Santa's Visit!

Claire must have been a good girl this year, Santa and company brought lots of gifts and I'm predicting a year of very exciting play!

Pretend play rules supreme right now, Claire especially loves imitating things she sees around the house. In her new play kitchen, she's making mean cups of tea for Daddy every night and we've had many treats of "happy cake" delivered right from her "hot hot oben or mikeywave." If you don't blow out the pretend candles (over and over again) the chef gets very upset. The play kitchen is a HUGE hit, just the right size for her to reach everything and attractive enough for placement in a corner of our dining room.

Huggy Baby, Teddy and Baby Baby have a nice little set up going in the living room with a choice of pack and play, bouncy seat or table side high chair (which looks remarkably like cousin Aidan's seat!). Claire's little play table is set up right near her kitchen for meals with her stuffed friends or parents.

Claire received a fantastic set of cutting foods (velcroed wooden fruits and veggies) which she cuts up and washes before throwing the whole lot in her pot for stew. These mixed up wooden meals are quite delicious especially when served by a 2 year old wearing a chef hat and apron. I'm hoping to grab a photo of Claire in her full cooking regalia today...cross your fingers that she's into them, there is no forcing a 2 year old to dress up if she doesn't want to!

In other playtime fun, the nuts and bolts are still a challenge in the wooden toolbox Santa brought. Daddy's help is sought out for those, but she is a pro with the hammer and nails enthusiastically fastening on layers of tabs and nailing them together. Dear Melissa and Doug - we LOVE you and all your wonderful wooden toys!

Thankfully even with all the excitement and new toys it doesn't look like a Toys R Us explosion in my living room (well, anymore). Right after Christmas I pared down what we had out and it really seems to focus Claire on the whole play - put away cycle.

Resetting the Kid

Dan asked me last night what grand plans I had in store for Claire today. The answer was simple.

None.

After more then 20 hours in the car over the past week, bunches of new toys and many family visits, we all could use a break. As Dan eloquently put it, a "oh, you're resetting Claire."

So for the next few days we're taking it easy at home, playing with some of the new toys (I'll share some tomorrow!) and just plain relaxing. I'll be rebooting my kid back into the rhythms of our day...wish me luck. If all goes well, I just might have Huggy-Baby tell you all about some of Claire's new playthings tomorrow. Hint, look in the background...

Mommy! Dat's a BIG Bird!

We love our "tweets" around here and I'm loving Claire's long toddler sentences! She spied this red-bellied woodpecker (yes, red-BELLIED...some ornithologist missed an anatomy lesson) and has been yapping on about the big bird "dat fwies and eats awl da yums, he ees big!"

Claire wakes up every morning waiting to make "anjewels" in the snow and informs us about the phases of the moon: "when iz dark 'den 'deres a moon. Yook! a biiiig moon, Woooooow!"

Photos from Christmas are here, there's a few more floating around I'll collect and post another time, but here are two of Claire and cousin "Moo-cheal" enjoying a sleigh ride with McManda. It reminds me a lot of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtz5rJ78pTQ

Eye See You!

Peaceful Mornings

I'm listening to Claire "read" to our cat, Ray. At least I think that's what is going on judging by the animal sounds (Dear Zoo, again?) . For the past few mornings Ray has woken Claire up and all I hear from the living room is "HII-EEE Ray Ray!" She's enjoying her time with the kitty and I'm enjoying some time roaming around the Internet and organizing some digital photos, here's one of Claire posing with favorite species, ROAR!

Santa

The Santa Claus(e) -

I want you to bring me toys mister, but if come much closer to me strange man and I’ll get you with my candy cane!

You know, we might have to nix this Santa visit every year. The first time she met the man, Claire pooped herself. This year it took Claire about 20 minutes to even enter the gymnasium and then (even after quite the cookie bribe from an eight grader) she wouldn’t go NEAR Santa. We had to stage this candy cane exchange to capture some images of Claire near the jolly red guy.

The Couch is Saved!

Remember this post: White Hand Prints on Brown Leather Couch ?

