My girl likes to Potty all the time....

Hello all!

Today we took Claire to the pumpkin patch to pick out her pumpkin and take some fall pictures. She looks so much bigger than she did in last year's pumpkin patch pictures! We also went out and got her second halloween costume, the first one didn't work out so well! She was going to be a Hula Girl for Halloween and we got her a grass skirt, but we forgot she doesn't like grass!! I made her put it on one day and she just lifted her arms and said "ugh! ugh!" and wouldn't move until I took it off her. So, back to the drawing board we went. Now, instead of a hula girl, she is a Fairy! :)

Our other good news is that Claire is regulary going on the potty like a big girl! Today she even held it until we got home and put her on, way to go, Claire!

The Bahamas

On Sunday, Chadd and I left for our three daycation to the Bahamas for our seventh wedding anniversary! We stayed at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island, which is gi-normous and I'm sure was quite the place in it's heyday, but the maintenance on it hasn't been that great, and they obviously have taken quite a hit with the economy. The Sea Lion trainer said that a few weeks ago they were only booked to 16% capacity, and we found out the hard way that only 1 or 2 of the hotels 8 fine dining restaurants are open each night. But we made the most of it! :) Monday was our actual anniversary and we did a Sea Lion interaction in the morning where we got to hug, kiss, feed and pet Cassie, the California Sea Lion. Cassie is what the trainer called their "Rock star" sea lion, as she's the one that meets all the celebrities when they come. Cassie has met Miley Cyrus, the Jonas brothers, and Brad, Angelina and the kids. I asked if Cassie had ever met George Michael, but she has not! That afternoon we floated around a ride called "The Current" which was one of the best parts of the weekend, part lazy river, part river rapids it was bad ass! We rode that for hours, then we went to the pool for a few more hours! Nice relaxing day, Ahhhh! For dinner we had Italian at Casa D'Angelo, molto bene! Tuesday morning we snorkeled with the Manta Rays in their Ruins Lagoon. I had no idea how big Manta Rays are, they are HUGE! They have two Manta Rays, Achilles and Adonis, but Adonis hasn't been eating so they had him quarantined so we only got to swim with Achilles. We flew home Tuesday afternoon and it was back to real life!

Our trip to Rhode Island

My Mom and I took Claire up to Rhode Island for a few days to visit Zia Maria and other family and friends! Our flight left on Thursday at 5:55 AM, which meant a 4:15 AM wake up for Miss Claire. I was hoping she would stay asleep, but no such luck. She stayed awake on the drive to the airport, through security and on the whole first leg of our flight, Palm Beach to Atlanta. On the second leg of our journey, Atlanta to Providence, she finally took a short nap. What I did learn though was travel safety rules do not apply to toddlers or persons traveling with toddlers! Our plane was leaving the ground and I found myself completely unbuckled and Claire sitting on the floor at my feet, the flight attendants couldn't care less! On our last flight home on Monday, the flight attendant pretty much told us she didn't care what Claire did as long as we were next to her, and she was quiet! (the last part was implied, but the message came across loud and clear). Claire's favorite thing to do to pass the time was opening and closing the window shade and saying "up", "down", "up", "down", oh, and also turning the reading lights on and off. Why do kids like repetition? Anyway, once we got to Providence, Maria picked us up, we installed Claire's car seat and we went to Lucky Garden to pick up Chinese food to bring to Reenie's for lunch. We visited and had lunch with Reenie, but then it was time to go so Claire could get a nap in before dinner. When we got to Maria's apartment, Claire got to meet her cats, and apparently Claire cannot say "Cats" because she was chasing them around yelling "Ass!" "Ass!". Oh dear! We met family and friends (Barbara, Maureen and David, and Cathy) for dinner at Gregg's. By the time we left Gregg's it was about 8 PM, an hour past Claire's bedtime, and she had been up since 4 AM (3 1/2 hours before normal wake up time) with only 2 cat naps all day, but she was giddy as all get out. Even the people in the booth next to us commented that she was holding up pretty good!! :)

On Friday, we were going to go to the zoo, but it was cold and rainy so we just decided to spend a relaxing day and go down to Galilee for chowda' and clamcakes. Yummy! Well we don't know what set her off, one minute she was fine and seconds later Claire had the meltdown of her young life! She was throwing herself on the floor of the restaurant and everything! It was crazy! My mom took her next door to the gift shop while Maria and I finished off our order of steamer clams (So Yummy!!) when we got to her she had JUST settled down. What set her off was still a mystery, possibly the man in the booth behind us that bolted as soon as she went crack wild? Anyway, once she settled down we took a walk around Galilee but it was cold and rainy so we didn't stay very long. On the way home we went by Del's lemonade, a RI tradition. Claire totally enjoyed her frozen lemonade! We went back to Maria's before dinner and Claire took a good nap, which was much needed. For dinner we went to Ichigo Ichie, a Japanese restaurant. Claire ate just about three bowls of the soup that comes with the hibachi dinner! She really really wanted to eat with chopsticks, so the waitress brought her a "kiddie pair" and her and I muddled through dinner together with them. Oh, she kills me with her independence!

