Happy 4th Birthday Clara!!

I seriously can’t believe my little Clara Dawn is already 4 years old! She has really come into her own over the past few months and I love watching her confidence grow each week. She has discovered her innate ability to entertain people. She loves to draw and create, loves to dance and sing, loves making people laugh and has no threshold for how much tickling she can endure.

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Here are some recent Claraisms for you to enjoy.

• “If you are really fwustwated a mommy can help you feel better.”
• “Nana is the best grown up I ever had!”
• While holding a tape measure toward me she said, “hmmm mom, you’re twenty big.”
• She loves the art table at her school and her teachers told me that she would do art all day if they let her. 
• “IT’S MY FRAVORITE FRAVORITE SWIMMING SUIT MOMMY!”
• She often asks me what day it is. I’ll say “Tuesday” and she will yell out, “It’s Tuesday!”
• She always thanks God for all the Rainbows and all the “Aminals” when she says prayers at bedtime.
• Clara refuses to nap but occasionally she falls asleep on the couch, floor, or coffee table while Ruby is at school.
• She never agrees or admits to “taking a nap” but often says she is going to “take a little rest”.
• Each morning at school drop off Ruby wants to give hugs and kisses to Clara and Charlie before getting out of the van. Some mornings Clara squirms and screams and doesn’t want hugs and kisses. Other mornings she cries big tears about how much she will miss her Ruby girl. There’s no middle ground with Clara. She’s extreme. She feels ALL THE THINGS.

• Speaking of feeling all the feelings, she was not happy about the seam on the toe of her tights on Palm Sunday.  
• Clara changes clothes about 5 times per day. She lays out her outfit the night before, changes in the morning, changes after school, changes before picking Ruby up from school, changes after dinner… this girl loves clothes.
• She is basically a style icon – her daily outfits (which she chooses herself) are layers and layers of colorful amazingness. Here are a couple of examples:
• Whenever I put in a Disney DVD she reminds me, “If a scary pawt comes then you can past forward it.”
• Her shoes are on the wrong feet 100% of the time. You’d think there would be a 50/50 chance she’d get it right, but no, it’s absolutely always wrong.
• Already a Patriot, whenever we are driving she calls out all the flags we pass, “I SAW ANOTHER CAMERICAN FLAG!!” 
• On our way into the car I said, “Jump in your seat” and she stomped her foot and said, “I don’t JUMP in my seat, I GET in my seat!” yikes!
• She loves going to play at the mall play place and always reports back on any kids that looked at her or tried to play with her. “He was just looking at me mommy. I didn’t want he to look at me!”
• “I’m gonna go get beautifulled up.”
• When she gives herself a shampoo mohawk in the bathtub she calls it a “Bow Hog”
• While driving home from school the other day she said, “Keep your eyes peeled because you have to keep an eye on my place.”
• Clara LOVES her daddy. One on one time with Ryan is all she needs to become her best self.
• I’m trying to help her be a teeny bit more friendly: responding/acknowledging when someone says “hello” or “good morning” to her. On the way to school we talked about saying “Good Morning to her teacher instead of walking past and ignoring her greeting. Clara told me, “I’m not gonna say good morning today.” and she didn’t…
• I’ll ask, “do you need to go potty?” and she always answers, “No, princesses do not go potty.”
• Her BFF Emmi’s dad has a Jeep and Clara loves yelling out “JEEP!!” whenever we see one.
• “I think my brudder just loves me. And also, he loves one of those” (points to toast).
• Clara and Charlie love each other so much. They chase each other around the house all day. I love seeing them laughing and playing together.

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• Clara loves talking to Ryan through the shower curtain in the mornings. She has so much to say when she first wakes up. I love listening to their conversations echoing in the bathroom.
• When she’s playing silly games with Ruby and realize Ruby is laughing she starts saying “Eyeball Twash” over and over and makes Ruby laugh even harder. I have no idea what Eyeball Trash is or how she knows about it.
• She loves to comb my hair and tries to braid it… which takes me a good chunk of time to untangle once she’s done.

