Claira Right Now

Look at this chick! Who does she think she is anyway?
Claira has a lot of confidence for an almost-2-year old. She is now playing and reading books quite a lot on her own, in her own little world. Her favorite book by far right now is the one about getting a new potty. I hauled out Ellia's potty from the garage & memories flashed before my eyes...the potty training months in our apartment in Norwalk. Could I really be venturing into that again, already?? She's very excited about the new potty (since she's read so much up on it) although I usually hear Ellia, sitting on the toilet, laughing and saying to me "Mommy, Claira's being silly. She's standing in the potty.. you can't STAND in a potty Claaaira!"
Claira loves dollies & combing their hair. She loves broccoli more than most kids her age, but only the tops. She uses a spoon for soup better than most kids her age, but she eventually flings it over her shoulder with a laugh & then complains to me that it's on the ground. She still uses that damn pacifer, but with a girl this determined - I'm picking my battles one at a time.

Photos compliments of Jimmy. Awesome, awesome shots!

Ellia Right Now

More vintage! Aunt Carol sent a lot of great outfits from the attic that I had worn as a child. The minute I saw this one I knew Ellia would love it. And she really did. I had to take this shot before she left for Montessori. Why do kids love pockets sooo much?? And the fact that these ones are totally tailored for one specific thing, forget about it! Ellia was gonna complete that mission of filling those required slots. You'd never think carrying around colored pencils on your chest would make you feel so special - but I KNEW she would feel extra special at her school wearing it. When I dropped her off & waved our customary goodbye in the window I could see Charlie standing 2 milimeters from her outfit already asking questions about it.

Ellia is learning Spanish & really likes to try to use the words. She's drawing stick people a lot & I'm collecting examples along the way to show their evolution. If I ask "Who's that?" when pointing to a stick person it's almost always Jackson & sometimes it's me. She really loves to cook & so I recently turned a $5 Goodwill nightstand into a mini kitchen island for her so I can finally let her 'help'. She is making new friends at her new school & it's a new 'social' phase for us. I keep my ears open when Ellia watches the Nick Jr. cartoon "Franklin" since that poor little turtle deals with a lot of social awkwardness and trials & tribulations with all his friends. Alas, there's a message at the end & I put it in my back pocket if I need to pull it out when Ellia expresses some new 4 year old emotions.

The entire clan took a great trip to the UCR Botanical Gardens & we couldn't have picked a more beautiful day. At the beginning Ellia was really pumped up, in her sweetly methodical manner, to use her 'bonoclers' to find as many of the birds that were in her little nature pamphlet. Then she got kinda tired of the whole walking thing, having not found 1 single bird to check off her list. (I know, I know, it might've helped if she was looking through the correct end of the bonoclers.) Eventually she picked out the perfect walking stick and led the clan to the end of our journey. After that she got to go mini golfing for the second time in her life. (And let it be known that I beat Jimmy.)

Sister Stuff

I can't say enough what a great big sister Ellia is to Claira. And even though Claira has her moments of completely not even treating Ellia as if she's her elder...Claira continues to want to be wherever her big sister is & do what she's doing.

Vintage! These 2 outfits were saved by Grandma. They're from me and my brother's childhood wardrobe. I'm so thankful she saved them. And it was strange how much both of them saw the outfits and immediately took to them. Ellia made it clear that she really liked the outfit. And I don't know how we got into the headbands, but they tried on each and every one I saved. I wish I had used them more often when they were tiny - but Ellia was bald, like, forever. And Claira was a bit on the wild side.

Here, I love the difference in their poses, stance & choice of placement for the headbands. If you knew them inside & out it says a lot about them.

Tryin' to Feel FALL!

Apple & pumpkin picking, corn mazes, apple cider & pie...go hand in hand with breezy, crisp Autumn weather. Unfortunately, nowadays, you can't plan anything based on the weather, especially if you want chilly Autumn weather.
You can see how little Fall weather we get in Southern California anymore by the distance of time between Oak Glen trips! Above photo is Oct 2007.

Me & the girlies had a great trip to Oak Glen, albeit a bit sweaty, with Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Adam & Auntie Carissa. Ellia helped us navigate our way through this maze. She's really into writing down what she thinks are map directions with lines and she tells me the streets "left on Street St."