15 Months

It is so fun to watch Clara learn! You can see the wheels turning in her head as she attempts to understand new things each day. Clara can now point to her eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue (she can also stick it out), hair, panza, belly button, and feet on command in Spanish. I have never tried in English but have observed her pointing to different body parts if she hears us say something about them. She will also point to body parts in books and then point to the same body part on her or us.

Dada's hat

Pretending to drink soda like Tio Chino!

Dada and Baza, two of her favorites

Clarita continues to be a busy busy bee who never stops moving. This works well since I never stop moving either and we are constantly on the go. She is a good little traveler and loves people so much that she is generally happy as long as there are people around, even if she is super tired. Clara loves waving to people and appears genuinely offended if someone does not pay attention to her and wave back!

Helping Tia Erika unwrap presents

We took Clara to Sesame Street Live this month and weren't sure what she would think of it since she has never seen Sesame Street. Kevin's friend Brian gave us the tickets and they were in a suite so we figured at least she could run around if she got bored. Turned out she LOVED it. As soon as the show started her eyes were glued to the stage. I think she liked all the lights and dancing. She was dancing along with the characters and especially loved Big Bird. He didn't have a big part in this show, but as soon as she saw him she started signing bird and pointing. I was surprised that she even realized he was a bird since he doesn't really look like any of the birds she has seen. There were two moms with a total of five little girls in the suite with us and Clara was also pretty excited about those girls. She chased them around after the show and waved to them.

We went to a quinceanera this month and Clara found that she loves Ranchera music. She danced the night away! We were the only white people at the quinceanera and nobody would sit with us. Picture a huge room filled with 300 people and we are at a table all by ourselves. By the time we left all of the chairs had been taken from our table except the ones we were sitting in! Everyone would, however, interact with Clarita and she got lots of waves and of course was called munequita many times! She also enjoyed her first paleta and managed to eat the entire red popsicle without getting any on either her or me! 

In the past couple of weeks Clara has dropped her morning nursing sessions. She just stopped caring about them so I stopped offering. She used to wake up signing eat and would cry if I didn't nurse her right away or if Kevin tried to hold her. Now she is content to get ready and eat her breakfast. She is still requesting to nurse before bed so we'll continue that until she's over it. I think she will just ween herself which sounds good to me!

Clara now understands so much. I will ask her to put things away or throw things in the trash and she usually happily obliges me. She found a spoon in her diaper bag one day and immediately took it to the drawer where her eating items are stored and put it away! She also loves to make a mess. We call it Hurricane Clarita and she leaves a path of destruction. This is usually focused on the kitchen where she spends a lot of time playing while we are cooking or cleaning up. She has certain drawers she is allowed to play in and likes to get everything out. She will sometimes put it all away, but often gets distracted along the way. One day she got into a drawer that was not Clara friendly and ended up with red food coloring on her mouth and hands. Luckily it didn't get on her clothes.

Hurricane Clarita

mmm food coloring!

Walking is now a thing of the past and Clarita runs everywhere. She loves playing outside, but is impossible to corral. We have a huge front/side yard that is not fenced. There is a lot of grass to run on but Clara always wants to run down the sidewalk or through the neighbors' yards (luckily they all like her). One of her favorite activities is running all the way around the block. She would probably continue this all night if we let her! She also likes petting our neighbor's huge cat. The cat is still not sure about Clarita and will come towards her only to take off in the other direction when Clara gets excited and runs towards it squealing. She now notes yards in which she has seen a cat and every time we pass them she stops, signs, cat, meows, and searches for the cat. If the cat is not there she holds her hands up in a "I don't know" fashion, shakes her head no, and continues her run. Perhaps this is why she falls asleep almost immediately at night!

Crying because we won't let her into the garden
to pick tomatoes and walk on plants

Water Baby

Another favorite is bouncing/running on the couch. She especially likes to do this at night when she is tired. La Loquita comes out and she thinks it is incredibly fun to jump off the couch and land on the bean bag. She hasn't quite grasped the concept that she can get hurt if she doesn't land on the bean bag and thinks it is hilarious when we save her from crashing face first into the hard floor. This little girl is going to be a thrill seeker!

