Guess who's 3?

On Saturday we had a birthday party for our big girl. There were about 13 kids and even more parents at the bounce house (like we want to clean up our house after a party). Sufficed to say both girls had a great time. Luzma and Nikki came and while they were not required to watch Laura, they did and we love them (regardless). Anyway, Claire hauled off a ton of toys - we don't need anymore toys. Photos of the day can be seen here. On Sunday we tried 4 way skyping with Grammy/Grampy, uncle Paul/aunt Taya, Lola, and uncle Larry. The experiment was only moderately successful as at times various people were dropped.

Today Claire had her 3 year doctor's appointment. 38" (74%) and 30lbs (43%). So like her little sister and mom, she is tall and skinny. Not surprising considering how little she eats. Potty training continues to go quite well. We are not quite at the stage where we can leave the house without a diaper for her. But she sees it as a game and likes it when we are excited for her. Note to self: buy more jelly beans.

Unfrotunately I am in Washington, DC for a couple of days, so I will miss my girls, as you do no doubt.

Not much new...

Since the last post, Laura has started standing on her own, even taking a couple of steps, but is not quite ready to start walking regularly. Her first words are "What's that?" as she points to something. She is such a darling. She loves to snuggle with mom, and big sister can always be counted on to get Laura laughing.

Laura continues to eat like a horse, easily eating twice as much as Claire. Her 1 year stats are: height 30.5" (84%), 18.9 lbs (16%) and 16% for head size. So basically she is tall and skinny. We had her first year photos done this week, I will post them when we get them. We had to go twice, because someone didn't nap the first time and was miserable.

Claire continues to develop and grow. She is going to be a great role model for Laura. FINALLY, she is starting to use the potty. No accidents in the last two days. She is also starting to come out of her shell and is interacting more with kids in the neighborhood. On Saturday we are having Claire's birthday party at the bounce house. It is all she can talk about, "and don't forget my birthday cake"! There will be about 10 of her friends there as well. I'll post photos from that event as well.

Claire is becoming fluent in Spanish, according to our wonderful nanny. Luzma says she only speaks Spanish to Claire and Claire responds in Spanish. When we speak to her in Spanish, Claire barks like a dog, woof, woof. I didn't think our accents were that bad.

I've started using a CPAP machine, like my mom, and my brother will soon join us. Admittedly I am less tired during the day, but there is one annoying side-effect. I wake up every morning feeling like the Michelin Man, completely bloated with air. 30 minutes of blurbing and passing gas, and blaming Claire, I am back to normal. "Claire did you just fart?", [Claire laughing] "No Daddy, that was you" .

Well, I will try to get back on track with the posting.

updates...

Yes, it has been a while since the last posting. Life has been hectic, so here is an update. While it is still some time until hurricane season officially starts (May 1), tropical storm Laura is in full force. She is crawling like nobody's business. And fast too. You can't turn you back on her, which I did for about 30 seconds last weekend and found her on the third step, working her way to the top. My heart stopped for a moment, then I remembered she grabs light bulbs from the night light while they are on and doesn't wince. While she has mastered crawling, she is starting to prefer assisted walking, grabbing on to my fingers and walking. I give her two weeks and she will start taking a couple of steps on her own. Next monday my little valentine turns 1 year. Hard to believe. Uncle Larry is coming for a visit this weekend to help us celebrate.

Claire continues to grow and push boundaries. Fortunately (the threat of) time-out is still an effective deterent. This morning Lynn, Laura and I were having breakfast and Claire gets out of bed and comes down the stairs and says good morning. She is not allowed to get out of bed on her own, nor come down the stairs on her own. Stinker. Her understanding of Spanish increases each day with Luzma, who speaks mainly Spanish to her. I am so jealous.

Lynn and Kim spent last weekend in NYC for a girls weekend. I had my own version of girl's weekend at home. I am lucky they are pretty good kids. Here is a short video of them playing.

Cabin Fever

Well, we survived 4 snow days, in which work was closed, Admittedly Lynn and I were going a little crazy. Luzma finally came on Friday and the girls were excited to see her. She took them to her house, where they spent the day playing and painting.

On Friday, Lynn had Lasik surgery. After a 2 hour wait in the waiting room, Lynn said the actual procedure took less than 40 seconds. But she now has 20/20 vision without any corrective lenses! On saturday she went back for a check up and the doctor said everything looks great. In the afternoon we headed up to Blue Ridge, GA to a cabin with some friends, Beth and PJ (and kids 4 and 2yrs). Claire had fun, as did Laura. Claire the Taylor and Will wanted to have a sleep over, but that quickly didn't work out and we ended up separating the kids so they could get some sleep.

All in all, it was a fun time. Even my beautiful younger daughter had fun. Check Laura out and the rest of the gang here.

Snow day #2!!!

Today was snow day #2 and Claire was eager to build that snowman. Although it had warmed up, the snow wasn't cooperating. There was a 0.5 inch layer of ice on top of the snow, so we couldn't roll snowballs to make a proper snow man. Nevertheless we played outside while mom shoveled the driveway and Laura watched from the sidelines. Needless to say it didn't take long for Laura to get bored.

I took Laura in for lunch and mom and Claire went next door to go sledding with Billy and Bill. They had a great time. After the girls went down for a nap, Magen and her dad stopped by with some groceries for us. We haven't left the neighborhood since last Friday and we were running out of milk for Claire.

Immediately following Claire's (and my) afternoon nap (hey, it's a snow day) Claire wanted to go sledding with Billy. Billy couldn't join us so Claire and I spent 30 minutes on our neighbor's trampoline. The picture on the left is from yesterday and you can see the results of this sled run here. There were no injuries.

Tomorrow is snow day #3 and admittedly Lynn and I are looking forward to school opening, which may be next Monday

Snow day!!!!

Last night we received about 4-5 inches of snow. Claire and I were excited because in the morning we headed outside to make a gigantic snowman - much larger than the one we made on Christmas. Unfortunately, it was the wrong kind of snow. It didn't pack very well and was too fluffy.

After Claire's (and my) afternoon nap, we went back outside in hopes that the snow composition had changed. But it still wasn't the right type for making a snowman. We saw about 6 neighbors tobogganning down the cul-de-sac and we gave it a try. After two runs, Claire had enough and wanted to go on our neighbor's trampoline. By now there were about 15 people outside and one neighbor started a fire pit and a few others brought beer. Even Lynn and Laura joined in. We brought the girls inside after an hour or so to avoid frost bite, but all in all we had a good time.

Tomorrow has also been declared a snow day. Maybe Claire and I will get to make that snowman after all.

It was only a matter of time...

Check out what our younger daughter can now do.

Swiper's range has increased. I guess we will be kid proofing the house this weekend.

In other news, we came home yesterday to Claire excitedly proclaiming, "I went pee pee on the potty!" Yes, our awesome nanny, Luzma, has started toilet training Claire. I can't wait until we have only one child in diapers.