Well, another month has flown by and we’re having a blast. This month was a whirlwind and we’re hoping for things to slow down a bit over the next month.

Let’s talk about 22 month old Claire:

• Weight: About 25 1/2 pounds… I think. She’s really hit a growth spurt recently!

• Loves:
  • To try to convince us to let her do things by saying, “One time” as if she can barter with us. It’s hilarious and adorable even if we still say no. 🙂
  • To call her Nana (my mom), “Mom”. Since that’s what I call her, she thinks she can call her that too. The other day, we were at my parents’ house and she turned to CJ and I and said (with her hands stretched out), “Where mom?!?” Again, hilarious and so adorable. She calls her “Nana” too but it’s pretty funny that she thinks she can call her “Mom”.
  • To go on walks around the neighborhood.
  • To watch cars and trucks drive past our house. She also loves to wait out front for Daddy to come home from work.
  • To play with her Snapo toys. She calls them Legos.
  • To run across the house or around our couches… over and over and over again. She says “Gi-gi GO!!!!” before taking off.
  • To help Mommy fold laundry. It’s so hilarious because she saw me hold a sheet in my mouth once to help fold it so, now, every time she picks something up to fold it, she puts in her mouth first and then wads it up into a ball and sets it down.
  • To play with Mommy and Daddy. She’ll say to us, “Mommy come” or “Daddy come” and gestures for us to come to her. It’s hard to say no to that.
  • To play with her baby doll, carry her little purse around, and drive her red car.
  • To read books! She loves flipping through all her Dr. Seuss books (and others) and saying phrases she remembers from that part of the book or pointing out her favorite characters.
• Hates:
  • Getting her hair washed. She absolutely hates getting her head wet!
  • Bedtime. She would stay up all night if she could!
  • Being interrupted in the middle of a task or being rushed. That doesn’t sound anything like me! (Sarcasm, if you couldn’t tell 😉 )
• Talents:
  • Talking! She has so much to say!
  • Dancing. She has the best moves. I’m sooo excited to start taking her to dance classes when she’s old enough.
• Sleeping:
  • She normally sleeps from 8/9pm to 6am. Every few nights, she wakes up around 3am and wants to snuggle with us. We’re trying to be better about keeping her in her crib but every once in a while we cave and bring her into our bed.
  • Her bedtime routine takes forever!! We have to read at least 5 books before putting her down in bed and then have to read her at least 2 more books.
• Other Random Facts:
  • She is sooo polite. For example, when she doesn’t want to do something, she says, “No please.” If she accidentally does something that hurts us (like throws a toy and it accidentally hits us), she says “Sorry” right away without us asking her to. She’s also very good at saying “Thank you” when it’s appropriate.
  • Highlights from this past month: Celebrating Daddy’s birthday by going sledding up by our family cabin (she loved the snow!!) and Grandma visiting for a weekend and baking a cake for Daddy.
  • Lowlights: She was sick three times over the past month (a cold, pink eye and hand foot and mouth). Her potty training sort of went south this last month. She is still doing pretty well at daycare but we aren’t pushing it as much at home. We want to be consistent and make sure she makes progress but, with all her sicknesses this last month, it really made it harder to stay on it. She started to refuse to sit on the potty and, because we want it to be a positive experience, we didn’t push it if she said no. We’re planning on spending another weekend going back to the basics to get us back on track.

Every day, we wake up and are astonished at how much older she seems. We feel like we can see a difference in how much older she’s getting every day. We love her more than we could have ever imagined.

Cutie playing with her Snapo toys

Hello there! Long time no talk. We have been beyond busy lately and we are ready for life to slow down. Then again, we see no signs of that happening.

I’m starting to feel a little silly when people ask us how old Claire is and I respond with, “21 months.” I might be abandoning the months soon and just saying “almost 2.”

Anyway, here’s a summary of Claire lately:

• Weight: 24.7 pounds. She’s gained a pound a month the last couple of months. Great weight gain!

