Terrific Two

MO MO!
Cute little "TWO TWO" girl

Birthday Donuts

Claire is now 2. I am trying to be positive about this new milestone so I am calling it the Terrific Two's!!

I look back on the last 2 years and I can not imagine my life without Claire. She is such a joy and I am truly thankful that the Lord has in trusted her to me. She is still a very serious child and I love that about her, I love that she wants to take it all in before she does things. Over the past couple of months she has blossomed into a very funny and active little girl. Once you have warmed her over she will talk your ear off or will demand that you play with her over and over and over. She loves to sing and dance. She can hum most of the theme songs from her favorite cartoons and has the cutest little bottom shake dance that she does. I am not sure where she learned that but it is quite adorable.

Claire is still very independent and can be a little stubborn, she wants to do everything on her own. This can be a blessing and a curse depending on if we are going to be late somewhere or not. She likes to put on her pants and her shoes by herself. She is working on the shirt but has not mastered it yet.

She is such a big helper when it comes to Quinn. She likes to give Quinn her paci and toys and she still gets very upset if her sister is crying. She has a really big heart and she loves her family very much! She gives the best hugs with a little pat on the back at the same time. (She learned this from her daddy) Claire is picky about her kisses and doesn't just give them away but when she does they are awesome! (Jared hopes she will be picky with kisses the rest of her life!!!)

We are trying to teach her that she needs to share her toys with her sister. So far it is not working, everything is "MINE!". I am really hoping this is just a stage and that it ends quickly.

When she was 18 months old she only said mama, dada, and no. I was more than a little worried that she wouldn't be talking by 2, boy was I wrong! In 6 months time she has quite the vocabulary. She repeats everything and can say big words that I am surprised she even knows. She can recognize the ABC's and knows what sounds the letters make. She can also count to 10 and can recognize most numbers but not quite all of them. She is a very smart girl and Jared and I are very proud of her. I am pretty sure everyone knows that.

My favorite thing about Claire is her laugh and her smile. It is so beautiful and pure and innocent. I hope she never loses that.

The Terrific Two's have begun and I pray that in the middle of a tantrum or a stubborn fit that I remember that it is just a phase and somewhere in there is my sweet smiling Claire. Wish me luck, I can't wait!

Cuteness

I have to share the cute things that the girls have done the past couple of days. It makes me so happy and glad to be their mommy.

In the car on the way to church last night Claire was making faces and shaking her head from side to side in her car seat. This made Quinn squeal with delight and she would laugh...which made Claire laugh and then want to continue on with the game. It went on for about 15 minutes. I turned off the music and just listened to my girls laugh and play. It was the best!

Today we were in the car on our way home and Claire and I were singing to her favorite CD. (VBS CD from July that we still listen to daily. Claire can start humming what song is next...that is how much we listen to it) Suddenly Claire is shushing and saying night. I look back and she has her finger up to her lips she is looking at me and saying "Shhhh, Shhhh, N night, N night!!!!" Translation- Be quiet mommy Quinn, Claire calls her N, is sleeping or night as she refers to it. I have only seen her put her fingers to her mouth and shhhh a couple of times but never to me. It was pretty cute, she was just doing what I do to her when Quinn is asleep. Oh how they watch and imitate us.

Claire wanted my attention so I asked her "What do you need Claire?" She laid on the floor and started rubbing her belly and said "Ticka, Ticka, Ticka!" with the biggest smile on her face. She was wanting some tickle time. :) Too funny.

Quinn is an amazing crawler and gets where she wants to go quickly. She loves to follow Claire around especially in Claire's room with all of the toys. The girls will play for quite awhile together. Quinn stares at her big sister alot and Claire is always ready to make her laugh. Dinner time is near impossible, Quinn is always watching her sister and not paying attention to her food. Needless to say there are lots of laughs and lots of baby food all over the side of Quinn's face.

I am blessed to be able to stay home and watch all of these special moments that I will always remember. Thanks to Jared for being willing to let me stay home and for him "bringing home the bacon".

