Party time...

From November 22:

A few days after her birthday, when my parents were home from their latest cruise, we got everyone together to celebrate Claire's second birthday. It was a pretty low key night - dinner, dessert, and a few gifts. When she is surrounded by this many people who love her, it isn't too hard to have a good time. 

 

 

 

After getting burnt on the lip by the candle at her first party, she was a little gun shy this time around. 

 

 

 

 

Dear grandma...

From November 23... 

Grace wrote, addressed and sent a letter to grandma all by herself. She has been very interested in practicing her writing (something that until now she has not wanted to do at all).

I love seeing how her "R's" morphed in the process of this 10-word note. The first "R" in Dear looks more like an "A." The "R" in grandma and for look a little more R-ish. But then her final "R" in Gracie is nearly perfect. My other favorite thing is that she loves writing in all caps, except for the letter "i" is almost always lower case. Check out her signature. 

DEAR GRANDMA,

THANK YOU FOR MY NEW COAT.

LOVE,

GRACiE

Claire {2-years-old}...

Two. Wow. In some ways it is hard to believe that our baby it two. On the other hand though it feels like she has been with us for a lot longer. We are so thankful for her, her life, what she adds to our little family. We are grateful daily for her health and for everything we have learned through her this year. Happy birthday Tiny Claire. We love you so, so much. 


November 17, 2009 at 10:59 am

November 17, 2010 at 10:59 am

November 17, 2011 at 10:59 am

And here is a not-so-quick update. Her appointment isn't until Monday, so I won't know her height/weight/stats until then.


Sleeping: Claire needs about 15 hours of sleep every day. Typically that comes in the form of an 2-3 hour afternoon nap and then 12-13 hours of sleep each night. There are days when she doesn't nap (resulting in grumpy evenings) but she will usually go to sleep earlier and then sleep longer into the morning. The other day she slept until after 11 am. She is still doing really well with her big girl bed and has never fought laying down and going to sleep there. She doesn't get up until we go in and get her, and she falls asleep easily when we say good night and close the door. I think binkies are a big draw still, and I am dreading the day we say goodbye to those beloved comfort items.

Teething: Her canine teeth have been slowly making their way through the gums bringing her total to 16 teeth. She recently has developed a funny fascination with brushing and flossing. Her buddy, Judson, gave her an electric tooth brush for her birthday and she now will ask no less than 42 times a day if she can go brush her teeth. Usually we let her (minus the tooth paste since she still won't spit it out). 

Moving: Claire is incredibly agile, athletic and fearless. This can be a bad combination that results in many tumbles, bumps and bruises. Typically, however, she is steady on her feet and amazes us with the things she can do. She loves to jump - chairs and stairs are her favorite starting points. She will climb up two or three steps and jump down, landing squarely on her feet. We love watching her climb, run, hang, swing, jump and dance. All of her moves are carefully calculated allowing her to keep up with Grace in every activity. 

Talking: I recently did an entire post about funny things Claire says (you can read it here). I did manage to miss a few things and we don't want to forget these gems.

• "max-een" = magazine
• "muse-kit" = music
• "yittle teeny tiny" - used to describe anything small
• "darunk" = trunk (of the car)
• "Ansh'la" = Angela
• "bladoo" = blue
• "Can I tie your shoes oss daddy?" = how she asks to untie and take off anyone's shoes. 
• "I'm big in trouble." - enough said

Music: I've mentioned before that this girl loves music. She loves to sing and dance and she seems to have excellent rhythm. She doesn't just clap aimlessly along with you, but can copy complex beats she hears and she always moves in time with the song. She learns lyrics quickly as well and has many songs that she knows at least pieces of. 

Art: Painting, coloring, drawing, cutting, gluing, threading, beading, etc continue to be favorite activities for Claire. She will happily do "projects" for hours and refuses to be left out of anything. She now declares that she is "yittle enough for scissors." When I try to correct her and said, "do you mean you are big enough for scissors?" she said, "No I'm not. I'm too yittle for scissors." I still haven't figured that one out, but I have been more careful about where I leave the scissors.  

Learning: Other than lots and lots and lots of arts and crafts we haven't been doing focused "school" with Claire. She she is picking things up here or there through games and books and listening to Grace. She loves to read "ABC books" and likes to count things. She knows her alphabet well and is starting to grasp the phonics that go along with it. She recognizes a handful of letters (C, H, M, A and sometimes E). She will say "C is my letter. C says 'c c c' for alligator." We keep trying to tell her the picture is a crocodile, but that hasn't sunk in. She can usually count to 20 unassisted, but that depends on the day and level of cooperation she is willing to give. We are working with assigning one number per object or picture we are counting rather than just pointing haphazardly as she counts. 