• Loves:
  • To take her baby on walks with her little purse either hanging on the stroller (just like Mommy) or hanging in the fold of her arm. Toooo cute.
  • To drive in her red coupe.
  • To cuddle with blankets.
  • To tickle Daddy – she thinks it’s hilarious!
  • Trucks and planes. Every time she hears one drive past our house or she thinks she hears a plane fly by, she says, “See?” because she wants to be taken out to see it.
  • Daycare!! She absolutely loves going to daycare every morning. We bring her in, wash her hands, she gives me a kiss, and then walks off to go play. She’ll say, “Bye Mommy” and “Good day” (her version of “Have a good day”) and then she’s off! No fuss or anything. It’s wonderful.
  • To play with her Snapo toys, they are like Legos but much cooler because you have more freedom in how they snap together.
  • To read books. She’ll sit down and read for a while in her little chair.
  • To color with markers and crayons.
  • To go on bike rides – she went on her first ride on January 31st in her little trailer from Nana and Papa and loved it!!
  • Bubbles!
  • To give high fives.
  • Sophia the First!! She calls her “Princess”.
  • To say goodnight to Zoe. She insists upon giving her a hug and saying “ni-night” before she’s willing to go to sleep.
  • Her tiny blue stuffed bear who she calls “Booey”. She has to sleep with him every night. He’s getting a little less blue these days, poor guy. 🙂
  • Her blankie that I crocheted for her before she was born.
  • The book Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type.

• Hates:
  • Being told what to do. She is a girl with an opinion and knows what she wants. 😉
  • When she can’t have yogurt. It’s a full on meltdown.
• Talents:
  • Talking!! She talks sooo much now. She tries to repeat everything we say and now says little phrases like: “I did it!”, “I don’t like it”, “I tried it”, “Thank you Mommy, thank you Daddy” and “I seed it”. I just love hearing everything new that she says!!! Her little voice is the absolute best.
  • She can count to 10! The first time she did it was on January 16. She had been saying “1…2..” and then on that day, she randomly said “5…6…7…8”. Later, I was telling my mom about it and then Claire said right after, “9…10!”. I was so surprised! So I asked her to help me count and I started with 1 and she counted with me every other number until we reached 10. It was amazing!!

• Sleeping:
  • Goes to sleep around 8 and wakes up anytime between 5:30 and 7. She has really been trying to sleep in our bed lately and, because I’m a big softy, I’m having trouble saying no every time. I’m working on it because we’d rather have her sleep in her bed. I get a little desperate after the third time she’s woken us up and just want some sleep so I end up bringing her in. It’s a weakness that I’m trying to work on.

First bike ride!

• Other Random Facts:
  • When I ask her to do something that she doesn’t want to do, she says “No please”
  • She has no problem telling us to move if she wants us out of the way. She’ll say “Daddy move” and “Mommy move”. With that being said, she is very polite.
  • I gave her hair her first trim yesterday (February 12) because it was looking a little unkempt. And, while she can rock the mullet, I think it was becoming toooo mullet-y. I’m so happy I did it because her hair looks much healthier and fuller.
  • She is totally a mini-me. We can’t believe how similar her personality is to mine!
  • Potty training is still happening. I’m not sure what people mean by saying that they’ve potty trained their child in 3 days but what we’ve learned it’s a process and you have to be consistent. When she’s distracted, she’s more likely to have an accident. We now have to pay more attention to when she last went and anticipate when it might happen. We might spend  another weekend solely focused on potty training just to reinforce it.
  • She has pink eye right now and has had a cold the last month or so. It seems to be never-ending and we just want her to feel better soon.

This is such a fun age right now!! We especially love hearing her talk and say new words. Only 3 more months until she’s TWO!!!

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.

We are having so much fun with this age!! Happy New Year everyone!

Oh man, I’ve really slacked off on writing this post! Claire turned 19 months old on December 8 and I’m just now getting around to writing this. I’m starting to feel silly referring to Claire’s age in months and tend to just say she’s a little over a year and a half. Even so, I’ll probably keep doing these monthly posts until she’s 2. I love seeing how she changes from month to month!

Here’s a rundown of Claire these days:

• Weight: Almost 23 pounds! We took her to the doctor sometime last week (she was sick) and she weighed in at 22 pounds 11 ounces.

• Loves:
  • The moon, trucks, Elmo, and babies!! Especially babies lately. Our friends visited us last weekend and she couldn’t get enough of their littlest one.
  • To shush us – it’s hilarious!
  • To dance! She’ll even act out songs or books. For the 5 Little Monkeys song, she’ll wag her finger like she’s the doctor saying, “No more monkeys jumping on the bed” and looks super serious. Cuteness overload!
  • To rock on her “rocking horse” but really it’s a fawn. It was her first birthday gift from her Nana.
  • Cheddar bunny snacks – she called them “bubbies”.
  • Playing with Zoe!
  • To take her baby doll on walks in her stroller.
  • To pretend to feed her stuffed animals or dolls. She’ll take her Camelbak water bottle and “pour” it into their mouths.
  • Being outside.
  • To feed Zoe breakfast and dinner as well as give her bones.
  • “Hooray for Fish” – it’s her favorite book!
  • We have a Potty book so she can get use to the concept of going in the potty. She loves the book! Totally participates and repeats the words in the book while we’re reading it.

• Hates:
  • Diaper changes.
  • Being buckled in the car seat. She’ll fight it and once she’s buckled in and we’re driving, she’ll tell us she’s stuck.
• Talents:
  • Talking!! I’ve been keeping track of the words she says and we’re up to 69 words!! She’s getting really good at mimicking what we say.
  • Some cute ways she says things:
    • Boo-ee: Blueberry
    • Nuk: Milk
    • I lah loo: I love you
    • Cheery: Cheerio
    • Jackey: Jacket
    • When the light is too bright, she covers her eyes and says “eyes”
    • When she’s hungry, she says “eat” and does the sign language for that word
  • Really good at identifying body parts. She’ll randomly point to her nose and say “nose”.
  • She says “thank you” at appropriate times without us telling her too! She’s so polite.

• Sleeping:
  • Generally, we put her down around 8 and she’ll sleep until anytime between 4:30-6:30am. Some days are earlier and some are later. She seems to wake up earlier on the weekends… I wish that wasn’t the case and we could sleep in for once!
  • Our bedtime routine is typically dinner, bath, pajamas, and then we read around 4 books while she prances around the room and/or rearranges the bookshelf. When we’re done, we give her a kiss goodnight, lay her down in her bed, and leave the room and she almost always goes right to sleep without fighting it.

• Other Random Facts:
  • We left daycare on December 2 and when we told her to say bye, she walked up to the dog that lives at her daycare and waved bye, gave him a bone, and then walked over to the singing Santa and said “Bye Santa”.
  • I was told that she was dancing to the singing Santa with the other daycare kids and one of the boys grabbed her hands and twirled her around. So sweet!
  • People make comments pretty regularly that she’s talking really well for her age.

We are loving this age!! And especially the fact that she’s becoming more and more independent. Tonight, she spent almost an hour coloring with crayons. We obviously joined in for part of it but she was totally content doing that on her own.

P.S. We can’t wait for Christmas!!! She is loving everything about Christmas so far – Santa, lights, Christmas tree, decorations… I can only imagine what she’ll think on Christmas morning. 😀

Picking out our Christmas tree

CJ and I had a fancy date night and Claire had a sleepover at Nana and Papa’s!

Holy moly, Claire is a year and a half old!!! Crazy! It seems like just yesterday that we celebrated her 1st birthday and now we’re halfway to her 2nd.

This month had a bunch of big changes: we stopped nursing, got rid of the pacifier, are down to 1 nap a day, and no more baby monitor! She really is growing up so fast!!

Here’s an update on our 18-month-old:

• Weight: We will find out this week at her 18 month doctor’s appointment! She’s growing so much! She’s wearing 18 month clothing and size 4 shoes (but they are big on her).

• Loves:
  • To make animal noises including elephant, cat, dog, lion, tiger, horse, snake, and cow.
  • To read. She’s more willing to sit down and read through a book with CJ and I and loves to sit and flip through books on her own.
  • To talk! She says a ton of words now and still has her own little languages when she’s saying what sounds like sentences.
  • Elmo! The first time she said Elmo’s name, she said “Melmo.” She can now say Elmo perfectly.
  • Trucks and buses! She gets so excited when we drive past them.
  • Bananas. When she sees them she yells “NANA!” until she gets one to eat.
  • To empty her cabinet in the kitchen that’s filled with sippy cups.
  • To play catch with Zoe.
  • Mickey and Minnie Mouse! She was Minnie Mouse for Halloween.

• Hates:
  • Diaper changes, big surprise there (I’m being sarcastic).
  • Not really a fan of PDA coming from CJ and I. If we hold hands or hug, she yells “Mama! Daddy!” until we stop.
• Talents:
  • To feed herself. She prefers big kid spoons and forks and, if the opportunity present itself, she will take our utensils. She’s been able to do this for a while I’ve just been forgetting to add it to an update!
  • To drink from cups.

• Sleeping:
  • We have not been doing so well in the sleep department this last month. We’ve been putting her down around 8 and, after 3 or so hours of sleeping, she wakes up with a vengeance. She just keeps saying “mama! mama! mama! daddy!” until we come in. We’ve resorted to bringing her into bed with us because it’s the only way she’ll calm down and sleep after that first mini-nap. We can’t figure out what the problem is. We thought she might be afraid of the dark so we turned on her nightlight but it didn’t help. We’re hoping this is just a phase. UPDATE: She woke up once last night but after a little bit of fussing, put herself back to sleep. HURRAY! I don’t want to jinx it but I’m hoping it happens again tonight.
  • She’s now down to 1 nap a day as of last Friday!

