The Buzz of Spring

We’ve been busy these last two weeks with the warmer weather, spring break, and good times with friends.

Events:

Jungle Themed Birthday Party: one of Claire’s friends turned one. His mom threw a giant party with an awesome snake-shaped cake. Claire enjoyed eating the m&ms on it while I ate the chocolate cake part-mmmm!

St. Patrick’s Day: I joined some moms in putting together a potluck party for our kids at the church. I taught myself how to face paint and had way too much fun doing it! There were several crafts, and I put together a four leaf clover hunt. I painted my nails green the day before and Claire wanted me to paint her nails too. That’s the first time she’s had her nails painted and she did very well letting them dry and didn’t chip the paint off too much.

Donuts and owies: Claire and I had a unique day where we bought some donuts and milk at a shop and went to the nearest park to have a mini picnic. Her donut had pink icing and multicolored flower sprinkles that she called stars. Since they did look very much like stars I didn’t try to correct her. I had a chocolate glazed donut with raspberry filling-mmm! That same trip, she was holding the donut in one hand and her drink in the other. She tripped on the cement path and took a spill. This resulted in her first real owies: a scrap on her knuckle that bled a little and had a big scab on it for two weeks, and a bruise above her eyebrow that went away after a few days.

Spring break: We got more sun and more time with Skyler! We enjoyed going on walks, eating out, watching movies, and we had a fun little party with friends to find out that we’re having a baby boy! At my ultrasound appointment I had them put the gender of the baby in an envelope, and then I gave it to my visiting teacher. She was the only one who knew what we were having until the party! She made the most amazing cupcakes. Skyler and I both guessed that we would be having a boy. I bit into one to find if the inside filling was pink or blue, and it was blue! Then we all enjoyed blue-filling cupcakes together.

Claire Bear: As Claire’s Birthday, Easter and our trip to WA approach, I find it harder and harder not to buy her gifts! There are so many cute things out there that I think she would love playing with, and she’s such a girly girl too! At the store, when I let her walk around, she loves to grab balls, plastic cups with straws or sippys (and I cringe when she puts them in her mouth before I can get to her), and once grabbed a lunch box that looked liked Daddy’s but was pink and had Hello Kitty on it. Lately she’s been saying: “Momma”, “Mommy” (and my favorite) “Mommies!” more often now. Before, she would say “Dada” more often. She continues to love taking off her clothes, and thankfully keeps them on most of the time we’re out of the house. She’s starting to identify and say color names and I’ve heard her say “two, three, two, three.” We love her lots!

Let’s go to the zoo!

Claire went to the zoo for the first time! It was a lot of fun. She went with me and seven other moms and their kids, so it was quite the field trip! She mostly enjoyed being with friends, being able to walk around and seemed to enjoy the ducks and elephant the most. She knows how to say duck, fish, cat and bird. We saw a wide variety of animals even though we didn’t get to see all of the zoo. I liked how close up the animals were to us, and I got to have a bird walk on my arm in the bird room. We were outside a lot and despite sunscreen I got my first sunburn of the year. One of my favorite pictures from this week is the last one where Claire is eating pink cake with pink icing while wearing pink. That was from the Relief Society Birthday activity last night. I’ve noticed that at the store she’ll always choose pink things if she can, like a bottle of pink paint or a rectangle of pink felt. She’s our pink girl.

Love those blonde curls

Claire’s hair is getting so long and I still love how it’s curly most of the time!

Picture commentary:

March decoration project

These ice cream cones were from a kit we checked out at the library on colors. Claire called the scoops “hats”

One day we made a nest out of blankets and pillows to play in

Claire likes to take my union jack purse and wear it as a backpack

Dada was correcting papers, so she sat up to the coffee table and corrected some of her own

I’m sad this picture is blurry, but this is usually what I see at breakfast time: my two favorite people!

Claire still likes to take her shirt, pants or both off and it makes for some good “when I was a kid and it doesn’t matter if I have clothes on or not” pictures

I was making pizza and she had fun eating the olives and she also usually demands pepperoni too

Skyler still loves to have Claire fall asleep with him; good thing we’re having another baby so he’ll have plenty of opportunities to snuggle

This picture was a second too late, but when Skyler goes to the bathroom and closes the door, Claire will get on her tummy and can “see” him

Claire must be a Quinn and Hebdon because she likes puzzles and can do them now on her own!

Bathtub picture! Her hair is getting so long!

Waiting for the doctor can be fun if you get a hold of the swivel stool the doctor sits on. Claire did a wellness checkup and got the second half of a shot. I was a little nervous how she’d react, now that she’s older, but she got over the shot quickly and didn’t cry when they checked everything else. The doctor was asking her questions like, “Can you touch your nose?” and she kind of gave him this intense stare back, and I thought, I guess that’s better than crying and screaming instead!