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!

Rhode Island Weekend

This weekend we took Claire to Rhode Island for Lynn's cousin Ken's wedding. Claire was pretty good for the flight. She got to meet her second cousin, Alex for the first time, along with great uncle Joe and aunt Kathy, and cousins Ken and Sherri (newlyweds), Julie and Joe (Alex's parents). Of course, grammy and grampy were there along with Uncle Larry and Auntie Char. While Claire was sleeping for the rehearsal dinner and wedding reception, she did get to go to the wedding, albeit viewed from the crying room - we didn't want her to overshadow the bride!.

Sunday morning we found out the our flight back home was canceled. Lynn talked Delta into putting us on another flight in first class. when we got to the airport to check in, Delta gave us $200 for our troubles as well. We got home by 6:30pm and Claire went to sleep without a peep. Around 7:30pm, Lynn kicked her suitcase (accidentally) and broke her toe. We spent the next 2 hours at the hospital. Our neighbor Nick (of Nick and Kristi fame), who had been baby sitting Kayla all weekend at his house, got to babysit Claire tonight. Anyway, here are some photos from Claire's adventure in Rhode Island.

Doctors and Dancing

Today we took Claire in for her 15 month tune up. Everything looked fine under the hood. She is almost 22 lbs and 30.1 inches in height, which places her in the 25th - 50th percentile for height and weight. She also got 3 needles and cried like a baby (but only for a little bit - brave girl!). Trust me, it was more painful for me to watch.

We are busy reading books to Claire everyday. Usually the same 8 or 9 books. So if you feel like sending us a new book to read. please do so - just not Goodnight Moon. Anyway, below are a couple of videos, showing our first dance with Claire, which will no doubt be a hit at her wedding in 30 some odd years from now.

Dances with Dad

Dances with Mom

New Parenting Technique

The other day after dinner, we took Claire upstairs to the media room to let her run around and burn off some energy before bed. Lynn and I end up falling asleep on the couch, only to be awoken on occasion by Claire sticking her face in ours and saying loudly, "Hi!". I am not sure how long we were sleeping, but fortunately the gate to the media room was locked, so she couldn't get too far. We had a good chuckle over that incident.

Today was hot again, so off to the pool we went to work on undoing Claire's farmer's tan. She is getting so brave, walking in waist-deep water. She'll be swimming by the end of summer. Here are more photos from today.