Evening with dad

With Kate out partying with her boss, it was just Claire and me tonight.

"Dad, can we play? Please?"

We played a game known to some in the house as "Claire be." As in "Where could Claire be? Hmmm. Is she behind the door? Again?"

We ran. This is lap #1.

I lost count which lap this was.

Claire finished off her running with some leg swings and stretches.

I'm not sure what she's thinking here. It probably has something to do with how weird her dad is.

Claire hasn't taken to referring to herself in the third person, yet. Instead, she has taken the unusual step of calling herself "you." I guess it makes sense since we refer to her as "you" instead of "me" all the time.

Classic dinner conversation between the two of us tonight...
Me: Who set the table tonight?
Claire: You!
Me: It wasn't me. You did.
Claire: (pointing to herself, nodding) You!
Me: Really! It wasn't me. You should say "me."
Claire: (looking confused and shaking her head) Nooooo. (pointing to herself again) You!
Me: When I talk about myself I am me but when I talk about you, you are you. When you refer to yourself, you are me.
Claire: (Ignoring me and eating her peas) Mama, home?
Me: She'll be home later and then maybe she can explain how you are me and I am you and all that. You like your pizza and peas, don't you?

In other news, Claire is really picking up steam on her vocabulary and will proudly sing her "A C B's" to you, me, or even herself as she falls asleep.

"A C B... G H I J... F... T U V dubdub X Y Z"

Getting lucky

Many of you are probably familiar with the problem of promising, or even suggesting, something to a toddler; if that something doesn't subsequently occur there can be consequences. In our case it was time to retire Claire's toothbrush. Kate had recently gotten a red toothbrush, and Claire was rather enamored with the idea of her own red toothbrush; no other color was going to cut it. Moreover, we had a buy one, get one free coupon for OralB "Stages" toothbrushes and we were determined to use it. That meant we needed a red OralB Stages toothbrush, and not just any red OralB Stages toothbrush, but one for ages 2 to 4. Does such a thing even exist?

Friday morning was Will and Claire's normal trip to HyVee for groceries. HyVee is really a fairly well stocked grocery store... but would they have red Stages toothbrushes? No. In fact they had no toddler toothbrushes in red. Nor did they even have any of the proper "stage" toothbrush. After some discussion they left, sans toothbrush, but with the idea that maybe a purple toothbrush would be acceptable.

Yesterday after picking up Claire, who had spent the night at Ma and Pop's house so that Will and Kate could enjoy an adult Friday the 13th party, the three of us went in pursuit of a red (or purple!) OralB toothbrush at Target. We weren't quite sure what would happen if they didn't have one. Perhaps we could talk Claire into another color, but, as Ma and Pop can attest, she had her heart set on a red one and who wants to break the heart of their daughter, especially on Valentine's Day.

Would Target come through? Absolutely. The first toothbrush we saw happened to be an OralB Stages (age 2-4) red AND purple toothbrush. Claire's eyes lit up when she saw it and she did not want to relinquish the toothbrush until we got home. Talk about gettin' lucky on Valentine's Day...

Here are some action shots from our little Valentine...

A tasty learning tool

Claire knows all her letters and is now learning to sing her ABC's. We decided to play in the kitchen this morning and Claire helped make some bread dough and turn that dough into some tasty bread letters.

We turned the 'E' into a nice PB&J for lunch.

This is the face you get when you ask Claire to smile big...

And another recent picture I like...



In other news:
Claire now says her name, which does not include any 'Cl' sound but comes out as something close to "Pair."

If anyone wants to donate a dSLR camera and telephoto lens we could get some pretty amazing pictures of deer playing in the lower part of our backyard. Claire loves watching the young deer chasing each other, jumping, running, splashing water in puddles etc.

Weekend travels

This weekend we made a trek over to Des Moines to surprise "Pop," who was receiving a "Major Award" from the Iowa Newspaper Association. (The honor is better known as the Master Editor-Publisher of the Year.) Given the severity of Claire's cold last week we weren't sure we were going to go but we were very glad that we did.

Friday evening Claire was feeling much better and we (Ma, Claire, Kate, Will and later Ellen and Adam) all ended up eating at one of Des Moines' finer dining establishments, Centro, on the dime of Pop's employer. We then made the short walk over to the Marriott where we "surprised" Pop at the awards banquet before heading back to Will's dad's place for the night.

Claire, Pop, Ma and Mama after Pop received his Major Award

Claire and Aunt Ellen

Claire pushes a doll around in circles over and over and over at Pa's house.

We were home by Saturday afternoon and by then Claire had nicely shared her cold with us. Nice weather allowed Claire the chance to ride her bike down to the park and play outside some today, giving us all a chance to enjoy some sunshine and dream of spring.

New pictures

If you can't tell that Claire is getting older from her pictures you can certainly tell by the greatly reduced number of pictures that we take. I guess we are giving our camera a break until May. Here are a few recent pictures:

Somehow we caught Claire actually smiling rather than giving us her "camera smile" for this one. Here she models the hot color combinations you will be seeing on the runways this spring.

This is what can happen to glass when temperatures outside are colder than -30F and there is at least a 90F temperature differential between outside and inside. Ours was not an isolated case. Our window guy said he's gotten several other calls where the same thing happened. We're just thankful that only the inner pane of glass cracked.

Claire is blessed or cursed with her dad's dry skin. Sometimes she combats this with Vaseline, as she does here, with great gobs on her cheeks and chins.

Hide and seek with little people

Today Claire and I spent some time playing hide-and-seek. I'm sure many of you know what H&S with toddlers can be like. For those that don't, well, let's just say that the young'uns aren't necessarily the most creative in their hiding places, and they don't quite grasp the concept of silence. But, they love to hide again, and again, and again, and again and...

To set the scene, this particular game was located in our bedroom. In this bedroom there are two closets, a dresser and a bed. I would go out into the hall, shut the door and then knock before coming in to search for Claire. Claire would always be behind the bed. Here is how the game went over, and over, and over, and over...

Me (to myself, out loud): Hmmmm, I wonder where Claire is.
A voice (from behind the bed): Hmmmmm.
Me: She sure is a good hider.
A voice: Yep.
Me: I never know where she is going to hide.
A voice: No.
Me: Is she in Dada's closet?
A voice: Nooooo. (A hand reaches out from behind the bed and points to Mama's closet.)
Me: Is she in Mama's closet?
A voice: Nope.
Me: Is she in our bed?
A voice: Nooooo.
Me: Is she under my pillow?
A voice (giggling): Nooooooooooo.
Me (acting surprised when I see her behind the bed): Oh, there she is!
Claire (laughing hysterically and signing): Again!
Repeat

Maybe next time we'll go crazy and try a different room in the house.