Early Christmas presents

Clare is one lucky little girl!

Both sets of grandparents sent/brought Clare some early Christmas presents! Grandmama sent Clare her Christmas dress! It's arrived from Macy's this morning! I'll be sure to post her pro Christmas pics as soon as we get them back. Her pics are scheduled for Friday afternoon!

Nana's brought her the Advent Calendar pictured above. Nana asked Clare's great-great Uncle Chick to make it for her. He made the calendar by hand. He even painted all of the figures on the front himself! He made lots of personalized ones too! The stocking has her name, the train has the year she was born and the mug has her initials. It's a beautiful piece. Uncle Chick does amazing work.

If this is just the start of Clare's Christmas, I can guess she is going to be one spoiled little girl! :)

Thanksgiving

Nana and PopPop were in for Thanksgiving. It was tons of fun and Clare had a good time. Just a few pictures today! The cookies are what Clare and I made for Christmas pictures. My back is out, so I'm pretty worn out. I'll be sure to update more soon. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Trip

Clare and her favorite little Piggy! Clare loved this little piggy who counted coins. It was so cute. She understood after Nana showed her one time how to work the toy:)
This was Clare's face after she discovered the very best thing the entire world. Like, EVER. Clare was at Nana and PopPop's for a few hours before one of the cats came out to investigate. Clare made this face, every single time she saw a cat. The cat below (poor thing) didn't seem to understand how imperative it was for her to hide, so Clare spent a big portion of the visit catching Sherodyn. She would start off petting her nicely. Then she would do something evil, like try to pick up the cat by her fur or clap her front and back paws together.

Clare climbing the couch to get closer to the cat that she just had to have!
Watching tv and playin' with her belly button ....
Story time with Nana


Clare climbing around my bed
Her favorite "camera" face, the snorty pig
"Hey Mom, whatchaya doin?"

Outside with Nana and Missy

Showing Grandma how to "un" baby proof a house
Checking out Grandma's earrings

Playing with Aunt Lisa and Aunt Erin
Climbing, again.

Small adult, giant child.
Clare's new favorite baby
Playing with Great Grandpa
Teaching Dylan that boys should be listeners, not talkers.
Clare had a chair like this. She didn't really love it. Of course, she loved it when it wasn't hers.
Post shower at Aunt Heathers.
Talking to Chief.
Looking out the window at Fake Thanksgiving


Bucket head!
Trying to steal Uncle Seth's cell phone
Hiding under Grandmama's table
Playing in the toy basket.
Showing Aunt Erin what you do with a bucket.
Showing Aunt Heather what to do with the bucket.

Clare sneezing with her very first cold
unflattering sumo picture
Yikes!
What she will likely look like after her 21st birthday?
Grandpa and Clare having bath time.
The yummy cupcakes we made to take over to Beth's house...:(



We had a great time on the trip. Clare did great as a veteran flyer, sleeping on the way to and from Ohio (she may have had a 1/2 a dose of Benedryll). She received lots of compliements from the other Mom's on the plane for sleeping so well.

She is talking up a storm and hands down her favorite thing to say was "DADADADAD" all trip. I'm not sure whether she was looking for him to play or to save her. She also loves "no", but then, what kid doesn't? Aunt Heather taught her some great hand gestures to go with "No", which makes her look like she has an attitude problem. Shocking, huh? Clare also says "What is this" and "Whatsthat?" (yes, all one word) all the time. Over and over again. I usually answer her once, but she discovered Aunt Erin was willing to play along for hours.

Grandmama taught Clare to flush the toilet, which Clare loved. She also showed Grandmama how to give her baby dolls a bath, in said toilet. If she was left unattended for even a second and the bathroom door was open, she would be on a mission to drop her dolls in the toilet. Thankfully, she didn't quite get the flush in before Grandmama arrived.

Fake Thanksgiving was yummy and a success, per usual.

The only down side was Clare got her very first cold:( She woke up Sunday morning all snotty and gross. She has never been sick before, so I was a little unsure. She sneezed on the germaphobe, which was funny. She was pretty sick on Sunday and looked pretty bad Monday too. She still has a cough and such, but no fever. Sadly, her cold kept us from seeing the Webb's new addition, which we baked cupcakes for and everything. So, I still haven't gotten my hands on a very cute little boy named Zach:(

I'll be sure to update more over the weekend.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Visits and general wildness...

Let me start by saying that I am AWESOME at child proofing my house. As you can see, we have guards on the table. That would be the foam that Clare has pulled off, prior to climbing on top of the glass coffee table. First, she had to pass the electrical outlet (a true favorite of hers). Then she uses the foam to climb onto the sub woofer that is the back corner. She is resting her hands on candles that we often light. All in all, it's an area of huge potential to her. After finding her on the table twice (I'm also good at keeping an eye on her), I put up the gate. That was quickly removed, when I realized that she used the gate to help her climb the table faster.

In other news, Clare thinks the gate is called "no". She points at it and tells me "no". How is that for irony?



This is how Clare climbs into her chair, every single time. Heather was cracking up at it. Heather would have smuggled Clare's chair home with her if she thought she could have gotten it on the plane.
This is after a long day of trying to harm herself.

Over at Aunt Ginny's playing with the doll house. She tried to climb in the doll house and also tried to eat the light hanging in the hallway.


At Girls Night with Aunt Jessica and Aunt Stephanie (Congrats Aunt Stephanie on your new nephew:)

In Chinatown with Aunt Erin and Aunt Heather. She was pretty excited by Mommy's awesome parking job and the food.


At Reading Terminal Market with Aunt Heather and Aunt Erin. She was a fan, it involved pizza.
Post pigtails before Aunt Erin and Aunt Heather arrived.

Overall, we had a great visit from Aunt Heather and Aunt Erin. I should have taken more pictures, but I was too busy stuffing my face with food. We went to the Amish Market, Reading Terminal Market and Chinatown. I shouldn't have been so shocked my pants didn't fit on Monday. Clare loves her Aunties so she was thrilled with them. Especially when they pulled her out of bed at 11:15 at night to play or gave her bubble baths:)

Hope all is well! We leave on Saturday to fly to Cleveland and will be in Cincy on the 18th! I'll be sure to post pics upon returning.