Claire turns 3

(I wrote this post shortly after Claire's birthday, but never got around to finishing it.  But the blog can't go by without a post about her 3rd birthday, so here it is.)

Happy Birthday, Claire!!!

For Claire's birthday, we celebrated with family with an outdoors, Curious George birthday party.  We had a dinner of chicken bbq, fruit, veggies, chips, potato salad, and cupcakes.  The kids flew kites, watched little bits of various movies (we hooked up a projector and blew the movie up on the wall), played on the play set, picked lettuce out of the garden, opened presents, and sat by the camp fire.  It was a fun evening, and we were so glad to spend the evening with family.

For Claire's actual birthday (the party was the day before), the girls spent some time at Grandma's pool.  Then we got a pizza and ate at Homer Lake.

I took Claire to the store yesterday to get her some new tennis shoes.  I got her a pair that has shoe laces (don't know what I was thinking) and that look like normal shoes (i.e. no pink hearts, lace, Dora pictures, lights, glitter, etc.), and they maker her look like such a cute little, big girl.  It's sad, but true: the cuter the clothes/shoes, the more brownie points toddlers earn.

But that's okay, because in general, Claire doesn't earn many brownie points, so she'll take what she can get.  She is ornery and rotten a typical 3 year old.  She still won't poop in the potty. She gets very dirty very easily, usually from a combination of dirt, sand, lipstick, and marker, and always right after I give her a bath.  Like that one time: 15 minutes after I dried Claire off from her bath, she walks into the kitchen with her stomach covered in blue-green marker, from neck to belly button.  She is constantly getting water all over the bathroom floor.  Normally, I wouldn't mind, except usually her feet are really dirty, so she will track mud into the kitchen, then slip on her butt from all the water under her feet, then throw a fit, forming a big patch of muddiness on the kitchen floor. I mean, really.  And there's the banana peels she leaves on the stairs, the lightning bug she insists on holding onto until its death, her anger at wanting a new pillow, the snot she smears on the windows, her obsession with candy, and the constant replay of "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" that I hear ALL day long.

Yes, the very truth is I wouldn't change a thing about Claire if I could. 

I mentioned this on Facebook, but I will mention it here too, because this is really cute:
I have begun teaching Lara how to cook. Coo does the drinks. So while making the tea, she sprinkled some broccoli in it behind my back; she thought it was a silly idea. Lara said,"Well, you better floss!" LOL cooking just got a lot more fun!


Claire really enjoys taking the "Llama Road" home.  I don't think any of us know the actual name of the road.  But there is a house on a small country road north of Homer that has a few llamas, so we call it the "Llama Road," and Claire asks to take it home most days, and we slow down and look at the llamas.  Claire really enjoys animals.  We got her a few fish for her birthday, and she really liked that.  I say that in past tense, because they have all since been flushed, after just a few weeks.  We thought about getting her a bird (that was what she wanted), but it is good that we did not.  I know fish are hard to keep alive, but it doesn't help when the mother of the house doesn't take care of other creatures as well as she should.  ;)


Claire has started dance classes.  She picked out her dance outfit.  She chose black over pink, and I thought that was interesting.  


Another tidbit about Claire.  She has always been a pretty bad eater.  She prefers to graze on fruit snacks all day (of course, I don't let her).  It got worse until Claire started throwing fits at seeing food on the table, even if it was some of her favorites.  When we go out to eat, she will just nibble on the bread, then precede to throw a fit when the waiter brings the food.  And she won't eat anymore food.  While I don't have a solution to the restaurants, I have finally implemented the solution at home.  I just put a really small amount of food on her plate.  Now, she will always eat everything.  Even her carrots!  Even her spinach-stuffed ravioli!  She cleans her plate most meals now, and usually asks for more, though the amount she eats is still quite small, I think, for someone her size at her age. 

She has given up her pacifiers.  She gave them to Olivia Jean a few weeks ago.  She didn't have a hard time falling asleep without them, but for awhile, she had night wakings.  She sleeps just fine now.

Claire's attitude is improving, and this is a relief to me. I often commented to Dustin that Claire's crankiness worried me.  But she has started coming out of this a lot, and is really a very happy, sweet girl now.   

Next post, I will tell you about Lara's swim lessons, Lara's lost-teeth, Claire's dance classes, and post some pictures. See you then.