52:5:Share

In our house...

we're LEARNING to share...

Claire has been learning about sharing lately.  She has lots of great new friends during the day to share with, so it's a good skill to learn.  Of course, we like the power of sharing because it often times gets her to willingly relinquish her grasp on something she probably shouldn't have.  

Most of our weekends now involve excessive puppy play time.  With Claire constantly on the run, it takes more than just us to play--even Wally and Mogwai wear out and give up before Claire's ready for a nap! It's also helped her learn the words "Wally" (so stinkin' cute when she yells out his name!) and "puppy".  She's sometimes confused because she'll use the word "Wally" to mean all dogs, but then we explain that only a pug is "Wally" and the rest are "puppy".  She doesn't call Mogwai anything.  We call him Mogy, but I think it's mind blowing that they're the same dog only one has longer hair.  :)

The best game of follow the leader

Mogwai has really been coming out of his shell with Claire.  He used to run and hide from her, but lately he's been following her around and cautiously looking for pets.  Wally is her main pal, which is good and bad depending on how you look at it.  It's great because he's so tolerant--she's hit him with her toys and cups, fallen on him, poked him in the face, and has been trying to learn to pet him.  It's bad if... well... you're Wally and getting throttled by sippy cups.  He's never shown he minds though, and when he's tired of playing he hides up in the corner of the couch and naps.  

This is her OTHER favorite puppy.  She drags him everywhere.

Mogwai is our rescued pekingese.  He's got a lot of problems (scars on his eye(s), messed up teeth, and then the body that is a pekingese--that's a whole barrel of genetic monkeys gone wrong!).  But he's still interested in play even though he doesn't know what it is.  He's exhibited great patience with Claire (well, after the need to hide in the kitchen wore off).  When we first got him, he wouldn't walk upstairs because he didn't know what carpet was and it scared him.  Imagine what seeing a "little people" must do to his sanity!  

He usually approaches first to get pets, but Claire came a running and he sought Matt for some extra protection.  Notice how she's petting with the back of her hand because she's also trying to point...

But Claire plays well.  She's working on gentle pets (but often times she finger points in excitement, so it looks more like jabbing).  She's also working on NOT stepping or falling on Mogwai.  Wally's tough and doesn't seem to care, if anything it just makes him more excited to play, but Mogwai is small and slow and was never meant to be pounced on.  

This reminds me of a poorly redone version of Godzilla.

 She obviously also is learning to share with the puppies.  She has this puppy (in some of the pictures) that she's become infatuated with.  She sleeps with him, carries him around, chews on him... and she calls him "puppy."  But this shows great sharing that she saw Mogwai was a little nervous, so she charged over (wonder why he's scared?) and gave him her puppy, then went back to play with Wally.  Of course, I had to capture his reaction--he didn't know what to think!

I can has... fake puppy?

52:4:Pretty

Around our house...

We like to be pretty!

Claire learned the word "pretty" back in December to describe the Christmas tree and lights, so it's not a new thing.  However, with her hair getting longer (and getting in her face) we spend some time in the morning getting Claire pretty by doing her hair.  Momma also has to get pretty putting on her make up and doing her own hair.  The inspiration for this was Claire coming to help me do my hair in the morning and pointing at me telling me I was pretty.  She loves to play with my giant make up brush--it's new and I don't use it for make up, so I figure it's safe to play with.

Checking out the "pretty" wand.  Of course, she doesn't need it, she always has such pink cheeks! (thanks, teething!)

She loves to get tickled with it--that's Clinique for you, making a brush that's so soft, it's like a feather!  But now it's also Claire's magic "pretty" wand.  And we have to brush other things and declare them pretty!  She tried to get Daddy with the "pretty" wand, but instead he took a picture of Claire and I playing.

Big girls comb their OWN hair, Momma!

I had to include some "outtakes" from getting our hair ready today.  Claire can comb and brush her own hair (although I don't do a very good job of taking a picture of it) and then she had to make her rocking chair pretty, too. 

