Let's talk about Clara for a minute.

Clara likes to tack on "for a minute" after she says things. She definitely got that phrase from me. I love it when she adopts my phrases and then uses them in her daily life. It's about ten times cuter than when I say such things. So whenever she narrates activities that she plans to do (Clara narrates her entire life), it's always just "for a minute." Like, "I'm going to look at this book for a minute." Or, "I'm going to put puppy down for a nap for a minute."

Clara calls spatulas "spatuladas." I believe this word was born on a night we ate enchiladas.

Yesterday she started potty training, after weeks and weeks of anticipation. I was looking forward to it about as much as one would a root canal, but she was overjoyed to finally start something that we'd been talking about for so long. So far she's been rockin' the toilet scene. I'm really glad we waited as long as we did.

Clara and I often seem to have trouble distinguishing between things she needs me to help her with and things she can really do by herself. A lot of kids this age are wildly independent and want to do everything by themselves, but Clara isn't as much. She's more for sitting back and letting ol' Mom take care of it. Here is a conversation we have about a (baker's) dozen times a day:

Clara: Can you help me?
Me: No, you can do it.
Clara: You do it! (with about seven more exclamation points)
Me: No, you do it! I'm not your slave!

...And we just go back and forth like that because we really know how to butt heads sometimes. It's really hard to know, though. What she really needs help with. See, I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Parenting is stinking difficult. I want Clara to do things for herself because they say it's the only way she'll be a functional human being. This results in me wondering about a (baker's) dozen times a day if I'm just being a big jerk. You know? I'm not writing this because I'm feeling down, nor am I writing this because I'm looking for a bunch of "chin up—you're doing a great job" comments, I'm just writing this because parenting is just—tricky. You know?

Tricky, tricky. But anyway, that's mostly all. I'm just going to eat some popcorn and watch Monk for a minute.

...So, about that. Tom and I recently started watching Monk, on a whim.  We think it's funny. And here's some trivia for your Tuesday night: Did you know that everyone has guest starred on Monk? I'm not exaggerating. Jan, from The Office. Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec. George Costanza from Seinfield.  Three characters from Jericho. That one guy from Saints and Soldiers—Corbin Allred, I think? ....John Turturro (O Brother Where Art Thou?) ...Willie Nelson. See what I mean?!? EVERYONE! And those are just the people I can think of right now. Oh! And apparently Jennifer Lawrence guest starred in one, only we haven't gotten to that one yet. I'm pretty eager to watch the one that I'm in.