Un Dia en la Vida de Clarita

This is from Monday, May 25, 2015. I did one of these last Memorial Day so I thought it would be fun to compare and see how much Clarita has changed in the past year! I'd say she's changed a bit!!

4:17: Clara wakes up crying "Dada, Dada, Dada." She's been having difficulty sleeping if we're not in the room with her, we think due to bad dreams, so I put her in our bed with us and she's out in five minutes.
7:21: Clara finally wakes up. She's whimpering so I stop what I'm doing to get her.

Pelo loco!

7:30: We go upstairs to do a diaper change.

7:45: We head out for a short run. I brave pushing the stroller seven months pregnant. Clara loves it and sings/talks/eats applesauce the whole way.

8:30: We get home after talking to our neighbor Olive and her mom. For breakfast Clara requests a cheese sandwich then yogurt then uvas and milk. I do laundry while I wait for her to finish eating.

9:12: She's finally done eating so we wash her hands and face,brush our teeth, and play which includes helping me vacuum (aka using her popper like a vacuum, she even moves things and pops under them!).

9:30: I smell a poopy diaper so we head upstairs for a change.
9:42: Back downstairs to look for big girl beds on the iPad. Clara of course chooses the most expensive one! We go back upstairs to work on cleaning out what will be Baby Emmett's room. Clara thinks it's really funny that I take the bed apart. We read a million books.

10:35: We do another diaper change, put the laundry in the dryer, and wrap presents for Tio Robert and Tia Erika.

10:55: Clarita and I head outside so I can put together a storage bench I bought for her toys. She refuses to put shoes on or take socks off because of her owies on her feet (shoes hurt them and she likes socks so she can't see them). She wears her socks outside because I don't want to fight with her. A tantrum ensues because wants to go back inside to get the shopping cart she saw in the basement yesterday (I hid it from her birthday). She screams about the carrito in the sotano and how she wants to push Baby Emmett in it. She finally calms down and requests to eat white pasas (aka yogurt covered raisins). Clara helps me build the bench and calls it a piscina, bathroom, and silla. When we're finished she says, "Oh you made toy box mama? Good job!"

12:00: We put all of Clara's outside toys in the "toy box" and head inside. I make lunch while Clarita plays with "Baby's Patch" Dada's old Cabbage Patch kid (she calls him Baby's Patch presumably because he is bald and looks like a baby. She calls her Cabbage Patch Kid by her name, Zoey).

Apparently Baby's Patch likes the
backpack more than Clarita

12:25: Clara eats chicken nuggets (she saw them in the freezer and requested them), smoothie (which she did not want me to make because it was "noisy" but then loved), and apple sauce.

12:45: Right as we finish eating Dada gets home. Clarita plays with Dada while I clean up. We are both very excited about the doughnuts he brought home for us and Clara requests that we sit on the piso to eat them.

Lenguas!

1:30: Dada leaves and Clarita and I take a shower. I think she's pretty excited that she got to stay in her pjs for so long...it's definitely a record! Clara makes me "humus" which she says is red and made from tomatoes. 

1:56: After our shower we head upstairs to put on a diaper, brush hair, and read.
2:12: Clara has been refusing to sleep by herself for the past week so I agree to sit in her chair while she falls asleep. She insists on sleeping by my feet like a little doggy and is out immediately. I stay and write blogs in the chair just in case she wakes up screaming.

3:05: Clara wakes up crying and looking for chuponcito. I lay her on her mattress on the floor and she falls right back to sleep so I head downstairs to get some stuff done.

3:50: She's awake crying again so I go up and lay her back down and she goes right back to sleep.
4:20: Clarita is crying again (what happened to my good sleeper) so I lay her back down. Dada gets home and sits with her while she sleeps some more.
4:45: She's up for good and gets dressed. 

