20 Months Old!

I’m not quite sure how but in just 4 short months, Claire is turning TWO years old. I feel like a broken record saying it but it absolutely baffles me how quickly time has flown by.

The last few weeks, after Claire has woken up in the morning, I stare into her beautiful blue eyes and wonder how we’ve gotten here. How is it that my 8 pound 1 ounce newborn, that would sleep on my chest for hours and feel so tiny in my arms, now feels like she’s half my size? How is it that our little baby that could barely lift her head during tummy time now greets me in the morning by actually saying, “Morning!” to me. My heart is simultaneously melting from the overwhelming love I have for her and breaking from the realization that I can’t do anything to stop her from growing up. I want her to stay little but at the same time, I love seeing her grow and become her own person.

Anyway, onto my usual monthly update for Claire:

Weight: I’m thinking almost 24 pounds? I swear she had a growth spurt this last month. She feels and looks so much bigger!

Loves:
- To test her limits. She is learning boundaries and really likes to push them. That also means she mastered the art of the fake cry when she doesn’t get what she wants. Today, we saw a new level of mastery when she threw some tears into her performance. Future actress, perhaps? 😉
- To help feed Zoe
- To help put her dirty clothes in the hamper
- Her new red coupe toy car – I had almost the exact same one when I was growing up and it was one of my favorite toys. It makes me so happy to see her love hers! When she can’t find it or wants to ride in it, she says “vroom vroom”. She also tries to get us to sit in it by pointing to the seat and saying “down”. We keep trying to tell her we won’t fit but she’s pretty persistent.
- Pizza. When we make it, she gets super excited and says “Pizza! Pizza”
- Christmas! She loves the Christmas tree and all things Santa, except for the man himself. She wasn’t OK with sitting on his lap.
- Loves playing with her baby doll. She’ll pretend to feed it with her toy bottle.
- Loves to dance and to tell us to dance too. If a good song comes on, she starts swaying back and forth and then says, “Mommy, dance! Daddy, dance! Zoe, dance!” and she’ll keep saying it until we do. Unfortunately, Zoe isn’t as good as understanding these orders so we have to help her in her dancing.
- She also loves to dance and act out the songs like “If you’re happy and you know it”. She learns these dances at daycare and it’s so cute to see her do it.
- She loves her daycare!!
- To try to turn her toys on, even if they don’t turn on. For instance, she has one Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal that her Auntie gave her that talks. Now, she tries to get all her stuffed animals to talk by squeezing and saying “on”.
- To put her toys to sleep. The other night during bathtime she was laying her bath toys on the side of the bathtub, placing a washcloth on top of them, and saying, “Ni-night.” Too cute!
- To read!! She’ll read through her favorite books and, on the right pages, make the right noises to correspond with the story. For “Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type” she flips through and says Moo Moo or Duck when she sees them. For “The Very Busy Spider” she flipped through every page and made the animal noise for each animal on the page. Sooo sweet!

Christmas morning

Pure joy

Hates:
- Dancing alone. She needs everyone to dance with her! As a former dancer, that makes me so happy.
Talents:
- Starting to understand the concept of possession. She’ll see something and point to it and say “me” or “mine” to indicate that either it’s hers or she wants it.
- Can help dress and undress herself
- Starting to say little phrases like “Hi Mommy”, “Zoe dance”, “Daddy Weh-ahh-ooo??” (aka “Daddy, where are you?”)
- She is potty trained! We spent the week before New Years potty training her and it’s been going well. Of course, we have to be consistent and stay on top of it but we’re really happy with how it’s gone. Her daycare has also been helping continue the training which is wonderful.

Sleeping:
- She typically sleeps from 8:30pm to 5-7am. Some mornings she wakes up crazy early and some mornings she sleeps in. This last week, she’s been sleeping in until 7:15am and it’s been glorious! Her naps are normally from 1:30pm-3pm but can start earlier if she’s super tired.

Other Random Facts:
- On New Years Day, I walked into her room to get her out of her crib and said, “Good Morning!” and she said (perfectly, I might add), “Morning!”. I just about fell onto the floor, I didn’t expect her to say it back and pronounce it perfectly. Then, I brought her into bed with us and she laid down, pulled the sheets up on her and said, “Ni-night. Mommy down” and pulled me to lay down next to her. Needless to say, she is doing SO well at talking now. She tries to repeat most of what we say.
- On January 7, I went into her room to wake her up for the day and she lifted her head, looked at me, and said “Mommy out” and laid back down. Apparently, she wasn’t ready to wake up. Just like her mommy. 😉
- She pronounces “bib” as “beeb” which is so hilarious to hear!
- We took her sledding for the first time on New Years Day! She was unsure at first, then loved it and was giggling uncontrollably, and then got snow flung in her face and was over it. I think she’ll grow to love it once she gets more experience in the snow.