Christmas 2011

We started out by just listening to the Christmas songs on KSBJ and now we have graduated to singing and dancing to them. So far we only know one unless you count "It's raining; it's pouring". I just can't get over how fast she is able to learn and retain things she sees and hears.

Our failed visit to see Santa

       For days we have been pumping Claire up to go see Santa. Jeff and I have been telling her how happy Santa will be to see her and how she gets to sit on his lap to tell him what she would like to get for Christmas. Of course she said she was going to ask for Dora toys! Claire was all excited to wear her pretty dress to show Santa. We loaded up in the car and drove to Katy. We talked about it the entire drive there and when we got there, Claire was excited to see him and couldn't wait to find him in the store. Once we spotted Santa, Claire got to watch a few kids in front of her sit on Santa's lap. She was excited for her turn and Mommy was excited too, thinking this year Claire will finally sit on Santa's lap for a picture!
       Here we go...as I carry her closer to Santa, the death grip gets tighter and tighter. She starts to say loudly "I don't want to, I don't want to". The strongest person in the world couldn't pull her off of me! I finally convinced her to let me stand by Santa with her for one quick picture. Why I continue to torture her every year for a picture with Santa, I don't know. Maybe next year...

Our quick trip to Minnesota

It was a rough week for our family. We had to fly to Minnesota to say good-bye to our dear Grandma Jones. We were so blessed to have family around us the entire visit. My parents were amazing, helping us with Claire while we spent time at Grandma Jones home with family. Thank you Mom and Dad for all that you did for us this visit. You are wonderful and went way beyond our expectations. It was an unfortunate visit but wonderful to be able to spend time with family, especially at this time of year. Merry Christmas to everyone.

We lost Grandma Jones on Wednesday. She will be missed more than we can write in this blog. It is very sad that we won't be able to post more videos like this one. Thank you Grandma for......everything.

OK, I Get It Now

Becoming a little person

Claire has been such a blast to have in our lives. Every single day she makes us laugh and amazes us with what she knows. We can't believe how quickly she has turned from our baby into this little human who can carry on a conversation with us so easily. I remember being so anxious for Claire to start talking and now I know why. She is so hilarious and at times Jeff and I look at each other and wonder where in the world she learned things or how she knew to put certain words together. She is such a sponge, soaking up every single thing she observes. We too are like sponges, soaking up every single minute we are blessed to spend with our amazing daughter.

Shhh. Babies are sleeping.

The video in this slide show does need some explaining. Claire had been playing dolls all morning. We had moved them from room to room until finally they were ready to take a nap. We layed them down and went on to other things. After about 30 minutes, she remembered her dolls were sleeping and told me to go check on them because they were crying. I know the video is difficult to see but she has them tucked in our bed resting nicely on our pillows. She is such a card.

Making Christmas cookies

We were able to spend the afternoon together today. We decided to put up our Christmas tree and make Christmas cookies. Claire was not too interested in helping with the tree decorating. She tried to put some of her toy fruit in it and soon after that, lost interest all together. The cookie making was a different story however. Claire loved being able to help make the dough, roll it out, and place her cutouts onto the pan. After the cookies were finished, she surprised us by how long she stayed interested in decorating the cookies. She helped with every single cookie and made each one unique with different sprinkles. If we tried to help her so she didn't put too many on a cookie, she would say "excuse me, I can do this myself". I guess she told us! We made some wonderful memories today!

Claire had such a blast measuring the ingredients and pouring them into the bowl. She loved it when the flour made lots of dust when she dumped it in!

                                       Enjoying a taste of the cookie dough with her Daddy!

                  Claire loved to help cut out the shapes and place them on the pan. She did a
                          great job all by herself. We only had a few that were missing parts!

                          I frosted the cookies and Claire got to decorate them with sprinkles
                                                 she picked out at the grocery store today.

                              We made some awesome Christmas cookies. Claire gave them
                                                        a "thumbs up" after her first bite!

We just wrapped up a busy and unforgettable week. Grand....MA and Grand....PA were down to hear some of Claire's new stories. Even though they just saw her in August, she has changed quite a bit. Sheila and I were lucky enough to have a few days off together so we made the most of it. We went to the zoo (of course), to Moody Gardens, and up to Dallas to visit family. Claire did very well with all the late nights and long car rides. The only times she acted like a true 2 year old was when mom wasn't in sight. Hopefully we can get her back into her routine with little trouble.

Huff N Puff N Puff N Puff

Laundry

Claire wanted to help with laundry yesterday. I told her she could help put clothes in piles before we folded them. It started out with her gentley putting them in the correct piles but changed to her thowing them to speed up the process. She created more work but it sure was fun watching her help out. 

Our crazy, busy girl!

Claire is very big into imaginative play now. She loves to dress up with her jewelry and walk around with her purse and play shoes on. She keeps busy "shopping". She also likes to pretend she is an animal, usually either a dog or a frog. She pretends to be a frog and hops up the stairs and the other day she was pretending to be a dog outside. She would go on her hands and knees next to Presley and put her face into the grass trying to smell it like Presley does! She makes us laugh so hard some times! We can't wait for Grandma and Grandpa to get here in only one more week so they can share in some of the crazy fun we have every single day!

