She Does Love Her Bike

Thanks to Aunt Shawna for a shirt that perfectly sums up Clara's relationship with her wheels!

The basket and the horn were awesome additions to Purpleicious, too!





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Molly's Growing!

Can you believe it?? She's really, really growing! At 17 months, she's finally tipping the scales and crossed the 20 pound mark!

She's still sporting size 3 diapers and rocking 6-12 month clothes, but she's clawing her way up the growth chart. At 20.5 pounds, she's now in the 6th percentile for weight, and at 29.5 inches, she's in the 6th percentile for height.

She's growing intellectually, too... she absolutely loves all things Sesame Street, and has probably absorbed the entire alphabet by now. We can only assume that this means we'll be joining the masses this Christmas season in search of the latest Elmo toy.

The Happiest Place on Earth

The Happiest Place on Earth really is enchanting and magical the day after Labor Day, when the summer crowds have petered out, the kids are back in school, and three-day weekenders have come and gone.

It's been more than a month since the girls and I visited Disneyland in September, but I'm still reeling from just how enjoyable a trip to Disney can be when lines for rides are absolutely nonexistent, and you don't have to fight crowds to move from one end of the park to the other!

Clara, Molly and I loved our impromptu trip with Mop, especially our lunch at Ariel's Grotto (Clara met five princesses!), our back-to-back rides on Ariel's ride (no lines!), and the bridges and rope ladders in the California Wilderness area of California Adventure.

Luckily, at the end of a long day, Clara did some of the heavy lifting, and helped push her baby sister back to the car.  Thank goodness for little helpers!

Four the Record

Clara Jane at 4

Height: 40 inches (50th percentile)

Weight: 37 pounds (60th percentile)

Attitude: Off the charts

Poser

Mommy: "Where did you learn to pose like that, Clara?"

Clara: "No one showed me. I just knewed it already. I knewed it all by myself."

Sigh.

First Trike

It's a fact of life for younger kids that what was brand-new for the first child is a hand-me-down for the second and beyond. Luckily, some things age well, and never lose their charm.

Joey received a cherry red tricycle for his first Christmas from Hop and Mop, Clara inherited it after he moved on to his "big boy bike," and now that they're both too big for those three wheels, it's all Molly's. And she couldn't be happier!

Horsey Heaven

Clara may not know all the names of her preschool classmates, but she knows the names of everyone in the My Little Pony kingdom, from Princess Celestia on down to Applejack and Twilight. So when it came time to think about her fourth birthday party, I knew that incorporating a real, live pony would be an epic hit.

Luckily, Sienna Ranch in Lafayette is home to not only the most placid, docile pony you've ever met, but it also is home to chickens, bunnies and goats. So we rounded up all of Clara's cousins and a small group of friends and headed to the ranch for a birthday party packed with collecting chicken eggs, petting bunnies, grooming goats, and, of course, pony rides!

We can't sign off without sharing a classic Clara story (thanks to Sabrina for hearing it and sharing it with us!). While the kids were clustered in the bunny pen, the Sienna Ranch "ranchhand" asked our crowd if anyone knew who the natural predators of bunnies are in the wild. A few kids hazarded guesses ("lions?" "tigers?" "bears?") before Clara confidently replied, "Dragons!"

Whoi knows? Maybe four will be as interesting as three was!

Happy trails to you!!

Fall Ball

We're offically parents to an overscheduled child. But when you have a baseball-obsessed kid, you can't really say no to the chance for off-season play -- especially when it's a fall baseball clinic for five and six year-old boys staffed by St. Mary's College players and coaches. 

Our Monday and Wednesday afternoons are now being spent at a "big boy" baseball field, watching gruff coaches used to ordering teenagers around tell twenty little men to "Hop to it," "Give me a lap!" and, "This isn't where we practice jokes! This is where we practice baseball!"

Joey loves every second of it, even the hustling. He's the one in the baseball hat below.