31 months old

31 month Claytonisms:

• Clayton favorite expression these days is "Oh wow!"  An example is her asking you what you are doing and her response to what you tell her is, "Oh wow!"  It makes even the most boring tasks exciting.   
• Clayton's Happy Birthday has evolved from, "Hap...you!" to "Happy to you" and now "Happy Berfday to you!"  Makes me sad as I loved her version of the song.  Just another little reminder my baby is growing up way too fast.
• We have a little chef on our hands.  She enjoys cooking and playing in the kitchen.  Her specialty is making soup.  Pretend or a concoction of stuff she ganks from the cabinets and most of the time she announces she is making soup.
• She loves putting on makeup.  She isn't content just watching me put on makeup, she wants some on herself.  So whatever I do to myself then I pretend to put it on her.  There have been many occasions when she helps herself to my mascara when I'm away from the bathroom and applies it to herself.
• "BBBIIIGGG Jump" is still a common thing around our house.  Love that something as simple as jumping gives her such excitement.  
• Charles is a big crier.  But when he's smiling and content, Clayton asks him, "Happy Charles?"  Or she'll smile at me and say with excitement, "Charles happy!"
• If Clayton is pouring out powder for her babies, my typical response is "a little bit".  Or if she is insisting on salting her food, my response is "a little bit".  So she's figured out that if there is something she knows I would like to say no to that a little bit would be sufficient to get her way.  She will look to me for approval and say "bit?".
• We are working on a system at our house to get Clayton to go to bed easier.  I let her watch TV in her room when she is trying to nap and if she goes to sleep then she needed the nap and if she doesn't then she just gets some time alone for a bit to rest.  At bedtime, she picks a book for me to read to her and then it's lights out with a bottle (yep, she still is drinking a bottle.  Judge if you like), and I lay with her until she goes to sleep.  If I don't, she won't stay in her bed and I refuse to lock her in her room.  Most of the time she will fall asleep nicely, but there are times when I'm threatening her to not get out of bed (usually days she napped later then she should have).
• Clayton goes to Mother's Day Out sporadically.  We don't have a set day and I sign her up depending on what we have going on for the week.  A schedule would probably be ideal but I see it as a perk of being a stay-at-home mom.  We have decided to let her have as much time with her mom and brother before school consumes the next 20 years of her life.
• The motherly skills and love she has for her babies are precious.  Whether she learned them from her mom or was born with them is up for debate.  But seeing her with her babies (or Charles, Sadie or my parent's cat, Tommy), it is apparent that she has a tender, compassionate heart.   
• We are in the stage of 'to nap or not to nap' is the question of most days.  She is a late sleeper (typically 8am is earliest she wakes up regardless of when she went to sleep) and most days around 2pm is when she would like to take a nap.  But that makes her waking up around 4pm and then as hard as we try she just can't go to sleep at a decent hour.  So I gauge how the day is going and if she is keeping it together, then we skip the nap and she will go to bed around 7:30-8.  5pm is dicey on bad days when it's too late to have a nap now but she is a emotional sleepy wreck.  
• "Toot-toots" are hilarious.  Anyone passing gas whether it's her or someone else, she thinks is great.  So acts surprised and giggles in delight.  
• We play a "game" called "Bite or Nibble?"  It's pretty simple.  I ask her if she wants a bite or a nibble.  And whatever her response I do just that on her arm or leg.  No, I don't go around putting bite marks on her.  Just barely put my teeth on her.  She thinks its so fun.  And I just really like hearing her try to say nibble.