the park

Lately we have been blessed with some beautiful 70 degree days!  Usually in the afternoon on such days we head to the park.  We are lucky to have one just up the street from us.

Claire's favorite thing at the park is the swings.  Whenever she is on the swings she is all smiles!

This last time she also tried climbing up the slide.

Then she crawls back and forth in this tube and loves having me walk back and forth to try and "catch" her.

Hooray for beautiful weather and park days!

I love it when...

hugs!

Claire comes up behind me (as I'm sitting on the floor), stands up, peeks her head around my shoulder and says "hi!" with a big smile on her face.  

I love it when I ask Claire for a hug and she wraps her arms around my head and usually gives me a big slobbery kiss too.

I love it when I bring Claire to our bed in the mornings and she somehow ends up sitting on our heads, or laying her head on top of ours, or just cuddling up to us.  

I love it when Claire stands all by herself and gets a huge smile on her face because she's proud of herself. 

I love it when Dan leaves for work and Claire says to him "bye da!" in her cute little voice.  

I love it when Claire covers her eyes and as she moves her hands away she says "booo!"

I love this 1 year old stage!  

Words

The other day I was thinking about all of the words Claire knows.  I wanted to write them down so I don't forget.  I love hearing her cute little voice!  At 13 1/2 months this is what she says...

"Dad" or "Da"- Claire loves her dad!
"Mom"- she likes to say this over and over as if she wants to ask me a question and then when I respond with "what?" she just keeps saying it.
"Hi" (occasionally she'll say "hello")- she loves to say hi, she is very friendly.
"Bye"- but even more than hi she likes to tell people bye.  Last week at Walmart as we were leaving the store she waved and yelled bye to every single cashier as we headed for the door.
"Up"- Claire loves when dad lifts her high in the air.
"No no no"- usually said as she is doing something she knows she's not supposed to.
"Na no"- which she says as she points to her nose.
"eye"- another word she loves to repeat over and over as she points to her eye or other people's eyes, or eyes of characters in books, etc.
"nana"- this girl could live off of bananas.
"mo"- meaning more, which she says while doing the sign for more.
"papa"- for grandpa.
"on"- usually said when she pushes buttons.
"dog"- I had no idea she even knew what a dog was, but last week as she was watching Baby Einstein on my phone a dog came running across the screen and she said "dog!"  I was like what???  She proceeded to call a few more animals dog as well though.
"bug"- her latest favorite word.  Claire started calling my friends' baby "bug" and now says it all the time.
"baa"- means bath, the best part of Claire's day!
"ball"- the one toy she knows the name for.
"uh-oh"- said when she drops something on the floor or last week when I stubbed my toe.
"boo"- said as she covers and uncovers her eyes.  It's adorable.

I think these are all her words.  We love watching her learn and grow!

Dan

I am always posting about Claire, so I decided I should write something about Dan!  Lately Dan has really gotten into being an entrepreneur on the side, his most recent idea is a math game called Arithmedice!  It's a great game to teach math and would make a good teacher gift too.  You can see it on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/Arithmedice-Math-Dice-Game/dp/B00INA8ZBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393650538&sr=8-1&keywords=arithmedice

I'm not posting this in hopes that you will buy it, I just think it's great Dan got an idea and made it happen.  Yay for Dan!

12 months

I've been meaning to write this post all month!  Claire is now 1 year old!  I also failed to take 12 month pictures of her, so I am just using her birthday photos.  Here is our sweet little 1 year old:

12 month facts:

• At 12 months Claire was 19 lbs and 28 inches.  
• Claire understands a lot more of what we say... she knows what I'm talking about when I ask her if she wants milk, wants to get dressed, go outside, wear a bow, eat, give a hug, or if she wants her pacifier. 
• She is learning more body parts and will point to her hair, eyes, nose, face, and head.  
• Sometimes when I blow on her food she will blow on it too.  
• She loves to open and close the cupboards and tries to pull things out.  
• She has started to stand by herself for a few seconds without holding on to anything.  
• Claire knows how to sign "more". 
• She added a few new words to her vocabulary including "nana" for banana and "papa" for grandpa. 
• Claire loves giving Dan and me big cheesy grins and we love it!
• Claire gets so excited when she pushes her walker around the house...  in fact, she likes pushing lots of things so she can walk including her play table, kid chairs, her stroller, and the laundry basket.
• She is very busy and is usually always moving, especially when I'm trying to change her diaper or her clothes.  
• Sometimes when we are done praying it sounds like Claire says "amen" too.  
• Claire likes to laugh when we laugh.  
• Claire climbed all of our stairs (which is a lot!) all by herself. 
• She loves climbing on our treadmill even though she knows she's not supposed to.  
• Claire has these 2 toy phones and she always throws them down the stairs.  Every single day!  
• She loves books with flaps she can lift.  
• Claire says "bye bye" a lot and sometimes "hi".
• When she is done eating she throws her food on the floor.  
• She loved all of the attention she got at her birthday party.  
• Claire ate her whole cupcake at her birthday and was so excited about it!  

We love Claire so much!  This year went by so fast.  She is such a fun, sweet little girl.  We love her cute personality and are amazed at the things she learns.  We are so happy she is in our family!