"Paw and Doodee"

I'm so proud to have a little bibliophile on my hands. Claire would happily read bedtime stories all night long. One of her current favorites is Pat the Bunny. Sadly poor Paul and Judy have become Paw and Doodee which makes it sound like an entirely different kind of story to me. Claire tries to reenact parts of the story. She pats Oscar instead a bunny (much to his chagrin), feels her own Daddy's scratchy face, and smells our fabric hair flowers since there aren't any real ones in bloom right now. I love seeing her learn and grow and make all these new connections. I just hope she doesn't grow out of her love for books.

It's a Pirate Party

Ahoy there me, hearties! Ella had her birthday lunch with friends today. Somehow paying too much for truly awful food, lame arcade games, and prizes that cost too many tickets turned out to be a lot of fun for everyone ten and under. I'm going to call it novelty and hope they don't beg to go back to Pirate Island anytime soon. They do make cute pirate faces however.



Then we came home and the girls all made and decorated cupcakes. These guys have a serious love of toppings. Once again, I think they're best enjoyed by the ten and under crowd :-)

Screen Shot

My beautiful baby as desktop. She really does have a nose and lips and all that good stuff, but I kind of like how her eyes pop when the rest of her is washed out. This is what happens when I wait until late at night to take a picture. Well, this, or a picture of my cat attacking a rubber spider. But I don't like spiders, and I do like Claire, so there.

Mayhem aka Bedtime

The kids can be playing happily, calmly and then I mention bedtime and they turn into little maniacs. I'm not sure what it is that does it, but it happens without fail. I think I should have at least gotten one child who just falls asleep wherever they are, or puts themselves to bed, or even just quickly and quietly goes when asked. But nope, maniacal mayhem rules this house.

Pearly Whites

The three big kids went to the dentist today. I figured the girls would get their teeth cleaned like normal, and we'd beg, whine and plead with Owen to just open his mouth so the dentist could peek in. Was I ever wrong! Owen climbed up, watched that cool tv on the ceiling, had everything done, then jumped down and yelled, "That was awesome!" He had a lot of employee fans at that office since he was one of the happier three year old patients they'd dealt with.

And all three kids have healthy teeth, so even better!

Saucy Little Thing

In this case, it's literal; there's applesauce all over the girl. But most of the time, it's a pretty good description for Claire's personality. She takes what she wants, lets you know her opinion, and then gives the sweetest hugs and kisses you've ever had. Somehow you end up not minding that she's shrieked at you half the day and destroyed the house, because those sweet moments make up for all the others. She celebrated her nineteen month birthday on Sunday by using full sentences for the first time. In classic Claire fashion one was sweetly said, "Help me down, Mom." And the other was yelled repeatedly at high volume, "I want it, I want it, I want it!" as she grabbed for someone's else's breakfast food. We love you, sweet and saucy Claire.

Portuguese Water Dog named Puggly

Ella's birthday money has been burning a hole in her proverbial pocket, so off we went to Build a Bear Workshop after school today. I'm finding the name choice pretty funny, but I don't think she knows a Pug is a type of dog.

Bright Sundays

Our Sundays are pretty laid back around here. Some church, some hanging out, some napping, some reading, some Owen playing the Wii on his head. Ever since cold weather hit, Owen has been taking out his physical antics on the couches instead of the swingset and trampoline. This is his current favorite viewing position.

Snowy Play Day

Claire is nineteen months old today. She celebrated by putting on full snow gear and going out to play. Claire yelled, "Uh-oh, uh-oh!" and "Help!" the whole time, but still really enjoyed herself. I think the other three could spend the whole day out there if I'd let them. And yes, Bryn is crouched on top of a giant snowball!

Minor Miracle

Right now, right this very minute, Owen is napping. He's sleeping soundly in his bed, with his head on his beloved car pillow and covered by Fuzzy. Watching him like this makes my heart go pitter patter. Even wearing tough guy Batman jammies, he's sweet and adorable and lovely. And he's not throwing any screaming, sobbing, hitting fits...which is what he did to end up getting put to bed and being exhausted enough to actually sleep in the middle of the day. *sigh* However we got here, I'll take it.