If she could just learn to paint this neatly.  I guess it's always easy when you aren't working with something that stains the carpets and walls!

Oh the pretty wand... how I wished you'd do a little something for these bags under my eyes! (the task of taking Claire to day care in the mornings now has CERTAINLY weighed on my beauty... but it's so nice to have such a sweetie proclaim "PRETTY" and point at me!)

52:3:Cook

Around our House we... cook.  

I want Claire to remember the magic of snow days and be so happy to have such an unexpected, fun day.  I want Claire to some day stay home with her own babies and call me to let me know... the baby eats Farina ;)  That's what I did.

  I've been so inspired reading the other blogs that are also doing Project 52.  So I wanted to make sure I start capturing a few messages along with mine to tell our story of our year.  Here's our finished Farina made with the same "recipe" that my mom always used (plain Farina is NOT the bee's knees... but it is with some secret additions!)  Now that it's finally available in our area, I'm more prone to sharing, but I really was a Farina hoarder for years and would never let another person eat my special cereal.  But for Claire, I'd share no matter what.  I love cooking in the kitchen and having her as my little helper.  She's constantly pointing and asking "what?" to hear me explain what I'm doing or what something is.  From Project 52:1, even the pot hanger is getting special Claire attention.  It's "pretty".  Maybe just because I give her those pots to "help" momma.  :)

The "recipe" is not really so secret.  I'd share, if I were asked (although it's pretty darn simple).

The First Snowday...

...the very first of the year!  How I adore snow days!  I always marveled at the gift of an unexpected day off during the cold bleak months of the year.  I'm glad I chose a profession where the magic of snow days will never die. 

Normally on my "bachelorette" snow days, I'd cozy up in jammies, watch some tv, read a book, and nap.  Then I had a kid.  I have very fond memories of snow days as a kid.  My sister and I would play outside in the snow.  We'd sled.  Then we built a run after some ice which resulted in crashing into the fence.  We'd make snow men and forts.  Then we built an awesome fort that caved in on us.  And stole our parents scarves, hats, gloves--or used our own in the midst of building to help keep our snow man warm.  Then we'd come in cold and have hot chocolate and hot cereal (and as we got way older, we'd make our own pizza bagels and play games). 

I decided to pass on some of that heritage to Claire for her first "semi-lucid" snow day.  Last year we had plenty but she just didn't understand.  This time she had a little wonder in her--for some reason, Mommy and Claire were running around playing in jammies while Daddy got dressed and left for work.  Must mean fun! 

Claire helping with cooking--and showing off her teething face.  She's getting four new ones in all at once.

 We made breakfast, she took a nap, then playing around the living room actually reported to me she was poopy and ran off to get her diaper changed (I hate thinking about potty training so early--but holy cow!  She's on the road to it, alright!)  We built a house inside the house, watched Sesame Street snuggled up together... we had a great day.  Here are SOME of the pictures. 

The house in question--Claire is carrying in her tea cups.

Claire prefers the door the she has to rip open in the back.  It's good for a MTV Cribs style reveal--she's wearing her "Kid Vicious" shirt.  Bonus points if you know what that's hinting at.

Every good house has a kitchen, phone, and basketball.

Oh wait... hang on a second, I've got a call.

Hello?  (Static-y hair here...)

And of course, now we make tea.

Get Mommy her cup.

Now enjoy! (there's nothing in there... hows that for imaginary play?)

(she'll kill me someday for keeping this) Happy Snow Day!

52:2:Slide

 My how long New Year's Resolutions don't last... oh, I kept up with the Project 52 alright, but this is OUT of the House instead of in, and remember I said I wasn't going to just shoot Claire?  Well, that went right out the window the minute I decided to drag the camera to the mall for some play time fun.  So here's my second installment of Project 52.  Slide.  Claire LOVES the slide at the play area.  When she first attempted it (when she could barely walk, mind you) I think we almost passed out.  We had a collective, "Oh GOD" from the sidelines and sprinted to the middle, leaping over children, to try to catch her from certain doom.  Only she didn't die, she just turned around and slid herself down the slide (backwards, of course).  Since then we've been all about the play area and try to go about once a week to let Claire blow of some steam. 

peek-a-boo!