Problem solved. A little bit of elbow grease, water, a soft sponge and we were good to go (I LOVE leather's wipe off anything your toddler can dish out reputation, it's so true!)

How did it happen? Well, I didn't expect Claire to use her crazy monkey skills to climb into a cabinet, help herself to the paint and pour it into her little container at the easel. But when this girl wants to paint...I guess there is no stopping her.

Where was I? Ice-skating in our driveway trying to get the garbage out without killing myself.

And I've decided not to email Santa and tell him about Claire's trangressions. Most of the paint stayed right on the easel (she created a beautiful snowscape on paper) but then she decided to check out what Mommy was doing in the driveway and climbed on the couch to do so.

Secretly I'm proud that instead of painting my walls (as a Facebook friend pointed out HER son did) Claire went right to work on her easel and then forgot to wash her hands. Hey, she's 2...what do you expect?

I will be mellow...

I will take a deep breath
I will be mellow
I will be calm
I will be patient
I will react quietly and gently

.........

I will learn to love the new white painted hand prints all over my leather sofa

Smiles, It's Snowing!

Just waving hello from my snowy yard today! I think it will be a day of cold toes and hot cocoa! Enjoy the snow!

Snowfall Reaction

I was outside trying to get a photo of Claire to put on the Christmas card and just had to share her reaction to the snowflakes that were falling:


sorry to the folks on Facebook who are seeing this twice, but I can never remember who is on FB and who reads the blog - you'll just have to settle for a double dose of cuteness - and I'll throw in a view from another angle. It's funny how a quick camera rotation (or photographer body contortion in this case) makes all the difference, I like the top picture much better, Claire's eyes are lit up so nicely- what about you, a favorite?

Peanut, Peanut Butter – And Birdseed!

Today’s messy project with Claire was for the birds – literally. Every year (see here, here, and here!) we put out feeders for our feathered friends and watch as they feast from our own warm perch indoors. There’s usually a nice assortment of species: downy woodpeckers, nuthatches, tufted titmice, chickadees, black capped chickadees, bluejays, mourning doves, cardinals and the occasional (and very cool) piliated woodpecker. Claire is really into the “tweets” this year. She helps fill the feeders and pours water into their little saucer to watch them “take baffs in my wawer.”

'Tis the season for lots of cardboard boxed deliveries so I decided to put one to use and make our own silly feeder with peanut butter and birdseed. I got the idea from a website that advised rolling toilet paper rolls in peanut butter then birdseed, but thought this would look cuter hanging from our feeding station.

Want to know how we did it? Well……………… <<sing it!>>

First you take the word and you spell it, you spell it!
Then you take the peanuts and you spread ‘em, you spread ‘em!
Then you take the birdseed and you sprinkle it, you sprinkle it!
The you take your sign and you hang it, you hang it!
(sorry, I just couldn’t resist breaking into song on this one!)

Things I learned from this project? Butter knives don’t spread the gooey stuff as well as spatulas and bare hands work best of all. Getting dirty is part of the fun, kids (and kitchen tables) are quite washable! It’s a good idea to poke holes in your letters BEFORE smearing sticky peanut butter all over the cardboard. Better yet, string them before even starting!

And the final turnout? The birds loved it? If you can’t see the “tweet” in the photo above, look a little closer below. Here’s a link to the full album in all it’s gooey goodness: all the pics.

I'm Owed Two Bits!

The tangles in Claire's baby fine hair finally got the best of me today. I've been contemplating cutting it for sometime now - spurred on by our Boston visit with Alice who assured us she's be just as cute! Seriously though, Claire's hair is so fine that within seconds of taking it out of a ponytail it increases in volume about threefold! And lets not talk about the struggle to comb it once the knots have made themselves at home... ack! I was even thinking about putting it up to a vote on the blog, but like I said, today was the last straw.

Things were so bad that I took matters into my own hands. I just chopped about 2 inches off (much to the horror of my mother who was on the phone listening and cringing with every snip of my kitchen shears).

What do you think? Anyone care to let me try my haircutting skills on their head? I think Claire looks awfully cute, but then again I'm biased as both her mother and beautician!