Sunday, April 26, 2009

Unwinding after a Long Day...

Ahhh, that's nice and relaxing!




Monday, April 20, 2009

No Beesh

We don't know what it means either, but Claire says it... all the time. Running down the hall, arms flailing, yelling, "No Beesh, No Beesh!!" Tiptoeing quietly whispering, "No beesh!" We can't figure it out, but I'm sure it will become one of our treasured family inside jokes.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Manners and More

No mom wants to have that grabby child at playgroup with no manners! We always model good manners from the beginning, hoping that they will be instilled at the earliest age possible. Claire has had "pees" down pat for a while. As she's snatching your food, toy, book, chess piece etc out of your hand, she does it with a smile and a "pees." She also is starting to say thank you when you give her something, although it sounds like the tiniest little baby sneeze, "t-yoo" but it is still music to my ears. Now she also has mastered "you-me" so when she coughs, toots, sneezes, hiccups, or burps, it's followed by a "you-me." And if you cough, toot, sneeze, hiccup or burp, she will be running right over to you, tapping you on the back. Because she genuinely cares for your well being.


Shhhhhh! is another word Claire uses a lot. Normally when Katie or Ryan are bossing her around or trying to negotiate their toys away from her, she gets her little pointer finger right up to her pursed lips and gets right in their face, "shhhhhhhhh!" It's an effective ploy to distract them from trying to take back their toy or book that she had stolen (with a smile and a "pees" of course)... she is becoming the master manipulator, and she is just a teensy bit spoiled!


When you come home, I bet you kick off your shoes, maybe toss them into the closet, hang up your coat... right? Well, when Claire comes home from an outing, she kicks off her shoes and pants and zooms away before you can even catch her!


She is becoming fiercely independent lately, especiallly regarding using the bathroom. She goes in there and closes the door! If I go in to check on her or ask if she needs help she yells at me NO, and waggles her little finger at me over and over saying "Go, Go, Go!" So I shut the door and give her some privacy. So far I have not encountered any smooshed poop on the walls or anything so I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt! Maybe she will just self potty train with no interaction from me. Wouldn't that be a refreshing change from potty training my dear little Katie who would sit for hours on the potty reading stacks and stacks of books, and hold each of her stuffed animals over the potty so they could also be trained. Apparently she could not use the bathroom until all 155 of those animals learned to do it too!


At church there is sometimes a director conducting the choir. That was the case on Easter Sunday mass and from our seats, Claire also directed the choir. A little too much Little Einsteins maybe? Her arms were swinging and swaying and pointing and she was dancing all around the pew, much to the delight of everyone sitting near us. It was the cutest sight!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Happy

Claire wakes up with a smile every morning. She's up earlier than the other kids so we usually have a few quiet minutes of snuggling in bed before Ryan and Katie join us. We sing some songs and tickle, and she whispers in my ear, which is the cutest! And we talk about what we're going to do that day. When the sleepyheads wake up and come tearing down the hall to our room we sing the Good Morning song and then find something to watch on tv so I can get dressed... and a shower if I'm lucky. I think in part of that good morning ritual, me asking her if we're going to have a happy day has stuck in her head because now when she wakes up, the first thing she says is "Happy" And she is. She truly is a happy little baby girl.


I am trying to get her attached to a lovey. Right now I am her lovey, she needs me to fall asleep and to stay asleep. But soon, hopefully very soon, we will shift that need from me to this cute little frog that we have named, what else... Happy. She knows its name, she looks for it and finds it when I ask her where it is. She plays peek-a-boo with it, and builds a house for it with blocks. She does snuggle with it at bedtime, but thus far, she will chuck Happy to the side to get to me.













Sunday, April 5, 2009

Gangsta prayer

I was trying to work on the Our Father with Ryan during church this morning . As I started having him repeat it, he interrupted me saying he already knows it. No surprise there, he seems to learn a lot of things without anyone teaching him. So great, I ask him to say it for me. He didn't get very far when I almost fell over in a fit of laughter... now you have to picture Ryan wearing baggy pants down around his hips and maybe a giant boom box up on his shoulder, ala The Fresh Prince of Bel Air... Our Father, who art in heaven, how that be my name?