Milosz was a Good Cat

Last night our cat Milosz went missing. This afternoon we received the unhappy news that Milosz was hit by a car and killed. He was a very good cat to us, especially Clara who liked to give him full-body hugs and the occasional tail tug. Milosz wasn't always fond of Clara's games, but he was always very tolerant and patient with her. Once when he was accidentally locked out of the house for a weekend while we were away, he came darting in as soon as we returned, nuzzled Greg's and my legs, and then purred and nuzzled Clara who was crawling around on the floor. He was an incredibly loving and forgiving cat.

Last month, Clara was trying to view the photos on our camera, so we took a picture of him waiting by the front door. Little did we know it would be his last. He always did photograph well. We miss you, Milosz!

Summer Visits and Back to School

We've had lots of visitors in the past month. The grandparents Armitage were here in late August, Aunt Doreen and Uncle Ed came in early September, and Auntie Sarah just flew back to Michigan on Sunday. We've enjoyed our summer fun, but yes, it's that time again: Back to School. Clara starts back at "college" tomorrow, and we are excited to see our old friends again.

The timing seems apt as Clara's vocabulary has blossomed to four words now: car, uh-oh, Volvo, and doggie. (Clara really likes her cars.) She says da-da and ma-ma sometimes but not with the same reliability as car or Volvo. We know where her priorities lay. The girl has a need for speed (and a high safety rating, which is somewhat reassuring.)

The Weaning Story

I've been asked a few times now about how Clara weaned herself, so I'm writing our weaning story here before I forget how it happened myself! After Clara turned 1 and was eating enough solid foods to satisfy her, I tried putting her on a nursing schedule: once before morning nap, once before afternoon nap, and once before bedtime. If she signed "nurse" (by lifting up my shirt--always fun out in public!) at a non-nursing time, I offered her some solid food instead. She always was satisfied by the food, and over time, she started signing "more" when she was hungry, rather than "nurse." (The one major exception to this rule was when she was in distress and signed "nurse", we always nursed.) So Clara took to this new routine very easily. Then I played with eliminating our afternoon feeding to see if it affected her sleep. She went straight to bed like a trooper without it! After about a month of that, I eliminated her morning nursing. No problem sleeping there either. Then we were down to our evening nursing, which I was very reticent to give up because it was nearly the only thing that worked to help settle her down at night. Then chance intervened. It just so happened that I had two evening events booked on consecutive nights. The first night, Greg stayed home with her. I had a bag of breast milk in the freezer, and told him he should give it to her if she signed "nurse" (yes, she'd lift Greg's shirt up too, if he were the only parent around) or was really having a tough time settling down without it. He did her evening routine, washing up, reading stories, etc. She rubbed her eyes, he put her in the crib, said good night, and that was it! The next night, Greg's parents were babysitting, so we told them what happened. I added that if she needed her bottle, then by all means they should give it to her. Clara was as cooperative as ever, and they had the same experience Greg had. She went to sleep all by herself without ever missing the milk.

So, that's how Clara, at exactly 15 months old, came to wean herself. I still have that pumped milk in the freezer to this day.

Babyfish Mouth

In all our busyness this summer, I forgot to comment on what might be Clara's biggest accomplishment this summer: overcoming swimming anxiety. We'd taken her swimming on a few occasions, but we were always met by overwhelming anxiety about getting into the water. After about 5-10 minutes of clinging and crying, she'd always been able to calm herself and enjoy the water. I really wanted her to be able to relax in the water, so we signed up for swim lessons. After one month of twice/week swim lessons, Clara has completely lost her inhibitions toward getting in the water. In fact, when we went swimming over Labor Day Weekend, Clara ran toward the pool twice, wanting to jump in. That's right. We took her swimming twice in one day--because she wanted to! Now, we'll probably have to put up a fight to get her out of the water. Turns out Clara is a water baby after all.

First Words

It seems that Clara is officially using words in their appropriate context. The first word was car, which she used to identify parked vehicles, photos in the newspaper, and for her Matchbox cars. I know Doug and Kathy thought she was saying it a while ago, but she, then, also used it to signify non-car things. Now we feel she's accurately matching signifier and signified. And as of just this evening, Greg reports that they were looking at our old photo albums together, where she pointed to pictures of me, saying "mama", and pictures of Greg for "dada". I was relieved to hear this news because for the last few weeks, Clara has insisted on "speaking" her desires, rather than signing them. She is adamant that her babble is understandable to me, and I'm just not trying hard enough. I insist that she knows signs for things, and she should keep using them until she can speak in a language I know. Stalemate and subsequent tantrum ensues. So, just when I think it's fine she's given up on sign language, we're reading our bedtime story tonight, when arriving at a picture of a sleeping baby, she signs "sleep"! Clara is the next great communicator.