Gymnastics, Tastebook, Banjo, and Bom-Chicka-Wow-Wow

Gymnastics

 

The pose in the purple leotard was entirely her own.  That little hand on the hip with the other artistically held to the side along with one bent kneew and pointed toe.  Seriously, I have been just dying watching Clara as she has started taking gymnastics.  It is beyond awesome.  I know this is bragging and will probably make everybody gag but she is just the cutest most adorable little gymnast this world has ever seen.  And to me, she seems like a total natural.  She picks things up fast - like, scarily fast, especially when compared with a class of other tots who are within just a few months of the same age (most older than her).  She pays attention to the coaches, follows kids in line, tries most every new thing that is asked of her (although she was not interested in attempting the cargo net climb).  And she is OBSESSED with her "lee-tards!"  She has a purple one and a black one and they both came with matching scrunchies for her hair.  Grandpa and Grandma are visiting and they got to come watch one of Clara's classes, which was extra fun.

 

I had a very specific type of gym in mind for Clara and we got recommendations and checked out Yelp before setting up free trial classes at four different gyms in the area within 20 minutes of us.  We did a small but traditional gym, a tumbling focused (to me it felt sort of like a cheerleading prep) gym, and then two large gyms that have gymnastics teams and meets and one even has an olympian as an alumnus.  Honestly, I also wanted to try the classes for free before enrolling Clara just to see if she was actually ready for a class like this since I worried that she would freak out or just not participate, but she has been ecstatic about this adventure since the very first class.  She LOVES the trampolines and has been practicing seat drops, knee drops, pencil jumps, airplane jumps, and "open-close" jumps on command.  She just has a hard time "freezing" when she is told to (think of the pose women's gymnasts do when they land a jump off the pommel horse with hands out and knees together).  She is also doing crazy good at bar skills - she can hang and swing from the bar and will even let me or a coach help her lift her toes up to the bar while she is hanging upside down to try to teach her to grip with her toes.  The balance beam is intimidating for her but she is willing to try it as long as somebody is holding her hand. 

 

Clara's Gymnastics Class from Amy Nash on Vimeo.

 

Tastebook

After having randomly posted recipes on the blog for a while and getting frustrated that I still don't have a good way of keeping track of or formatting them, especially with the idea that I eventually want to print them out in a cookbook form for myself (along with a copy for Clara for the future), I did some research and found a website called www.tastebook.com.  It is working really well for me because it provides a uniform approach to posting my own recipes, I can make them private (if I want to), I can add my own photos, and I can even follow friends (if I had any on there - so far it is just me and my lil' sis - if after reading this you set up an account, let me know because I want to see what you post since I am always looking for new yummy recipes).  I wanted to do this because I tend to forget things that I have made that we have loved and we inevitably fall back into the rut of the same old standby dinners. 

Now, if something is particularly good - good enough that I know we will make it and eat it again - I am going to post it on Tastebook (at least, that is the idea).  Unfortunately, I have felt the urge to make lots of desserts since I have lots of favorite treat recipes that need to be photographed and uploaded.  It is a dangerous business, I tell you what.  At least we've been trying to hold out and make sweets when we have visitors or can take most of what I bake to friends or neighbors.  Here is a link to my "cookbook" so far.   

Banjo

Paul didn't want me blabbing all over the blog about this but he is learning to play the banjo and now that he has a couple of songs under his belt and feels a little more confident about it he said he doesn't care if I mention it on here.  He actually takes lessons from some guy in Palo Alto and he is really enjoying practicing and playing for Clara, who LOVES dancing to daddy's sweet music every night when Paul gets home from work.  Paul and I have even jammed together a couple of times with me accompanying him on the guitar.  I have a little video but you pretty much can't hear me at all over the sound of the banjo.  We will have to work out sound dynamics to make a true duet work.  But you can at least get an idea of how Paul is sounding.

Paul plays the Banjo from Amy Nash on Vimeo.

