Claire Update

Here's a quick Claire update. Of course, she is as cute as can be- that's obvious, right?

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She is now running everywhere- no longer walking. Actually, walking only lasted about 2 days before she decided that was too slow. Both my girls are early runners, late talkers- Claire still only just babbles, hardly ever any words. But, every time she babbles Audra likes to run over to me and say, "Claire just said Audra!"

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Audra has come up with a nickname for Claire: Little Guppy. I have no idea where she got this from, though I am guessing the Little Mermaid tv show. Where else would there be a little guppy? At any rate, we have encouraged this terminology because we love that Audra came up with it herself, and it is pretty cute. Even if Claire isn't really a fish.

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Most days, Claire is only taking 1 nap. That is a bummer because it makes showering more difficult, BUT it is making her sleep in until about 7:30 instead of 6:15, so that is a wonderful trade off! Even if I smell bad sometimes.

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She LOVES being outside and downstairs in the basement- where all of the toys are. She also loves wrestling with Audra. This is really cute. Basically it is just Claire sitting on top of Audra's head. They both think it is hilarious and laugh and laugh.

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Claire also loves to climb. This has led to her having many headaches, I am sure, because she falls. A lot. Outside of forcing her to wear a helmet all the time, I am not sure what to do. One place she loves and she can climb and fall all she wants is Jumpstreet- an indoor playground with trampolines and bouncy houses. We went there on Saturday because I have what I am calling "Park Fatigue." (Seattleites, don't hate me when I tell you this). Ben wanted to go to the park on Saturday. I wanted to vomit when he said that. I am so sick of putting on sunscreen and sitting out in the hot sun! I needed a break!!! This was not great news for Ben, who sits in his office all day everyday, but he understood and was happy to go to Jumpstreet. It was a fantastic decision- Claire was absolutely GLOWING the entire time because we let her do everything she wanted! It was a perfect Claire paradise. And Audra had a great time as well.

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Oh, I know you will all be surprised at this next part. Guess what her new favorite food is? FISHY crackers! I think that is a mandatory favorite for little ones!

Audra's Take #3

Audra gives me such great material to work with on these posts!
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Audra likes to sit at the piano and make up her own songs. It is incredibly cute...usually. Here are the songs she came up with the other day (remember, this is sung in a beautiful melody she composed and accompanied by her wonderful piano skills):
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I don't need Jesus.

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A few minutes later:

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I don't need mommy.

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A few minutes later:

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I don't need Nephi.

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(He is a prophet in The Book of Mormon).
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I wasn't sure whether to reward her creativity, spank her for her obvious pride, or lecture her for her lack of understanding. In the end, I decided she was three and let her be. But I will be watching her!

Audra's Take #2

Last night while putting on Audra's pajamas, she said:

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"I don't want to climb a mountain tomorrow."

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Being the dutiful mother that I am, I went and crossed it off our to-do list!

Audra's Take

Yesterday while I was changing Claire's diaper this conversation with Audra transpired:
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A: Mommy, I don't want to eat poop.
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Me: That's good, I don't want you to eat poop either.
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A: (with a big sigh) OK.

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Phew! I am glad that is settled!

Baby Steps

You thought this was going to be a post about Claire, didn't you? Nope, it's about me- letting go of my not-quite-so-little-girl-anymore Audra. One baby step at a time.

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Today Audra started ballet/tap class. It is the first time I have dropped her off with strangers to be taught by a stranger. She was great, though! She was so incredibly excited to go to dance class. She would not stop talking about it all day yesterday and today. She kept asking, "Mommy, can I go to dance class?" She will be going once a week for 45-minutes, and I have to admit: this is so fun for me to watch her do this! She LOVES to dance! I would be very surprised if she ends up going into sports, because her interests at least right now are on dance and music. But, we will see! Preparing for class this morning:

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Admittedly, this video may only be fun for the Grandma's to watch. It's Audra dancing before class. She will often ask, "Mommy, can I dance?" which means she wants me to turn the music on so she can dance around the living room. I always say yes, because I could watch her dance ALL DAY LONG!

Here she is in her class- there is just a small window that parents can watch through, and it has a glare so the pictures are not great. BUT- I just discovered I can turn pictures into black and white on my editing program so that made them look much better. FYI, there will probably be many B/W photos forthcoming!

Audra is the one with the criss-crossed back.

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After class, we got in the car and Audra said, "I love dance class!" Yup, I think we found her niche!

Random Acts of Not-So-Kindness

On my long drive to Utah, I listened to a book on tape. The book was titled, "The Actor and the Housewife." It is about a Mormon housewife who becomes best friends with a famous actor. It was OK, though certainly not on my top 10 list.
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But, an analysis of the book is not what this post is about.
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Instead it is about one small side story . In the book, the main character makes 2 pies a week to give to people from church or in her neighborhood who might need some cheering up for whatever reason. I thought that was a pretty cool idea, and pondered if I should start doing something like that. I eventually decided there are hundreds of different ways to serve, and it was OK that my way of serving was not the pie-baking kind.
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But yesterday I found out a friend was going to have a hard week due to some medical treatments she is receiving. I thought, "hey- I can bake her something to let her know I am thinking of her!" Plus, I had a coupon I was dropping off at one of my best friends homes' and thought it would be fun to give her some as well.
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I grew up baking quite a bit (Christmas treats in particular!) and am relatively confident in my baking abilities. That was my first mistake.
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In my mind I envisioned making beautiful cinnamon rolls:

I don't know why, but I decided it had to be cinnamon rolls.

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Unfortunately, my beautiful rolls turned out more like this:

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Burnt, and well, not too super tasty (for the record, this is not my actual roll, and they weren't THAT burned). Rather than throw them out, I decided to turn lemons into lemonade. I wrote a note to my friend with health problems and told her I hoped my horrible baking skills would at least bring a smile to her face, and to Arienne- I will just apologize for making you suffer!

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In the future, I think I will stick to baby-sitting instead of baking!

Beach Day!

It has been HOT here- like yesterday when it was 90 degrees, they called it a cold front- HOT. So for Park Day today we went to the beach!

I have never been to the Chatfield Beach before, and let me just say: we will be getting a pass for next summer! This place was so fantastic- and the best part was that hardly anybody was there! It's like the best kept secret!









I can not believe how much fun the girls had! OK, Claire slept for much of the time and barely let me put her down until just before we left, but Audra had the most fun! One of her friends had this innertube she let Audra use, and Audra just went back and forth across the lake forever. We will definitely be buying her one of these tubes!
And, I am just going to give a huge shout out to all the ladies who bring their kids and join us for park day!!! We are not an exclusive group- anybody is invited! I just send out a weekly e-mail with the name of a park and we get together. If you want to join, e-mail me and I will put you on the list.
Anyway, it is so WONDERFUL for me to be able to get with these women and relax (unless we are chasing kids and keeping them from killing themselves) and talk. I am so incredibly grateful to have such wonderful friends, and I feel incredibly blessed. Also, the fact that our kids absolutely LOVE each other and get so excited to see each other is just fantastic. I wish we could have our little play group forever- do our kids really need to grow up????

Here are some more pictures of our Park Days this summer: