20 months

Well, we've lost the camera, so what few pictures I took this month are missing somewhere in our house (hopefully). So, here are some pics I took on Hyrum's phone this morning, and cute things about Claire.





Claire likes for me to sing to her as she is falling asleep. Her favorites are Silent Night (which she calls "night"), Rock-a-bye baby ("bye" accompanied with waving), and the Signing Time rainbow song ("enbow" which actually sounds a little like elmo, accompanied with the sign for rainbow). This is often how things go at night:

Me, singing: Rock-a-bye-
Claire: night!
M: Si-i-lent ni-
C: bye!
M: Rock-
C: enbow!
M: Do you know the colors-
C: bye!
M: Rock-a-bye baby, in the-
C: enbow!
M: Do you know-
C: night!
M: Si-i-
C: bye!
M: Rock-a-bye baby....

Until she finally lets me sing a whole song, sometimes several times. It cracks me up. She also likes to grab my hand and guides it so my arm is against her back and I can stroke her hair. Or she'll wrap her arms around my neck and pull tight until my cheek is resting on her cheek. I love those snuggles.

Claire has gotten pretty good at recognizing colors now. She almost always points out correctly blue, green, pink, purple, orange, yellow, red, white and brown. Pink is still her very favorite. She also loves to try on clothes and occasionally I'll sit and she'll have me put on and take off dresses, skirts and pants. She has me dress her babies in her clothes, and she loves to wear my lingerie (especially the pink stuff).

Right now, I've got Claire in gymboree and little gym classes (sort of overlapping until I decide which one we like best). A couple of days ago she did her first somersault all by herself! She loves to "help" Hyrum and I do them as well, by pushing our heads to the ground. She loves the female teachers, even if it's her first time meeting them, but the male teacher totally freaks her out. During exploration at little gym (they get to walk around and check out everything), she often just runs to the middle of the mat and dances by herself. At gymboree, among other places, she loves to hand a ball or something to another kid and say "share?". It's so sweet, and then she usually just goes and finds something else to play with. She, of course, has non-sharing moments, but those aren't as cute to talk about.

Claire is in full-time underwear now, even at night and it doing awesome. She's never had an accident in public and will go on public toilets no problem, hasn't peed at night in the past 2 weeks (when she was still in diapers at night), and only has a pee accident at home once or twice a week when she has an off day. She has no issues with poop either, whew! We were in the library bathroom the other day and while I was getting Claire dressed after peeing, a woman came in to use the stall next to us. As this women began to pee, Claire yelled, "Potty! Yay!" and clapped enthusiastically.

Claire finally has all front eight teeth, and her two top molars popped through the same day. That brings the final count to 12. And luckily, she loves for me to brush her teeth. I hope that lasts!

Claire has been throwing full on, flailing, have to drag her out, screaming fits when we have to leave somewhere she is having fun. Not every time, but often enough. Nursing her is the ONLY thing that has worked to calm her down. It also sometimes happens when I get her out of the car once we get home. She says she wants out, then freaks when I unbuckle her, then freaks when I re-buckle her, then freaks when I unbuckle again and get her out and try not to drop my bucking bronco as I walk to the door. Sigh, the life of a toddler.

When I threw my back out a few weeks ago and then got really sick right as it was healing (I think it was the flu, or just a horrible cold), Claire got to watch more TV than normal, which is usually none. She developed a great love for the show "Super Why" which is adorable and she asks for "Why?" every day lately. I did put it on for her a few days ago, and she got so excited, started laughing and waving saying "Hi!" during the intro song, and then shouted out things she saw "Pig! Red!"It was so cute it almost made me want to let her watch it every day.

The other night, Hyrum and Claire were hanging out in bed and Hyrum started whistling. It totally caught her off-guard, I don't think she's ever heard that sound before (at least not for as long as she can remember). She jerked around to look at him, started saying "Uh-oh!" and then looked in his mouth. Every time he whistled, she would paw at his lips trying to figure out what was going on. Otherwise, she just stared at him in amazement.

Claire just learned to blow through bubbles and she thinks it's hilarious. She LOVES bubbles!