Claire wasn’t super interested in taking her 18-month photo so Zoe gladly walked over and sat in for her

• Other Random Facts:
  • I stopped nursing two weeks ago. My milk production has been slowly decreasing over the past few months and, two weeks ago, it pretty much stopped. There really was nothing there for me to give her anymore. The first night I didn’t nurse, we could tell she was thirsty so gave her water in a sippy cup and then she just cuddled with me for a few minutes before I laid her down. I, of course, silently cried with tears streaming down my face. I was ready to stop but, at the same time, I’ll never be ready to stop. It’s just a sign that she’s growing up which is difficult for me to swallow. I think that’s the most heartbreaking thing about motherhood… no matter what I do, she can’t stay little forever. These moments are all fleeting and I need to soak up every moment. I try to soak up every moment but it’s still not enough for me. I can’t get enough of her.
  • A week after stopping nursing, we stopped giving her a pacifier. She was so dependent on that and, while we tried to only give it to her during nap times and bedtimes, she would ask for it when she started to get upset as a coping mechanism. She also started to break out a bit around her mouth from having it so much so we just decided one day to not give it to her anymore. She fought it for the first couple nap times and the first night without it but, after that, has been amazing!
  • She likes milk now!! A huge relief now that nursing is over. She chugs it at mealtime.
  • After Claire treated our baby monitor like a hammer, it broke, so instead of getting a new one, we decided to stop using it. Since our house is older, we can easily hear her so there really was no need for it.

Isn’t it amazing how much our little ones can change in just a month’s time!?!? It absolutely baffles me.

I’m so excited for Thanksgiving this year and can’t wait to see if Claire loves it as much as I do! Last year, she was just starting to eat solid foods so this year is going to be so different and so fun.

Claire was focused on trying to pick up that pumpkin haha

Claire has grown up so much in the past month, it’s crazy! She’s talking so much more and we can totally tell she’s listening and taking in what we’re saying. We absolutely love seeing more of her personality come out and have been having so much fun with her!

Here’s a summary of our little 17-month-old:

• Weight: I have no idea but we just recently started putting her in 12-18 month clothing. Some brands are already super snug while others are a bit big but they are much more comfortable for her.

Claire loving our view in Hawaii and smiling at Papa

• Loves:
  • To grab our hand and lead us to where she wants to go.
  • To hold our hands and walk around.
  • To say “ow” when she’s not getting what she wants. Not funny at all to us. But she clearly knows that it’s a way to get what she wants.
  • To dance.
  • Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Lilo & Stitch, Frozen. You know, the usual for her.
  • Pools and oceans. She loves anything water-related!
  • To pretend to drive the car. She has to do it every time we get into the car which means that we need to get ready to go somewhere much earlier to account for extra “driving” time.
  • Parks. She loves to go down the slides, climb on the play structures, go in the swings, and meeting new little friends.
  • To copy and repeat what we say and do.
  • To share! Really, she absolutely loves sharing her food and toys with anyone.
  • Buses, trucks, and birds. If she sees any of them, she yells out in excitement and wants to chase after them.
  • Papa (my dad). It has been a recurring theme but he’s still her most favorite person in the world.
  • To play in one of the kitchen cabinets that has all her sippy cups. She likes to take them out, stack them, and reorganize the shelves. She knows that’s her one cabinet that she has free reign over.
  • She has a little cupcake purse that she likes to put toys in and wear around the house. She even likes putting her water bottle in it. Too cute!

• Hates:
  • Carseats. UGH. It has been much harder to run errands this month because every time we get into the car, she needs to pretend to “drive” the car and then when we finally try to put her in the carseat, she fights it. She absolutely loves to scream “OW” at the top of her lungs when we’re trying to do it, even though we are not hurting her, which in turn makes all people that pass us in the parking lot stare. It’s no fun.
  • Diaper changes. Another wrestling match for us around 95% of the time.
  • Socks. She always rips them off.
• Talents:
  • Talking! She’s saying more words and we love being able to understand what she wants.
  • She finally says “Mama” now when she wants me. Makes me soooo happy! She’s been saying “Dada” for forever but CJ has now graduated to “Daddy”. Also the cutest thing in the world.

• Sleeping:
  • Generally, she sleeps from 8pm to 5:30am. I really wish she would sleep in a bit more! She’s still taking two naps a day but once in a while if we’re running errands in the morning and get back a little later, she’ll take one nap that day.