5:00: We go downstairs and Clarita plays while Dada gets her diapers off the line and we take fat pictures. Clarita likes to "play" with baby Emmett which involves pretending to take him out of my stomach and doing things like pushing him in her doll stroller, rocking him, and putting him to sleep ("shh Baby Emmett sleeping, no talk").

5:20: We do another diaper change.
5:35: Los tios pick us up to go to Tio Robert and Tia Erika's to celebrate Tio Robert's birthday.

6:00: We get to tio Robert and Tia Erika's and Clara immediately finds things to play with like candy ("I no eat it, I just play with candy.").

Cheers

6:45: Dinner time and Clara chooses vegetarian pizza and sandia. She requests that the olives not be taken off her pizza (usually she insists that they be taken off), but ends up taking them off herself. She "paints" the tablecloth with water from her cup until she dumps it everywhere and has to stop.

7:10: Clarita gets cleaned up and plays with Dada and Tia Erika. When she sees the toys she assumes that the kids who were there for Mother's Day left them and exclaims, "Oh ninos forgot toys!" She is more than happy with this situation.

8:00: Time for dessert! Clara chooses to eat ice cream and has a tantrum about where she should eat it. She wants the floor without bib. She finally agrees to follow our rules and eats away.

Best friends

Presents!

8:15: I  change her diaper and put on her pjs.
8:26: We head home and Clara says that she wants to sleep in the carseat like Bailey. She does not, but Bailey falls asleep immediately. 

Pretending to sleep

8:45: We get home and brush teeth. Clarita runs around with the toothbrush in her mouth and falls on it which causes crying. We read books and it is bedtime.

Learning about being a big sister!

9:15: Clara lays on her mattress on the floor and insists that Dada sleep on the piso next to her. She's out quickly and I finally wake Dada up at 9:45 as he has also fallen asleep.

What a nice Dada

1:30: She's awake screaming "Dada, Dada, Dada" and Dada spends the rest of the night sleeping on her floor. This has gotten to be a pattern over the past week and we will be glad when she out grows these bad dreams and fears which prevent her from sleeping on her own.

A Red, White, and Blue Weekend

We had a fun filled Memorial Day Weekend which started with a celebration of "Hunky" Henry's first birthday. It was lumberjack themed and Beth and Casey did a great job of making everything super cute and the food was amazing! Clarita loved playing with all of the ninos on the slide, with the bubble machine, and "mowing" the grass like Dada. She also really liked the red frosting on her cupcake. She called it fresa and licked it all off! It was great seeing all of the kiddos playing together (even if Clara was trying to boss all of them around). I only managed to get one picture so I had to steal some from Sarah's blog who stole them from Lindsay...

"Fresa" pastelito

Casey, Beth, and Hunky Henry

Bubbles

Eden

Reedcito, Lyla, and Kierito

After the party, we headed up to the Cabin for the night. Clara immediately fell asleep but woke up after a little over an hour and was so excited about all the pine trees that she would not go back to sleep. She had a blast playing with all of the stuffed animals Abuela Sheri has collected and then we walked to the clubhouse for the Memorial Day potluck dinner. Clara was not so fond about having to wait to eat, but hung in there and ate a bit of food. She finished with a cupcake (or rather, the chocolate frosting from the cupcake) and was excited to walk back to the cabin. She saw some metal deer in a yard and exclaimed, "Oh venado like Santa Claus have!" I guess she still remembers Christmas!

Clara refused to go to sleep unless Dada laid by her on the floor (she insisted on sleeping on the floor and not the crib). Luckily she was tired and the rain lulled her to sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night and Dada had to sleep with her on the floor.

