Spring arrives!

Whew...well, it's now the middle of May, and we've had quite a busy couple of months. Our Clara is up running. She started walking right before Easter and is now at full speed, darting here and there, yelling "Walk-a, walk-a, walk-a ." Hopefully I'll have some good footage of her ever blossoming vocabulary by the next post.

Patrick and I are thrilled to have a whole new world open to us with a toddler. We can now take her to parks and watch her squeal and run to the swings. She points at the things she wants to do and says, "Yes " to confirm that she has plans to do whatever that is at the end of her point.

We've taken her to the lake and she yells "Wa-Wa ! " The front yard holds a whole host of new wonders, which she identifies as " nut, stick, bird, wuf-wuf's (dogs), bubbles, daisies and dirt." The bathroom contains more "Wa-wa", her "duck" and lots of things that get an "un-uh " because she knows she can't touch them.

We've tried to catch you up to date since our last post, with trips to the Botanical Gardens, our indoor Easter egg hunt (it was 30 degrees outside), Clara's first steps and the joys she's found in reading and making " hats " out of skirts, pants, bandanas, socks and washcloths.

Enjoy!

Easter Eggs and First Steps

a tiny little video of Clara's first tour across the living room.

Things to do in Chicago When You're Cold.

So, it's been just wrong outside. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Cabin Fever is reaching a near epidemic in this city, and we're all going a little mad. Fortunately, we do the following activities to keep our sanity....

We catch up on some light reading,


































Take in a gallery opening,






























We host playdates and dance parties,










































Build forts and crawl through them.


































We yell out our achievements of dexterity,


































Take warm soapy baths,




















Model foam hats....



















And pose in the occasional nudie photo.

new year...bigger clara...better blog.

Hey hey! We're back - and for those of you who know us well, you know why it's taken this long to update the blog. Fall was insane.
Those of you who don't know and would like to get all of the crazy details, give us a call, we're probably overdue for a chat anyway.

The important stuff: Clara is amazing. She turned one this week and is desperately trying to walk so that she can get her hands on the cat. Pray for us all. She is a delight and constantly amazes us with her kindness and continuous easy-going personality. This is one laid-back kid. Since you all last saw her, a lot has happened - we'll try to catch you up quickly. Thanks for your patience and enjoy!

t.h.a.n.k.s.g.i.v.i.n.g

Patrick's parents flew up from Denton to celebrate Thanksgiving and Clara had her first bit of turkey, which pleased her very much. She also got to participate in a little pre-Christmas gift unwrapping and found that presents are delightful and something that she could get used to. Paper and ribbons make the most wonderful sounds.

Christmas

Clara was in awe of her first Christmas tree, which we ceremoniously turned on every night with great fanfare. She was partial to the tiny stuffed bears made out of pom-poms and was particularly perplexed when the tree went from soft and flexible to pointy and brittle.

We weren't savvy enough to have a stocking made in advance, so we got a little crafty and were pretty amused with what we came up with. Clara seemed to really like it.


We travelled up to the D.C. area to celebrate Christmas with Rebecca's parents, sisters and their children. Clara's cousins were extremely found of Clara and at one point during a Mall museum tour, bowed to her in their admiration.

Clara says, "Monument, shmonument....big deal."
Clara and Daddy with giant sloth skeleton in background. A favorite Spence animal.

We also visited a gigantic train store.

Christmas Day - Clara assisted in the opening of everyone's presents. Again, paper and ribbon - so nice.

Clara Turns One!

After the turn of the New Year, we celebrated Clara's first birthday and the great parental accomplishment of keeping her alive and healthy. Clara was a lovely hostess and made sure to spend a little time with everyone, making them feel welcome.

Although, while Clara's friend Mirabelle practiced the kind art of hugging, Clara polished up on her boxing moves.

The birthday girl throne room. Time for cake!



As all cameras were poised to capture the inevitable first birthday cake/icing smear and sugar extravaganza.....

Clara surmised that icing is sticky and disgusting and decided that she would have none of it.
She opted for a cheese, egg and spinich muffin instead. I suppose we have a savory baby.

By the way, Clara was a chili pepper for Halloween, for those of you who wondered.

Summer 2007

Well...I have no idea where August went. It just sort of passed us by completely. I believe we've been trying to catch our breaths from July, where the Spence trio travelled every weekend and gave Clara a tour of the great Lakes - not proper noun, Great Lakes, just some lakes that happen to be quite nice. She also became intimately aware of other forms of water that month.

To begin:

We braved our first big road trip with Clara and drove 11 hours up to Big Birch Lake, MN to visit my Aunt Rosie and Uncle Van's summer place. Clara had her first pontoon ride and met her first roadside attraction - the Orange Moose in Black River Falls, WI.

Then it was off to Culver, IN to spend July 4th with our friends Shannon, Fuji, Allison, Simon, Roop, Matt....etc. Clara spent many a lazy afternoon lakeside while fierce card and board games waged nearby and others sunned and tanned, while her mother did not (it's just not in God's plan.) Clara practiced her rolls, raspberries and mastery of the strained food. She's almost crawling, but that would mean taking her thumb out of her mouth, and that's just not an option.