Hey You

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Yesterday was a busy day. I started by going to my friend Elliot's house to paint pumpkins. We had a blast and I managed to get more paint on the pumpkins than on myself! When Daddy came home from work, we went to a local church pumpkin patch. Of course Mommy made me sit by the scarecrows for a few pictures first!I got to pick out which pumpkin I wanted to take home. It was a lot of work deciding so I had to take a break for a minute and rest on these pumpkins while I thought it over!
When I was finally ready, I had Daddy help me get a wagon to carry the pumpkin in.
Then I had to help Mommy load the pumpkin into the wagon. It was heavy!
When we got home, I was excited to show Daddy the pumpkins I had painted earlier in the day. After looking at my artwork, Daddy thought it would be fun to sit on my shoulders! He is so silly!

Happy early Halloween!

I was finally able to convince Claire to try on her Halloween costume. Once she got it on, she loved it! Her friends, Marley and Ava, came to visit the other day and the girls dressed up in their costumes for a few pictures. We walked down to the pond with them dressed up to get some pics. It was fun watching people get huge smiles on their faces as they drove by! The girls all looked so adorable. I am sure there will be just a few more Halloween pictures to come!

On a side note, after 8 long and challenging days of trying to potty train, we have decided to let it rest for a while and wait until Claire is more ready. After 8 days, she still was not telling us when she had to go and had no problem going in her panties. I talked to many different people about our situation and almost everyone suggested we go back to diapers and wait until she is a little older. So that is what we did. I was very sad about it at first, but have found that life is so much better not being completely consumed with trying to get my child to do something she just isn't ready for. Then today before her nap, out of the blue, she said "mommy, I have to go potty". I put her on and she went right away! Go figure!

Sing Along

I have been trying for some time to catch miss Claire reading (singing) her books. Every time I pull out the camera, she instantly stops and does something else. I finally got her by hiding behind the cabinets so she didn't know I was there. When she gets in her reading mode she is so funny to watch. She completely dives into the book. What I am most amazed at is how she can remember all the words since she can't actually read. I guess I will have to be more covert so I can catch her again.

Potty training...ugh!

We started to potty train Claire on this past Wednesday afternoon. We were given a book on how to potty train in 3 days and were told by a few people that this works. So, we got all excited and pumped up for this "3 day" adventure. Jeff went to the store to pick up some little toys and candy for rewards, I got on the computer and printed out a potty chart for Claire to place stickers on, and we got a selection of books placed in her bathroom to read. We even got her some Dora hand soap to use. Here we go....the first day we had 4 accidents but went on the potty 2 times! Not to bad I am thinking. The second day we had 2 accidents but went on the potty 3 times and even went #2 so I was pretty proud. The third day we stayed dry all day long so I was thinking, ok so maybe this book has some clout. Well, we had 2 accidents in a row that evening. Ugh...Jeff was home with her for day 3 and 4 and on day 4 Claire had no accidents all day or evening!!!! Thankfully she has woken up every day dry so no bed changes yet. We will see how today goes. The only difficult part now is that Claire does not tell us when she has to go, she still tries to hide to go #2 instead of letting us know she has to go. We will keep working and stay strong. Claire has been in big girl panties now since Wednesday afternoon and we are NOT going back to diapers! She is such a smart girl and she will get this! We are very proud of Claire for doing such a great job so far.

So this is what rain is!

It has been an extremely dry summer for us. The other day we were blessed with rain for most of the day. Claire was finally able to try out her rain boots and got to go splashing in the puddles for the first time. She had a blast!

I love pizza!

 Last night we had pizza. I am such a big girl now that I can eat the pizza whole. Mommy or Daddy does not have to cut it up anymore.

 We had veggie pizza. I gave it a "thumbs up"!

 Pizza is so yummy! I really like veggie pizza (minus the tomatoes which I hand off to Mommy!)

 During dinner, Daddy and I had a very intense conversation. I did a great job of listening to Daddy tell me about his day at work.

Today Mommy put me to work vacuuming. Of course I had to vacuum in style with my high heels on!

Look out world, here I come!

Claire has been big into dressing up with her play shoes, sunglasses, hat, necklaces, and purses. It is so much fun to watch her be creative when she thinks no one is looking! She has quite the imagination! Every day brings something new and we love it!

Learning every day

Every single day I get to spend with Claire amazes me. I am so taken aback by how fast she is learning things and how quickly she picks up on stuff. Today we were reading books and I was counting some in spanish. Before I knew it, she started saying  "quatro, cinco, seis". Not sure she knows what they mean but at least she got them in order! She also is very in to singing lately. She loves singing "twinkle, twinkle little star" and "itsy, bitsy spider".

We had our first incident of getting locked in the bathroom today. I had the ladies at my table in my MOPS group over for a playdate and we were talking about potty training. Claire decided she wanted to go on the potty so I took her in my bedroom to use the bathroom and change her diaper. I sat her on the toilet and went to my bed to get a wipe. Before I know it, the bathroom door closes. I go to open it and find it is locked! I tried with all I could think of to open it, a hairpin, a barrette. Finally I go out to the living room to see if anyone can help me unlock my daughter from the bathroom. I was quite embarrassed to announce to these moms I have just met once before that my child locked herself in the bathroom and I couldn't get her out! Thankfully one of the moms was able to open the lock. It was an interesting morning!