August 2009

Hi Everybody! This is Claire--I'm the happiest little redhead around. I wanted to write a little bit before my mama started that thing she calls blogging. A lot has been happening this month. My mouth has hurt really bad. Sometimes I wake up at night and can't sleep so my mama comes in and holds me. There are these pokey things all over my gums. My mama calls them my molars, but the good thing about them is that I can eat a lot faster now!

My mama and dada let me watch a tv show with them now and it is called Wonder Pets. I love it...the song makes me giggle and I like to learn about teamwork and all of the baby animals and their habitats. I love to learn and read books. I listen to everything and everyone seems surprised when I talk to them. I have a lot to say if they could just understand me half the time.

The other day my mama came home with this bright pink potty. She's started talking to me about my potty habits. I thought this stuff was suppose to be private and now she wants me to announce if I poo pooed in my pants. Not gonna happen. No way.

My dada taught me a new word this month that I love to say, but my mama gets a little grumpy when I do...I don't understand. The word is 'mine' and he told me to say it & then pull something away from someone else when I say it. I think it is fun but it makes my mama frown. I have learned this is not a good thing & something I try to avoid. But 'mine' is such a great word...I consider this my great debate of August.

My mama is always posting pictures of me on here without any imput from me. So below are two pictures that I got to pick out. I hope you like them. In one of them I still have some milk on my chin. I love my milk and if I had my say, I'd always have a little milk on my chin.

It's time for night night.
Love,
Claire

Hello friends!!

Our family has had a great month of August! We have spent a lot of time outside playing, taking walks and at the park. Claire has grown so tall and her vocabulary has developed even further this month. She can climb up on chairs and onto the couch all by herself. She is very independent & still constantly is moving.

Mama & Claire after work last week playing & hanging out

Claire 'lounging' in the rocker downstairs

At the end of July, Claire & I drove to Lexington for cousin Quinn's 3rd birthday party. We had such a fun weekend celebrating with Quinn and Claire just loves him. Quinn kept saying that baby Claire is his best friend...it was adorable. It was so nice spending time with family and being in Lexington again after all of this time. Stacy drove us through the horse farm she is working out of now which was just gorgeous. Then when mom & I drove back to Ohio for the evening, we met my dad & took Claire to Young's Jersey Dairy for the first time. She LOVED feeding the goats and walking through the cow barn. My parents got a kick out of it & it was special sharing a treasured memory of my childhood with my sweet daughter. And the ice cream was as delicious as I remembered!

Claire & Quinn taking a 'green bath' together during our visit to Kentucky

At the beginning of the August, we went to the Ingham County fair with the Girth family when Aunt Amanda was in town. We rode the carousel with Claire and Aunt Amanda took her in the petting zoo. We sampled the best of fair food & overall had a great afternoon at Claire's first fair experience. She loved the animals and making the animal noises. We all loved the 4-H animals and wish we could have mini-farms so we could have our own pigs and cows in our yards! Perhaps we'll add a bunny or a pot-bellied pig to the mix in a year or two...

Our favorite part of the fair

Claire & Grandad at the fair

Claire & Dada at the fair

Claire & Aunt Amanda at the petting zoo with the pigs

Josh's firm, Flintoff & Klein hosted a night out at the Lansing Lugnuts game for all of their employees & we really enjoyed going to the game. Claire liked sitting in the seat by herself and thought it was fun to say hi and wave to all of the people seated around us. She was VERY interested in the junk food...I think she might take after her mom :) We spent most of our time at the game running around the concessions area because Claire can't stay in one place for too long.

Claire & I have enjoyed walking down to DeWitt's farmer's market on Tuesday nights. This week we bought all of our produce for dinners from the the market. Claire loves green beans, corn on the cob, cucumbers, strawberries, & blueberries especially! DeWitt opened a new park downtown that has baby swings and a nice big play area that Claire enjoys. Last night we went to the park & the Ox Roast with our friends & neighbors the Takagishi's and Claire had fun playing with Maddy. She went down the slide for the first time & then saw Maddy go down the swirly slide & climbed right up & went down the swirly slide too! I was so proud of her--what a big girl! She and Maddy rode the carousel together too...since the pole was duct-taped together, I held on REALLY tight. It was a nice time with our friends.

Claire had her 15 month checkup with Dr. Josh yesterday--Claire is as healthy and perfect as can be. I was so proud of her! She is 30 inches tall and 18lbs! That is the 49th percentile in heighth & 1st percentile in weight...she's tall & skinny. She did not like Dr. Josh examining her because she had to stay still for too long. She HATED getting her shots, but she calmed down very fast and has been fine since.

Claire saying 'Hi' to the other kids at the doctor's office

Claire in the waiting room at the doctor's office

Josh is playing a lot of softball this month...he is playing in the State tournament this weekend and I just got word that his team won! They are officially the State Champions..wow! Congrats to Josh!

Quick update on me...I have an MRI scheduled this next week on my knees. After all of these years of athletics, the doctors are thinking it is time for my knees to be scoped, so I should have an eventful fall season. As long as I'm ready for basketball season this winter, I'm fine with it!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!