The Zebra Room

Our little bear has now been in her new toddler room (the "Zebras") for about a month. I think the change has been a good one, with two exceptions. Despite clearly enjoying her new friends and teachers, she cries most days when I leave... this breaks my heart. She also has picked up a few not so good habits from her fellow toddlers - standing on chairs for one. These hardly outweigh the amazing things she is doing now. She is getting so independent! She loves to do things by herself - she rarely wants me to feed her, she has gotten so good with a spoon. She can climb up and down stairs, just using one hand on a railing or banister. She runs and likes to test her boundaries. In her new room, the kids really enjoy music. She has been honing her dance skills and really likes when you sing to her. The song she likes to hear me sing most is "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" that's my girl!! She has become so inquisitive and her favorite question is "what's that?" I can't wait to pick her up each day and see what she has learned. Another nice thing about her room and teachers is that they take tons of pictures of the kids and then send them to the parents. I just can't get over how old Claire looks in the picture above.

Summer 2010

The summer is flying by so I thought I better blog and post some pics before its over!! Stay tuned for more pics, I am continuing to have issues with Kodak gallery. This summer in Cinci has been H-O-T HOT! To keep cool, we have been taking Claire to this awesome family aquatic center in northern KY. She was a bit apprehensive at first, despite the fact that the place really caters to young kids. Now that we have been a few times, however, and she knows the lay of the land, she runs around like a wild lady! I am not sure what she prefers more: running through the water that shoots up from the ground, playing with toys in the shallow end, floating down the lazy river with daddy, or that silly starfish that is pictured above. Needless to say, she is certainly becoming a water baby. Except on Wednesdays. What's Wednesday you ask... its water day at daycare. Claire has categorically refused to take part in any sprinkler activities at daycare despite her boldness at the water park. Every Wednesday if I ask her if she going to get wet, she is all talk and says, "yeah!" Then I ask Miss Becky and she just laughs. Oh well!

Our girl is getting big fast. I am proud to announce that she is starting to put two and three words together!! Our favorite, of course, is "I love you." Which she will do on command when grammy and Auntie Chicken are on the phone. She also says "I get you," "I tickle you," and is very polite to include, "up please," "help please," and "more please." When she was painting the other day at school she said "thank you" every time she dipped her brush in the paint the teacher was holding. What a cutie! While she understands colors, she often gets them confused but if you ask her what color something is she will at least answer you with a color even if it is wrong. What I have noticed this week is that she seems to be starting to comprehend numbers. A couple of times I have said "one" and she then said "two." She also has held up two items and said two. Hmm... maybe she is on to something!