New Year News

Boy, there's lots new since my last post. It's been awhile...I almost forgot my blogger login name and password it's been so long. We had a wonderful Christmas. After Bethlehem's Treasure we had a slower paced week leading up to Christmas which was kind of nice.




























Christmas morning Mom and Carl came over and had breakfast with us, and Clara opened her gifts (well, actually I did most of the opening). She just wanted to admire the pretty paper and play with the shiny bows.














After Clara's nap we headed over to Mom and Carl's place to open more gifts and have turkey dinner together. As always Clara loved the sweet stuff. She didn't want any turkey, potato, turnip, or carrot; but she lapped up on Mom's plum pudding.


































(Big girl Clara in her new chair from Grampy Gary and Baba Tina. )

On Boxing Day we headed up to Souris to visit family. We stayed for a couple of days and had a great time. There were more presents for Clara to open, more food to eat (and lots of it). It was especially special because my cousin Rachel and her boyfriend Matthew were home from Alberta. We hadn't seen her since last January so it was her first time to meet Clara.















Then the week-end of New Year's Eve our social life picked up pace. Friday night we got together with some old friends and watched the movie "Bride and Prejudice" (which John and I love, by the way...highly recommend it...Bollywood meets Hollywood). Then Saturday afternoon Clara was invited to her friend Landon's first birthday party. Later that evening we went back over to Landon's place to play the dvd game The Amazing Race. The babies went to sleep without much trouble, and there were four of us couples who had a blast racing each other around the world. Then on New Year's Eve, we went over to our friends', Pam and Allan's place, and celebrated the new year. We ate and ate and ate and played some really fun games! So for about a week straight Clara didn't have a normal night's sleep in her own bed. From our visit to Souris to sleepover night at Grammy and Grampy MacKay's to three nights in a row out visiting friends, she was tuckered out come New Year's Day.

Clara has been changing so much lately. Her appetite has picked up a bit since she started crawling. Crawling became part of her repertoire about a week and a half before Christmas. Almost immediately she wanted to pull herself up to a standing position and finally succeeded at that for the first time on Dec. 29th. She is one busy bee these days. We had to rearrange the livingroom to Clara-proof it a little better. She just seems to have an internal magnet for danger...cords, tight spaces, sharp objects. We've had to install latches on our kitchen cupboards. She likes to open the bottom drawer in the kitchen and pull out all the dishcloths.





















































She has absolutely no interest in her toys these days...she just wants to explore every corner of the apartment. Also around Christmas I started weaning her a bit. I'm down to nursing her only about once or twice a day, and then she gets a couple of bottles of formula too. She's eating almost anything now. She likes pasta, bread, yogurt, and especially fruit. She's even eating chunks of meat and enjoying it better than the pureed stuff. She's getting quite good at drinking from a cup (which she's been doing now for months), but she still won't take anything but water this way.

Our weather has been so wacky lately. This evening when John took Yawsha out for her evening stroll it was 12 degrees Celsius. Crazy, huh? It sure doesn't feel like January. Great for my New Year's resolution to get out for more walks though!

I can hardly believe that Clara will be 10 months old this week. Where does the time go? She is such a treasure. And her determined, independent, sometimes hot-tempered little personality is really blossoming lately. She loves to laugh and learn! She's a busy girl, but we love her so much.



















(No, you're not seeing double! This is an Anne Geddes doll that Mom gave Clara for Christmas. Uncanny, the resemblance, eh? )

Well, Happy New Year everyone. Sorry this post is so long. I guess there's just lots new in this new year.