Just a little bit excited 😀

• Other Random Facts:
  • She’s still nursing. For the last month, it’s still been twice a day with the exception of the last two days, it’s only been before bed. I’m making much less milk.
  • She’s loving daycare now! We came back from vacation this week and I would have bet money that she would fight us dropping her off at daycare but she was perfectly happy when we brought her there. In fact, one morning I put her down and she walked up to the owner of the daycare and gave her a hug! It was the sweetest thing in the world. We are incredibly happy we made the choice to bring her to daycare.
  • She’s so social! When she sees other little kids, she always waves and says hi. She’s always trying to make new friends. 🙂 We went to the park last weekend and she said hi to all the kids. She even watched what they were doing and tried to copy them (including trying to climb UP the slide when she saw an older little girl do it). She also loves babies, we saw one at the luau on our vacation and she walked right up to her and said “hiiiii”. TOO CUTE!
  • She doesn’t like her food to be mixed or to be touching each other. Generally, she prefers one type of food to be served at a time or for it to be put in one of those plates that has sections. Such a silly little girl.
  • When she takes a big sip of water, she makes an “ahhh” noise after swallowing. So adorable!
  • She is definitely a mini-me. For example, when she gets walking really fast, she swings only one arm. I still do that. She also likes to collect sticks in our front yard. I used to do that when I was camping when I was little (to help with the fire, of course!). She furrows her brows a lot when she’s confused, focused, when people are making funny faces at her, or generally when she feels like it. My sister said that I used to do that all the time when I was a baby. She ALWAYS is working on some sort of project. My mom said I was like that too – so determined and focused on completing whatever task I was doing.
  • Sometimes CJ and I will be talking about something funny in a conversation so, naturally, we’ll laugh. All of a sudden we hear Claire laughing and we realize, oh she’s totally paying attention and mimicking what we do! We love it.

I take a million videos of her a day because I can’t handle how adorable her voice is. I just want to pause time and have her be this age forever. She’s so fun, curious, and adventurous right now! We can’t wait to see what changes in another month!

Our trip to the pumpkin patch was a little too hot for our liking. Where is the fall weather?!?

Claire’s reaction when she entered her first ever candy store. No joke! It quite possibly might have been the best moment of her life. She danced in place, lifted her arms, and laughed uncontrollably and it was the most adorable thing IN THE WORLD! For the record, she has never eaten candy before so we can only guess that the excitement was from all the colors in the store and the lollipops hanging from the ceiling.

I know, I know. We are way overdue for an update on Claire. She turned 16 months old on September 8th and you’ve heard nothing from us. I’ll take all the blame for that as I’ve been going through serious computer issues lately. You see, because Claire is so adorable and utterly delicious, I can’t help but take millions of photos of her. Apparently, I took too many photos and now my laptop is completely out of space and I’ve been trying to figure out how to fix the issue. I can barely run a program on my laptop because it’s beyond full. No need to provide any helpful hints though, I have a helpful, patient, and incredibly smart husband that’s been helping me through this tough time. 🙂

Anyway! Onward to an update on our little lady. Here’s the lowdown on 16-month-old Claire:

• Weight: She’s definitely over 20 pounds now. Woo woo! Growing so much every day, it’s crazy!
• Loves:
  • To talk!! More on that in the “Talents” section.
  • The “Let It Go” and “Love is an Open Door” songs from Frozen. I’ll ask her if she wants to hear her favorite song and she’ll say “gooo” for Let It Go. And then, once it’s on, she’ll proceed to dance around, twirl, raise up her arms, and pitter patter her feet quickly. She’s sooo cute!!
  • Her Papa (my dad). When we tell her that she’s going to see him, she laughs uncontrollably and does a little dance around the house. She loves him soooo much, it’s the sweetest relationship I’ve ever seen. Once he arrives, she runs around giggling from delight and then runs up to him and asks to be picked up.
  • She is obsessed with yogurt and every type of beans. She gets pumped when she’s about to eat either of them!
  • Her Daddy!! She has been such a Daddy’s girl lately and it’s so sweet.
  • To drink water!
  • The book “Madeline”. She loves to have Daddy read it to her before she goes to bed at night. Sometimes 4 or 5 times. Her favorite page is the book with the robber on it.
  • To dance!! I am so happy about this, since I’m a dancer, and love to see her get excited for some songs.
  • Her The North Face jacket from Nana. She still loves to wear it regardless of the temperature. We really need to find a larger size in that jacket because it’s almost too small.
  • To help clean, dust, sweep, or organize. She’s becoming more helpful and we can really tell she understands us when we ask her to do things. For instance, I’ll ask her to put her dirty clothes away and she’ll bring them to her room and put them in her laundry basket. Or I’ll ask her to put her shoes away and she’ll bring them to her closet. It’s so cool!!
  • To help put her shoes on.
  • The pool!!! So many giggles are heard when the pool is mentioned or when she gets to go in the pool.
  • To go in the garage, grab a bone for Zoe, and bring it into the house to give to her. We might need to hide the bones though because Zoe is looking a little more “robust” lately. Probably from the extra gifts from Claire. 😉