She will now sit on request (usually)

This month Clarita got a big girl car seat and immediately fell in love. She wanted to sit in it as soon as it was out of the box and insisted on being buckled in. When we tried to take her out she screamed like she was being murdered. She is also obsessed with shoes and when I bought her some new Crocs she had to put those on as soon as they were out of the box. She then refused to take them off and proudly walked around the house signing shoes and pointing to her feet. She loves to wear our shoes too and can walk surprisingly well with giant clown feet!

Clara has been working on feeding herself this month, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of using a fork and spoon yet. She is pretty good about getting the spoon into her mouth if it is loaded with a sticky substance that won't fall off like oatmeal or yogurt. She is not good at refilling it and often drops it and starts using her hand if we are not quick enough to scoop some more food up for her. When she eats with her hands she almost always uses her right hand. When she eats with a spoon or fork, she almost always uses her left hand.

Clarita's Stats

Weight: 18.4 pounds 

Height: 30 inches 

Head Circumference: 18 inches

What Clara Wears

She is now wearing mostly 12 month outfits. Some fit pretty well and some are still big. Her 9 month shorts still fit her pretty well, especially when she has on a disposable diaper!

Things Clara Loves

Mama and Dada, going for walks, naked baby time, pacifiers (especially her monito), reading books, people, taking showers, playing with her toys, animals (especially her cats), eating, playing peek a boo, running, empty bottles, cardboard boxes, phones, remote controls, brushing her "teeth",climbing up the stairs, Baby Signing Time DVDs, stuffed animals, getting the ABCs sung to her while pointing at them on the wall, Tio Chino's wallet, being swung through the air, swinging, being outside, water, swimming, blowing bubbles with Abuelita, dancing, shoes

Things Clara Does Not Love

This really just depends on the day/Clara's mood. She is a happy girl, but gets very angry when she does not get her way. Then the tears pour out until she is distracted by something else and stops mid cry to move on. She has now taken to throwing things in a fit of rage when she gets upset and we are working on quashing this.

How Clarita Sleeps

Clara takes two  naps, the first between 9:30 and 10:00 and another between 2:30 and 3:00. She has been sleeping for about two to three hours in the morning and one and a half to two hours in the afternoon. She goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:00. Clarita sleeps in her sleep sack in her crib with her pacifier, monito, and pinguino. She generally falls right to sleep and if she wakes up during the night grabs her pacifier and falls right back to sleep. She has been waking up between 6:30 and 7:00 this past month. 

Nicknames

Clarita, Snugglepuff, Snuggles, Wiggle, Baby/Bebe, Sapita, Munchkin, Birthday Twin, Monkey Butt, Loquita, Midget

Sign Language

Clara loves sign language and can sign eat, more, please, thank you, hat, ball, sleep, baby, banana, water, milk, bird, dog, cat, mama, dada, hurt, shoes, socks, wash hands, frog, book, dirty, all done, car, bus, train, apple, horse, yes, no, bath, bubbles, airplane, boat, bear, balloon, bubbles, cow, corn, cold, game, hot, monkey, she made up her own sign for motorcycle in which she squats down with her hands out in front of her and says vroom vroom, it's hilarious. We often don't realize that Clara has learned a sign until there comes a time when she needs to use it and she busts it out.

Talking

Clara says quite a few words but most of them sound very similar and only people that spend a lot of time with her can understand them. She says banana "nana" and her favorite word no no "neh neh" (she has actually said no perfectly a few times this month), more "ma", bye bye "buh ba", ball "ba", monkey "mo mo", eat "mer", yes "ya", thank you "da", "Baba" for Baza (this often translates to her word for all cats), milk "meh", dog "daa daa", yummy "mmm", water "waa waa". She says some animal sounds, mau (meow), woo (woof), (ney) neigh, she tries to tweet but it sounds more like the t sound, moo, baa, rarrrrr (for a bear), and woo woo (when she hears a train). The little Wiggle is constantly talking but as Tia Laurie pointed out, it sounds like she is speaking Alien. She accompanies her soliloquies with lots of hand gestures and it is so funny to watch.

Teeth

Clarita finally has enough teeth to warrant a section dedicated to them! Her first tooth was her bottom right front tooth followed quickly by her bottom left front tooth. Then she had a couple month rest before growing her top left front tooth (it just popped up). Teething has not seemed to bother her yet (knock on wood). This month she became a little obsessed with her pacifier right about the tie her tooth made it's appearance, and chewed on things like crazy but never seemed upset or in pain. I credit the hippy teething necklace and have become a believer!

