Clarissa Ruth, def. "Brilliant friend"
Born Dec. 6th at 8:45 A.M.
9 lbs, 8 oz
20.5 inches

Clarissa is such a sweet little girl! Like her name suggests, she is brilliant, we're sure of it. Oh, let us count the ways... she loves her books, and can "read" for an hour by herself. She counts to 10 by herself, and recognizes certain numbers and letters and points them out. She can also say her ABC's after us. Her words are very clear for someone her age, and she attempts and conquers any word you say, such as "computer," "cantelope," and "beautiful." "Bonjour" and "Au Revoir" are also in her vocabulary. She recently started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" very quietly – she is still very shy about it. Her current favorite books include "Book Book BOOK!" where a chicken asks for books at the library, Curious George (she says his whole name), and a ladybug counting book. She recites parts of some books with me, and can "read" a whole book called "I Can" that has pictures of a baby doing different things, "I can sit, I can crawl, I can kick, I can jump" etc. At a recent jewelry party in our home, she explained to the jewelry lady, "That's my nana over there in the red." Of course she loves Pooh Bear videos (mamma gets a little bored with them though), and Little Bear.

She is getting to be a big ham too. She loves to go down her slide, play in the sandbox or in any kind of water (preferably puddles, or the beach where she can go in the water herself – she doesn't like to be held in the big pool as much), and "kaboom" into the couch cushions. She'll say "Watch this" and throw herself on the floor, and do a crazy "old man walk" where she's hunched over with her knees bent. She bounces around the house like Tigger, saying "Ooh hoo hoo hoo!" and takes Piglet and goes "Oh d-d-d-d-dear" (Piglet stutters). Anything she can open or peek into, she'll knock on and say "Anybody home? Nope." She did it with an empty cracker box and also a plastic egg just today. She builds block towers at least 10 blocks high, and can run like the wind now. She also does an impression of Steve Martin's "Hamburger" bit in the Pink Panther – well, she says "hamburger" a bunch of different ways while we laugh.

Most importantly, she asks to read the Bible and says "That's Jesus" for various pictures, and points to a picture in the dining room of herself reading a book and says, "That's Casa reading the Bible." She prays with us before dinner, holding our hands and bowing her head and squinting with her eyes. And ends with Amen! Now that's something we can really be proud of. And she even eats her vegetables.

See below for updates and lots of *recent photos!

Oh, and if you're interested in who she most looks like ...well, you decide -- take a look at the early months:

Clarissa	Bekah
Clarissa	Robert

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recent photos

• spring
• summer
• autumn/winter

(For past photos, click here.)

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miscellaneous

• Reminisce at our archived our baby page. Check out the July 19th entry... amazing!