On Saturday, I suggested we go to Cape Cod to see the potato chip factory (Maria had mentioned it earlier and I thought it sounded like fun), well she neglected to mention that they are only open Monday through Friday, so we already missed our opportunity! I was so bummed! We decided to take Claire to Chuck E. Cheese instead for lunch. There really wasn't a whole lot for her to do there, but we had fun for an hour or so, then we were done. It was Saturday afternoon and the place was chock full of screaming animals. Aye-yai-yai! On the way home we stopped once again for frozen lemonade, this time watermelon flavor from Mr. Lemon! I haven't had that since I was 10! We had dinner at Maria's house and Claire fell asleep at her normal bedtime and we watched the Richmond race. I will point out that both Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth missed the Chase, which is what I was hoping for, yay!

On Sunday we took Claire down to Roger Williams park to feed the ducks. When we were kids we used to take a big bag of popcorn for this adventure, but we took some slices of bread. At first Claire just threw the bread pieces on the ground, then I held her as she threw some out in the water, then she got brave and handed a piece to a goose. The goose took the bread and then waited for more. Claire got another piece out of the bag and handed it to the goose, and the goose bit the bread AND Claire's finger! Oops! She only cried for a second though, what a tough girl. After the park it was time to go to the airport. We hung out in the airport, Claire had dinner, and then we boarded our flight to Atlanta. The plane took off and a few minutes into the flight the pilot announced we had to return to Providence because our landing gear was stuck down! So, we returned to Providence and we all got off the plane. It was the last flight of the day to Atlanta, and they had to fly in a maintenance crew to work on the plane (!) so needless to say the flight was cancelled! We got rebooked on a flight Monday afternoon, but the only flight we could get home was through Detroit to Ft. Lauderdale. We called Maria, she picked us back up at the airport and we headed back to her place for another evening of sleeping on air mattresses! The bright side was that since we weren't able to go to Cape Cod on Saturday, we now had our opportunity Monday morning!

We got up bright and early Monday and headed down to the Cape. It was about an hour and a half drive. We got there and took our tour of the potato chip factory, it was pretty cool! We got some fresh Cape Cod chips to bring home and we drove back to Rhode Island. We had lunch at Chelo's before we had to go back to the airport again for take two. This time our flight took off without a hitch, we had a short layover in Detroit (I don't think I've ever been to Detroit, they have a nice airport) and then home to Ft. Lauderdale. Claire was almost asleep the last 5 minutes of the first flight but we kept her awake so she would fall asleep on the second flight. Then she was almost asleep walking down the jet way to the second plane, and we had to wake her up to get out of her stroller, well then "overtired" kicked in and she was a bit of a bear the first 10 minutes of the second flight. Once we took off though she fell fast asleep and slept the whole 3 hours home. Kristen and Thomas (what troupers!) picked us up in Ft. Lauderdale at 10:30 PM and drove us to our car that Chadd dropped off at PBI when he flew out that afternoon. By the time we got home it was 12:30 AM Tuesday morning! But, we got an extra day on our vacation and we had fun!

Amazing!

Yesterday was a really cool day! First, all my car needed was a new battery, and the old one was still under partial warranty. Second, our visit to the Social Security Administration only took 15 minutes. Third, Claire's pediatrician got us an appointment within 30 minutes of when we called, took us right away, and diagnosed that Claire did not in fact have pink eye. Fourth, we made it to her Gym class on time even after all of the above stops (mechanic, SS, Wal-Mart, and doctor all before 11:30!). Claire did all the gymnastics and even went near Mr. Anthony who she usually avoids. We went to Wendy's for lunch and ususally I find pennies in parking lots, but I found a quarter. I said you know what? That stupid Space Shuttle is going off tonight. We had driven up there Monday night, camped for 2 & 1/2 hours only for the launch to be scrubbed at the last minute. The launch was then rescheduled another two times that we wouldn't have been able to attend, but both of them were scrubbed, leaving us with a launch time of 11:59 last night. Anyway, we left home at 6 PM, got to Titusville around 9 and staked out at our spot. Stephanie, Tony and Evan joined us about 10:30 and we camped out and waited. Conditions improved from 60% to 80%. Things were looking good! Then, when we were walking towards the bathroom at 45 minutes to launch, lightning lit up the sky behind the shuttle! Everyone just stopped and a collective "UGH!" rang out through the crowd. Once we got back to "camp" we turned on the scanner and found that the lightning was off shore and far enough away that all systems were "go" and liftoff chances are 100%. HELL YEAH! At 11:59 the Space Shuttle Discovery fired up and launched into Space lighting up the whole sky for miles and miles. It was pretty darn cool!!! Then, we drove the 2 & 1/2 hours home...ugh.... crawling in bed at 2:45 AM. But, sooooo worth it! So, "see live space shuttle launch" has been crossed off my "Bucket List". Three big things remain: 1) Meet George Michael 2) See the Aurora Borealis 3) Ride a donkey down the Grand Caynon.