• Hates:
  • When I put my hair up in a bun. For some reason, she does not like it at all and yells at me.
  • Still hates diaper changes.
• Talents:
  • She has become quite the talker over the last month. She’s getting really good at modeling what we’re saying or at least the sounds. Some of her favorite words: cookie, please, thank you (dank ooo, as she says it. Although sometimes she says it perfectly), up, down, go, doggy, all done, hi, bye bye, Papa, Daddy, mama, and bubbles.
  • Giving Eskimo kisses. I taught her that the other day and she loves to do it!
  • Blowing kisses. The cutest!!

• Sleeping:
  • It’s hit or miss but lately she’s been waking up once in the middle of the night. We’re not sure if it’s always for the same reason – is it because she started at daycare recently? Maybe she’s hungry? Maybe she needs a diaper change? Each time, something different calms her down so we take each night on a case-by-case basis.
  • She’s been waking up, generally, around 5:30am each morning. I really miss the days when she would “sleep in” until 7am.

• Other Random Facts:
  • She’s still nursing! Once in the morning and once before she goes to sleep. No signs of losing interest.
  • She started daycare on September 1. Up until then, we had a nanny at home with her. The first couple of weeks were rough because I had to go on a business trip the first few days and then she was teething too. But, I’m happy to report that this week has been going sooo well and she’s been coming home so happy! Her development has really spiked too over the past few weeks. I cried a lot when I knew we needed to start her at daycare because I wasn’t ready for her to grow up but I’m really happy that we started her now. It’s been such a blessing.
  • She’s been refusing drinking milk recently – my pumped milk or cow’s milk – from either a bottle or a sippy cup. That said, the last couple of days she’s done better with drinking some at daycare so maybe we’re in the clear!
  • She has sooo many teeth now. I think we’re at 16 now? It’s crazy!
  • She’s super opinionated, determined, and looks like such a little businesswoman. You can tell that she is always on a mission to get something done and she won’t stop until she accomplishes it.
  • She’s a really picky eater but when we serve meals, she’s eating whatever we’re eating.

Claire’s Auntie Megan started a new tradition of sending a postcard when she visits a new place. Her first postcard arrived from Canada and Claire was so excited!!

And that’s our little wild woman! She has sooo much energy all the time, has been giggling so much lately, and is such a joy to be around. That’s not to say she isn’t exhausting too. I feel like I’m always 50% on my way to passing out at any moment in time.

For the record, she has more than 1 shirt – she just happens to be wearing the same one in almost all these photos. 🙂

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a month since our last post! Claire definitely keeps us busy and so entertained so it’s hard not to collapse at the end of the day from pure exhaustion. Thankfully, we’re loving every minute of it, even the moments that test our patience. 😉

Here’s a rundown of our spunky little 15-month-old:

• Weight: She was 19.4 pounds when she went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and we think she hit a growth spurt. So maybe 20 pounds now? We will have her 15 month check-up this week so we’ll find out then!
• Loves:
  • To pretend talk on the phone. Pretty much my favorite new thing that she does! I’ll pretend to talk on the phone and hand it to her and she grabs it and walks off and pretends to have a conversation. If only we knew what she was saying!
  • To play with her tea set. It has a tea pot and two tea cups and she’ll pretend to pour some invisible tea into a cup and drink it. Toooo cute! She also likes playing pretend more in general – she’ll take a bowl and a spoon and pretend to eat from it even if it’s empty.
  • To give kisses and hugs.
  • To walk/run everywhere!! Sometimes she goes too fast for her little feet and falls but she handles falls really well. She just jumps back up and is on her way. When she gets going really fast, she swings her arms forward and backward really enthusiastically. It’s too cute!!
  • To be as independent as possible. She doesn’t like being in the stroller too long because she likes to walk around on her own.
  • To fake cry when she doesn’t get what she wants. I’ve caught her practicing her “cry” face in the mirror a few times. Such a little actress! Good thing she’s adorable. 😉
  • To walk and hold hands. Only for short periods of time because holding hands prevents her from fully exploring.
  • To store her toys or random items in our wine rack. We bought it right before she was born but now it’s completely empty. Not because we drank all the wine but because she’ll pull bottles out and put toys in there. Apparently, it’s her own storage system! It’s pretty hilarious to see when she stashes in there.
  • To dance to the Winnie the Pooh song and to the “Let It Go” song from Frozen.
  • YOGURT!!! She gets so pumped when we’re about to feed it to her.
  • Nana and Daddy’s homemade spaghetti sauces. They both made different ones but she inhaled both! We’ve never seen her eat something as quickly as she did those.
  • Straws. She loves to drink from them and play with them.
  • To walk on her tippy toes. It looks like she’s wearing invisible heels! It’s not like she’s walking on her toes and bouncing around like some people do, it literally looks like she’s pretending to wear heels. Maybe because she sees me wear heels sometimes when I go to work?
  • To play peek-a-boo. She was playing it with us today on our way to the gym. She covers her face and we’ll say “Where’s Claire?” and she’ll lower her hands and say “Peeka!”. I can’t handle how cute she is!!
  • To flip through books.
  • To play with hoses. She likes to pretend to water the plants or the grass (it’s not ever on when she’s playing with it) and sometimes even makes a “shhhh” noise when holding up the hose.
  • To wear her The North Face jacket that Nana got her. Even if it’s not cold at all, she’ll find it and bring it to me to put it on her.
  • To swim in the pool. We have a little floaty for her but she also loves to swim around with us holding her. She gets SO excited when we ask her if she wants to go in the pool.
  • To be outside and play in the dirt. She likes to grab handfuls of dirt and put it in Zoe’s dog bowl.

• Hates:
  • The Nose Frida. She hates it but unfortunately, it’s so effective that we have to use it when she has a stuffy nose.
  • When things are taken away from her or just generally when she doesn’t get what she wants. She’s started growling at us when she gets mad.
• Talents:
  • She’s sort of saying some words now. When she’s done eating, or really tired, or done doing something she waves her hands and says “ahh duh” for “all done”. Tonight, when giving her a bath it totally sounded like she said “I lub ooo” when I said I love you to her. When she’s really excited about a toy or something that she’s doing, we swear she says “this is great!”. We may be imagining these but other people have confirmed that it sounds like words!
  • She gives high fives!
  • CJ taught her how to blow a kiss during dinnertime tonight, my heart melted!
  • When she wants milk, she points to my chest and says “mah, mah”
  • When she wants something, she’ll point to it and says “mamamama” really quickly.
  • She can point to her nose, eyes, ears, hair, and BELLY BUTTON (her favorite) if we ask her to.
• Sleeping:
  • Other than when she was sick last month, she’s been sleeping pretty well. She goes to sleep around 8 and wakes up around 6 every day. Of course, there are exceptions but generally, that’s her schedule. She’s also doing the occasional 1 nap a day but sometimes she’s just too tired to wait long enough to only have one nap.

Wearing her The North Face jacket from Nana and playing with her cupcake purse

• Other Random Facts:
  • She seriously is the happiest little girl! We may be exhausted at the end of every day but thankfully it’s because we’re chasing around a happy little toddler that’s giggling and enjoying exploring everywhere.
  • She had another cold in the last month. Poor girl had a constant runny nose for about a week and she didn’t sleep so well during that time because she was coughing so much. Luckily, it seems to have gone away.
  • She is constantly on a mission. She seems like a little businessperson. So serious and determined. I asked my mom what I was like when I was her age and she said exactly the same as Claire. Like mother, like daughter. 🙂
  • She pretty much eats everything we eat except half of it always ends up on the floor or in her high chair.
  • I’m still nursing although the frequency has gone down to about 2-3 times a day. I’m not producing as much milk so we’re trying to get her used to cow’s milk. We’re trying the method of mixing it in with breastmilk first, which we’ve been successful with the past week (although not before that). It has to be warmed up, she’s not OK with cold yet. If we try to feed her cow’s milk on it’s own, we have to call it “leche” (Spanish for milk) for her to actually swallow it. Otherwise, she takes a sip, makes a sour face like “This is NOT milk” and lets it slowly drip out of her mouth.
  • She’s still rocking a pretty adorable mullet. I think, if anyone can pull it off, it’s her. Some people have asked if we’re going to trim it in the back, to make it less of a mullet, and of course not! She doesn’t have much hair so why would we cut it off? Psh. 🙂

Dirt smudged on her face, hair gently blowing in the wind, playing outside…She’s a happy girl. 🙂

And that’s how Claire has been lately. We love her so much and can’t believe how much of a little person she’s become! We can’t wait to see what she will be like in another month.

