Easter '08 (and a link to another video)

Here are some pictures of Claire on her Easter egg hunt this morning. We were both really surprised that she actually 'got' it and ran around looking for the eggs and putting them in her basket. She doesn't yet understand that the eggs open up and usually there is some fun treat inside them... hers were empty and she didn't know the difference. She just enjoyed the game. The last picture is of Claire playing ball with Grandma C. That was pretty fun, too.






And then, a special treat: TWO Claire videos in one day!! Wow!! Enjoy it, because I don't think it will ever happen again. For the second video, taken and edited today for a new family speed record, check out Easter 2008 starring Claire, made by her Grandpa C.

-K

Animal Impressions Video

Happy Easter! here's a new video! Claire isn't saying a whole lot yet, but she loves to imitate animals. Here's a ~2 min video of her doing her animal impressions:



-K

MN Visit

Last weekend we visited friends and family in the Minneapolis area. It was a quick visit, but enjoyable. Claire spent some time playing with her "cousin-twin," born on the same day as her. He is still bigger than her, but she's almost as tall as he is:


We visited friends Ben and Emmi and 10-week old Isaac. Here's the best we got for a group picture:


We visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden of the Walker Art Center. This is one of its most photographed sculptures:


These last two are of Claire making a fishy face at a huge glass fish sculpture inside the Cowles Conservatory at the Walker, and walking in the conservatory:



-K

Last week - colds, Goldbug, talking, more Goldbug

In case anyone was wondering, yes we are over the flu. Will got it the next day (surprise) and we didn't end up traveling to infect any relatives that weekend. Now we have colds. Will is pretty much over his, I guess I'm about half through mine, and if Claire's mood this evening is any indication, she might be coming down with hers tomorrow. (She was crabby and whining all afternoon and then this evening she refused to read books!!! A first! She just wanted to go to bed early instead, so we let her.)

Last week our day care provider was on vacation, so Mom and Dad were home more and Grandma Julie filled in for a day. We all read lots of 'Cars and Trucks and Things that Go' that week. Sometimes that book would be looked at 20 times in one day. I guess that it's no surprise then that Claire can quickly find Goldbug on every single page. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you really should find your kid a copy of the book, it's pretty much the best kids book ever.

Oh yeah, and other news here is that Claire is talking. She now says, with varying degrees of understandability (and repeatability, depending on her mood):
Mama
Dada
woof
mud
mouse
truck
book
bowl
hot
hat
dog
dot

She picks up sign language very quickly these days and uses these signs to help round out her vocabulary:
more
all done
milk
eat
airplane
baby
thank you
help

And did I mention she shakes her head "no" ? She uses that one frequently.
-K

Home Sick

Claire had the 9-hour stomach flu earlier in the week. Now it's mom's turn. Literally about 9.5 hours after I woke up feeling bad, I'm now on the mend and feeling much better. What did I do all day while I wasn't visiting the smallest room in the house? Surf the web of course. (Well, I did a little work also earlier in the morning before the worst of it, but mostly just "enjoyed" wireless internet from the couch.)

Anyway, enough about that. If you happen to be laid up with the flu or having a really slow Friday afternoon at work, here's a few blog posts or websites I found at least somewhat amusing. (warning: I am sick, so I may not be completely responsible for my pickings.)

What you overhear in Florida (hint: this doesn't take place in 'spring break' locations). I might even find this funnier if I wasn't once accused in 4th grade by the neighbor boy of always saying "that's nice" to everything he said. Very old before my time, I guess.

Funny/dangerous/cute kid pictures - rumors that some are 'photoshopped', but still amusing, at least to me. Except the knife one, that's just stupid.

Absolutely horrible mother-of-the-bride dresses. Click on the smaller pictures at the bottom for more examples. I can't even believe that these are real dresses, let alone meant for the M-o-t-B.

And a nice parody of government brochures for how to stay safe and deal with terrorist attacks and natural disaster. (thanks, Kathy!)

One of my favorite blogs, MetroDad had a new post today. I like the first part the best. "Umm... Thanks, coach"

And because I know you don't really care about the random stuff I've discovered on the Internets today, and really only visit this blog for pictures of Claire, (which have been in rather short supply lately, we apologize), here you go, here is her last week:


Wishing you all an illness-free weekend, especially those relatives we'll probably still be visiting tomorrow... Claire's definitely not contagious, I promise, and I probably am not anymore either, but will stay in a separate room just in case. And who did you really want to see anyway? certainly not me!

-K

Cool Art

Check out my sister-in-law's awesome art (this is the top of a nightstand).

She is a very talented artist making really cool pieces, including some for children! A lot of it is painting on wooden furniture. I don't do it justice though, check out her blog and keep her in mind if you need a special gift someday, I think she'll work on commission too.

enjoy!

-K
p.s. Thanks for the new posts, Josie!

Pssst. Wanna buy a house?

We've had a few showings and have another today but no takers yet. I don't think the snow and ice help nor does the daily dose of bad economic news. Next weekend we head down to Dubuque to look at things from a buyer's perspective. I think being a buyer is a lot more fun than being a seller in this market!

Photos on the run

Sometimes when I'm reading the blog of a friend of a friend, I wonder how they are able to get a cute smiling picture of their daughter every day. This morning I realized why I might have more trouble with that task. I was being chased around the house by Claire as I was trying to get a picture of her in a cute sweater, knitted by Grandma C. (Yes, I did say that Claire was chasing me.) See, their daughter is younger and hasn't started really walking yet. Claire can walk: frontways, sideways, and backward, as well as run, pretty fast. AND Claire knows (somehow) that on the back of the camera you can see little pictures of babies. And if there's one thing that Claire loves more than running, it's pictures of babies (her, primarily). So, this means as soon as the camera comes out, she is usually off and running to try to see the babies. Good luck getting a cute, smiling picture of that most of the time.

Here are some of my attempts this morning, which involved me running as fast as I could away from her, and trying to take the picture as she ran toward me. Not really the result I was looking for:



This time she caught up with me and ended up too close to the camera, and no real smile because she was grabbing for the camera to see the babies:


Finally, I decided I was going to have to resort to more of a posed shot and since Will had just gotten back from a run he made faces so she'd smile:


She didn't stay in the chair for long, but at least I got the photo, more or less.

-K