Keeping up with Claire

I just realized I haven't written about my little miracle this month. I feel like she does something new daily, and most of it keeps us laughing. She tries so hard to be a little comedian. She has started speaking in "sentences" over the last few weeks. Stringing 2, 3, 4 words together....to me...is pretty amazing. I can't believe how much she soaks in. I have worked with children for almost 12 years at my job, and I have watched many children grow up before me...but never my own. Never have I been more amazed. Here are a few (ok, maybe more than a few) things she's doing now:

• She says "want some" EVERY.SINGLE.TIME my husband and I eat anything. Even if we know for a fact she hates it, even if she has tried it before and spit it out. There is no reasoning with her though, so we always let her try it again. Besides, she may like it after a few tries. 
• She copies body gestures like it's her job. I caught her crossing her arms in front of her chest in the tub the other night. It made me laugh out loud. The next night at dinner I saw my husband sitting across the table with his arms crossed across her chest. I looked at my daughter, and sure enough, she was trying to get her arms just like daddy.
• She tried to rest her head on her fist laying on her side today. She wasn't quite that coordinated just yet, but it was hilarious watching her try.
• She got her upper 2 yr molars this week. I have to say she is THE.BEST teether ever. Every single tooth has come right on schedule, and other than chewing on everything in sight, sleeping a bit more, and maybe being a little whiny, she cuts teeth like it's nothing. 
• She is getting really fast running. So fast, you can actually see her little legs move faster than her body follows her, and it usually ends up in her tripping and falling from being off balance. Though, we laughed one time, and the comedian that she is, she does it on purpose now often, so it's hard to tell if she's falling or throwing herself onto the floor.
• She repeats everything. Her vocab is expanding by the hour. 
• Everything is "green". Everything. 
• She is changing her baby's diaper. Full routine of wiping, diaper cream, and new diaper. Then, she shakes the baby and says "shoosh shoosh shoosh". She will lay the baby down and say "nie nie" (night night) and pat the baby's head. It's the cutest. I tell her all the time what a good mommy she will be...in 30 years....when we let her leave the house and see boys for the first time...
• Miss Independent wants to go up and down the stairs by herself. Up stairs, she is really good at. Down stairs, not so much. She has no real perception, and walks like it's normal and trips a lot. What can I say? She's clumsy like her mom. Needless to say, I make her hold my hand for now going down the stairs.
• She also always says "walk" if I'm carrying her. She refuses to hold my hand if we are by a parking lot, so it usually ends in me carrying a kicking and screaming toddler through the parking lot into the store or our car. I always give her the choice of me carrying her or her holding my hand. She picks neither. So mommy gets to pick for her. Doesn't end well. She's a stubborn one. That's for sure.
• She likes to run around the stairs in the house. It's a rectangle path, and she will say "run, run, run. c'mon mommy/daddy". If we don't get up to run, she will go behind us and push us. It's hilarious. I love that she is so strong-willed. And it's also quite a pain in my rear. 
• Somehow she has gotten obsessed with buses. She will see one go by the house, or while we are out driving and screeches "a bus!" And when it is out of eyesight, "more, more bus!". We count them every day. Even when I'm not with her I find myself counting them. Oh she is so funny! 

All this talk about her makes me want to go wake her up and kiss and hug and snuggle her! She makes me laugh so much every day. I can't think of anything else right now, though I'm sure there are a million more things. She makes my heart full every single day. Every night while rocking her and telling her how much I love her, and how much Jesus loves her I cry. I can't help it. My heart is so full, and I can't even imagine how full our God's heart is. Tonight, we talked about Jesus making heaven ready to be our home, and how her brothers and sister are already there waiting for us. I asked her if she was excited to go to heaven and see them. She said "yesh" and smiled really big and tried to get out of my lap to go there. I know she doesn't get that it's a place we can't go to by car or bus or walking....but I can't wait for that day, because I know there are 3 of us right now that can't WAIT to get there.