Clara Dawn, you are so funny. I love seeing your sense of humor develop and love the look you get on your face when you realize you’re being entertaining. I love that your favorite song is “Jump Into The Light” and that you love singing songs about Jesus. You did an awesome job being three and I can only imagine how much more wonderful you will become during this next year of your life. I admire your strength, stamina and determination, qualities that make it difficult to parent you, but qualities that will be incredibly beneficial to you later in life. You’re a special little person and Daddy and I are so grateful God picked us to be your parents. And I’m really thankful God picked Ryan to be your daddy because he really helps me understand your shenanigans…

I love you and your shenanigans sweet girl. Thank you for regularly reminding me to “Let it go, Let it go…”

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Rubyisms

Five and a half suits Ruby Dawn well. There is no end to her exuberance. She wins the “most excitable” award as well as the “most dramatic” award on a daily basis. She’s been learning to read at school and loves “reading” books she has memorized to Charlie and Clara. She put on my glasses and proclaimed, “Uhhhhhhhhh Mommy? I’m just blind in your glasses!”

Here are some more “Rubyisms” for your enjoyment.

• As we dropped change into the girls piggy banks, “The coins in Clara’s piggy bank are just making friends with each other!”
• While driving down the road I hear from the backseat a dreamy, “What’s that smell? It smells like buttercups in love!”
• “Mom, can we go somewhere today? I want to go to a National Park today.” I do too hun. I do too.
• When I asked her to repeat the instructions I had just given her, “uhhhhh, I guess I was just talking too much.”
• She was so excited to “help” Uncle Chris hold his candle during the Christmas Eve service at our church. 
• As I dropped her off for school one morning before turning the corner down the steps, she looked back at me and yelled out, “Better get crackin’!” then lifted one knee and quickly made her way down the stairs like a cartoon character.
• When I asked her to put her boots on, “You got it sweet cakes!”
• She loves to sing… Frozen. If she’s not singing Frozen she is making up her own songs which use all the notes you’d find in Gregorian Chants. I don’t know why her natural inclination is to be a monk – but she’d be great at writing music for those guys.
• Her joke-telling is getting a little better – “Where do ants go to eat? A restaur’ant’.”
• The second half of any “why did the ____ cross the road” joke is “Because he didn’t have the guts to do it!” followed by uncontrollable laughter.
• While reading one of her library books, “Did you know a lobster has great armor like a knight?” All library books she chooses are about spiders, deep-sea creatures, poisonous snakes and other things I’d rather not be thinking about at bedtime.
• Ryan asked her how her day was and she replied, “I can’t read independently yet.”
• “I’m gonna get fashioned up.” as she runs up to her room to change clothes for the 16th time each day.
• During a spaghetti dinner, “Let’s pretend we are rats eating worms… Mama Rat?!?!”
• “I’ll be Snow White and mom, you can be the queen and Clara can be the one dwarfs because we don’t have seven dwarfs.”
• I signed the girls up for Gymnastics. Ruby thinks she’s been in Gymnastics already because she jumps on the couch in the basement. “I can do backflips but not independently.”
• Since gymnastics began she’s been asking me to buy her a tard to wear. “I just need a tard mom! All the other kids wear tards at gymnastics!” (leotard)
• Ruby has been making plans to get together with her friends after school. These plans include talking to her friends parents and asking them to call me to talk about “the plans”.

Ruby asks me everyday if it’s summer yet, but still loves playing outside in the snow. She takes her boots, snow pants, hat and gloves to school everyday so her teachers will let her play outside during recess. They get to go out as long as the windchill stays above zero… hashtag PureMichigan

Rubyisms | HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY!

Ruby Dawn (aka RubyDoo, The Rubester, Rubykins, Snicklefritz) is 5 years old. She loves sparkles and princess dresses as much as digging in the dirt or collecting bugs. She’s never met a person who she didn’t want to be friends with and will talk to anyone with a pair of ears. I love seeing her interests develop and especially enjoy her growing appreciation for true artists like Shel Silverstein and Jimmy Fallon. 

To celebrate her birthday Ryan and I told her she could have a “yes” day at the zoo. Basically that meant she could ride the carousel, get her face painted, and eat Dippin’ Dots, which are all things we typically say “no” to. She absolutely LOVED her “yes” day. She took full advantage of the situation and added a $7 Camel Ride to her requests. ha!