Where has our little baby gone?!?! Every day passes by and we are seeing less of our baby girl and more of our little toddler. I guess I said that last month too but it’s becoming more true! This is such a fun age though it’s definitely bittersweet. We miss the days when she was tiny and snuggly but love her playfulness, her spunk, and her sense of humor.

Headband from Char Bear Bowtique on Etsy.

Here’s a rundown of our 14 month old Claire:

• Weight: Maybe around 20 pounds? I really wish we bought one of those baby scales! She seems a lot taller this month.
• Loves:
  • Running around everywhere!! Sometimes she tries to go faster than her feet will allow.
  • Taking Zoe for walks around the house.
  • To give hugs. When she doesn’t want to be put down, she’ll hold tight onto our neck. She also will grab around our neck and hang there if she wants to be picked up.
  • To say “dada”. It’s her favorite word.
  • Her Papa (my dad). Without fail, her face lights up every time he enters the room.
  • To flip the pages of a book that we’re reading to her.
  • To clean. Whenever she sees me with the broom, she takes it and starts “sweeping” all over the house. I can’t handle the cuteness! Also, if she sees stuff on the floor, she will try to put it away. The other day, some of our mail blew onto the floor and she grabbed all of it and placed it on one of the kitchen chairs. Another example of cleaning, she had so much fun feeding Zoe and Izzy (my parent’s dog and Zoe’s littermate) in the cabin. She would fill up a bowl of food and carry it over to them for them to eat and then repeat. A couple times, she knocked the bowl over and she stopped to pick up every kernel and put it back in the bowl. It was amazing!
  • To pet the dogs.
  • To feed herself with a spoon. It’s a bit messy but she gets so proud of herself!
  • Her Camelbak water bottle. I have one that she loves to take and drink from all the time so we bought one for her. Well, first we tried to buy a sippy cup that looked like a Camelbak but that wasn’t good enough for her. She wanted the real deal. 🙂
  • To sleep with her blue teddy bear (pictured in the first photo of this post) and her Winnie the Pooh bear. When she wakes up, she stands at the side of the crib holding her blue bear. It’s sooo sweet.
  • To wave.
  • To give kisses.
  • To dance to “Hot Dog” (a Mickey Mouse Playhouse song) and the “Winnie the Pooh” song. She also enjoys dancing to certain country songs!
  • Remote controls! We got her a toy one but, again, she prefers the real deal.
  • To share. Her toys, her food, pretty much anything.
• Hates:
  • Diaper changes, with a passion.
  • When things are taken away from her; she’s mastered the meltdown.
• Talents:
  • She shakes her head “no” when she doesn’t want something. It’s SO great to get feedback from her on what she wants.
  • She is very talented at fake crying when she’s trying to get her way. Maybe she’ll be an actress!? When we call her out on it, most of the time she stops and moves on with her day. Good thing she’s extremely adorable when she does it.
  • She understands us when we ask her to do something – for instance, asking her to put something away or get her teddy bear or give Zoe a hug.
  • A few times, we think we’ve heard her say words and phrases like, “I want that”, “No”, and “Yes”. We’re always so surprised when she does it!
• Sleeping:
  • 4 of the last 7 days have had only one nap. She kind of goes back and forth to needing one long nap and two not-as-long naps (but definitely not short). We’ll see how that pans out over the next few weeks.
  • As far as sleeping through the night, she’s doing better. There are some outliers where she doesn’t sleep well but that’s become the exception, thankfully!

• Other Random Facts:
  • She has a little bit of a mullet going on. Not intentionally… her hair just seems to be very keen on growing in the back but not so into filling in on the top or sides.
  • I’m still breastfeeding. When I’m about to nurse her and she’s really excited for it, she does this sort of laugh/cry. It’s so cute, I wish I could videotape it. My initial goal was to breastfeed until she was 12 months old but she still really seems to enjoy it and I love the bonding time so we’re playing it by ear. I don’t have a plan on when I will stop at this point.
  • She got her molars in over the last month or so. It’s so weird to see them in the back of her mouth because they’re so huge! She now has 12 teeth!
  • When she’s done eating, she likes to throw all remaining food on the ground (presumably, for Zoe to eat, since she always lays under her high chair).

She is sooo much fun and is fully of energy! We’re dead tired at the end of every day and have no idea how she has so much energy for such a little person. Then again, she does get to nap in the middle of the day. 😉