Potty: Training Claire has been a long road. I don't think we knew what we were getting into when she started this process back in July. She had all the signs pointing to being ready, but she is so, so stubborn and it has truly taken until this month for us to feel like we "almost have it." To sum up, Claire wears undies all day long when we are at home or out and about running quick errands. She usually does really well and tells me if/when she needs to go. Very rarely she will tell me she needs to go after she has started going, resulting in large a puddle in the middle of a grocery store. Yes, this happened. If we are going to be out for hours, or am leaving her with someone else (ie church or Bible study), I will put her in a pull-up. I am sort of anti-pull-up, but they seem to work for Claire. She is so motivated to not "ruin her picture" on the front (there is a wetness sensor) that she rarely has an accident if she is wearing "princess panties." Anyway, all of that to say that she really is almost there. She tells us when she needs to go, and at home will run to the bathroom and go without telling me. It is only the times when she is totally distracted or over tired that we have problems. Thankfully those have been very few and far between lately. 


Playing: Claire plays a lot like Grace. She mimics the motions, joins in the make believe, climbs into the forts. They sit together and stack legos - occasionally screaming about who gets which block. Usually the girls play well together. Right now Claire's favorite toys are Legos, puzzles, zhu zhu pets, baby dolls (she recently named her little baby "Effie Amamou." Claire loves books and would sit and read for hours - I get tired of it long before she does.


Claire's current favorite...
Book: Babar ("Beeg Guy book"), Fat Turkeys
Game: Candyland, dice
Person: Selah, Angela
Place: Papa's Pizza, BSF (aka "marching school")
Toy: Legos ("yegos"), zhu-zhu pets
Activity: projects, crafts, painting, coloring, etc.
Movie: Peter Pan ("dinkerbell moobie")
Number: "fixe" (I don't think she could choose between five and six.
Color: Orange, red, green... or which ever color Grace asks for first.


There is so much more to write about - the parties, the birthday fun, etc... hopefully I will get to it soon. For now I leave you with this gem. After seeing this photo I am confident that you are leaving my blog today with a smile on your face. Enjoy!

Claire's birthday...

From November 17th:

Two years old, and celebrating in style. After breakfast we packed up the girls and headed out to the children's museum. Since it is tradition, we like to take a picture (or 20) at the exact moment of the girls birthday. Since both girls were born at "normal" times (aka not in the middle of the night), we have been able to do this. This year, however, we were on the road and had to stop in a parking lot to snap the photos as quick as we could. 

Claire Esther Brownlee, November 17, 2011 at 10:59 am. Happy 2nd birthday Lawdy!

 

Of course we couldn't leave Grace out. (And please excuse the camera settings... oops).

 

The Children's Museum had a traveling Lego exhibit, and it was really neat to see all of the knights, castles and other incredible Lego creations. The girls loved building and exploring.

 

 

We eventually made our way to the other parts of the museum - the dentist chair...

 

... sing along time...

 

...the dig pit (Merrick loved this area the most)...

 

...face painting...

 

 

...the veterinarian clinic...

 

...the water tables...

 

 

It was a fun morning - and thanks to our library's cultural passes, it was free!

 

We had lunch at New Seasons on our way home, and then both girls took naps. For dinner we met Grandma and Grandpa Brownlee at a new Thai restaurant in Progress Ridge. We had a great dinner, and Claire opened her two presents from us. 

 

 

After dinner we met the Diefs at Safari Sam's for a night of running, jumping, crawling, and tackling.

 

 

 

It was a good mix of time with family and time with extended family to celebrate our girl. 

Elephants on parade...

From November 13th:

I wasn't going to throw a party for Claire this year. We have been busy. Merrick had a project deadline the week of her birthday, then came Thanksgiving and our long trip to California. I just didn't see where it would fit it. We decided, however, that this girl "needed" a party, so we threw together a very last minute shin-dig for her best pals. I gave her the choice between themes - Tinkerbell, Winnie the Pooh, or Big Guy - she loves all three, but got really excited about having a "Bee Guy burfday." I think she thought that it was a party for Big Guy.

Once she picked the theme, everything else fell easily into place. We didn't go crazy, but I did have fun decorating the house in pink, silver and lots of glitter (the remnants of which still remain). We had a simple meal of little burgers, tater tots, and green salad. Of course there were cupcakes for the little ones, and an apple crisp for Shannon the grown ups. The kids played games, decorated elephants, and helped Claire open her gifts. It really was a fun night, and looking back now I can't believe I wasn't really wanting to have a party. 

 

 

 

I picked my favorite picture of Claire from each month of her life and then hung them chronologically. It was neat to see how she changed each month.

 

The craft table was a lot of fun. I wish I had room in the house to leave something like this set up all the time.

 

 

 

 

 

Elephants on parade - most kids took their crafts home at the end of the night, but the ones we kept stayed hanging for three weeks (until I put up our Christmas decor) and are now decorating Claire's room.

 

Pin the tail on the elephant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She got too close and burnt her lip on the candle. Eating chocolate helped cheer her up quickly though.

 

 

 

Opening what might have been her very favorite gift... 

 

Big Guy jammies from Emmett!!! She put them on right away without any prompting. 

 

 

 

Silly girls with elephant trunks. 

 

And one sweet picture of Grace and Cooper. My girls absolutely adore this sweet baby. I can't say that I blame them. She is happy and smiley and reminds me so much of Claire as a baby it is a little eerie.