A Post for Claire (Day 1)

This post is dedicated just to Claire. She is such a sweety. She adds such a quiet tenderness to our home. We love her so much. I don't know what our lives would be like without her.
I think of her as our quiet comedian. Often times, she'll do something funny, and then just go about her business until I notice her. Even her teachers have commented on her "sophisticated" sense of humor. And she still prefers sleeping on the floor, though now, I guess she prefers the floor next to the couch instead of the floor next to her bed because that's where we find her every morning. Such a funny girl.
Claire started school at East Central (the location that Summer is at) in the beginning of January. This means instead of once a week for two hours with me there to play and interact with her, I now drop her off with Summer (but in a separate classroom) for three hours Monday through Thursday. I had since September to think about putting her in that classroom, and I observed the class, met the teachers, and thought about it a lot. After making the decision to put her in this classroom, I've seen such a growth in her. She struggled for a while with the goodbyes, but she loves school. There is a little window her height that lets her see into Summer's classroom, and Summer can see into Claire's classroom. Sometimes they see each other through the window and wave at each other. They love it.

I've been giving her more liberty to dress herself, and one day she came walking out of her room wearing this new skirt. Needless to say, I didn't let her wear it to school. The breeze would have been too much.


Claire's been putting "y" at the end of her words lately. She says, "head-y," "toesies," "fork-y," "coat-y," etc. Rhett calls Pyper "Pip," and now, Claire calls her "Pippy." It's cute to see that she's come up with a little nickname on her own.

Captain Jack Claire-ow

This is her "I Love to Dance" song and dance. The clip starts with her telling Summer to clap for her. Then she starts into dance and song. Don't stop watching just because it's repetitious. You gotta hear that high note (is that vibrato I hear???).


A few days ago, we were driving home from school and she burst into this "Moon up in the sky" song. I'd never heard it before, so I figured she'd learned it at school. That night when I put her to bed, she sang it again. It was so cute because she'd repeat it over and over again, and then her last time she'd go up high and her eyes would close as if she was trying to hit the high note. The next day at school, I asked her teachers to teach me the song so I could sing it with her. They said they didn't know it, and that she must have made it up. I thought it was so cute so I tried to get her to sing it for the camera. This is what she did.


Here she is, actually singing it--amidst hiccups. She didn't go up high, but she ended the song with "in the ceiling" really quietly. I love the last little look out of the corner of her eyes she gives me at the end.


Rhett took this picture on his new Ipad while we were flying to PA. I love it because it shows her beautiful big eyes so well. Love those eyes.

Claire expresses her love to us so often. A few nights ago, I was putting the girls to bed and she leaned onto my shoulder and said, "I love you mom. You a good momma." She looked me in the eyes when she said it, and I could tell it was genuine.
Here's a clip of her telling Pippy she loves her so much. (Of course, this is coached from me, but it's right after she was telling her on her own, so I thought I'd catch it on the camera too.)


On an unrelated note, so far my wild and crazy year has a list of two things: swallowing pills and getting a post on my blog by a REAL author: Sharon Creech. (Not just REAL, but one of my absolute favorite authors.) I've decided to add to this list: post a blog post every single day for a week. Now that would be wild.

So check back often--here I go being crazy!