Now we are four

This fall continues to be beautiful, sunny and warm even in mid-November. I fear it may be a tough transition to winter when the cold finally arrives. In the meantime we will continue to have picnics in the park, savouring every last ray of warm sun.

In the last week or so, CJ has really started to talk. She definitely has far fewer words than Amelia did at 18 months, but those that she does say are clear and easy to understand. When she first started say words such as “ball” and “baby” and “mama” and “dada,” she would often refuse to say them when you asked by shaking her head “no.” However now that she has learned how to say “no,” she will both shake her head and say “no” if she doesn’t feel like saying a particular word, even if she knows how to say it.

“NO!” is definitely Clara’s most-used word, but she also says others frequently including; Mimi, Emma (our cat), mama, dada, Babu, baby, apple, bum bum, pee pee, poo poo, eye, stop, stamp, moon and banana (which she calls “nana”). She knows plenty of animal sounds as well as car and truck noises. Clara has also started using the “more” and “all done” signs more often and happily signed “bubbles” when we were at Petit Gym the other day.

CJ did her first pee pee on the potty today!

It was a beautiful day weather-wise and the girls were spoiled with candy from the crossing guard and free ice cream cones well before trick-or-treating time. Amelia and I agreed beforehand that she’d be allowed to choose three items from her trick-or-treating spoils and the rest we would give away because it isn’t good to eat too much junk food. When it came time to choose, she was so excited about being able to eat one lollipop that she didn’t want anything else. I mentioned to her several times that she could choose two other pieces of candy but she wasn’t interested. She kept choosing something and then giving it away to someone else. Or suggesting that although we had run out of candy to give away, when kids rang the doorbell they could have candy from her haul.

Clara, meanwhile, opted to eat the cheese curds that our local cheese store gave out. She wasn’t really interested in eating anything else. But she loved giving out candy at the door to the other kids. The older kids that came by got a real kick out of CJ giving them candy.