Clara Jane at 10 months old

Well, I am a week-and-a-half late in posting this, but better late than never.  Clara still isn't walking, even though Paul and I have thought for weeks now that she would go for it any day.  She is close and has taken a step or two or even three every now and then, but usually just drops to her knees or bum so she can scoot around in her usual fashion.  She enjoys standing all the time now though and can balance for long stretches at a time (more than 20 seconds) if she is in the mood. 

Clara understands the word "clap" and will do it with just a verbal prompt.  We are working on "kiss", "high-five", "bye-bye", and "wolf" (aka "oww-woooooOOO!!) now.  She already does the wolf thing on her own so we have just given it a name and she responds the same way whenever we throw our heads back and howl for her.  Whenever we lift Clara out of her crib after a nap or in the morning after a good night's sleep (she is still sleeping from 7:30 to 7:00 every night), she pats our shoulders in a tender little gesture of hello.  It is the sweetest thing.

She is a good little eater and the other night she had deconstructed tacos (thanks for the idea, Bethany!) for dinner, complete with fresh tomatoes, seasoned ground beef, small pieces of  tortilla and guacamole.  I just scooped up a tiny portion of meat, cheese and guac and spooned it into her mouth and then she ate the tomato and tortilla as finger foods and she seemed to enjoy it all.  Clarabelle loves eating canned peas but does not like eating canned carrots, for which I cannot blame her.  She will eat any kind of fruit and likes yogurt and cheese and cheerios. 

Clara gets into absolutely everything these days.  Lately, she has discovered that she can easily open the cabinet of the TV stand and pull out all of the DVDs and turn the xBox off and on.  She also enjoys crawling around the kitchen and yanking open drawers to pull pots and pans off their shelves.  We should probably get child safety locks but since we are ripping the kitchen out in the not-too-distant future (just ordered cabinets yesterday - yippee!) I figure that active-parenting will suffice for now and once we install the new cabinets we can put them on.  Besides, she is so hilarious and cute when she has an audience watching her explore cupboards. 

Clara has six teeth now that have definitely broken through (two on the bottom and four on the top) and a seventh that is just starting to come up on the bottom.  Each of her teeth have been surprises to me because she hasn't really exhibited any signs of teething that I sort of thought we might see, other than the fact that she chews on absolutely EVERYTHING.  Seriously, that girl puts anything she can get her little hands on straight into her mouth.  We are constantly sweeping because of it.  Also, now that she has teeth...she bites.  I confess that I think it is cute so although I don't encourage it, I also don't get after her for it like I probably should.  She has left tiny teeth marks on my arm or hands a couple of times (as can be seen in the picture below).

Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part, but Clara seems to love both banging away on the piano and gliding and spinning around the house with  me while I explain the foxtrot to her and sing songs for us.  She loves when I turn on "Dancing with the Stars" and then make up our own dance routines (complete with me dipping her and twirling her around) and laughs and grins the whole time while we sway and bounce to the music.  She also dances on her own a lot of the time and does this funny thing where she bounces around the room while sitting on her bottom.  She even has rhythym!

Clara is absolutely a ton of fun and a joy to be around.  She is spritely and lively and happy all day long and we sure are lucky parents to have her as our ten-month old little girl.