and the little one said: roll over, roll over

well, i wish i could say that laura is rolling over regularly. she is not. i suppose she will when she is ready. she is certainly hitting all of the other development milestones, so i am not too concerned. she loves to sit up and watch claire do silly things to make her laugh.

who is rolling over these days is claire. last night, she learned to do somersaults all by herself. i think tumbling class has been an inspiration for her. the funny thing is that she hasn't even had to do a forward somersault yet in class - september was backwards month, so she learned to do a backwards somersault. anyway, she is quite pleased she can do it "all by myself!"

claire is also a spelling maniac. well, she likes to read all the letters on every sign, if that counts as spelling. the other day we were on a family walk and claire runs up to a sign in our neighborhood. "R-I-V-E-R G-R-E-E-N. BIG N-E-W H-O-M-E-S." she was just so pleased with herself (as were we!). we then had to stop at every sign on the way back to read the letters. her other new favorite activity is "spelling on mommy's computer". i open a word document, she tells me the word she wants to spell, i tell her each letter, and she finds them on the keyboard. it's amazing to watch these little minds just explode. what a treat.

last little story from luz - our awesome nanny: "Hi Lynn, I was with Claire out on the deck for a while because were looking at green lizards, very pretty. I asked Claire what they were and she said "a little little baby alligator" and I had her carried the whole time because she was scared of the little alligator. Can you believe that?" My reply: "that's very funny - especially because she kept asking to see the baby alligator. silly girl."

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a few of my favorite things

claire: baby laura, froggy and mookie, jigsaw puzzles (up to 24 pieces), singing the abcs and other songs, ring around the rosie, reading in bed with mommy and daddy, miss luzma, horton hears a who, bouncing, the tigger song, winnie the pooh, drawing (see pic), making coffee, "i do it myself" peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, NOW!, caillou, kayla and rooster, and kisses from mommy and daddy.


laura: claire, laughing, sitting up straight and tall but not rolling over, anything within a 2 foot reach, mookie, the aquarium mobile, the bumbo, any food except puffs, daddy's smiles, mommy, miss luzma, being thrown into the air, belly raspberries, kayla fresh air, tv - it doesn't matter what's on, the computer and especially the keyboard.

and for both girls, auntie nancy is an absolute favorite. check out this video of the girls having a blast with auntie nancy.

the girls are growing up so incredibly fast. it is hard to believe that claire is now 2 1/2 years old and laura is 7 months old. they are absolute joys and we are so blessed.

long overdue

sorry, folks. i know i have been promising to post pictures for weeks. well, i finally got to it. i have added a few pictures to this album and also created another maine album and some pictures of laura. we had her 6 month pictures taken on saturday, so we can't wait to see how they turn out. will share when we get them.
laura is still not rolling over, but she is sitting up fairly well these days. a tip-over here and there. she thinks claire is the funniest person in the world and when she sees her daddy smile, she just lights up as well.
claire has started drawing people - circle with two eyes and a mouth and hair and legs. i will have to try and capture one of her drawings on camera and post. she is also the jigsaw puzzle queen (like her grammy). she can do 12-24 piece puzzles now. it is amazing how quickly kids learn.
in other news, we hired the most amazing part-time nanny. luz is colombian and so perfect. we hope it is the start of a long-term relationship. well, it's 5am. i will post more details about the past few weeks sometime tomorrow. in the meantime, enjoy the new pics.