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| Her tongue has a mind of it's own. |
And you mean it with every ounce of enthusiasm and love, because "oh, she's so sweet," or "oh, she's very smart," just doesn't cover it. It's that girl that you feel SPUNK come off of her. When she's nervous or shy she whispers but when you've wronged her she make windows break with her shrieks. When she is punished she falls flat to her face in utter dismay, and when she does something accidentally, she quickly says, "Sorry Mommy," without even needing a glance.
You can SEE her think, and she does so deliberately and thoroughly, and then executes perfectly. If it wasn't perfect, she keeps trying until she gets it.
This girl makes me feel like I did something right. I see so much of myself in her and yet I see much more power and strength and control.
Claire means "clear, bright," in French and that fits her completely. She wants a CAREBEAR (Please, PLEASE, PLEASE... a carebear. Pink (her absolute favorite). Which is Cheer Bear, and Claire is a natural Cheerleader. Not only is she constantly encouraging and optimistic, but often she'll come bounding through the house with her fists in the air... "YAY, TOAST!" or "YAY SHOES!" And if it's something really good, she'll start bounding around the house like Tigger.
She also wants a PINK purse, PINK sunglasses, and a PINK phone for Christmas. It's very important that we all remember this list. She repeats it multiple times a day... bouncing around like Tigger.
When she gets out of bed when she should be sleeping, she comes to find me with her hands over her eyes... apparently she can't get into trouble if her face is covered, because, obviously... you can't see her.
As in...
"Claire, are you the smartest girl I've ever met?"
"Oh, yes!"
or
"Claire, do you want to help me make blueberry muffins?"
"Oh sure."
and if you ask her if she wants hummus:
"YES!" (there's no time for the "oh.")
"Claire, we're out of cheese!"
"OH NO! Well, let's get some more."
Speaking of food, this girl LOVES food. Carrots, hummus, salad, apples, chocolate, cheese, cookies... you name it, she loves it. If I've made a salad for lunch you better believe she's in my lap ready to share the whole thing. She's just not a huge fan of juice. She'll accept it, but usually she hands it back to me halfway through. She's most interested in water.
About 3 months ago (she was about 3 months over age 2), she potty trained herself. It took about 3 days and I didn't even completely realize it was happening. I encouraged her but she did it on her own.
I think she was just ready and she hates wearing diapers... pants... socks... shoes... let's face it, Claire hates clothes in general. So when she goes potty, she doesn't need help, but you can tell that she has because typically she's running around the house half naked. I think she could do it if she cared at all, but she simply doesn't. One day last week she came out of the bathroom and said, "Mommy, I pulled up my pants." I cheered so hard and gave her a hug and I swear tears came to my eyes... and after she walked off Adam shook his head at me and said, "Mommy, I need to talk to you... You don't even CARE if I go to the bathroom." (Oh sure I do, Adam, I just am exhausted of putting clothes back on a little girl who HATES to wear clothes.)
Which brings me to those Pink Boots she wears so often. They aren't in these photos, but there's only one acceptable form of foot wear now and they are those pink boots. No socks, of course. Socks are evil, evil creatures.
One of the things you won't notice in particular with these pictures is Claire's height. Colin keeps trying to catch up with her and he's average height... She's trying to beat Adam in the height department and HE'S tall for HIS age. She's wearing 4T pants and size 5 shirts. For a long time I just assumed they made girl clothes to little with the expectation that girls are dainty and petite, but when I see her baby face next to an average height 4 year old girl I realize that she really is just freaking tall, muscular, strong and tough. She's very interested in catching, throwing, hitting a baseball with a bat... and if you coach her, she listens and adjusts. She's extremely coachable.
Right now she's going through a stage where she'll fall asleep in her own bed but every night she'll wind up between Shannon and I, trying to lie sideways in the bed until one of us gets kicked out (usually Shannon). She has nightmares and screams and talks in her sleep and sometimes it's impossible to wake her up. But Adam did this too at her age and we're hoping she grows out of it. I kinda like the cuddles, honestly, so I'm not panicked over it.
When she and Adam play together it is typically smooth sailing. She is very easy to get along with. She can be very much in charge but when she's playing with others she's go-with-the-flow, as long as they are playing pretend and not stealing her babies (stuffed animals).
Claire loves to organize and "shop" around the house. She collects rocks and she has a white laundry basket that she pushes around the house and collects random treasures. Nobody should bother her treasures or the punishment could easily be death.
When she goes to other people's houses, she "shops" for toys too. She finds things she likes, piles them up in a corner or a basket and when it's time to go she goes for her basket and wants to load up the car. She doesn't mean it meanly, she just really, really, REALLY likes to shop. Her other favorite things to do with me is paint her toenails or paint my fingernails.
Honestly, I really don't know what I would do without this awesome, perfect little girl. I may be biased, but I'm utterly and completely in love with this face.
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