First Haircut, First Lollipop

Today started off with Claire falling down in the parking lot on the way into lunch and scraping her knees. She recovered quickly from that to eat lunch and partake in Friendly's ice cream. After that we headed over to Snip-its in Wellington for her to get her first haircut. Well from the moment we plopped her butt in the pretty pink seat and strapped her in she started crying and it went downhill from there. The tears were intensified by the blue apron they put on her. The hairstylist was quick and efficient and even managed to give Claire some flippy ponytails and red fairy dust to match her outfit. While I paid Grandma gave Claire her first lollipop, she enjoyed it very much and all was quickly forgiven.

Oops!

Claire's toddler bed arrived this week, and we put it together Friday morning. She did great Friday night, but when I checked on her this morning at 7 AM, she was awake laying on her floor next to her bed looking around like "Where am I?". I have no idea what time she fell out of bed or how long she was sleeping on the floor! Oops! Grandma Milton is in this weekend for a visit so we have been hanging out and playing. We also went to the mall to get Claire some new shoes since she grew out of her sandals that we bought her at the beginning of the summer. A few months ago her size 4 1/2 W sandals were still a little big and now her feet are a size 6 1/2 W! And when I say "wide" I mean "w-i-d-e", like E width, wide. The lady at Stride Rite said she had "marshmallow feet!" :) I also did some Christmas shopping for Claire online this weekend, only 131 days until Christmas, I can't wait!

This weekend so far

This morning after Claire got up and had breakfast, she "helped" me convert her crib into a toddler bed. Since she has been doing so good in her toddler bed at Mom's house, I decided it was time to go into a big girl bed here at home. BUT, once we put it together, we found out that the mattress is like 10 feet off the ground! Way, way, way too high for ANY toddler! She couldn't climb up into the bed, and if she ever fell out it would be a long fall! So, 30 minutes after we changed it to a bed, we changed it back to a crib. Guess I'll be ordering her a bed this weekend. After her morning nap, we had lunch then went out to play in the yard on her water mat, then we went in the pool. For dinner we met Stephanie, Tony and Evan at Sailfish Marina in Riviera Beach, where we also fed the fishes. Claire was more interested in eating the "fish food" we brought (Goldfish crackers) than she was in feeding them to the fishes. Guess I should have brought something she didn't like so much! But Steph gave her some stale Kix cereal to give the fishes, and she didn't try to eat that. We had a good dinner then it was bedtime for little Claire Bear.

Just another Manic Monday

Well, Claire's big bed trial has gone swimmingly so far! The first night she slept in it was Saturday, and she was sooooo tired. She had only about an hour nap all day and she was up about an hour past her bedtime, so when it was finally time to go to sleep she just laid down and didn't move! Tonight was her second shot at it and after getting up three times and pitter pattering down the hall to Grandma, Grandma laid down the law and she was asleep in 10 seconds!

Big Girl Bed

Well, Claires BGB arrived yesterday! We came home and put it together and dressed it all up in her Winnie the Pooh sheets and blanket. Once she woke up from her nap, she went over to Grandma's to check it out. She liked climbing on and off, on and off, on and off, then she leaned back against the pillow with her drink and said "Ahhhh", pointed to the TV and got comfy! The real test will be tonight when Chadd and I go to play Bunco and she has to go to bed at Grandmas! Hahahhahahhahaha (<--- evil laugh!)

Claire's 18 month checkup!

