Kiddie Pool Fun

One fine morning, Claire and I went over to Grandma Taylor's house for breakfast. Claire did not care about breakfast...especially when she discovered the kiddie pool :)

And grandma, the way-nicer-than-mommy-and-most-people type, filled it up with WARM water--not just hose water. SPOILED! I must say! She was also taking care of Sam, Claire's little cousin, and they had a BLAST.

Of course, neither of them had swimsuits, and Claire only had jammies on...which didn't stop them at all. Soon their diapers looked like the New Year Blimp. I called Jordan over to take pictures, of course! So fun!

So happy in the pool :)

The saggy diaper--not to mention these particular jammies are super loose on her! So her pants were falling down too.

After a while, we just stripped them of their clothes, put Claire in one of Sam's outfits, and they both played with NO diapers on. This is the BEST shot--LOVE LOVE LOVE Claire's wedgie!!! So funny!!!

Soaked and so happy :) Um, this picture on the right--doesn't she look like a boy?? Crazy.

Claire's 18 Months (and some Claireisms)

Claire is getting shorter and fatter! Hahha :)

Height: 31.5 inches: 35th percentile
Weight: 25 lbs.: 55th percentile
Head Circ.: 18.5 inches: 72nd percentile

She's got a good sized head too :) Yep, Claire's dimensions are really evening out! Dr. Harrison also took out Claire's staples and asked how many words she was saying (we said "um, like a million?" :) and how she was eating, playing, etc. PS. I'm sooooo glad this was her last round of shots til Kindergarten! YAY!

So, how about some Claireisms? What is she up to now?

*Claire has decided that "no" and "mine" are some fun words to DRAAAAAAAW out. If she doesn't like something or want something, (like a radio station in the car!) she'll say "nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnno!" and she won't just say "mine!" to a playmate, she'll say "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmine!" It's so funny. But we try not to laugh, and tell her to be nice!

*For a little while, when Jordan or I would sing songs to her before bed, if she didn't want that song, she'd say "no" when we'd start singing... it was frustrating for a while, but then I decided to just try 3 songs and "tough" if she didn't want any of them. But then Jordan learned a little trick :) He started infusing the songs with words like "elephant," "monkey," "teddybear," etc. and she was happy. Ha!! But now, she doesn't do it anymore! I can sing whatever I want :) And after each song, she says "again" very sweetly :)

*Claire has now become a ham. When we tell her to "smile" this is what she does:



Silly monkey :)

*Whenever prayers are said, Claire always, without being asked, will fold her arms for the entirety of the prayer! She totally keeps her eyes open but at least we have one thing down! She also says a big "AMEN!" at the end--even during sacrament meeting, haha. And she says "ah-men" not "a-men." Very proper, I must say.

*Um...last night, I said prayers with Claire and after I said "amen," she didn't say anything, so I said, "Can you say 'amen,' Claire?" And she said "No way!" I was shocked!!! She would not say "amen," only "no way!" I couldn't help but laugh my guts out.

*Claire is parrot-ing EVERYTHING these days. She also enjoys saying "silly," "no way!" "medicine" (yeah, that's her favorite thing..she's teething...), and is really understanding a TON.

*Unfortunately, Claire has learned to say "shoot" from Mommy, and "Oh crap!" from Daddy. She has never used any of these "in context..." until yesterday. Daddy got her out of the car yesterday afternoon and her sippy cup dropped. Without a moment's hesitation, Claire said, "Oh crap!" I guess you're not supposed to laugh, but we are bad. We did.

*She loves butterfly kisses, Eskimo kisses, and giving hugs to mommy and daddy (as well as the koala in a book she has :)



*Um, Mommy is "chopped liver" when Daddy is around. Just saying. She is a definite DADDY'S GIRL.

*Claire's current favorite songs are "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home" (of course), "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," and of course, "Do do do do do Dora!" and the "We Did It!" song from Dora as well :)



*Um...obsessed with Dora. She also likes "Zoomi" (Team Umizoomi)

*We've been trying to teach Claire the colors. So far, she knows how to say green, blue, brown, and yellow. BUT, when I ask her what color something is, she generally says "geem" for everything haha. She'll get it!

*Claire likes to "bounce" and "dance..." They're the same thing. Except when we say "dance," she just bounces a little higher haha.

Ah...I can't remember anything else. She's just a cutie. I love this age. If only she'd stop eating Crayons!

Cecret Lake

No, it's not a typo...it's called "Cecret" lake :) My aunt Shaunie is so hilarious. She LOVES flowers--more than ANYONE I know in the world! So she invited us to go to Cecret Lake during the best flower-blooming season, and it was totally gorgeous, of course! It was really funny though because every step of the way, she was dying over the flowers, and they were almost all the same, but every "lupine" and "forget me not" varieties were very important haha.

Claire was quite the hiker! But mostly she just played in the dirt, rocks, water, etc. She was almost oblivious to the flowers--we had to keep telling her that they were there! She just wanted to play with the rocks...tomboy on our hands? Probably not--hope not! She has to be super girly like mommy ;)

Anyway, here are some pics...


Here's the trail to the lake! SUCH pretty flowers, of course!


Eager to "get hiking!"


Claire's favorite part--the dirt.


More dirt... Let's be honest--we had to stop a lot on this "hike" :)


Another favorite--the water!


Getting dirty!


Shaunie and me. There I am in an "I give up" outfit looking like...what's the word...um...a whale...I really need to have this baby SOON!!! AH!

And Shaunie took a "family pic" of us in the flowers...check out Claire's SUPER cheesy smile!

Needless to say, I didn't exactly make it to Cecret Lake. The last part of the hike is all uphill and looked labor-inducing (at this point, walking to the very back of the movie theater is like hiking Mt. Everest, so...). But the "journey" was great!