Miss February

The weather has been so lovely lately that we spent the weekend in short sleeves and capris around here.  I originally bought this dress for Clara before she was even born thinking that it could be her first easter dress.  But it is so much more appropriate for Valentine's Day and my mom bought a different easter dress for Clara that she showed me on Skype this past week, so I decided to break out her pink and red tulip dress for church today and then take a few "Miss February" photos.  Lately, photographing Clara is almost impossible because she does not stop moving and she never wants to look at the camera.

She took a tumble at daycare early this week and ended up with a bruise on her little right cheek that is just now starting to fade.

In the mornings, I like to take Clara over to the blinds and we open them to look out at the yard.  She has become even more of a "mama's girl" than before and has taken to being extremely cuddly with me.  I love how in the mornings she just wants to be held and will lay her little head on my shoulder and coo in my ear.

Little Miss Clara's hair has gotten so long that I was actually able to braid it last week.  I had to follow her around on my knees to do it, but I got it done.  It didn't last long though.

A couple of Saturday's ago, Paul and I wanted to go hike to the Stanford dish.  But the weather was so perfect that when we got there we were turned off by the hordes of people we could see at the start of the trail.  So instead, we decided to explore Stanford campus.  I had only ever been on the campus once before when I was a summer associate and I spent a day there running all over the place with a partner from my law firm while we participated in a scavenger hunt to benefit a pro bono association for Santa Clara County legal aid or something like that.

I don't know if I have mentioned this on here before or not, but Clara is kind of obsessed with hanging upside down.  She loves it and will happily be carried around this way. 

Maybe I am just in the spirit of Valentine's Day or something, but I noticed hearts carved all over the columns around campus.

I adore mosaics.  There is a non-denominational church on campus that is covered in a mosaic mural with over 10,000 different colors of tiles (we overheard a guide stating this little factoid while we were feeding Clara lunch in front of the church).

After our morning at Stanford, we spent the rest of the day playing in the yard while Paul was repairing a sprinkler pipe.  The palm tree behind Clara is the one in our backyard.  When we first moved in I thought it was ugly because it is one of those tall skinny ones, but now I really love it.  I enjoy listening to the wind blow through the palm fronds and I just feel glad to know we have a palm tree in our yard because it reminds me that we live in California and I love our state like crazy.  I always have, ever since I moved to southern California just after third grade.

There is something so simple and right about throwing a quilt down and playing outside in balmy late January weather when we can already go around barefoot.