Pictures from School/Updates

I haven't uploaded pictures from my camera in quite a while, but here are a few Clara's teacher has sent me over the past couple of weeks:

Here they were exploring light.  After this they shined it on the wall and made puppets with their hands.

Further on the puppets, paper bag puppets the next week (doesn't Clara look cute in Carolina Blue!).

Sock puppets the next week.

Clara doing her favorite thing--coloring!

Clara throwing a tantrum.  Completely developmentally appropriate!

I love these pictures because they show Clara in action.  There are a ton more and I just love seeing her learning throughout the day.

We had Clara's 18 month appointment today.  She is 32" tall and 24.5 lbs.  She has stuck to the 50th-60th percentile growth chart for babies born her size ever since her first appointment.  The doctor was impressed by her talking and interaction and we are impressed too! 

Clara's ear tubes blocked a couple of months ago and since that time she's had 3 ear infections.  I took her into the ENT on 1/3 and she had a "raging" ear infection.  I made the decision right then and there to get a new set of tubes.  She was on an oral antibiotic from 1/3 until 1/12 and when we went in to get the tubes on Friday, both ears were already "hot" with infection.  It was certainly the right decision, but the whole thing was pretty darn stressful for all of us.  It's hard to watch them take your precious baby away, no matter how simple the procedure. 

My pregnancy with New Baby is flying by.  We have no names picked out and have just begun the nursery.  Thank God for Quincy's Mom, Granny Mac and my mom, who wanted to be called Grandma but seems to have been dubbed Nana by Clara.  Granny Mac's best friend Jenny is sewing us window valances, her friend Barbara is painting a book shelf for us, she is buying us a car seat and giving us the crib from our house to use until Clara can move to a toddler bed.  I don't know what we would do without all of the help.  Plus, I'm back to working full time until New Baby comes for a number of reasons, and she's going to come keep Clara on Fridays some to shorten Clara's week at school.  My mom picks up Clara at least once a week, Quincy gets to go play basketball and I get to work without any guilt.  Plus, my parents are giving us the 3/4 size bed that was mine and my mother's before that to put in Clara's new room.  And that, my friends, is one sentimental piece of furniture.

I can't wait to see New Baby's nursery come together and to see Clara's big girl room come together.  I'm super excited about some of the projects we have in the works--it will be interesting to see if I can actually get them done in the next two months!!