Caught Ya!

Dan stealing kisses in an attempt to distract Claire from her reading:

Scenes from a Saturday

You can tell by this previous post, that Claire is really starting to mimic things she sees Mommy and Daddy doing. Here are some hilarious photos of Claire dressing herself in the laundry we were folding. Dan was wearing the hat and she kept swiping it from him to wear it herself. It was really cute. I love the photo where Claire is sucking in her little gut - Dan had just asked her where her belly-button was and it appears she was trying to hide it so Daddy couldn't tickle her!

Eat Baby, Eat!

You might recognize this doll as one of Claire's Christmas presents from Grandma Caca. If you look carefully, you'll see Claire has added her own "embellishments" to baby. Yes, that is food shoved into baby's mouth...little Claire is such a toddler now.

           

Introducing my sous chef

I was going to write a nice long entry about Claire helping me out in the kitchen while making pizza dough, but she woke up ruining my plans. I'll just share the photos instead - her flour covered nose tells the story perfectly. Click on the slide show again for larger photos, you'll want to see these close up for sure!

Ok You Claire Blog Addicts :-)

                         

We've been working on a little something here so you have to cut us some slack! SOMEONE is learning to use the potty and it's a bit time consuming, but we've gone almost a week without a dirty diaper. And by dirty I mean poo...sorry no way around that one! Claire signs "potty" even when she's farting and runs over to sit on the john. Other than an accident when Dan was on "duty" <hehe> she's been doing great.

Let's hope for a diaper free baby come summer! Oh, these photos? Yes, I will be using them as her high school yearbook ad. It will be full page and absolutely fantastic.

Mealtime Musings

We installed the suet feeders next to the dining room window this year so Claire and I could enjoy the birds during meals. I'm not sure what Claire likes better, having Gecko so close or watching the squirrel navigate the slippery pole to steal some food.

Writing this reminded me of a similar entry last year - how funny! I guess I need some new material ideas!

http://rcherill.blogspot.com/2008/01/these-are-few-of-her-favorite-things.html

Holy "Mol-E"

                      

Well, vole to be precise. Cut me some slack here :-)

Dan's little garage buddy took a header into the salt bucket and lucky for him (or her) Dan heard the frantic scratching as the vole tried to escape.

Before setting the little guy free, Dan dropped the squirmy critter off at the back door for a little show and tell time with Claire. She was totally mesmerized and kept signing "more, more, more!" 

Gecko looked pretty intrigued too, I'll bet he was planning his next meal. The voles stick to the garage so unless he gets out, Gecko shouldn't see another one of these anytime soon!

Hooray for living in the country and all the wildlife we get to see!

Copy Cat!

Claire liked the clothes cousin Amy passed along to us so much that she unpacked them all herself! Gecko (our brown tabby) was so excited about all the new smells that he had to make himself a new bed right on the dining room floor. Of course Claire had to join in, who doesn't love an impromptu snuggle with their favorite kitty? The two of them rolled around in the clothes for about 20 minutes together, it was so hysterical! Claire is obsessed with the snow boots, the pink ones trimmed in fur are her favorite and she's stomping around in them as I write this.

Speaking of fur, have I mentioned what a patient, sweet cat Gecko is? He tolerates all of Claire's well intentioned tail pulling and eye poking with grace you wouldn't believe. Ray on the other hand, just seems to keep his distance until Claire falls asleep. Then he's happy to come up and sniff at her before curling himself up next to our little furnace baby.

Oh Happy Day!

The holidays were great, it was so nice to have Dan home for a week but I am so thankful to be back to our regular routine!

The library is running all kinds of new storytime activities with crafts that start later in the day so I won't to drag a groggy kid (read: myself) to an early morning class. Gymboree starts back up, the roller rink...woohoo! Things to keep Claire busy and OFF my dining room chairs!

I can't wait to see what this "Story Stop" class is like today. The library advertised that it was for kids 12 months and up, but after Claire's crayola tadoodles mustache incident, I'm a little leery about Claire's "crafting" ability. We'll just have to wait and see. And besides, it's not MY wall she'll be drawing on! Mwah hahaha!

Happy New Year!

One of my many resolutions is to post more to Claire's blog. I've been slacking a bit according to the aunties!

        

So here's a photo from the Christmas card session, I wound up going with the hooded sweater as you can see here. But I didn't want this photo to get lost - I just love the sun shining on her hair and the catch-lights in her eyes!

Have a happy and healthy 2009 from all of us :-)

PS - I hope YOUR resolution has something to do with commenting more on the blog, especially <ahem!> Grandma Caca who finally has a new laptop!