I'm trying to update Claire's baby book. Can't say I've been sticking to it really well, but a lot of that stems from not seeing it as valuable when I've got this blog. The blog helps me record all the fun facts that I will never remember years down the road. Such as...

Lara says she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. She likes to play doctor on us, and was very interested to join me on one of my ENT appointments in Springfield. She asks to go back. Lara also informed me that when she grows up, she is going to have a baby in her tummy...it will be a boy, named Reece. Reese. Reice. Riece. Lara has chores most days. I'm not trying to be one of those super-structured moms with high expectations of my little ones, but I figure it's good to start things like this really early on, so they come to expect work as part of life. Lara's chores are to put away the silverware from the dishwasher, give the kitties snacks, and make her bed. I do not micromanage her tasks; as long as she putting forth some effort, there is no expectation of quality. She is very cooperative about her chores, most of the time. And many days, we skip chores all together.

Claire is such a delightful baby. I am having so much fun with her, especially now that she is SLEEPING and so I am SLEEPING. Claire is wanting to move around, and doesn't know her limits. She'll sit on the floor, and see something she wants, and will nose-dive for it. So much for the scooting she was working on. Sometimes she will nose-dive and twist at the same time so she will end up on her belly in the opposite direction. This does not bother her. She doesn't mind falling down, but eventually she will get mad about being on her belly.

I sent Dustin and Lara off to the library today to pick up some penguin books. Since it is winter, we are going to learn about penguins. On Instant Nextflix, I found a really cute show called Pingu. Each show is not more than 5-10 minutes long, and they are kind of like the Pixar shows at the beginning of the movies. You don't learn anything from them, but they are fun. They are good for Lara's attention span. She is struggling right now with the desire to do lots of fun activities all at once. All day long I hear Mom, want to build a castle? Before I answer she asks Mom! I need to do a school project! Before I can get that ready she says Mom, want to read books with me? Mom! Mom! It's hard to keep up with her. As such, we don't really do school anymore because Lara becomes bored easily. Or maybe not bored, but she just wants to do a lot of other things too; like she thinks all of her blocks are going to up and run out of the house before she has a chance to build a castle for the princesses, so we have to hurry and build the castle!

That's okay. Learning comes in play, as we all know. So we do crafts and reading, and whatever fun activities we think of. Lara is obsessed with shadows, so we are going to shadow-play when she wakes up from nap.

My new routine is going well. Now that I am sleeping at night, I've started incorporating exercising into my routine. I do pilates about every other day or so. I love pilates. I do not prefer hardcore exercising that is intense and exhausting and makes me really hungry. Pilates is very relaxing, and I like the stretching. Lara likes it too! Yesterday morning before church, Lara asked Dustin to put on my exercising video, and I walked into the living room to see Lara doing some pilates stretches on my exercise mat. I refer to my exercise as my "therapy," and Lara always joins me. Everybody needs physical therapy!

This blog is a little disjointed because I keep stopping, starting, rewriting, etc. So forgive me.

the end.