Claire at 18 months!

We can hardly believe that Claire is 18 months old! We have been a little scattered with our posts lately as Claire has kept us very busy. We feel that it is time to provide an update on all that Claire can do now bothfor your enjoyment and our memories as this blog is doubling as our baby book for Claire.

Growth and Health: At Claire's 18 month checkup she weighed in at almost 20 lbs. On the WHO charts she is at the 15th%tile for height and weight and the 50th%tile for head circumference. We have really seen her grow a lot over the last few months and she is now almost as tall as some of her friends. She is still a light weight, but since she continues to love all different types of food and is following her own curve we have no concerns. We have been lucky that she is an adventurous eater and has tried most things that we have put in front of her including Thai and Vietnamese.

(Eating at our favorite Thai place & her unofficial measurement at the zoo)

She has also been back on her reflux medication for about 2 months now as she was having problems with coughing at night and with spitting up. The medicine has worked wonders and she is no longer coughing herself awake at night.

School- Claire is in the young toddler room at school with many of the friends that she has had since she first started at Primrose. We have a class photo at home and Claire can point to all of her friends as we name them. She continues to be the youngest in the class and we feel that it is helping speed along her development as she watches all the older kids do things. Sometimes this is not always a good thing, recently she decided to try out the biting that she had seen (and felt) the other kids do. Luckily she only has two teeth so she can't do a lot of damage but we are working on curbing this habit quickly.

Developmentally, Claire seems to learn something new everyday. She is walking, running, walking up and down steps with a railing, and she climbs onto anything she can swing those little legs up on. Two weeks ago we transitioned Claire to a toddler bed- bye bye crib! She loves being able to climb up into her bed all on her own.

(Sleeping in her toddler bed for the first time)

Her vocabulary is also growing daily and we arenow more cautious about what we say in front of her as she loves to repeat. She has about 30-40 words and they range from "No" which she says in an adorable way to "breakfast" which she just learned.

We also did a brief stint of potty training where she was really into it for about a week and we enjoyed that week of not changing dirty diapers, but she has decided that the potty is not for her right now so back to diapers we go for awhile longer. It will all come in good time.

Some things that Claire enjoys right now are reading books, learning to use her balance bike, playing in the river and fountains at our local park, walking Sparky, pushing her baby in the stroller, feeding her doggy bank Rufus, coloring, bubbles, slides and swings, cooking in her kitchen, helping us "clean" by sweeping and helping with laundry, her tumbling class, hiking, laughing, and dancing to Michael Jackson and others (I think that the reason she loves music and dancing so much is all those weddings she attended in utero -thanks to all that were married in 2009!).

(Reading, Playing with bubbles, showing off her bike, hiking on Father's Day with friends)

We continue to be amazed by Claire daily and feel very blessed to have a healthy and happy child.Thank you to everyone who has shared in Claire's life so far, we are thankful that she has amazing people all around her.

(Dancing at the Greek Festival & Our Family on Dave's 32nd Birthday)

New England Trip for Reunion Weekend!

Over Memorial Day Weekend we headed back to New England for a 10 day vacation which included lots of time with family and friends. We kicked off the weekend with a BBQ at the Borish Home with fellow members of the Noble Class of 1997 (Melissa's high school friends). It was a blast to catch up with everyone, to celebrate two pregnancies, and to have all the kids run around the yard and play in the bouncy house. Here is a photo from the end of the night

(Alexis, Claire, Luke, Abby, Brandon)

We spent a lot of time on the farm with Melissa's family enjoying the company of Claire's grandparents, great grandparents, uncle & aunt, and her cousins. Claire's favorite part of the farm was the three sheep that her Papa had bought for her. She would command that we go see them with the simple instruction of "BAA BAA GO GO" and running to the door.

We also celebrated Memorial Day with two parades, the first one Melissa's nephew Tyler marched with the band in and the second one Melissa's grandfather (Papa to Claire) rode in. After the parades we packed up everyone and headed to have a picnic at HIlton Head Park.

We spent our 3rd wedding anniversary at the beach, walking the Marginal Way, enjoying lobster rolls and spending lots of time on the beach where Claire loved to chase birds, while yelling BIRDS and splashing through the tidal pools. It was so much fun that we returned the next day with my grandparents!

We were also lucky enough to have some time with Pete, Theresa Isabella, Martha, and Pascal at a BBQ at the Huang Home on Memorial Day evening and then Pete, Theresa, and Isabella introduced us to this great hole in the wall seafood place in Kittery on our anniversary. We enjoyed clam rolls, lobster rolls, calamari, lobster quesadilla and chowders.

(Claire and Isabella at dinner)

On Thursday we headed down to Boston to kick off reunion weekend at Simmons and MIT, but our first stop was the New England Aquarium. We had fun running around the giant fish tank and catching the sea lion show.

On Friday we headed out to Drumlin Farm by Walden Pond with Kerry, Grace, Jen, and Autumn. It was a blast watching the kids enjoy the chickens, sheep, pigs, cows, and goats!

Later that night we headed over to Simmons for tea in Dix Hall with the ladies and then to the Welcome Dinner with the whole crew. It was great to be back on campus and see all the changes that have occurred.

(Possibly the future generation of Dix Chics- Grace Fagan, Claire, and Autumn Shapiro)

On Saturday we spent the day at MIT, where Dave listened to lectures, Claire played in the kids area (Check out the face and arm paintings), we took a walk around the halls of MIT, toured the wind tunnel, and took part in the Tech Challenge Games (building paper air planes, building a contraption to launch angry birds, a Pi race were all part of the fun ). All in all it was a great day!

We capped off the weekend with brunch with the Simmons Ladies and their wonderful families! Hard to believe that it has been 10 years since we all roamed Boston together and now there is a future generation of strong girls that may go on to become strong Simmons Women (or MIT geeks)