Bom-Chicka-Wow-Wow

Clara has some new favorite books that my mom sent us home with from Utah that were in her first grade classroom collection before she retired.  Green Eggs and Ham is popular, as is a book called Chugga Chugga, Choo Choo. 

On Sunday, Paul was reading Squirrels to Clara and he decided to spice it up a little because it just includes scientific facts about squirrels written in early reader language.  So when he came to a page about springtime and how squirrels have babies, he summed it up for Clara using one phrase:  "bom-chicka-wow-wow".  She absolutely started cackling with laughter she thought it was so funny.  We got a little bit of the aftermath on video but it is nothing like when she first was guffawing over the weird word that dad apparently made up.  Clara tried repeating it and her version sounded more like "chicka-bow-bow-bow!" but the joke has been funny all week long and she randomnly gets a grin on her face, announces "chicka-bow-bow-bow!" and starts chuckling. 

Bom-chicka-wow-wow from Amy Nash on Vimeo.

We are apparently real mature around here.

New Brighton State Beach with Grandpa & Grandma Nash

Paul's parents are in town for a visit (and they were only here six weeks ago! lucky!) so we decided to spend Saturday at the beach (which ended up being super smart because it was crazy hot in the valley but overcast and moderate and lovely by the ocean.)  There was a high surf warning and the beach was sort of a mess with piles and piles of kelp and driftwood that had been washed up on shore thanks to the high surf conditions, but it was still beautiful in an unusual sort of way. We found a nice spot to lay out our beach blanket and pull out the sand toys and Clara had a ball digging in the sand and destroying sand castles that Grandpa Nash made for her.

Some previous beachgoers had made a cool little fort out of driftwood that Clara and I explored together.  We played "Ring Around the Rosie" around the central pole. 

At some point I had wandered down by the edge of the water where a piece of driftwood was sitting and was having a meditative moment while Clara was playing in the sand with Paul and Grandma and Grandpa.  I guess Clara noticed me and decided she wanted to keep me company.  Paul took these candid shots of her heading over to join me and I love them - especially the last one since she sat on that log with me for a good five minutes or more just staring out at the ocean and it was such a sweet, quiet moment for us.

Paul snuck up closer and took this one of us with both of our legs crossed.  Clara is so cute how she does this.

Eventually the sun came out a tiny bit and it was warm enough for Clara to put on her swimsuit (even though it wasn't warm enough for the water).  Paul dug a big hole and "buried" her in the sand, which she thought was kind of silly and a little weird but she went along with it.

She even worked on her tan by laying out in her little beach tent.  Those are my sunglasses and her own cross legged pose.  What a ham. 

Clara-isms

I love when friends post the funny things their kids say on their blogs or Facebook pages and Clara is starting to get to a point where the things she says or how she responds to the world around her are becoming really hilarious as her vocabulary expands and her maturity develops. 

Clara often asks me to "hold you?!" (meaning she wants me to hold her, obviously) but just recently she has started tucking herself up into a little ball when she is up against me rather than just letting me hold her normally.  It is like she wants me to wrap her up as much as close as possible.  When she does this she repeats the little mantra "safe..and...sound", which is something I mentioned to her once and she latched on to it. 

The other day we were playing on the bed after Clara woke up from her nap when we thought we heard a helicopter.  Since we couldn't see one through the window, I scooped the little miss up and we rushed outside to try to spot it (because she loves helicopters).  Outside, I realized that it was actually a jackhammer across the street that was making the noise, not a helicopter, so I said, "oops, I was wrong.  It was just a jackhammer."  And for the rest of the day, Clara repeated, "Helicopter? WRONG. Jackhammer." over and over and over.  When Paul got home she probably did this for him 20 to 30 times. 

Sometimes I spell things to Paul rather than saying the word in order to keep things from Clara.  This doesn't work so well, which we learned this week when I asked Paul after he got home from work if he wanted to go on a "W.A.L.K" after dinner.  Clara looked back and forth between us then started ran to the garage door and started exclaiming "W! K!, W! K!" having clearly realized the meaning of that combination of letters.  She has continued asking for random "W! K!'s" for days where she used to ask to go for "walks". 

