2 years ago, our little baby girl came into our lives. Claire changed our lives and has blessed us in so many ways. I can't believe she is already two. Just thinking about how much she has grown, changed, accomplished in those 24 months brings tears to my eyes. I am so proud of her. She truly is the sparkle in my eye and brings so much joy to my heart. I love her so much more than I ever thought possible. I knew having children would be an incredible experience, but how incredible is simply overwhelming. She is everything I could have wished for in a little girl and I can't wait to see what the next year brings for her.
Claire's vocabulary and understanding of language is extremely well developed. Her articulation skills are more within age expectations--she is reducing clusters, inconsistently produces /s/, /z/, /th/, /l/, and no /r/.
She refers to our family as "my ----." For example, when my Mom calls to talk, Claire says, "myGrammy," as if it were all one word. It is so cute--mylisa, myjessa, mydaddy, myava. Love it, love it, love it.
Claire likes $8.00 at this moment. Everything is $8.00. We aren't quite sure where she got this, but it is pretty funny.
She thinks yogurt is ice cream, but also knows that ice cream is in fact, ice cream. I am conflicted on whether or not we should set her straight on this as one is far more healthy than the other.
She is very proud of her little sister. When people stop us in stores to comment on how cute Claire is, she'll consistently point at Mya and say, "my baby Mya." Again, definitely something that melts my heart. She even did this to a little guy at the play area today. He was far younger than her, but she felt the need to tell him about her lovely little sister.
Claire enjoys going for walks, rides, to Target, shopping, and to the playground. Chris and I had stopped referring to the playground as such because she understood, so we began saying things like "across the street," "over there," etc. Miss Smarty quickly understood each of our code names and now we are at the point where we need to use a look to communicate vs. words in hopes to avoid a 3 party opinion jumping in the conversation.
She loves to point out ambulances, trucks, buses, fire trucks and police cars that pass by our house. When she was going through the questioning phase, I had told her that an ambulance takes people to the doctor or hospital. Now she often includes that in her monologue as one passes by with it's siren blazing.
Claire often wakes up while Chris is getting ready for work. He brings her to our bed where we visit for a few minutes until she begins requesting her daily serving of eggs. Yes, eggs---every morning and sometimes 2 or 3. Anyway, she typically makes some statement about where daddy is going. I'll say to work and she'll say--"go to wouk to maka da money." Once again, a very cute explanation that arose during her questioning phase. I am glad our focus on not answering "because" has paid off as it was sometimes exhausting coming up with an accurate and legitimate reason for everything.
Claire is a hugger and a kisser. She gives kisses to us in such a gentle, tender way. She'll kiss our lips, which we love, but lately she's begun holding our faces in her hands and turning our heads to kiss our cheeks. She'll do the same with our foreheads too. Such a sweet baby we have. I can't emphasize enough how much we love her.
Not every moment is glorious or happy though. Claire is becoming Miss Independent and with that is a bit of bad behavior. She has some difficulty listening, but doesn't truly understand the connection between her actions and quiet time. This has been a huge challenge. She has gotten to the point where she knows she doesn't want to go to time out, but can't remember five minutes after what happens when you do something that is unacceptable. Ahhh, the joys of parenting. We still have moments when we are trying to be firm and speak with her and she just smiles or laughs. Aiy yaiy yaiy.
Claire likes to put her own shoes and socks on. She prefers to do her pants and shirt too, but we end up fixing them most of the time. Anyway, her shoes aren't always on the right feet, but I try to pick my battles with her and let her go. I actually had a stranger point out that her shoes were on the wrong feet and tell her that "we should switch these so you don't fall." My goodness. She had already survived 3 hours without falling, so I wasn't concerned of that outcome. I guess I didn't win the good momma award in that lady's eyes. oh well.
She is growing. I am very thrilled to say that as she is now wearing mostly 18-24 month clothes. Her pants are still more of the 18 month size, but shirts are definitely 24 months.
Claire eats nearly everything. She eats like a bird most of the time, but will eat well one meal per day. She is consistently inconsistent on which meal she will eat well. Sometimes she'll have 3 eggs, sometimes she'll eat 10 bites of steak. She definitely keeps us guessing. Vegetables are not her favorite, but she has come around to eating corn and peas. Fruit is her thing. She loves strawberries and watermelon. Not so fond of bananas anymore, but will eat them. She'll eat canteloupe too. Claire truly will eat anything during that one meal that she eats well. She isn't a picky eater, just not a big eater.
Claire loves to dig in the dirt, play in the water puddles, look at worms, find birds and other animals, she loves being outside. On the other hand, she is a girly girl too. She likes shopping, doing art projects, doing laundry (she even empties the lint tray), cleaning, and helping Mya (I call her the paci police). She can jump with both feet, catch a ball, throws well, can hang while holding onto a bar, climbs up on objects, loves to jump off of objects, and is a daredevil. She truly is not afraid of much. She reminds me alot of myself, although I am sure Chris would say that she reminds him or himself too. I guess she is a perfect mix of both of us. Claire is such a little honey. She brings such happiness and love into our lives and family. We celebrate her 2 years of life with such mixed emotions. Happiness and sadness. Our baby is getting bigger and bigger before our very eyes and although we want her to stay little forever, we find ourselves excited to see what this next year brings for her.
