Claire @ 2 1/2

Eating blueberry pancakes. She LOVES blueberries (and pancakes) and all fruit!

I love finding little scenes like this around the house and seeing her imagination in action.

Love when she lays her head on my shoulder and snuggles.

Watching Trolls & Moana clips on Daddy's phone

Baking with Nora (Krause)

Playing dress up in her swimsuit

Watching Trolls with her cousin Stade (they're 9 months apart)

Claire LOVES watching Tara dance and tries to imitate all the moves

She loves Tangled (Rapunzel) and so does Nora :)

Fun with friends at a bounce house

Just wanted to jot a few notes down about Claire at 2 1/2! This is such a fun, cute age. I just love seeing her personality grow and develop and watching her learn. She is really my best little friend, even at 2 years old, and I am so grateful to have her.

Eating: She is generally a great eater (went through a picky phase for a while where she wouldn't eat much chicken or meat, but she's over that). She usually has a sippy cup of milk (6-8 oz) when she wakes up and then has breakfast around 9 or 9:30, a snack around 11, and lunch around 12:30 or 1. She loves oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, an apple (sliced) and a piece of cheese for a snack, and scrambled eggs or a peanut butter and honey toast for lunch. She sometimes has a snack after her nap, or just eats an early dinner, around 5:30 or so. She loves broccoli and most fruits and veggies and does pretty well eating whatever we are eating for dinner. Her favorite restaurant is chik-fil-a (she loves the kids meal with a juice box, fruit cup, and nuggets with chik-fil-a sauce).

Sleeping: She is a great sleeper usually. She sleeps from 8:30 or 9pm to 7:30 or 8 am most days. She has gotten a lot better about going back to sleep without getting upset when she wakes up during the night (which is not often) and needs something (medicine, a dry pull-up, is scared, etc.) She has started waking up with her pull-up dry some mornings, so maybe she will be done with those in the near future.

Growth Stats: 

• 37 1/2 inches (96%)
• 31 lbs. (79%)
• Wears a size 6.5 or 7 shoe and 3T or 4T clothes 

Development: 

• She has been great about going to the bathroom lately and not having any accidents. The last 2-3 months have been markedly better, but she has been potty trained since June 2016. She still isn't very independent in there (likes help getting on and off the potty and being wiped), but I am ok with that. We don't remember her really at all, she just tells us when she needs to go and is pretty good about holding it if we aren't right be a bathroom. She wears pull-ups for naps and at bedtime and has started waking up with her pull-up dry some mornings, so maybe she will be done with those in the near future.
• She is really into letters lately and is getting really good at identifying letters when we are out and about. She just knows capital letters, so we need to start working on lowercase too. We also need to work more on numbers and counting. 
• She loves to sing and can sing lots of songs by herself. A few favorites are ABCs, I am a Child of God, A Child's Prayer, and any song from the movie Trolls :)
• She is really observant and asks "Why?" all day long. She is also very sweet and often randomly says "I love you!" or "I missed you!" or "You're the best!" 
• She is very social and loves going to church or to do things with friends. She is a little shy at first with new people, but warms up really fast. 
• She loves to read books with us and has a handful of books that she has totally memorized. If we miss a word or a page, she corrects us haha!

Her Favorite Things: Trolls (the movie), Disney Princesses, Daniel Tiger, singing primary songs, going to nursery, playing with friends and cousins, the park, going to Mimi's house, makeup (especially lipstick), pretty dresses and shoes (changes outfits constantly), playing pretend, play-dough, bubble baths, painting/gluing/cutting with scissors, reading books, going to the library, going for walks, strawberries, Cinnamon Life cereal, chicken nuggets, oatmeal with peaches, cheese, vanilla yogurt, cottage cheese, apple slices, milk in a sippy cup, playing on the ipad, chik-fil-a, dancing and watching Tara dance

I wrote this out for my mom when I have the baby and thought it would be fun to save here:

Claire @ 18 Months

Our Claire girl is 18 months old! The cutest age ever.

Development: 

She is talking so much more  lately and has so much personality. Some of my favorite things she says are "All done, Mama!", "I love you much!", "Oh Toodles!" (from Mickey Mouse), and "Happy birthday, Nora!" 

She still LOVES her babies, Chloe and Annie. She always calls them by name. Loads up stuff from her toy room (dolls, stuffed animal, etc.) in her stroller, pushes it to the kitchen, and goes through my drawers to find more to her stroller, then pushes it back to the toy room. So busy! I love that she will play happily by herself for chunks of time so I can actually get things done around the house. 

Loves to climb up on things, dance, and do tricks. Can do a somersault! It's a little sideways but still impressive to me. Gymnastics in our future maybe? Except she's going to be TALL, so maybe not. ;)

She also loves books and coloring. She can hold a crayon really well and likes to scribble. We're pretty sure she's left handed, but we'll see! If we put a crayon in her right hand, she usually switches it immediately to the left and is more coordinated when drawing with that hand.

Claire is very social and LOVES her friends at church, Harper and Emma. They all love each other and get so excited to see each other. It's so cute. (She did great with nursery the first week. Then was sad and wanted me there for a couple weeks, but I could usually just stay the first hour and then leave once they broke out the snacks. Then after about a month she didn't want me there at all anymore. It's been great!) Also loves her friends Nora Krause and Ellie Levesque and her cousins. 

Claire also loves primary songs and nursery rhymes. She learned Ring Around the Rosie recently and loves that. 

Eating: 

Loves to feed herself and is getting better at eating with utensils. Some of her favorite foods are canned green beans (she would eat the whole can if I let her--it's weird!), yogurt, oatmeal, toast with pb & honey, and oranges.

Eats 3 meals/day + 2 snacks. Here's a typical day of meals:

8:00- Oatmeal & 1/2 banana 

10:00- String cheese & crackers

12:00- Scrambled eggs & fruit and/or veggie

3:00- Yogurt and/or toast & fruit 

6:00/6:30- Dinner (she generally eats whatever we're having and isn't very picky)

She drinks water or milk with her meals and has 1-2 sippy cups of milk each day (about 8 oz. each). We finally packed away all our bottles this month, and she really hasn't skipped a beat. We had been slowly not using them as much (and just substituting the sippy), so I think that has helped. We've also never given her a bottle to take in her bed or had a bottle as a part of her nap or bedtime routine, so that has helped as well. 

Overall, Claire has been a good eater and willing to try most things. She does LOVE her treats, so we have to be careful with that. :) She will do just about anything for a marshmallow or a chocolate chip. Ha!

Sleep: 

The last few months of sleep have been great. She rarely wakes during the night (sleeps from about 8:30pm-7:30am) and takes one good 2-3 hour nap around 12:30 or 1 each day. Her bedtime routine is same as always: bath, jammies/lotion/clean diaper/A&D ointment, 2-3 books, prayers, song ("I am a child of God"), lay her in bed.

Claire Turns 1!!!

We started the day with a little birthday breakfast: German pancakes with strawberries, whipped cream, and syrup. It was a hit!

We went on a family walk, Claire took a nap, I got ready for her party, and then we went to church. After church, it was time for the party! My parents were kind enough to let us party at their house. It was so much fun! We had all of Sam's family and all of my family there to celebrate our baby Claire. She is so loved!

Banner of her monthly pictures.

Claire with cousins Daci, Livvi, Eleni, and Street

Yay for cake! She loves to clap.

Opening one of her favorite presents, pink sunglasses!

It was such a special day for our beautiful, wonderful girl! We love you, Claire bear!!!