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updates  most recent first

30 Aug 2006	About a week ago (Aug 25) Clarissa got 6 spots on her forehead. Bekah had isolated her for two weeks prior to that because she knew that Clarissa had been exposed to the Chicken Pox. Bekah was relieved to see the spots because it's hard work keeping a toddler away from other kids; and now we knew that she would at least get it over with. The 6 spots quickly turned into 36 and when it came down to it, Bekah and Clarissa were troopers. Clarissa played well and slept well despite the pox, and we're proud of her and the fact that she's now immune.
05 May 2006	(Taken from intro paragraph.) Clarissa is such a sweet little girl! Like her name suggests, she is brilliant, we're sure of it. Oh, let us count the ways...she loves her books, and really listens and turns pages. She is learning sign language, and knows how to say "more please," "all finished," and "eat." We're trying to teach her "milk" and "drink" now. She also points to things she wants (yesterday she said "more please" and pointed to mommy! So I fed her some more milk). She is interested in everything (especially things that are NOT toys--she has a built in "toy detector" so she knows when we're trying to appease her with one). And like her parents, she studies things very carefully (it is hard sometimes to get her to smile at Sears because she is just studying whatever they are waving in front of her face). She can say "mamamum" and "dadada" and she recognizes our names (and her own name) but we aren't sure all the time if she is saying our name, or just making sounds. We love her and we know you will too!
07 Oct 2005	To date, we've taken 1,889 pictures of Clarissa. That's just over 180 pictures per month. Thank goodness for digital cameras!
06 Oct 2005	Clarissa is now 10 months old. She had a couple of milestones today, on her 10 month birthday (5/6 birthday)! She finally has the white of a tooth tip showing on the bottom left. It looks like her bottom two and top two will all come in around the same time -- you can see the shape of them all through her gums. She also clapped her feet today while she was on her back, like a little seal. And her daddy discovered a huge blowout when he was playing with her tonight; it was spilling out the top of her diaper in the back, and down her leg. The first thing I said after he said "Oh my goodness, it's coming out the top" was "I'll get the bath water running." We are two highly trained professionals. I suppose that was a milestone for us, not necessarily for her (although blowouts are rare for her -- maybe that's too much information). Oh, and she did pick her nose today for the first time, but we don't know how much of a milestone that is either.
25 Sep 2005	Clarissa can wave and point to things now, and is learning lots of sign language. She knows how to say "eat," "more please," "all finished," "milk," and "hi." And of course, how to point to something she wants! We're trying to teach her the signs for mommy and daddy, but she'll probably be saying those before she signs them. Also trying to teach her "sleepy," "head" (and other body parts, but that's the only one she'll pat), and "drink." She'll also pat her chest with her hands when we say "Clarissa!" and clap when we say "Yayy!" It's handy to be able to know what she wants! She does this loud "pop" smacking thing with her lips, and if we do it too, she'll smile like we are all speaking the same language. We can be entertained for 10 minutes smacking back and forth. It's really fun when mommy and daddy "smack back"! Clare's also starting to repeat our sounds and movements. Even our tones! She'll say something that sounds like "uh oh" in the same intonation as us, and I think she said "ucky" for ducky. She'll really roll her raspberries now, and is still big on grunting (unfortunately). She'll also do this "horror movie" type voice "Ah ba ba ba" but low and scary-like. She'll also say "guh guh" kind of like Rosco P. Coltrain (Dukes of Hazzard). Even when she's crying she'll add little "da's" or "ga's" in with the crying. She also still likes "mama" and her favorite, "dadada," but she'll do tons of sounds and her ptth psssth noises (probably feeling her gums). The French "je" is also a big favorite-"juh joo." Ba da da da too.
19 Sep 2005	Woo hoo! Clarissa broke 16 lbs. at her 9-month doctor visit. But her 2 1/2 month-old cousin, Garrett, has already caught up with her!
4 Sept 2005	Here's something I'm very proud of: Clarissa can do the middle splits!! It's AMAZING. To me anyway! It's like one day I noticed it out of the blue, "Wow, your legs can go further, and further..." She can just sit there in the splits! (And even lean forward) Other neat development things: She still has a great arm -- pretty much anything you give her will end up across the room. And she likes to move BIG things around now, probably makes her feel powerful…like turning the cart with her blocks over, or picking up mommy's pillow. No teeth, but we think she may be ABOUT to get some -- two on top and two on bottom. You can see the white outline of them in the front of her gums. No crawling either, but she can scoot around on her bottom while sitting up, and push herself backward and in a circle while on her tummy.
29 Jul 2005	Yes, Clarissa had her first ER visit. See our summer journal for more details!
13 Jul 2005	July 13 she tried some rice cereal with breast milk for the first time, and seemed to like it! This week she had started noticing us eating more, and one day she was staring at me while I was eating a grapefruit and almost looked mad that I wasn't sharing. So I said, "You can have some food, girlie, just not this food!" That would be a mean trick, to give grapefruit for a first food! But I symbolically opened up the spoons still in a package and gave her one to play with. Daddy was there for the first "meal" too, and we just had her in a diaper and a bib. We got a little on video too. Twice I have pureed about an inch of banana with it and she REALLY likes that, smacks her lips and says "mmm" the whole time. I think she was really ready, b/c she seems to know exactly what she's doing -- opens her mouth like such a big girl, and really does a good job with it.
12 Jul 2005	Here's a portion of an e-mail that Bekah sent me that I thought was worth posting: "...when I got her [from her crib] I found she had slid back again and gotten the bear your mom gave her and chewed the tag that was still on his ear--I found pieces in her hair, on her face and even a big chunk under her chin on her chest. I figure if she swallowed any it wasn't much (over half was still left on his ear), and it would be good fiber. But I took the tag off, no worries."
07 Jul 2005	Clarissa met her little cousin, Garrett Wade, at the hospital in Delaware, Ohio. Clarissa didn't have much to say to him on this trip, but soon they'll be having lots of fun together!
05 Jul 2005	We went on our first real "road trip" this weekend, and we were so impressed by our little girl! She was such a good traveler, even when we hit traffic and the trip took more like 10 hours on the way back. We went down for Clare's 2nd cousin Kelly's wedding, which was beautiful. Clare was a big hit! She also got to meet her great-great Aunt Barbara and Uncle Bill. That was a really special meeting (later they even babysat for an hour)! Clare let lots of new people hold her, and she slept well in the car, in her pack 'n play wherever it was set up at the time, and even in her carseat at the wedding reception (which, if you know Clare, is a rare deal!).
20 May 2005	We didn't expect it this soon, but this week Clare decided to start sleeping completely through the night. Her record is a 12-hour stretch. Bekah doesn't know what to do with herself.
16 May 2005	Clarissa has reached a whole new level with her speech. She had been cooing a lot, but now she says clear phrases like "babaa, daada," and throws in a raspberry or two. (Watch for a sound clip coming soon!)
02 Apr 2005	Little Clare's first ever flight -- outside the womb. She did awesome! (We flew to Chicago for a quick weekend with the Sfuras and Normans.)
20 Mar 2005	Hear what Clarissa has to say!
17 Mar 2005	Bekah finished making curtains for Clarissa's room. It was a community effort. Many thanks to the following: • Mendy -- for help with picking out fabric. • Julie -- for help with cutting, designing, and sewing. • Aunt Barbara -- for her excellent advice and help with sewing. • And Mom Taylor -- for help with cutting.
06 Mar 2005	Clarissa is three months old today! She has a strong grip now and likes to feel different textures – she can get her mommy's hair, toy rings, burp cloths, her bib – you name it!
04 Mar 2005	Clarissa rolled herself over for the first time.
22 Feb 2005	She's up to 12 lbs, 1 oz.
24 Jan 2005	Clarissa weighed in at 10 lbs, 15 oz today... she's pickin' up steam.
23 Jan 2005	She let out a sound that actually resembled a word, "Bah!" (It's almost mama.)
13 Jan 2005	Robert watched Clarissa alone for the first time while Bekah went off to choir. "Piece of cake!"
12 Jan 2005	She's beginning to make a sound when she smiles – maybe the beginnings of a laugh?
16 Dec 2004	Clarissa's cord fell off.
10 Dec 2004	PKU without shedding a tear during the heel stick (ouch!).
07 Dec 2004	Clarissa's first little, beautiful smile.
06 Dec 2004	Born at 8:45 A.M. / 9 lbs, 8 oz / 20.5 inches... Praise God for our baby girl!