Claire turned 2

Claire's birthday began with her getting her birthday present from Kevin and me (kevin and i?  me and kevin?).  We got her a very cute dollhouse.  It's a "green" dollhouse, actually.  It has a rain retention system, wind turbine, recycling center, and most importantly, a solar panel on the roof.  The solar panel is what sold me on the dollhouse....I just had to get it.  She pretty much took apart every piece that wasn't screwed in and used the long rod-like pieces as drum sticks.  I figure she'll get the concept of the dollhouse soon enough.

We had a 10:10am doctor appointment for her 2-year well visit.  I don't know why I take them to the doctor on their actually birthday - it doesn't seem fair that they get shots on their special day....but it is what it is.   She is doing extremely well, as far as the doctor is concerned.  She's 32.5" long (20%) and weighs 23lb-10oz (15%).  Her head is the largest % surprisingly, measuring in the 40% at 18.5". 

I spent Claire's entire nap and the hours leading up to dinner making her birthday cake.  A delicious (if I do say so myself) 6-layer rainbow cake with homemade Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream icing.  For the life of me I couldn't get the icing to the right consistency, but the taste was there.

A few days before her birthday we celebrated with friends and family at our local Gymboree.  It was a very nice time and Claire seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself!

Other miscellaneous facts about Claire:

Claire is finally getting her K9 teeth....all 4 at once, poor thing.

She's talking up a storm.  The doc asked if she's putting 2 words together yet - HA.  She recently put 5 words together.. "I.  Don't.  Want.  To.  Nap".   She does lots of 3 words: "sweet dreams mommy", "come on mommy", etc.

She got her first haircut the other day.  I didn't want to do it - but it needed to be done.  She's had a mullet ever since her hair first started to grow in but it recently started to turn into a tail in the back.  I draw the line at mullet.  So i cut an inch or two off the very back just to even things out a bit.  It's still a nappy mess most of the time and her bangs are still in her eyes, but the tail is gone and the mullet is gone (or less apparent).....we're moving forward (or backward, generationally - we got rid of the '80s mullet and the '90s tail, but now she's got a '70s Farah Fawcett thing going).

Another huge change we've seen in her recently is her willingness to eat fruits and vegetables!!  Her fruits don't go far beyond apples, but she eats a whole array of different vegetables now.  It's done wonders for the tummy issues she'd been having.

She loves music. She loves singing Twinkle Twinkle, ABC's, and If You're Happy and You Know It.  She has recently gotten very interested in the alphabet, colors and numbers. 

I'm sure there's a hundred more things I could go on and on about, but this is it for now.

mild winter = playground!

Dr. Seuss

Just yesterday Kevin took the kids, very last minute, up to our Target for some Dr. Seuss event they were having.  They gave each kid a goodie bag (reusable shopping bag type) filled with stickers, crayons, snacks, etc).  There was a woman reading stories, as well as a nice sale on all Dr. Seuss books.  Kevin let Trent and Claire each pick out one book.  Trent went with One Fish Two Fish and Claire chose Fox in Socks.

Afterward, they went to the children's play area that is right outside of Target in the mall.  There, coincidentally, was another event of some sort.  They had a magician, balloon animals, the Chik-Fil-A cow, etc.  We learned that Claire is still afraid of characters (afraid may not be the correct word).  She wouldn't go near the big cow, but she liked it from a distance and she talking about it later in the day (just like with the Disney characters).

skatez

The other day my brother met us at the skating rink for "tot skate".  It was Claires first time donning a pair and it had been a full year since Trent's last time, so we had our hands full.  Claire surprisingly took to the skates right away and would giggle everytime her little legs wobbled.  I say surprisingly mostly because she was in a bad mood (thank you constipation).  Trent's reaction was the same as it was a year ago - he was ok with the skates but didn't want to wear them all that long.  We skated, played, ran around, ate a cookie, skated some more, then left.  Uncle Mike even put some skates on to help coax the kids a bit.

angry:happy

Hey kids, show me your angry face

Now show me your happy face

I'm honestly not sure if this is his angry or happy face - he's either cheesin' really hard or straining to do an angry face.

Happy Halloween 2011

The Halloween festivities began for us on October 21st.  The four of us got all dressed up to attend a party across the street that our neighbor was throwing for her almost-four year old grandson.  We ate pizza, painted pumpkins, did crafts, ate candy, and played a couple games.  Here are a couple pictures of us getting ready, and us at the party:

(click on photos to see larger)

she wasn't thrilled

with the help of food, she came around

big phanatic helping small phanatic

After the kid party, we walked back home to meet my parents who where babysitting that night so Kevin and I could go to an adult costume party.

On October 22nd we took the kids to White Clay Creek State Park for a pre-planned hayride and bonfire with friends from The Moms Group.

he wanted to bring his tractor and wagon thing

On October 27th we had a Halloween party for the kids in the Moms Group.

 Events for October 29th got canceled due to weather (SNOW!)

At some point we let the kids paint mini pumpkins.  They really enjoyed it!!
 (check back for the photo)

On October 30th we went to the Main Street Halloween Parade.  This was our fourth year walking to the event from our neighborhood (I say neighborhood instead of house because some years we walk from our house, but other years [this year] we drove to the beginning of our neighborhood and walked from there.  We did this because it was a little chilly and because we knew we'd have a hard time finding parking if we got any closer). 

somehow Kevin got stuck holding both...

...and i pulled an empty wagon. what the heck

After the parade we went home and carved pumpkins

Trent insisted on a Thomas pumpkin.  I chose a simple pumpkin face for me and Claire

The Grand Finale: Trick or Treating on Halloween night!

still hates it

first house = major score

home from trick-or-treating!