Clare turned one just over two weeks ago.
I love this age. She’s still a total baby, nursing and sleeps in my arms all night. But she thinks she’s so stinkin’ big. She climbs on everything. She gives kisses and melts my heart. She says a couple words, including “Mary”. She’s eating pretty great. Wolfs down watermelon and black beans. She’s taken up to about four or five steps, but it’s rare.
My Clare bear is such a sweetie.
I’ve been so busy blogging about trying to be a vegan that I haven’t written here much.
Life’s about the same.
Mary is either cracking me up or driving me crazy. She loves to dress up and is in her Snow White gown about 50% of each day.
Clare is almost one and took her first little shuffle today. Not a step, but close! She still sleeps all night in my arms, but I just know I’ll blink and she’ll be so independent.
Mary is just go go go and talk talk talk.
“I play baseball. I play baseball with my friends. I throw the ball in the net and, goal! And then I kick it.”
Me: Mary, you’re cute. And Clare, you’re cute, too. And I think Daddy’s kinda cute. Mary, do you think Daddy’s cute?
Mary: No, Daddy’s a boy!
And I really wish I had this little bit on video…. Her telling Daddy about our day, in a very animated way:
(jumping up and down, happy) Daddy, daddy, we went to the library* today, and saw Liam and saw cousins, and Elmo and Cookie Monster!! (and then she frowned, pouted her lips and got all sad), But I didn’t like Elmo and Cookie Monster and Mary cried and we left and Mary cried in the car and they were big and scary!
*library sounds more like livararary.
I never blogged about visiting family last week. It was fun, except when it was horrible. Which was mostly bedtime. Yikes. Mark always puts Mary to bed. So when he wasn’t with us (he was hanging with the priests and Stewardship Council at a conference), and we were not at our own house, and I had two children to keep happy and get to sleep….yeah. It was bad. Well, it was AWFUL the first night, crappy the second, and perfect the third.
I said I should probably start putting Mary to bed myself on occasion here at home, and tonight I was given a great opportunity to try because Mark was catching some sleep before work after a long day of not testifying at the courthouse. Anyways, I got Clare down, then Mary and I settled into the orange recliner. We read books, used the potty, brushed teeth, changed into jammies, and snuggled more. And that little cutie responded when I asked if we should pray by saying, “Hail Mary, Full of grace”. Some incredible dad must be teaching her well.
I have lots of things I’ve been meaning to blog about (veganism- what?!, a Catholic mom utopia, how much is “enough”, etc….), but until then I want to simply share this:
Mary, in her quest for independence in the bathroom, brushed her teeth this morning with foaming hand soap.
Yikes….these girls have been whiny & needy today. Clare woke up with a green snot mustache, so I’m reminding myself she might not feel well. Mary? Not sure what her deal is… Currently the only way to keep them both happy is to sit in a pile together and watch “Super Why”. Mark is awake now, but he’s about to run on the treadmill, so we are just in survival mode at the moment.
Anyways… When Mark woke me up at 7:30 (he was a dear and let me sleep in while he hung with Mary), it was snowing quite nicely and starting to slowly accumulate. While Clare kept snoozing, and I enjoy my iced coffee, he took Mary out to play.
And later, after we got home from visiting friends, I bundled up both girls
and we went out to play.
It was really fun, we just wished Daddy could’ve been awake to play too.
Anyways, it’s been a good day, just hard to get much done with the kiddos. Mark and I both need to get our workouts in, dinner should probably be made, and anything after that I’ll count as bonus.
Sometimes I feel like I’m sucking up at this whole motherhood thing…especially when I feel like I’m with my kids 24 hours a day (or the days I quite literally am WITH them for 24 hours and nighttime is more work than daytime), but I know all moms deal with this inadequacy and others like me want to run away to a “real” job sometimes…but anyways…
LOTS of times I’m so grateful that I helped make these tiny people and that I get to spend all this time with them.
Like today when Mary made me a birthday cake out of play dough and sang to me. When did she learn to sing “Happy Birthday”? She sings a lot these days. Some real songs, others not. The made up ones are, of course, my favorite.
And sweet Clare Bear, who just flashed me lots of grins between nursings. Lately I’ve dwelled on the sacrifices I’ve made to have this little person who doesn’t take bottles or pacifiers, but really how fortunate are we that she doesn’t? What a lucky baby.