*Picture of the week*

Claire-23 1/2 months

Quinn- 8 months

Jared- 28 years

Claire is a rock star

Claire has been pacifier free except for naps and bedtime for a whole week!!!! Yeah!!! We had wanted to get rid of it when she was one but we knew Quinn was coming and that there was no way she was going to be able to do it. We could have been wrong because she has been a rock star all week and has hardly asked for it. I was so afraid of taking it away from her, I only thought the worst and did not give her nearly enough credit. She is such a big girl and has handled it very well. I think I may have been more terrified to let her get rid of it than she was. Hopefully soon she won't need it at all but I am not setting an end date just yet. I am now worried about getting rid of Quinn's.

*Picture of the week*

This may come as a shock to some, it did to me anyway. I did not take one picture this week!!!! I don't think that has happened since Claire has been born. For those of you that did not know that about me, I am usually a crazy mommy with a camera. :) There is always next week!

*Pictures of the week*

THE MIGHTY LION QUINN
ROO CLAIRE AND JOEY

MAKING SURE THE CANDY IS SAFE?!?

WHOOHOO CANDY!

Trick-Or-Treat? Treats please!!!

For Halloween this year we had cute little zoo animals to take around trick-or-treating. Claire was a Kangaroo and Quinn was a Lion. Quinn was only a lion for part of the time because the costume was a little big and she kept trying to eat the mane. Claire loved being a roo and carrying around her Joey. It is too bad we don't know anyone named Joey because she says that name perfectly. I wasn't sure if Claire was going to wear the costume but as soon as she saw Quinn put hers on there was no way she wasn't getting dressed up. We had a really good time.

This year we took the girls to Discovery land "Cute and Spooky" in Sand Springs. It was so cute. They had hayrides, petting zoo, face painting, jupiter jumps, pony rides, and an enchanted forest with non-scary furry friends to hand out candy. We tried letting Claire ride a pony...it did not go so well. She was NOT getting on that pony for anything. She crossed her legs and was in no way getting in the saddle. She did not even want to pet the pony first. It was a good thing that we just had to wait in line and that it didn't cost anything to ride, or in this case, not ride. She would, however, say pony. We went through the enchanted forest to get candy and I really thought Claire would be ok. Not sure what I was thinking since I am a little afraid of big people in mascot type costumes. (I am scared of the power cat from KSU...I mean come on, a cat head and a persons body, just creepy) Anyway, they had ducks and bears and rabbits. Claire took candy from the first character and then gave it back to the second. It was cute, I tried to tell her she puts the candy in her pumpkin (she calls it a "pumpin") but the concept at that moment was lost to her. She was too busy trying to figure out why a giant rabbit would be giving her candy. She didn't even know what candy was until that night. She decided she didn't like it and started to get frightened. So we picked her up and out of the enchanted forest we went with about 3 pieces of candy.

Halloween was observed in Glenpool, where we live, on Saturday. So while we were at Camp cute and spooky everyone was wishing we were home so they could come to our house and trick-or-treat and get candy. Halloween was observed on Sunday in Jenks so we drove a couple of miles and went through our friends,the Jang's ,neighborhood and took Claire to get a few tasty treats for mommy and daddy. Ummmm....I mean for herself. I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of Claire. This would be the first year she could walk up to a house and ask for candy. The first couple she was a little timid but by the end she would walk up, hold out her plastic "pumpin", and as soon as the candy was dropped in she would turn around and walk away. Her and Alex would say "Ready, GO!" and would run to the next house. It was so adorable to watch her little kangaroo tail swing from side to side as she ran. Her and Alex have such a good time and it is so fun to watch them interact with each other. We knew we were done when the kids were slowing down in between houses and trying to carry their pumpkins in the crook of their arms because they were getting heavy. We made it home with quite the stash! Claire came home and immediately dumped her candy on the floor and started going through it. Like I said, she does not even know what candy is but she had a really good time putting it back in the pumpkin and then dumping it all over again. Jared was on the floor picking out what he knew Claire wasn't going to be allowed to eat plus a few extras that he wanted.

I am sure you are wondering about the sweet little lion, Quinn. She was such a good little cub and tried to take it all in. She loves to people watch and to see people dressed up looking silly, what could be better? She played in Claire's pile of candy once Claire went to bed. She had a good time trying to get things open. Next year Quinn, it will be a whole new world.