Wack-a-doodle

Claire is just nuts sometimes. She got out of the shower, escaped down the hall, climbed to the top of the bunkbed with a balloon and plastic fireman's hat and proceeded to have a great time in Ella's bed. Ella panicked a bit, but I probably would too if I loved my stuffies so much and had a diaper-free baby climbing all over them.

Birthday Princess

Happy birthday , sweet Ella. You're beautiful inside and out.

Swoopy Side Bangs

Bryn's getting old. She wants cool hair, her own room, an MP3 player, etc. What's a mom to do? I guess the answer is to take out my parental designs on Ella, Owen and Claire and let Bryn make her own decisions...well, at least about hair cuts. I think side bangs were a good choice.

Accessory Theft

Claire just can't keep her hands off accessories. Ella made all of these today, and Claire made a beeline for them as soon as she saw them. Maybe it's because we named her Claire?

The Fun Club

Apparently membership in the fun club means you climb on top of Bryn's bed and giggle. Oh well, they kept themselves entertained!

Saturday Night Live

Claire has been making a habit of waking up around 11 pm when she knows her Dada will give in and get her out of bed. She joined us for a little SNL. I think she thought her peek-a-boo show was equally good. I'm inclined to agree.

Sick

Poor Bryn, four days and counting.

The Golden Arches

Conversation with Claire around 6 pm

Claire: Dada?
Me: No, Dada's at work.
Claire: Oh. Okay. (pause) Donald's?

I call Andrew and repeat the conversation.

Andrew: Awww, now I really want to take her to McDonald's. And I never, ever want to go to McDonald's again.

We went to McDonald's.
At least Owen got to work off some energy.

Hard Core

We live tough around here. Dr. P straight from the bottle, no shaving, not going to work. Not many people are that hard core.

Sorry, honey. You know I only mock you because I love you.

Toasty Twosome

The synchronized toast eating makes me smile. I don't think of these two as looking a lot alike. I guess I just always compare Claire to her sisters, but the resemblance jumps out at me here.

Beautiful

I love my girl. I love her curls, her "hats", her baby blue eyes, and even her bad attitude. She's beautiful, and I adore her.

ummmm.....

I was greeted by this when I sat down at the computer. The things you find when you have kids...

I asked Owen about it. "It's my lizard, riding on my tractor. I can't tell you anything else. That's all."

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Apparently a very interesting book.

Snow Zebra

Pffft! Snow leopards, who needs snow leopards? The snow zebra is much rarer and a whole lot cuter, too! This is one of the first times Claire has actually wanted to be in the snow and purposefully touched the stuff.

Get Well, Grammy

Oh how, I love that Grandma of mine. As if being in her 80s weren't enough to remind me of her mortality, she had to go and get into a little car accident. She's fine except the airbag went off which has her feeling pretty bruised and battered. The kids sent combined get well soon and thanks for the Christmas gifts pictures and cards.

Claire is a danger with crayons, so she just watched and put on accessories so we could "go!" Claire always wants to go.

"Hat, Hat?"

Claire firmly believes she's not fully dressed without her "hat" and shoe-ies. A hat is anything that goes on your head, but usually means a hair bow. Of course, fully dressed with the "hat" in the hair often only lasts a few minutes, but she still insists on it every day. Go figure?!

All By Myself

The big O has plenty of skills, but plenty of attitude, too. Getting dressed is a fight, but today he happily did it all on his own. Here's to more days like this ahead.

Christmas...still here

I really need to take everything down, but I don't feel good.

*insert a whole, whole lot of whining here*

*and here*

*and here*

I think you get the idea.

The Catman Yawns

Snuggle Bunnies

I have to admit, nothing warms the heart quite like Daddy-daughter snuggles.

Snacky New Year

Andrew and I rang in the new year with a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit on the Wii, and toasted with Nutty Bars when the ball dropped, then went to bed. Yes, we are very exciting people.

The kids watched the ball drop earlier in the night and were all tucked into bed, but we obviously didn't hide the Nutty Bars well enough.