Claira right now

40 months old. Claira is a mixture. She is wildly exuberant. She will jump up and down squealing when daddy comes home. She will throw uncooperative things across the room. Today it was a small ribbon that she wanted to hold in her hand and it kept popping out. She will holler "I am SO mad" when she is perturbed. And yet she is quiet. She will hide behind me when someone new comes around. She will sit silently watching the scene unfold when she is in any group activity. She is a big talker. She will tell me all the things she is going to do (today it was to ride the neighbor's motorbike all by herself) but when opportunity arises to talk with the neighbor (don't worry, she will never ride the motorbike!), she is silent. Sometimes she talks like a one-year old, particularly when Nate is needing attention. Other times she talks like an eight-year old, "I am really tired, mommy. I had a really busy day today".

She is getting better at playing by herself. The other day I found this little stack. She had folded all the cloths ("corner to corner, side to side" she chanted as she did it. thanks Gina!) and stacked them in her little play house so her stuffies could get cleaned up after their lunch.

I am often not sure how to best handle sweet Claira, but I trust I will know when I need to know. She is so spirited and I never want to crush that.

Nate right now.

Eight and a half months. He loves his sister, and starts smiling as soon as she comes in the room. If he sees her picture on the fridge or on the computer screen, he lets out this low happy chuckle. When Phil or I come near, he will hold up his little hands and open and close his fists really quickly as if to say "hurry, pick me up, quick". He is a monkey too. Today he had a toy in his hand while I was changing him. He was banging it on the wall so I took it and put it in the hand furthest away from the wall, but he just rolled over and continued banging while keeping one eye on me to see what I would do. He comes alive at 8:30pm - talks non-stop, bangs everything, laughs continually, makes funny noises with his mouth, rolls all over the place (no crawling yet), and watches for people to come close so he can laugh with them. He does this for about an hour before he starts to wind down for the night. He is the most contented little fella, and I hope he knows how much we all love him.

Friends

Today I would like you to meet some of my friends. I encounter them every day. They are the places I stop on the web each morning as I am feeding Nate his morning milk. (Take a look over there, to the right, under "favorite places". That's them, right there) I visit many more places, but these folks have persisted through many changes to my Google Reader.

I have no idea of the etiquette of including links on my little blog, but I hope someone (maybe a sister-in-law) will enlighten me if I have stepped over a boundary. 

Each of these people create things, or find things, or do things, or see things, that charm me. They inspire me, but also humble me as I madly dash around trying to pick up stuff I just picked up yesterday. I am not sure how these people do what they do, but I admire them. 

Take a look. Enjoy each of them. 

cj

PS - Just heard about September Issue. Can't wait.

blessings

Claira has a book about Hanukah. Somewhere in the book is the word "blessings". When we were at the mall today she asked me "What is a blessing?". I assume she has had this question on her mind for awhile, but I am still not sure why it popped up when it did. I told her that they were good things that we have, and I gave her one example. I think I said something like "Daddy is a blessing, because he is a good thing that we have". For those of you who have spent any moments with a 3 year old, you know that they never tire of asking the same question over and over. She proceeded to ask me about 30 more times "what other blessings do we have?"

There we were, sitting in the food court, at a table for two, eating chicken strips, thinking of all of the blessings that we have… 

What other blessings do we have?

Your cousins are a blessing to you, because you have such fun with them.

What other blessings do we have?

Grandmas and Grandpas are blessings, because they are so much fun.

What other blessings do we have?

Natey is a blessing to us, and he loves you so much.

What other blessings do we have? 

You have aunties and uncles that love you so very much.

What other blessings do we have?

We have a lovely house with lots of toys and a back yard.

…finally, after this went on for some time she looked at me and asked: "Am I a blessing?"

When I responded "yes, honey, you are a big big blessing to me", she looked at me with her smile. It is impossible to describe, but it is a smile of the deepest satisfaction and contentment possible. 

I hope I never forget this conversation.