Today Claire went for her 18 month checkup. She is growing like a weed! She is now 33 1/2" tall (95th percentile), 26 pounds (80%) and her head is 19" (95%)! Dr. Rahman asked if she knew at least three words and we were happy to report her vocabulary of "Juice", "shoes" and "fish". She also says "Woof" for doggie, and often tells them to "Shhhh!" when they are barking with a finger to her lip and all! Dr. Rahman said she might be a little bow-legged, but only in her left leg, and she will probably grow out of that by the time she is two. At the end of her visit she got her last shot until she is 4 years old, and she didn't even cry!! Not even a whimper. She definitely gets that from Chadd! She's got a little cold right now so maybe it's because she was too doped up on Benadryl and Triaminic to care? :)
We are about to depart on another new adventure soon, Claire will be moving to a big girl bed in the daytime. The crib at my Mom's house was recalled, so we will be taking that back (obviously) and we have decided to just go ahead and replace it with a toddler bed. I'll let you know how that goes!

Claire's Clubhouse

Hello Everyone!

Claire is doing a few more new things these days. Most notably, she started drinking from a straw. She just needed a little motivation in the form of a Caribbean Way smoothie from Smoothie King! It was a good drink to learn with because it is nice and thick and didn't come up the straw too fast and surprise her. Plus, she didn't mind working hard to get it up the straw because she LOVES smoothies! She also had a "kinda" milestone. We think she said "No more". After dinner one night I was cleaning up and she was trying to get her tray off so she could get out of her high chair and I said "Are you all done?", and she said "No more". I told Chadd, "I think she just said 'no more'!" Then two days later my Mom was telling Kristen over the phone what I thought she said and she said it again, my Mom and Kristen both heard her. However, she hasn't said it since then! I think her talking days are just around the corner. She definitely understands everything we tell her.

Our other project recently has been Claire's playroom. I got my office all cleaned out and her play mat and toys in there, but her current decor is Jimmie Johnson and George Michael. I love it, but I'm working on getting her something a little more age appropriate. :) Today we bought pretty green paint and some new toy storage, and soon it will all be transformed into what we are going to call "Claire's Clubhouse", because the decor is going to be based on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

The sad news of the day is that Claire cracked her head on a mirror in Gym class today! Well, she actually turned her head and hit her ear pretty good. She fell off a mat and I felt terrible, but she recovered pretty quickly. Guess I better get those ice packs in the freezer and ready to go! Our little jungle girl is climbing on everything!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Today we got up and went to 9 am Mass at St. Rita. Claire was very good in church, everyone told us so. She flirted with the two boys behind us, but what else is new! She took a nap when we got home, and when she woke up, the Easter Bunny had come! The Bunny had left her two baskets, one at home, and one at Grandma's house. He brought her lots of cool stuff, a bunny, a Pooh Bear, a coloring pad, crayons, cookies, and puzzles, oh and don't forget the yellow bunny ears. We went out for a family lunch at Buca di Peppo. Thomas met us for lunch, but he had spent the morning at the fire station. Before lunch they had gotten a call from a lady that had fallen (and couldn't get up!) When they got there, the door was locked, so instead of breaking down the door, they tried to get into a window first. The apartment was on the second floor, so they called the fire truck with the ladder and Thomas volunteered to go up and in through the window. Well the window was kinda small, but he managed to get his shoulders through...... then he got stuck! So, his head is in this lady's apartment and his butt is still hanging out on the ladder. The lady says "Can you see me?!" Sure enough, there she was in the living room, on the floor looking at Thomas. Thomas says "Yes, ma'am, how you doin'?" They ended up having to break into the door anyway. As one rescue team tended to the woman, two other firefighters had to get Thomas out of the window.... they were laughing their asses off the whole time, of course. Needless to say, Thomas was our Easter Lunch entertainment. After lunch, Auntie Kristen came out to visit and brought the present the Easter Bunny left at HER house for Claire.... a Radio Flyer Tricycle! Just like the one she test drove at the store. Her legs are still a little too short to pedal herself, but she was more than happy to sit back while Mommy pushed her up and down the driveway!

15 months old

Claire turned 15 months old on Saturday, that meant it was time once again to go see Dr. Rahman. She is now 31 & 1/2 inches tall (85%) and 25 lbs. (85%), but she has a big head at 95%! She got two shots today, and she did really really good, so I promised her an ice cream treat after lunch. After her doctor's appointment, we went to Toy R Us and rode some tricycles, then a quick stop at Kohls, before lunch at Mississippi Sweets BBQ. After lunch, we went for our ice cream, then Wal-Mart, then home for a nap! While we were at WM I bought her a Little Tikes drum, she loved it!! She banged on the drum the whole ride home like a crazy baby!

