Month: May 2011

Toddler-dom

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

We’re in full fledged toddler-dom around here – complete with cute antics, total silliness, words, songs, and punctuated by the occasional tantrum (oh the tantrums!). Most of the time, tantrums aside, it’s pretty fun. Here are some highlights of our just-on-the-cusp-but-not-quite-two-year-old (do you hear that Clare, you are not yet two!!).


Phrases often heard at our house:
“Mama! Where you go Mama?!” (or Zoe, Elmo, Monkey, Adam, G, Dada, Sadie, or whoever else she’s looking for)
“No!” Said with complete conviction, often accented by a stamped foot or thrown object.
“Yeah OK” or “Yep.” Never yes, only yeah or yep.
“By self.” That’s when she doesn’t want help and wants to do whatever it is by herself.
“Hug? Snuggle? Rock a minute?” With her increased independence, Clare is asking for more hugs, cuddles and reassurance. I love it and she always gets loves when she asks for them (except if she’s using it as a sleep diversionary tactic).
Oh the toddler silliness! Clare is endlessly singing (see video evidence below), dancing, strutting, and just generally wiggling in new ways. Today she walked out of the kitchen doing some type of imitation of a chicken strut – I have no idea where that came from, I think it’s just an experiment in physical movement. It’s pretty funny to watch.
Most fun of all is to see her imagination develop and watch her begin make believe play. Her babies and animals regularly get rides on her Wheely Bee toy, they always get meals (often times sharing some of her milk or food), are put down for naps, and last night she insisted that I include Monkey in our bedtime story because it was “Monkey night-night too.” She’s also started having conversations with them and I’ll overhear her saying “Look Baby, airplane” or asking “read book Kitty?”
Lastly, here’s a video I took last night during dinner. Clare has a bit of a pesto face, but she was agreeable to singing on camera so I kept rolling. I particularly like the part of the tape at the end where I’m trying to get her to eat more green beans (unsuccessfully).


Settling In

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

We’re really settling into and enjoying the new house these days. The weather has finally turned spring-like (hopefully it lasts!) so the yard is blooming and every time I look outside I see a new plant popping up. It’s a little bit like Christmas because I never know what unsuspecting patch of dirt is going to turn into a present of a plant or flower.

My girls – enjoying a sunny afternoon on the deck. Notice that Clare has brought a couple of books outside to read.
Besides the yard, which really is lovely, Grandma T recently visited and brought the finishing touches to Clare’s room! We’ve found a theme and ran with it (and I mean RAN with it). I saw this rug online and decided that Clare’s room would be in the theme of Eric Carle’s Brown Bear, What Do You See? It’s a combination of Clare’s two favorite things, books and animals. She likes to point out the animals on the rug.

Grandma T joined in on the fun and made curtains and a bedding set in Eric Carle fabric. The curtains are in the “children” pattern and the bedspread has the animals on it. The room is very, very bright and wild but I love it. Of course right after these pictures were taken I rearranged the room to put the rocking chair in there (all the better to “rock a minute”), but you get the idea of how fun it is.

We have a wild few weeks at the Mac House – our usual April work travels will keep either J or I away from home for the next several days, and then we have a Memorial Day trip. I’ll try to squeeze in another blog post though about some fun stories from the Land of Toddler-dom.

Happy Day to all the Mothers

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

Since this blog is written for our mothers and grandmothers, I’ll start off by wishing Mom, Grandma, Auntie Deb, Aunt Pat and Grandma T a great big Happy Mother’s Day! We spent the day being fairly quiet in our family – neither the Mothers nor Clare felt very good today so there was lots of relaxing.

Here are some pictures that Adam took in March and April. As mentioned, I don’t feel great tonight so I’ll just caption the pictures and hit publish. His pictures are nice enough to stand on their own.

Adam was making pancakes one morning and Clare pulled her dishes out to imitate his cooking.

Goth Clare! Just kidding – she got a little wild one day during painting. Apparently there’s been lots of paint eaten this month.

A few weeks ago they took a “field trip” to a local fire station. The fire fighters were very nice and let the kids into the fire truck. G loved it, Clare, as you can see, was a little more reticent about the whole thing – especially when the strange fireman picked her up. She did make siren noises for the rest of the week, so the visit made an impression.

Adam captured this picture “yogurt silliness.”

She’s started to hold her crayons with a ‘penmanship’ grip. She also ‘writes’ sometimes instead of coloring. I think it’s a sign she’s a future writer.

Clarie and the Kitty. I imagine her saying “Meow meow meow.”

Painting time with G. This was the day that Clare came home with blue hair.

C + G = BFFs

Adam captioned this picture “Two rays of sunshine.” I love how it captures her running down the hill – mid-flight.

Not sure what the story is here – but Clare is playing in a pot of dried beans wearing her ladybug costume.

Getting very good at climbing on the jungle gym.

Clare the Ladybug at the Library.

Apparently she was crying because she didn’t want to leave the park.

My sunshine!

Blessings in Abundance

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

My brother and his wife just had a beautiful (and I mean BEAUTIFUL) baby girl two weeks ago named Madeline Elizabeth. We haven’t gotten down there to see her yet but I can’t wait to get my hands on that sweet, squishy little bundle. It makes my heart go pitter-pat just thinking about that tiny, perfect person with all that potential in the world.
Isn’t she pretty? Apparently she’s also very sweet (at least according to Grandma).
In other news, we had a beautiful weekend here in Portland. Today especially was really lovely, sunny and warm. We celebrated in high family style – going to a Messy Toddler Art Class, hanging out at the farmers market, playing in the sun (Mom got a sunburn), gardening, and finishing with a delicious fresh market dinner. Mmmmmm… nothing better than summer in Oregon.

While Grandma and Grampa have been visiting Baby Maddy, JP and Deb this weekend, we’ve been keeping Buddy here with us. Clare just loves Buddy and he’s especially patient with her.

The other exciting thing about this weekend was it’s the first weekend in a while that I’ve felt good. Hooray for coming to the end of the first trimester! While it’s been easier than with Clare those early pregnancy symptoms haven’t made life all that fun around here. Fortunately J and Clare have been very patient with me and now I’m hopeful that it’s smooth sailing ahead.

It’s interesting the differences between this pregnancy and my last one with Clare. I’m much more relaxed about this one, which is nice. I don’t really spend a lot of time imagining this baby or trying to think of what life will be like with them – that is besides having moments of panic wondering how I will possibly do this with two! I did a lot of time trying to picture the future when I was pregnant with Clare. I pictures pushing a stroller, rocking her in my arms, waking up in the middle of the night, etc. I’m certainly excited about the pregnancy (very excited!!) but I’m just letting it be for now. Part of it is time – I’m certainly busy enough without trying to pull in business in the future. Besides that, I know that whatever I imagine will be a 2-dimensional drawing of the rich and wonderful reality that is to come. The moments I tried to imagine with Clare are like a black and white movie compared to the real life texture of life with her. The beauty, magic, intensity, stress, and bliss of this baby will be much deeper and more special than whatever I can conjure up. I’m just savoring the anticipation, but without turning my imagination on to much. We’re embarking on a new adventure around here, and I’m looking forward to what it may bring.