Monthly Exciting Events

June 13, 2013: Switch to a big girl car seat

June 4, 2014: Clara's first ponytail followed by her first pigtails!

May 30, 2014: Clara starts giving kisses

May 24, 2014: Clara's first quinceanera and paleta

Monthly Pictures

"I'm a big girl I sit by myself!"

Dada Day Weekend

We normally go to the cabin for Dada Day weekend, but Dada signed up to do a crazy swim called the Catfish Crawl that happened to fall on Dada Day weekend. So we headed up to Fremont on Friday after work. Clara had taken a late morning nap so we hoped that she would just take her afternoon nap in the car. It was her first time in her big girl car seat and she was really excited about it! She slept for a little over an hour and then was content to play with her toys until we arrived in Gilroy for dinner. She refused to eat Kevin's hamburger but liked my grilled cheese (that's right Clara, meat is gross). The little Wiggle was not too happy to be put back in the car, and was anxious to get out by the time we got to Fremont. It was already 9:00 PM by the time we checked into our hotel so we took showers (Clara really liked this), played a little, nursed and went to bed.

Someone woke up ready to go at 6:15 on Saturday so we packed up, ate a little breakfast, and headed out to the swim. Dada's friends Brian and Phil also participated in the swim so we met them at the park. Tyler, Brian's five-year-old son, was also there and he hung out with Clara and I while the guys swam. Tyler was so very sweet to Clarita. He followed her around when she ran away, helped her with her snacks, and even shared his shells with her. He never once got upset with her, not even when she took all of the shells and feathers that he had found!

Tyler was very proud of his feather

Most mismatched outfit ever (there's a striped shirt under
 that polka dot jacket)!

This is what happens when dads are in charge...
two kids and no dads in sight!

The original reason Dada wanted to do this swim was the option of swimming 2.4 miles (I know, who wants to swim that far) followed by a 1.2 mile swim an hour later. I checked the race website a couple days before the swim to see where this place was and noticed that this swim option was no longer listed and that both swims began at the same time. Kevin e-mailed the race director but got no response. Brian finally sent some emails and made some calls and found out that they had taken away this option. An email was sent out at 6:00 PM the day before the race notifying swimmers of this and giving them the option to do both swims back to back if they so desired...pretty poor planning. I encouraged Dada to just do the 2.4 mile swim but he was determined to do both! Turns out it was a good choice. He placed third overall in the 1.2 mile swim and fifth in the 2.4 mile category (after just swimming 1.2 miles)! Dada could have placed first in the 1.2 mile category but he went around a buoy as instructed while the two people who beat him did not. We were very proud of Dada and his awesomely fast swimming. We got tired just watching him!

1.2 miles down, 2.4 to go!

Dada, Brian, and Phil

After the swim we all had breakfast and then headed on our separate ways. In order to entice me to go to the swim Dada promised a trip to the Winchester Mystery House, somewhere I have wanted to go for quite some time. This is a pretty crazy house that was built by Sarah Winchester heiress to the Winchester gun fortune. After her infant daughter and husband died she became a bit eccentric and believed that she had to build a house that could never be finished. There are stairs that go to nowhere, doorways that open to the air or a wall, and many other oddities. Although I don't think Clara was too impressed with the house, she really liked all the people. She did well during our hour long tour even though she was super tired since she only had a tiny morning nap. Clara fell asleep the minute we got in the car and slept for a whopping 2.5 hours until we got back to Fresno and woke her up to buy a present for Fafa!

On Sunday we headed to the cabin to celebrate Dada Day with Dada's family. Clarita enjoyed playing with Teagan and Tristan, playing outside in the dirt, and of course eating lots of food. We got a bit of a late start because Clarita did not want to wake up. I finally woke her up at 8:00 and we made it up for a late breakfast (or second breakfast for Clara). It was a nice relaxing day celebrating Dada and Fafa.

Clarita and I are lucky to have such a good Dada in our lives. He loves that little Wiggle so much and really enjoys spending time with her. Dada comes home for lunch when Abuelita watches Clara so he can play with her, and loves the "fiestas" they have when I am out of town for work or have something to do at night. I have never heard Dada complain about having to watch Clarita when I have to do something and he gets sad if he has to work late and doesn't get to spend time with her. Clara loves her Dada too and the silly games they play and splurps he gives her after shower time! We're so very blessed to have such an amazing Dada!

She loves her Dada

Dadas squared