A Little Person

Well it is clear that Claire is no longer a baby, and she is now a little person. When she wakes up in the morning she always has this baby mohawk thing going on, I tell her instead of saying "da-da-da-da" in the morning she needs to say "cock-a-doodle-doo" because she looks like a rooster. This morning it was especially bad, so instead of fighting with her hair to stay down, I put it into pigtails. She started playing in her room, and I told her I'd be right back I was going to start her breakfast. When I came back she had gotten her hat, and put it on her head, guess she didn't like the pigtails! When I tried to take the hat off she wasn't happy. So, she ate breakfast in her "breakfast hat". After breakfast we ran some errands, Wal-Mart, Petco, the Mall. I swore I'd never let her play in the fruit pit, but today I broke down. We didn't stay very long because it was almost lunch time. Plus, it is Saturday so there were all sorts of bigger rambunctious kids there!

The Circle of Life

On Friday, Zia Maria (Auntie Maria) came down from Rhode Island because Grandpa was in the hospital and it wasn't looking too good. He's been living in an assisted living facility for a while but things have gotten worse for him lately. Grandpa passed away on Sunday afternoon. Maria was with him at the time, and it was very peaceful.

Because she was in town she decided to tag along to Claire's gym class this morning, and she also took some pictures! As you can see, Claire has overcome her fear of the ball pit. I taught her last Thursday how to climb up and over into the ring at the gym (you'll see on the website pics), and she quickly used that knowledge to climb up on the couch at home...we are in trouble now!!

Over lunch, we discovered that Claire really really likes Sweet Tea, my little southern belle. Zia Maria gave her a few sips from her glass, and oh boy, did she want more! I of course, made her stick to her milk. For dinner, the girls (Me, Mom, Claire, Zias Maria & Kristen) went to have Japanese. Claire ate her whole dinner from chopsticks (I wielded them, she just opened her mouth) and we found out she has quite a liking for japanese soup and mushrooms! She really enjoyed dinner at the japanese restaurant, she's clearly mine and Chadd's daughter!

February Stuff

Well today is the last day of February. Where does the time go? This month Claire's vocabulary is still small, but she has started regularly waving "bye-bye" and blowing kisses. Sooooo cute. She has started classes at My Gym, they are Mommy & Me classes where the activites are gymnastics based. We learned she is not a big fan (yet) of the ball pit! In her first class she got to zip line across the room in a baby swing...weeeeeee. Since she got to zip line as an embryo in Costa Rica, she was a pro.

Today, Claire and I went to Lion Country Safari to waste the day away. It is pretty handy dandy to have a theme park/zoo like 5 miles away! She just about got licked by a giraffe, she stared down a goat, and she made a friend named Katrina at the fountains. We bought annual passes, so we will be visiting a lot more! She was in the car approximately 3 & 1/2 minutes before she was fast asleep!

Claire turns One!

Okay, okay, so it's been awhile since the last blog! I've been a little busy!! Christmas, a birthday, life, work....... you get the picture. So let's play catch-up. Claire reached a very important milestone a few days before Christmas, she took her first steps! It's only been a few weeks and I believe she has quite mastered it, she walks everywhere and is doing very well. Claire then had her first Christmas and it was a true success! Everyone came to our house to celebrate. Christmas Eve we had our "feast of the seven fishes", which is my favorite dinner of the year, followed by opening of the presents! Claire normally goes to bed at 7 o'clock, which is about the time we were going to sit down for dinner. Our hairbrained scheme was to let her sleep while we ate and cleaned up, then wake her up and have her be in a good mood while we opened gifts, then put her back to bed and she would go back to sleep like a little angel..... and guess what?? IT WORKED! She got all kinds of neat toys and clothes from everyone!

The next morning Santa came and she got more presents. I thought she would be interested in ripping off the wrapping paper, but she really wasn't. Maybe next year! Santa brought her very nice toys like a swing for the backyard, a Bounce n' Spin Zebra, and a Bear Chair, to name a few!

Ten days after Christmas Claire celebrated her 1st Birthday! Once again we had family and friends from out of town that traveled a long way to help Miss Claire turn 1! We had a little party and Claire got to enjoy her first Cupcake! She was actually more interested in the cake than the frosting, I think she gets that from me!

Today Claire had her one year check up with her Pediatrician. Her official stats are Height: 30 & 1/4 inches (85th Pecentile), and Weight: 24 lbs (90th percentile). My favorite parts of her turning one are: 1) no more formula! and 2) she can now face forward in her car seat!

In a week we embark on our next adventure, Park City! Claire will have her first plane ride, she will even be going First Class! We traded in points for the flights and decided to upgrade ourselves, more for our sanity than her comfort. Claire will be seeing snow for the first time, so I'm sure there will be TONS of pictures and blogs! Promise!