End of January and the beginning of February

This little girl can't wait to get into the yard to help her dada. She sees him out there and cries to go join. She wants to do everything, swiffer, vacuum, mow. Don't worry sweet pea, soon enough!

Crazy Lou on the changing table. This is what Andre sends me in the morning while I'm at work. I feel for him. Changing her diaper is a talent!

Thursday lunch with Dada

In this school year there are 7 of us pregnant. Kate is the one all the way on the left. She was due on Dad's bday and had her son Kingston a day early I think. Her mom, Doe, is who watches Clara Tuesday and Wednesday and lately a lot more since we've needed her with last minute things coming up. When Kate goes back to work, Clara will go to Doe's house and play with Kingston. They live right around the corner from us. It's amazing how that worked out. I was about 4.5 mo here. My assistant principal is standing in front of me and due two days before me. Yes there are six of us here, see below for #7.

I'm sure you see the growth! Now we have Brittany to add to the list. She is 4 MONTHS there. She won't have a belly until she's 7 months and she'll look as big as my belly full term, Merrissa style! I think next year is my principal's last year, this may have something to do with him leaving. I'm a week shy of 6 months here.

Luiz came for the weekend, super bowl weekend. Lisa and Ed got a boat and offered to take us all out. Captain Ed sharing the wheel. It was a beautiful day, windy.

Ed, Lisa and their daughter Gabby.

Uncle Luiz

Clara is pretty behaved. She wants to get down and walk and of course that's not always possible. Other than that, she's a very good cookie. She has no problem telling ANYONE, "No!" It's pretty embarrassing but I love her strong personality, most of the time. I know we've got a while for "no" to be her favorite word.

Shal debating a bath with her sister.

My crazy beautiful lady. I love this smile! It's hard to capture on camera these days. The moment she can tell she's being photographed she looks in the opposite direction. Stinker.

Such a lover. Tight hugs under her neck for all of her stuffed animals.

Tiffany, Steven and the kids came over to see Uncle Luiz and watch the super bowl for a bit. I forgot to get a picture of Clara in her brothers Colombian jersey while we were in Colombia so I put it on  her and we attempted a pic. Like I said, very very hard task these days.

She loves her cousins so much she hugs and kisses them instantly when she sees them, and while they're over. She knows how lucky she is, they are so good to her. They all look out for her and her happiness, always sharing and entertaining.

More hugs for Isaac.

Sickness has been going around. She was up with a fever Tuesday night and didn't sleep well. I left her sitting on the bed watching Bubble Guppies while daddy got ready for work and Andre sent this to me a while later. She slept the morning away cozy in our bed. Sweet pea. She had a "well" visit that day. It turned into a sick visit since her temp was 103. Yikes. We'll go back this coming week and hopefully have a well visit. The fever only lasted a day. She is cutting some teeth, that's for sure, but I don't think that fever was from that, that's higher than usual for teeth. The good news is, it came and went and the doctor didn't find any infection.

We miss this pretty cousin SO much. Poor Brandace went back to work last week. Yuck. The worst experience a mommy can have. I know they'll both adjust just fine, it's so hard on mommy. Elsa will have many mini friends her age. Her sitter watches 3 more under 1...crazy!

"Mommy, what are these things doing stuck to my hand?" Brandi was testing out the self feeding, not quite. I looked back at the blog and Clara wasn't yet either. Once in a great while something would go to her mouth. Kate introduced us to puffs at this age and Clara loved them, but didn't feed herself.

Dylan and Issac's bday's are at the beginning/mid February so they had a soccer party this past weekend right between the two birthdays. It was a great idea, everyone had fun! Clara wanted to be out playing with the big kids, not worried or bothered at all by the big kids running past her and kicking hard balls near her. Again, annoyed being followed around by mommy and dada. She is miss independent for sure.

She really  understands the concept of kicking a ball and had so much fun!

Cousin Selene and her sweet boy. He is 0 months and 27 lbs, Clara is 15.5 months and 22.7 lbs. I guess he is at the rate to be well over 6 ft. tall. WOW!

Cousins and friends. We knew Clara wouldn't stand still so Malia held her for us. She got heavy as you can imagine.

Isaac trying to keep her in the pic.

I DO NOT WANT TO BE IN THE PICTURE, WHAT DON'T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND. This is exactly what I mean...this little girl knows what she wants and even more, what she doesn't want. She feels no pressure to do anything but what she wants and lets it be known when she is not getting exactly what she wants.

Happy birthday sweet cousins. Thank you for being so very sweet!

Finally letting Muneca hold her. She swatted at her and said "no" when she first tried to hold her. Clara Maria, what am I going to do with you? She soon reached for Uncle Darren, even with daddy right there. She was kind of glued to Uncle Darren at the ladder end of the party, that pics on Andre's phone. Maybe it was because they matched, we'll have to get that pic on here.

Cousins-ish. Thanks for the fun!

We practiced saying "Ana" before we called her.

This next video is Clara's new saying for EVERYTHING, "Hee Go" which means a lot of things. It took over for "please", can I have that, this is for you. etc. The main command all day, everyday.