Dear Claire: January, 2009

Dear Claire,

In less than a month, you'll be two! Unbelievable!

You have very impressive large and fine motor skills. You are very good at wooden puzzles, peeling stickers off of things, and doing unexpected things like taking the stylus out of your daddy's phone. You can climb on anything, and have managed to climb into the fridge, up the stove, over the arms of the sofa, and even up the tall end of your bed.

Climbing into a boat at the mall play area.

Claire relaxes to enjoy some raisins while perched in the air, feet on the coffee table, back against the sofa.

Your two favorite activities right now are playing with stickers, and pouring water back and forth between two cups. You've become impressively accurate, so we've stopped stressing about spills. Also, I learned that what you're doing is learning part of the foundation of math! Sometimes you want someone to hold one of the cups, and your Aunt Laura won your devotion by playing "the pouring game" with you for hours during our Christmas visit.


You are just about the pickiest eater I've ever met, although sometimes you surprise us with what you are willing to eat. French fries are solely a ketchup transport device, although you've found that your fingers are more efficient. You refused to eat the pot stickers that I made, but ate the entire bowl of soy sauce with a spoon!


You don't remember last winter, so this December brought a big weather surprise! So far, you are NOT a fan of snow. You don't seem to like how it feels underfoot, and touching it with your fingers made your cry. Perhaps we'll wait until next winter to start skiing lessons!


Your second Christmas was a wonderful one. I'll write more about our trip later, but we went to Pennsylvania. Photographing you and all of your cousins at play almost requires a wide-angle lens! I did manage to capture one moment of your Pap-Pap playing with all six grandkids.

Left to right: Pap-pap; Julia, 2; Claire, almost 2; John (in blue), 8 months; Jill (in brown with pink polka dots), 8 months; Jimmy, 2; Jessica, 6 1/2.

You have developed such a sense of humor! You are VERY mischievous. Your favorite joke is to ask for a snack or a drink. When we return from the kitchen, you run for wherever we'd been sitting, steal our seat, and crack up! I can't believe that you can hatch a plot!


You are a huge Daddy's Girl. Dad is your best friend these days. When you go on a hunger strike, sometimes the only thing that will get you to eat is to sit on your dad's lap and share his food. The holidays gave you a lot of extra Daddy time, and you were in heaven.


You are full of surprises, and we're so very proud of you. Your sign language and comprehension are growing very rapidly. Just this week you put two signs together for the first time! You also added two new spoken words to your vocabulary: snowman and NO! Grandma's Christmas tree was like an enormous, enthralling set of flash cards. You could point out all of the bears, birds, and dogs, and listened as Grandma told you about angels, snowflakes, and snowmen. After a few days, you started saying "mo-ma!" for snowman! You've also been saying yes and no by grunting "uh-huh" or "uh-uh." This week, you started to say a very clear, "MO!" I know that it won't belong before I'll be quite tired of hearing you say no, but for now, knowing how difficult it is for you to articulate, that "MO!" is the sweetest sound in my world.

Love, Mommy