Monday, April 30, 2012

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the beginning of the birthday month!  Weehaw!  (Claire’s pronunciation of Yeehaw!)

To celebrate, here is a video of Claire singing “Tomorrow” from the movie Annie.

(The video is a little bumpy because I kept laughing.  Claire usually watches her movies with her headphones on.  However, lately she’s been singing with this movie, which was a favorite of mine as a child; so I just had to turn the audio on in the car.  I LOVE hearing her sing!  She makes my heart so happy!  Joy unspeakable!  And laughter uncontainable!  I LOVE THIS GIRL!!!)

Starting tomorrow, there will be a post everyday for the next month because Claire will be receiving a gift a day for the month of May.  There may a few days that I will not post due to travel, but I will post as soon as I am able and will catch you up on anything you might have missed.

I am SO excited!!!  “Tomorrow.  Tomorrow.  I love you, tomorrow!  You’re only a day away!”

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Just Two More Days!!

There are just two more days left in April, and then the birthday month begins!!  Wahoo!

This week holds some very exciting events for our family!  I can hardly wait!  Until then, here are a few more funny things my girl has been saying lately.

Anytime that things go her way, she says, “My dreams come true!”  (This line comes from her Cinderella book.)  I love that it is so easy to make her dreams come true!  This line will pop up from something as easy as getting to wear one of her favorite dresses or eating tacos.  She really knows how to melt my heart!

“Oh!  I get it.”  - her response to having learned something new.

She is fascinated with relationships these days.  She has figured out that MiMi is my mom and that PopPop is my dad.  When we FaceTime with them, she now says, “Mommy, there’s your mom and dad.”  She is also trying to figure out sibling relationships and has decided to start with MiMi and Aunt Fran.  It cracks me up when we’re driving somewhere and out of nowhere she pipes up from the backseat with, “Mommy, who is your mom’s brother?”  I explain that my mom has no brothers, but she has a sister.  “Who?”  I explain that Aunt Fran is MiMi’s sister.  “Oh!  I get it.”

The most difficult thing Steve and I have encountered while parenting is discipline.  Claire has such a sensitive spirit, and up until recently could be disciplined with our words or, in extreme cases, time out.  However, lately, she has started tuning us out.  So Steve and I made some absolute rules.  If you do ____, you get a spanking.  She has been spanked a couple of times for said infraction.  However, the other day when she did ____, Steve gave her a swat on the hiney.  Rather than cry, she just looked at him and calmly asked, “Was that a spanking?”  Clearly we are going to have to come up with something else that works for her.

Earlier this week Claire came up to me and said, “Mommy, we match.”  I looked at her, and I looked at what I was wearing.  We did not match at all.  I asked, “We do?”  She said, “Yes.  We both have a face.”  Yep, I guess we do match after all.

Everyday when Steve gets home from work, she asks, “So… how’s your day?”  He will answer her and then ask her about her day.  Her response is always, “My day is good!”

Almost as soon as we get into the car, Claire has started asking, “Are we there yet?”  I blame Ian on the show Olivia.  In one episode, he did this, and his parents laughed and said that they hadn’t even left the driveway yet.  Claire thought it was funny and asks me that dreadful question almost every time that we get into the car.

The last time MiMi and PopPop were here, we took Claire to The Disney Store for the special showing of “Tangled Ever After.”  On the way home, Claire wanted to play princess in the car.  She announced, “I’ll be the princess.  Daddy, you be the prince.  PopPop, you be the horse!”

Claire loves to entertain.  She will do or say almost anything for a laugh and will repeat it for as many laughs as she can get.  If she doesn’t get an immediate laugh, she asks, “Is that funny?”  If you say yes, she’ll do it again.  I love my silly girl!

And my favorite story is also one of my least favorite stories of the week.  Steve was out of town working, and I had put Claire to bed and was feeding Cale.  I heard Claire cry and waited for her to come get me.  (Occasionally she will have a bad dream and wake up upset.  I assumed this was the case.)  When she rounded the corner, she was shaking all over and couldn’t catch her breath.  I asked what was wrong, but she couldn’t tell me.  I set Cale down and picked her up.  She said her head hurt and then started vomiting.  Once I got her calmed down, she told me that she had fallen out of bed and had hit her head on the bed rail.  I was very upset and decided to keep her up to make sure that she didn’t have a concussion.  I gave her some Advil and an ice pack to help with the headache, and then I covered her with a blanket and laid her on the couch while I put Cale to bed.  When I came back, I heard her praying, “Thank you, God, for Mommy and Daddy and Cale and for making me all better.”  I walked over and kissed her forehead.  I asked her if she needed anything.  She said, “No thanks, Mommy.  I’m all better, in Jesus’ Name!”  Wow!  She makes my heart happy!  I am so glad that my daughter knows to pray when she doesn’t feel well and that she takes God at His Word and believes that she receives when she prays!  (It turns out that falling out of bed had just scared her.  When Claire gets upset, she can work herself into a real frenzy.  It’s not the first time that she’s thrown up when she’s upset, but it’s the first time that she’s been upset from an “injury” and thrown up, which scared the pink willies out of me.  She spent the night in my bed, and all was well in the morning.)

