Wonderful Week

As an educator, this week was incredible, as Claire's vocabulary grew by leaps and bounds. Both in terms of her comprehension and her speech. I can hold a short conversation with her; granted the topics are limited and the diction is low, but it's just like teaching students at my job. Please, play, bubbles, ball, and froggy are some of the new words the bear learned this week.

Now that a bunch of her teeth came in last week (4 molars!), she is doing much better. She still is a momma's girl though, preferring mom over anyone else - just try and pick her up when mom is present. Today we flew to Syracuse via JFK and Claire was awesome on the flight, sitting (and sleeping) in mom's lap. She also has learned to climb up on the sofa. She is growing up so quick. Tonight, uncle Larry is over and we are watching Finding Nemo for the millionth time, while mom tries to clip the bear's toe nails - good times.

Beach baby? Not!

This week we are off to Maine for our annual vacation. If you recall last year, we missed the last flight of the day and the airline put us up for the night at a “hotel” near the airport. The last flight of the day is the cheapest flight and we got tickets on that flight again. But this year, Lynn called first thing in the morning and got us on the first flight of the day. Not only that, but she managed to get herself and Claire upgraded to first… and left me behind in coach. I see a pattern emerging.

Anyway, last year when we were here, Claire couldn’t even roll over. Now she is running and dancing everywhere. Except for the beach!!! For whatever reason she is scared of the sand. She cries when she gets sand on her hands and looks to Lynn to clean them for her. We got some photos to prove it.

Claire got to meet her newest cousin Brennan (Mark and Erin’s newest addition) who is 7 months old. Claire exclaimed “Baby!” when she first saw Brennan. Overall Claire is the center of addition and loving it here. We will continue to work on the sand thing.

Dancing Bear

We're leaving for Maine on Saturday, but first here is a video of Claire dancing and singing in the living room. Too cute not to pass along. A definite keeper for her wedding (in at least 30 years). It's a long video - no need to watch after 6:00 minutes.

Good times in Canada

Last week we flew to Seattle, enroute to Kamloops for my brother's wedding. Claire did well on the plane (sitting in first class no less). We spent a couple of days in Seatte with our friends Andy and Keely as Claire adjusted to a new time zone. We rented a car that was so stripped down, we were lucky that it had tires. We had to use our feet for brakes a la Fred Flintstone.

Anyway we drove to Kamloops and Claire got to meet some of her cousins for the first time (Sammy and Alex in the picture). My mom's sisters were also in town from various points across the globe and naturally took to Claire. Claire also met her cousin Sophie from LA. Claire was in the wedding party and looked great in her dress, but not a beautiful as Taya (it was her day after all!). She partied with everyone at the reception, until she crashed around 10pm. I am sure we'll have fun getting her back on her normal schedule. Anyway, congratulations to Paul and Taya.

We next drove to Maple Ridge to visit with our friends Andy and Jen and their kids Brendan and Kieran. We spent the day playing in the park and watching Monsters, Inc. Here are some more photos from our awesome trip. Next up, Maine!