Lately Clara has been getting dressed all by herself in the mornings, sometimes even before announcing she is awake. This morning she added a new trick to her morning repertoire; she got her own breakfast. Marc had poured Clara's cereal into a bowl when he and Leo first got up in the morning (before Clara had risen for the day). It seems that both Leo and Marc went back to bed after their early snack and Clara found her cereal sitting on the table when she tiptoed out of her room in the morning. She did what any one would do, she got the milk out of the fridge and poured it in her bowl! Such a simple act but there was so much pride associated with it when she bounded into our room to tell us about it after she'd eaten her Rice Crispies.

This mornings events just reminded me of another morning over a week ago. Clara woke me up by whispering in my ear "I've got a surprise for you Mama... I followed my dream." I was pretty foggy at first but the word surprise caught my attention and I had a brief moment of panic before she went on "I dreamed that the living room was all clean, so I decided to clean it up." Once I understood what she wanted to show me I got right out of bed and it was true, Clara had cleaned up the whole play area. I remember what it looked like the night before; toys strewn all over the carpet, puzzles and stuffed animals mixed in with Little People and jungle animals. But when Clara lead me out it was all put away - even in the right places!!! I of course loaded her with praise for an excellent job and I remember spouting "you should always follow your dreams." It seemed like a funny thing to say at the time despite the fact that I really do want her to follow her dreams, I just expected a different kind of dream I guess.