Sunday Dada headed out bright and early to ride his bike 25 miles to Cedar Grove. We followed in the car and ended up catching him a few miles before he got there. We all headed out with a few other cabin owners to hike to Mist Falls. Unfortunately, Clarita decided that she did not want to go in the hiking backpack. She threw a screaming tantrum when we tried to put her in and declared that she would walk. Needless to say we didn't get that far with her walking. Everyone else went on ahead and we made it two miles. I'd say that was pretty impressive for a tired little girl! She actually admitted she was tired, but still refused to go in the backpack. We ate lunch and decided to head back since we were obviously not going to make it the remaining two miles to the falls. Much to her chagrin, we shoved Clara into the backpack kicking and screaming. She eventually calmed down and seemed to enjoy the ride. We let her out to walk again when we were near the car and she declared that she did not like the backpack.

I may have put her in backwards

Clara was absolutely exhausted and fell asleep on the drive back. She woke up after about an hour when we got back to the cabin and refused to sleep any longer. We hung out and played while we waited for los abuelos. Clara had fun playing with them when they got back and eating her body weight in fruit and riding Dada el caballo. We headed home after dinner and were sad to leave the nice cool mountains and head back down into the valley heat.

Giddy up Dada!

Dentist and Dala Trot

On May 15, 2015, Clara had her first dentist visit...needless to say it was not a big hit! She really liked the play kitchen in the waiting room and was happy to see Kate (and show Kate her big girl panties that we bought before the appointment) who is a dental assistant at California KiDDS where we went. Kate went over good dental hygiene and then brushed Clara's teeth. Clara screamed and had to be held down, but it honestly wasn't any different than when we hold her down and brush her teeth at home. She got over it as soon as Kate was down brushing and then played with the train while we waited for the dentist. As soon as she saw the dentist (who wasn't even wearing a coat), Clarita started screaming and trying to climb over me. Dr. Evans was amazing, very calm and patient, and we held Clara down while he looked at her teeth and applied fluoride. It took less than five minutes but Clara was hysterical. She wouldn't even take the balloon from Dr. Evans she was so upset! As soon as he left she calmed down and accepted the balloon and a token to get a prize from Kate. She chose a bouncy ball and was content to play in the kitchen while we made her an appointment. Luckily her teeth are healthy and we don't have to come back for six months! I'm glad that Kate was there to help make the experience a little less traumatic! We got pizza per Clara's request for lunch and celebrated that night with an ice cream cone (don't tell the dentist)!

Yellow ice cream is the best (especially

while walking down the street in a bib)!

The following day was the annual Swedish Festival in our little town. I have run the race, the Dala Trot since we returned from Peace Corps, always with the goal to win (that didn’t always happen). This year I obviously had no chance at winning, but I still did the race. I opted for the two mile race instead of the 10K since I knew I would push myself too hard if I did the longer run. Aba pushed Clara in the two mile race and Tia tried to beat me like she did when I was 8.5 months pregnant with Clarita. Turns out I wasn’t pregnant enough and I still beat her! I managed to run a 15:50 time and keep it right under an eight minute pace. I was happy with my time and we all enjoyed the Swedish pancake breakfast after the race. Chelsea pushed Lyla and Ashley pushed Eliana in the two mile race and Sarah pushed Reedcito and Kierito in the 10K with her mom to keep her company (she was the real champion)! It was a stroller convention at breakfast and so fun to see all the kids. Tio and Bailey were the cheerleaders during the race and Bailey can’t wait to get pushed next year!

Trying to beat our neighbor pushing his daughter (we tied)

Racing is so easy...

Aba and Clarita

We made it!

Ashley and Eli and Chelsea and Lyla

The littlest babysitters

Grape Escape!

Let's shake on it

Stroller convention!

After breakfast we went to the parque with Aba and the McClartys and the kids had a great time playing. Clara and I headed home to change and then went back for the parade. She really liked all the ninos and the garbage truck with a Viking helmet on! She also liked all of the tractors and wanted to drive the little one. Dada was doing a hundred mile bike ride so he missed out on the festivities...perhaps he can join us next year. We're already looking forward to it!

Garbage truck with a hat!

Watching the parade

Wearing her wooden shoes Dada got her in Denmark to get
into the festive mood (Denmark is almost like Sweden right?)