Playing outside in the springtime.

You need to throw on a hat and jacket this time of year to play outside, but Clara insists we go outside for a bit everyday.  She just stands by the back door and bangs on the glass till we put her coat on.  When we slide the door open, she squeals with delight!

To say she's a happy girl outside in an understatement.  She is constantly moving.  She walks all the way across the yard and back again, over and over.  She walks to the new planter ring that Kurtis built around one of our trees and sits on the edge of it, but only for a second.  Then she's up and moving again!

 She sometimes likes to swing on her new turkey swing from Opa and Oma.

 She usually just likes to push it back and forth.

 See what I mean?  She just keeps wandering!  She's always surrounded by her puppies.

 Here she's got her little finger out saying "no, no".  We've had to go over this a lot lately.  She has a bad habit of grabbing potting soil and eating it.  So we've been saying, "no, no" about the soil many times each day.  She knows it is off limits, but doesn't always obey.  Usually she'll say, "no, no" and then grabs a handful of soil and puts it in her mouth.

We're glad she's an outdoorsy little thing.  I think she fits into our family just fine!

Clara visits the farm.

Kurtis' Mom, Janet, works with a woman who lives on a small farm.  She owns chickens and one rooster, three sheep, five new lambs, and four cows.  She also owns a little dog.  We went for a visit on a bleak, rainy day at the end of March.  Clara LOVED it!

Here she is spotting the sheep for the first time.

 She even got to pet the little girl lamb, Begonia.  Love it!  Begonia is the daughter of Buttercup, and sister to Iris and a few other lambs named after flowers.  She wasn't scared at all.  She reached right out and felt the soft lamby wool.

 She's been hesitant at home to say, "Baa" when prompted.  All it took was the real thing to get her saying, "BAAAA" over and over again.  Here she is in action.  First she's baa-ing, and then she also learned how to say "Cock-a-doodle-doo".  She's loved the page in The Very Busy Spider with the rooster on it for a long time, but hasn't ever said cock-a-doodle-doo till now!  I guess it is true... it takes real-life experiences to motivate us to learn at times! 

She couldn't stop cock-a-doodle-dooing after our visit.  She continued to say it the whole way home, and even once we got home she continued sounding like a little rooster for a long time.

 After we spent a lot of time with those cute lambs, we headed out into the pasture to visit the big sheep and cows.  She didn't want any help!  Our little Miss Independent wanted to go all by herself...uneven ground, piles of poop, and all!

 Here she is resisting a helping hand!

 She helped feed Buttercup some poppyseed muffin. 

 That uneven ground will git 'ya little girl!  Let your parents help you, PLEASE!

 "No way!" she says.  Off she went, on her own.  A little girl in a BIG pasture!

 Then we got to meet Mayzie.  She was a sweet black cow who wasn't too sure about the little creature (aka Clara) that came to pay a visit. 

 Of course, our little dog-lover had to spend some time giving loves to Katie the dog.  She even made the low purring/growling sound that Katie makes when she gets petted.

Thanks Trish for opening up your fences to us, and thanks Janet for arranging Clara's first visit to a farm.  We hope to be back soon to check on all our new animal friends!

Clara reading...again.

You guessed it.  Her new fave is to take ALL the books off the shelf.  I pick them up at least twice a day!  But because they are books, I don't mind one bit!

getting dressed...all by myself.

Clara has been very into going into her room, getting in her closet, and diving into her dirty clothes basket.  Lately, she's been "getting herself dressed" in her dirty clothes.  She holds pieces of clothing under her chin and gives this hilarious little face.  That's how we know she is "getting dressed".

 This is the face I'm talking about!

 It's the same face she wears when she holds and loves on her babies.

 Sometimes, she manages to put clothes on her head, or around the back of her neck like a scarf. 

 Look at this!  Isn't it precious!  She just cracks me up.

This little baby sure is busy these days!