Claire loves to have her picture taken.  We can be anywhere doing anything, and Claire will ask to have her picture taken.  Today, we went out to lunch.  There was a fountain in front of the restaurant, and Claire walked over to it and said, “Take my picture!”  I dutifully grabbed my phone and took the princess’ picture.photo

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

One Week and Counting!…

I am so very excited about the upcoming celebrations!  This is going to be the very best birthday ever!

To hold you over until the partying begins, here are a few more details about my girl.photo6

Oh the things she says!

Claire was playing with Cale on the floor.  She looked up at me and said, “Oh, Mom!  He’s SO cute!  Can we keep him?  Please?  Please?!”  She had the cutest little pleading face and folded hands as she begged me to let her keep her brother.  I, of course, conceded.

Anytime that she is telling a story, and even sometimes when she’s not actually telling a full story, she says “becuz” in every single sentence.  She even tries to start sentences with “becuz.”  She may even have a chain of 15-20 “becuzes” in a single point.  Whatever she says after the “becuz” may or may not have anything to do with what came before the “becuz.”

She loves to bow and address me as “Your Highness.”  I did not teach her this.  I think she’s been watching a few too many princess movies.

She has learned to speak “Texan.”  My daughter has a giant vocabulary and pronounces most words very clearly – or at least she did before she learned “Texan.”  Before, Claire would say, “I want you,” when she wanted to be held or cuddled.  Now she says, “I-wan-cha.”  (It sounds like one word.)

She is extremely affectionate and will often hug and kiss me while saying any or several of the following:  “I love you!”  “I’m so glad you’re my mom!”  “I’m glad you’re my girl!”  “You’re my favorite!”  “You make me so happy!”  “You’re my best friend!”

Oh the things she loves to do!  She loves tea parties.photo9She loves to twirl like a princess.  She loves to dance.  She loves to sing.  She loves to swim.photo10photo1 She loves to play at the park.  She loves to ride her bike.  She loves to snuggle – especially while watching movies and eating “popcorns.”photo8She loves to color.  She loves to read books.photo7She loves to put puzzles together.  She loves to play games.  She loves playing with her stuffed animals and dolls.  She loves playing the role of mommy.  She loves playing with her brother.  She loves going to church and learning about Jesus.  She loves making friends.

Claire is getting so excited about her birthday!  We are too!  We love our girl!!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Two Weeks to Go!!

Claire’s birthday month begins just two weeks from today!  I can hardly wait!  I am SO excited this year!!  We have a lot of stuff planned for the birthday month, so check back often during the month of May to see what we’re up to in celebration of our girl!039

Since I haven’t updated Claire’s blog since her last birthday, I thought I’d fill you in on some of what she’s been up to in the last year.

Claire has started reading and is doing great!  She knows her alphabet.  She can count to 20 alone, higher if we’re counting together.  She knows all of her colors.  She also knows all of the shapes, including hexagon, pentagon, octagon, oval, etc.  She has started drawing pictures, especially faces.  And she can write several capital letters.

She loves to sing.  The songs she likes to sing almost daily are The Alphabet Song

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Jingle Bells

She also sings Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Jesus Loves Me.

Claire is also becoming a very good swimmer.  Her skills are constantly improving, especially since she is now swimming at least two days a week.  She did so good tonight!  I will try to get a video later this week.

Claire’s interests are becoming more varied as well.  She still LOVES Minnie Mouse.  However, her latest craze is The Muppets, especially Miss Piggy. She also loves Olivia and insists that we watch her everyday,Tinker Bell and all of the Disney princesses.

Claire is getting tall and is wearing size 3T and 4T clothes (mostly 4T) and size 9 shoes.

Claire is very girly and loves dresses and jewelry and having her hair and nails done.  She also loves wearing my makeup.  She loves dancing and loves to twirl.

She has also started telling jokes.  It’s actually funnier when she tells them wrong.  Her current favorite joke is:  “Knock.  Knock.” - “Who’s there?” - “Banana” - “Banana who?” - “Knock.  Knock.” - “Who’s there?” - “Banana” - “Banana who?” – “Knock.  Knock.” - “Who’s there?” - “Orange” - “Orange who?” - “Orange you glad I didn’t say ‘banana’ again?”

Claire loves having tea parties and riding her tricycle (which she can ride for a mile by herself) and playing at the park.

She loves being a big sister and taking care of her brother.  She is so proud of him.  And she is so very sweet!

We are so looking forward to the birthday month!  Stay tuned for more updates!