Lastly, we flew to Orlando for Clara's baptism and gathering of the families Grant and Spence.

It's been a crazy summer and our best yet. Now, we're preparing for the Fall. Patrick started his Ph.D. classes again this evening and the Art Students moved in this past weekend. I continue to plug away at planning the Carl Sandburg Literary Awards and realize that working from home is sooo much harder than I ever thought it would be. There's too much delicious Clara to distract, but I take advantage of nap times and late night remote access to my work's computer. We're making it work.

We apologize for the long lapse in updates, but you can see.....we've been busy. Hope you've had a great summer. Lots and lots of pictures follow.

July 4th Weekend in Culver, IN

Clara's Baptism

We flew down to Orlando where my parents hosted a family reunion and baptism for Clara. My father performed the ceremony at Orlando's Epicopal Cathedral and we were joined by Patrick's parents, sister and brother-in-law from Texas, as well as my two sisters from the D.C. area and their families and also my best friend from high school.

Clara had her first of many dunks - first with my father, and then she tried the pool. We ate more than our fair share of bbq, cake ( it was also Pat's mom's 60th birthday) and ice cream. It was an amazing weekend celebrating family, food and of course, Clara.

Fiesta!

We've had a lovely month of celebrating things. Our neighborhood's annual street festival kicked-off right in front of our house, and Clara endured two full days of live music in our front yard...until 10 p.m. each night. Mom and Dad weren't so thrilled with hearing yet another Dave Matthews cover band (there were at least seven), but we did enjoy the corn and chicken on a stick and Clara got to meet so many new neighbors. We also celebrated our friends' baby shower out in the 'burbs and Clara made us so proud - hilarious photo attached in two parts...you'll see. There have been many porch parties and of course, Father's Day. Summer's the best.

Hope y'all are enjoying yours!

Corrie and Chris' Baby Shower

In order to get the full appreciation of this photo, we must set the stage.

Pat, Clara and I journeyed far out into an unknown land called the suburbs (Glenview) and enjoyed a very lovely evening of hors d'oeuvres, cheesecakes and libations in anticipation of their new baby boy. Many friends of the couple brought their beautiful children and in particular, this stunning little red head (pictured above) in a beautiful little dress played quietly and waved to us from the playhouse in their backyard. As evening approached, we set up Clara's chair outside so that she could enjoy her dinner al fresco and as she did, the stunning little red head in the beautiful little dress continued to wave from her playhouse. I waved back at her and smiled with joy at my stunning little girl, in her beautiful little bib, enjoying her tasty dinner.

That's our girl!

So much to do...so little time to blog.

It's been a long and hectic two months. Can't really tell you why, just that's it's been long and hectic. For starters, I went back to work and have been attempting to plan a fundraising event for the Chicago Public Library Foundation from home, raise a child and still remain a working actor. Those of you bombarded by my KFC boneless variety bucket commercials, I apologize - but I am grateful to all those poor little boneless chickens running around who have helped put money in Clara's college fund. Patrick has also remained busy as ever - keeping the world's budding artists from getting into too much trouble, raising a child and working on his PhD at night.

Sweet Clara is growing and growing. She's an old soul, we've decided, and thankfully she is one who is pretty much happy in whatever situation she finds herself. I suppose most little ones are this portable and willing to comply, but we prefer to think this is her general temperament....(please God).

As she turns five months this coming Sunday, she has discovered that holding up her head is very satisfying, blowing raspberries is HI-larious and her feet are just about the most delicious things she's ever tasted. She even sleeps sometimes with her feet as close to her mouth as possible (as evidenced below). She still thinks the fish mobile above her changing table suspends her best friends in the world, and nothing makes her smile more brightly than to have clean laundry thrown over her face.

We apologize for taking so long to get these pictures up, but you'll see that we've had lots of wonderful visits from my sisters and Pat's parents, she looks cuter than ever in hats, Easter bonnets especially, and rice cereal is something curious, but tasty.
Enjoy!

Our Trip to Florida

Clara braved her first flight to Orlando, the site of Patrick's national conference, where we tagged along to visit my parents. Clara slept beautifully during the whole flight and awoke to 80-degree weather and a mother eager to finally get her into a sun dress.

We met up with Patrick's old co-workers Travis and Nylda, her husband Michael and their daughter Noe. It was wonderful to introduce our girls to one another and to celebrate the joys of no longer being pregnant.

Noe is amazed by her bib's elasticity, while Clara realizes that her mother is the source of her pale skin. 

 

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!
We were fortunate that Pat's conference was on the same weekend as my dad's birthday. We celebrated on Sunday with Clara's church debut - she was amazed by the waving of palms and incense. Afterwards, we toasted Dad's special day with a wonderful dinner cooked by Grandma. Clara also got to meet her cousin Olen for the first time and was treated to a private violin performance. Quite the treat.