. It gives me high hopes for learning to swim this summer. That is...if we ever get our butts over to the pool. Tomorrow looks to be slightly cooler...here's hoping I can get outside for some weeding.

"Talk!"

Mostly in this video you can hear Pete on the phone making plans with the Kohlers, and you can hear me sneezing... But the first couple seconds, before Clara realized I was filming her, are pretty cute. You can see how she "talks" on the phone. She sometimes rocks back and forth and she usually just says her words "Book. Book. Mama. Hi. Book. Talk." and sometimes "dadadada lalala dadadada" in a sing-songy voice. She also likes to talk on her play keys in the car. I guess the remote-entry part of the play keys does kind of look like a phone.

Right now she's busy taking all of the crayons and markers out of the Curious George lunchbox, and puting them back in, and taking them out...

Clara Walks!

Here she is....stick with the video till the end if you can....that's the sweetest bit.

Clara Speaks

Here's a little video of Clara saying Hi.

A message for Santa

We hope that Santa checks in with the blog. We think he's probably pretty tech-savvy, as he's had to change with the times for at least a couple hundred years. We were going to just write Santa a note, but with this weather we weren't sure it would reach him in time. So, Santa, if you're listening, here's what Henry would like for Christmas:

Stripes, Snowpants and a Talking Globe

Here are a couple photos of Princess Stripes.
After she pulled the mirror down I decided to just put it where she could admire herself more easily.
And here's Queen Snowpants.
Note the reflective striping.
And here's a video of Henry acting like a big brother and Clara acting like a little sister. Classic.