 Claire loves the play area.  Of course, we have some trouble of her running off into the actual mall area (and trying to seriously take off to only she knows where), but for the most part she really has fun, and what's great is the more and more we go, we run into kids around her age and end up having an impromptu play date!

She loves the house.  She'll run through, then climb through the windows.  How can you put a price on a face like that though?  Makes me want to take her every day!

 At 14 months, Claire is walking wonderfully.  She does fall down at the play area with so many textures and the spongy floor, but she hardly topples at home at all.  She walks to her room to get a diaper change or to take a nap.  She'll even wander into the kitchen to help me or walk into the bathroom to see what's going on.  The level of childproofing in our house has gone from awareness to code red! 

She just kills me how happy she is playing--and her running is so funny!  Remember when she couldn't crawl?

 Claire runs.  Everywhere she can, it seems.  Sometimes she just gets so excited, even around the house, she'll just take off and we can't even catch her.  My grandfather bought us one of those kid leash backpack contraptions (one of those parenting things I'd said I'd never use).  Now it seems like a real possibility as she keeps carving out her independence... at least I'll have a fighting chance at keeping up with her!

This week she started sliding the "right" way and not going down butt first.  Such a smart cookie!

What I love about Claire is that she can be observant, friendly, she's patient, and can share.  Just as dramatically, though, she'll emphatically tell you something is "MINE" and snatch it away.  Or she'll open up something she shouldn't (the entertainment center?) and shake her head and say "no", then close the door and say "close" then laugh and open the door back up, shooting us a daring look in the process.  She's talking so much and doing new things almost daily.  It's crazy how quickly her cognitive skills are changing.  I guess for the first year all I took note of were the impressive physical changes.  Now I'm excited and amazed by each new word, each new way she becomes her own person.  She's even starting to pick up her own imaginary play--one of those "I wish I had the GOOD camera out" moments yesterday--she had her tent set up with the kitchen inside, plus her phone.  She was digging through her fridge and suddenly grabbed her phone and said "Hello?"  I had to laugh.  She made me some tea to share (she'd come out and give me a cup) and later tried to put the tent on top of me (I guess she wanted ME to play house, too?).  If she could only have put her chair in there, I might never have seen her again.

My oh my how the time flies!

52:1:Hang

 

 So I'll bite.  I've watched for a year while people I know did their Project 52s, and I figured after I did my beautiful collage (of nearly only Claire pictures, eek!) that I could stand to take the camera and do more than just take another picture of her playing.  So I decided that for a positive (and fun positive, not like the "it's positive to lose weight" positive) new year's resolution, I'd start trying to document more of what is going on around here in a fun little Project 52 of my own.

The first installment is our kitchen project.  All of it started with some canisters.  I SHOULD have taken a picture of them, since three pretty red canisters caused the kitchen to go through a whirlwind this week, but I decided instead to capture the last step.  We put the flour and sugar in canisters, which meant I could put my cookbooks in that cabinet, which took them off the counter.  So I used that space to move the mixer.  Then the lovely wooden trash can we have broke, so we moved the microwave off of it and got a new one.  Then we had to move the china cabinet after I felt like we were too cramped at this year's Christmas Eve dinner that I host.  So somehow that all lead to--get a pot rack and get rid of the rest of the clutter!  We have pretty new pots and pans from our anniversary last year, so it's not shameful to put them out for others to see, and I kind of like the way it looks--so shiny and like a real professional kitchen.  Since we've "remodeled" I've even been in the kitchen doing what I used to do best--finding recipes, throwing stuff together, making delicious food!   So to celebrate, now not only do our pots and pans hang in the kitchen, but so do I.  Here's hoping 2012 will be a treat to capture on film!