Claire's vocabulary and understanding of language is extremely well developed. Her articulation skills are more within age expectations--she is reducing clusters, inconsistently produces /s/, /z/, /th/, /l/, and no /r/.
She refers to our family as "my ----." For example, when my Mom calls to talk, Claire says, "myGrammy," as if it were all one word. It is so cute--mylisa, myjessa, mydaddy, myava. Love it, love it, love it.
Claire likes $8.00 at this moment. Everything is $8.00. We aren't quite sure where she got this, but it is pretty funny.
She thinks yogurt is ice cream, but also knows that ice cream is in fact, ice cream. I am conflicted on whether or not we should set her straight on this as one is far more healthy than the other.
She is very proud of her little sister. When people stop us in stores to comment on how cute Claire is, she'll consistently point at Mya and say, "my baby Mya." Again, definitely something that melts my heart. She even did this to a little guy at the play area today. He was far younger than her, but she felt the need to tell him about her lovely little sister.
Claire enjoys going for walks, rides, to Target, shopping, and to the playground. Chris and I had stopped referring to the playground as such because she understood, so we began saying things like "across the street," "over there," etc. Miss Smarty quickly understood each of our code names and now we are at the point where we need to use a look to communicate vs. words in hopes to avoid a 3 party opinion jumping in the conversation.
She loves to point out ambulances, trucks, buses, fire trucks and police cars that pass by our house. When she was going through the questioning phase, I had told her that an ambulance takes people to the doctor or hospital. Now she often includes that in her monologue as one passes by with it's siren blazing.
Claire often wakes up while Chris is getting ready for work. He brings her to our bed where we visit for a few minutes until she begins requesting her daily serving of eggs. Yes, eggs---every morning and sometimes 2 or 3. Anyway, she typically makes some statement about where daddy is going. I'll say to work and she'll say--"go to wouk to maka da money." Once again, a very cute explanation that arose during her questioning phase. I am glad our focus on not answering "because" has paid off as it was sometimes exhausting coming up with an accurate and legitimate reason for everything.
Claire is a hugger and a kisser. She gives kisses to us in such a gentle, tender way. She'll kiss our lips, which we love, but lately she's begun holding our faces in her hands and turning our heads to kiss our cheeks. She'll do the same with our foreheads too. Such a sweet baby we have. I can't emphasize enough how much we love her.
Not every moment is glorious or happy though. Claire is becoming Miss Independent and with that is a bit of bad behavior. She has some difficulty listening, but doesn't truly understand the connection between her actions and quiet time. This has been a huge challenge. She has gotten to the point where she knows she doesn't want to go to time out, but can't remember five minutes after what happens when you do something that is unacceptable. Ahhh, the joys of parenting. We still have moments when we are trying to be firm and speak with her and she just smiles or laughs. Aiy yaiy yaiy.
Claire likes to put her own shoes and socks on. She prefers to do her pants and shirt too, but we end up fixing them most of the time. Anyway, her shoes aren't always on the right feet, but I try to pick my battles with her and let her go. I actually had a stranger point out that her shoes were on the wrong feet and tell her that "we should switch these so you don't fall." My goodness. She had already survived 3 hours without falling, so I wasn't concerned of that outcome. I guess I didn't win the good momma award in that lady's eyes. oh well.
She is growing. I am very thrilled to say that as she is now wearing mostly 18-24 month clothes. Her pants are still more of the 18 month size, but shirts are definitely 24 months.
Claire eats nearly everything. She eats like a bird most of the time, but will eat well one meal per day. She is consistently inconsistent on which meal she will eat well. Sometimes she'll have 3 eggs, sometimes she'll eat 10 bites of steak. She definitely keeps us guessing. Vegetables are not her favorite, but she has come around to eating corn and peas. Fruit is her thing. She loves strawberries and watermelon. Not so fond of bananas anymore, but will eat them. She'll eat canteloupe too. Claire truly will eat anything during that one meal that she eats well. She isn't a picky eater, just not a big eater.
Claire loves to dig in the dirt, play in the water puddles, look at worms, find birds and other animals, she loves being outside. On the other hand, she is a girly girl too. She likes shopping, doing art projects, doing laundry (she even empties the lint tray), cleaning, and helping Mya (I call her the paci police). She can jump with both feet, catch a ball, throws well, can hang while holding onto a bar, climbs up on objects, loves to jump off of objects, and is a daredevil. She truly is not afraid of much. She reminds me alot of myself, although I am sure Chris would say that she reminds him or himself too. I guess she is a perfect mix of both of us. Claire is such a little honey. She brings such happiness and love into our lives and family. We celebrate her 2 years of life with such mixed emotions. Happiness and sadness. Our baby is getting bigger and bigger before our very eyes and although we want her to stay little forever, we find ourselves excited to see what this next year brings for her.
Comments
Love Auntie Kelly, Bekah & Gracie
Nicole
Love ya,
Jessica
xoxo Erin and Josh (Hunter too)