Clara LOVED getting her face painted too.

Ruby spends time each afternoon being “quiet and alone” while Charlie and Clara take their naps. Her “quiet and alone” time took a turn for the worst a few weeks ago when I found her in the bathroom trying to wash hot pink marker off of her arms. She thought she could get it off before I knew what had happened… but she was wrong. One thing is for sure, she is very thorough… and very right-handed.

The night before Ruby’s last day of preschool she asked me to make her a checklist so she wouldn’t forget to say goodbye to anyone in her class. She loved preschool and is ridiculously excited to be a kindergartener in the fall! 

I can’t post this update without mentioning that Ruby is friends with all the monkeys at our zoo. They seem to think she is one of them. Most days we are there at least one monkey will come sit by her or look at her or interact with her in some way. Its hilarious. Here are a few examples from recent weeks: And of course, the most recent Rubyisms for your (and my) enjoyment.

• “Ugh! All of this noise is destroying me!”
• Proof that commercials work: “Mom, we should get Clorox. It really really really works! Even for muddy socks! It just gets out the stains! Isn’t that awesome?!?”
• “I just won’t forget because I’ll use my brain as a thinking cap and it will just pop into my head but I can’t feel it when it pops into my head.”
• Driving distances are typically measured by how many “Dora The Explorer” shows it will take to get where we are going. “But how much looooonger until we get there?!?!?” “Only 2 and a half more Dora the Explorers, Ruby.”
• “I love you mom, I love you so bad!!”
• When Ryan gets home from work Ruby often asks him, “Did you have any good cases today daddy?”
• “Mom, I’m going over here if you please.”
• “I have a hundred and forty five two germs. How much is that?”
• When we go to new places where Ruby hasn’t been before she often wonders who will be there, specifically teenagers. “But mom, will there be teens there?”
• “Thanks mom! You’re such a good cooker.” (I defrost Chicken Nuggets like a pro!)
• “Mom, when we move to our new house are we gonna love it …or list it?” (I obviously watch too much HGTV during the kids nap times. ha!)
• “Can horses have spots? Stripes? Pentagons? Squaragons?”
• Ryan loves teaching her specific things that specific organs do. If you ask her what the liver does she responds, “It metabolizes drugs, makes clotting factors and makes bile.”
• This afternoon she said to me, “Mommy, you look sooooo nice with your dress on. Isn’t that a nice thing to say?” Yes Ruby. That’s a nice thing to say.
  
• “This is God’s Holy Marble. It’s what makes Gods Holy Wind. It makes Gods wind cold and snow cold.”
• “Mom, lets talk about something.”
• “I love pink and every single body who loves me.”
• “Mommy, you’re just destroying my fun!”
• “I’m drawing a blue-horned cat.”
• “That’s the town of Potbelly’s!!” (sometimes we go to Potbelly’s after church on Sunday’s and the girls always dance and talk to Darby, the girl who plays her guitar and sings.)
• “I think my brother is sad because he doesn’t really have any friends.”
• “I can’t go hiking today because it makes me so homesick!”
• What started as “I’m blazin’ hot!” has been applied in many other circumstances including “It’s blazin’ rain!”
• “I was like losing my mind when daddy took me to the Disney Store. I like lost my mind.” Ryan verified that yes, she did indeed nearly lose her mind in the Disney Store.
• “Daddy, is Charlie old enough to eat Salmon?”
• “Don’t worry Clara, tooth fairys are like soooo quiet. They’re like quieter than ever. You don’t even notice when they get your tooth.”

If you’d like to read more “Rubyisms” just type “Rubyisms” into the search box in the top right corner of my blog and all the past Rubyism posts will show up.

Happy Birthday Ruby Dawn. Clara, Charlie, Daddy and I love you so much and are so excited to have a front row seat to all the happenings in your life. Your smile makes everyone around you want to smile too and your enthusiasm for EVERYTHING brings so much joy to our family everyday. We love all the hilarious questions you ask and hope you’ll always continue talking to us about everything running through that active mind of yours. If “sparkly” could be used to describe a person, I’d say you’re the most sparkly person I know.

Happy Happy Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Girl.
Love, Mama.