Clara likes to randomly use our first names.  She will shout "Paul!" to get his attention or call down the hall for "Amy!"  We try not to laugh about it but it is really difficult and that is probably why she keeps doing it. 

She has recently taken to randomnly listing the members of our family "Mommy. Daddy. Clara." then she sometimes tacks on a "Baby Nash."  We actually don't talk about the possibility of another adoption around her much other than including it in our daily prayers, so it stops my heart a little each time she brings it up.  Today after reading books on the floor in her room while Paul was out front painting, she repeated her little list but after mentioning "baby Nash", she got right in my face and specified "baby brudder".  I hedged and said, "yes, it would be so excited to have a baby brother OR a baby sister, wouldn't it?  we would love to have a baby in our family!" and she firmly repeated "baby brudder" while looking straight into my eyes.  I can only wonder what she was thinking but it was super cute and I certainly hope she is right.

Other cute things she says lately:

"Own!" sometimes, "own! own! OWN!" - meaning, "let me do it myself!", utilized when climbing in and out of the car, putting on shoes, or other tasks

"Tissue!" - when she feels sad, she asks for a tissue that she wants us to wipe her (usually dry) eyes with.  It is like the emotional equivalent of kissing a boo-boo to make it all better. 

"Love you TOO!" - responding to our "I love you's". 

"Happy Hollow!" - I hear this over and over and over - it is a little petting zoo/amusement park that we have a season pass to and she loves going there and tries to convince me to take her pretty much every day. 

I know there are other things she says but I am forgetting them right now.  I'm going to have to start keeping little notes for myself and saving up her little quotes to put on here.

Memorial Day

We had a very nice Memorial Day, albeit a slightly damp one.  We started off the day right by going to the flag raising ceremony and pancake breakfast at church.  I love flag raising ceremonies and the reverent reflection with my hand over my heart about the sacrifices that have been made to give us the freedoms we enjoy. 

 

We headed straight from the flag raising and breakfast to the cemetery where Paul's grandpa is buried so that we could decorate it with flowers.  He died a little more than a year before Paul was born so Paul never knew him but Paul still talks about how it was his grandpa who got him interested in fly-fishing because Paul found his grandpa's old fly-fishing rods in his grandma's garage.  Paul's grandpa was a weatherman for the army during WWII and contracted polio which left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. 

Every Memorial Day the cemetery has a full brass band that performs patriotic songs and does a little program.  Clara got a little flag to wave and a balloon, which she released into the air and watched until it was no more than a speck in the murky sky overhead.  She wasn't sad about letting go of the balloon - she totally did it on purpose after having seen another balloon heading heavenward and happily called "bye-bye, balloon!" as it drifted up.

We waited in line to get Clara's face painted but when it actually came down to it Clara totally chickened out.  She let the lady paint one little white line down the side of her cheek (she was going to get a star) and then bolted.  Maybe next year.  Oh, and I not-so-secretly love when we all dress patriotically. 

Unfortunately, Paul had some work come up so he spent a good part of the afternoon working.  So Clara and I went shopping for groceries and baked cookies.  Clara kept demanding "more raining!" as we were out running our errands because she liked going from the car to the store and tilting her face up to the sky to get splattered and she wanted more time to get wet.  We baked M&M cookies to take to a little cookout put on by our friends and neighbors around the corner and Clara liked watching them bake in the oven.

The cookies were very yummy, but Clara mostly just wanted to pick through them to pull out the M&Ms.  Funny girl.  She stayed up until way past her bedtime because the friends whose house we were at have a trampoline and a sandbox and she and the other kids were having so much fun playing that everybody lingered until it started getting legitimately dark. 

Clara's Birthday Interview

I tried interviewing Clara on her birthday this year.  It wasn't super succesful, but still pretty cute.  And it will be a good benchmark for next year to see how her speech has changed.

 

C:UsersAmyDesktopClara's 2nd Birthday Interview from Amy Nash on Vimeo.