Claudia is TWO!

This morning we went to Chuck E. Cheese which was Claudia's big present that she wanted. We are trying to have a relaxing day. She has opened a few presents and likes the easel Mimi got her a lot.

Claudia likes showing Baby Joseph Henry how to do everything. She shows him how to eat breakfast, watch TV, and how to draw with crayons.

Claudia has had a tough couple of days. We don't think she is really sleeping at night so we bought a humidifier and we are hopeful. She has been coughing a lot at night. She has been trying hard, but largely unsuccessful, in being her normal cheery self.

Aunt Susannah and Mimi have been visiting for the big day tomorrow (2!). Today we went looking for some big girl beds (and a sleeper chair for Mimi) as the rooms are about to be shuffled. We are waiting another week or two before designing the new room.

Today Claudia went to the Christmas Party at Monkey Business. Santa was there. Tonight we go see cousin Hunter who gets to skate on the ice between periods with his team at the minor league hockey game in Bridgeport. Many of you "old timers" laugh when you hear "minor league hockey in Bridgeport". We will let you know how it goes.

You can see that our map on the right got reset this past week. Last years map is copied to the bottom of the blog. Lets work on filling the map up again with red dots.

Claudia has been pretty sick. This is really her first cold. She has been a very good girl with no complaints (she probably doesn't know any better).

Santa visited Southbury two weeks ago and she did not want to sit on his lap, which is fine. We think she might now. But she was sick last night and missed him in Southbury. He comes to Seymour tonight at school so we hope to be well enough to see him then.

Me: "What do you say when you see Santa?"
Claudia: "Ho, Ho, Ho".
Me: "What do you ask him"
Claudia: "Please, Santa"
Me: "Are you going to ask him to bring you anything for Christmas?"
Claudia: "Yes, presents"

Mommy loves this story.

Claudia normally orders a grilled cheese if we go out to eat. Tuesday she was at Applebees. When the waitress came to order Mommy ordered chicken fingers for Claudia.

Later the waitress brings the food and puts the Chicken Fingers down in front of Claudia. Claudia stares at it for 10 seconds, looks up at waitress and says:

"Is my grilled cheese still cookin?"

Last night Claudia was at the cross country banquet. While the coach was giving his presentation they were serving the cake. Claudia was very good. Everyone very quiet and Claudia nice and loud "MMMMM--DEEEEELICIOS".

Claudia is very excited about watching the parade with her friends!!!!! She has been talking about it for days, although she was really hoping that we would see it "on the road". She is eagerly awaiting Santa so we can "say hi and wave".

Claudia is getting much better at her typing thanks to Elmo. She understands when to use the mouse or touchpad, but not quite how yet.

Elmo also helps her with lots of other things of course.

Claudia is already talking about her birthday lots (thanks to Mommy, I think) and she certainly wants cake with candles and balloons. We wore her out last year between Christmas-birthday-New Years-visits so we will try to give her some down time this year. She is already excited about a visit from her Aunt Susannah. Anytime we say "Aunt Susannah" she says "and Tyler too!!"

Claudia will go to the SHS cross country banquet next week. She has her hat ready.

I'm Ready!!

Claudia went to the Seymour soccer game today. Daddy forgot his keys to get in the school which was very bad!! Claudia was very upset.

Tonight we go for pizza. We just talked to Mimi on the computer which was fun for Claudia. She is getting much more comfortable on the phone.

She is also much more "2 years old" but that is a story for another time.

We have returned from our weekend trip to Boston to visit Claudia's godmothers. Claudia had just about the best time ever.

First of all we got to stay at a HOTEL. This was really fun. She had a pool to swim in, a hallway to walk in, a bed to bounce on, and a nice restaurant to have breakfast in. She even called Mimi from the hotel because she was so excited.

The next day Elizabeth took Claudia to the Boston Children's Museum. Claudia exhausted Elizabeth as they traveled through all the exhibits. Claudia especially liked riding the horse and playing with all the water.

That night we went to Bertucci's for pizza. Claudia was a very good girl and sat between Elizabeth and Kerry. After dinner her friend Kristen gave her her first lesson in nail polish and Claudia listened very intently.

It will probably be the last time we travel for awhile so it was great to have so much fun.

Claudia had fun tonight as Harley the Horse. Harley is her favorite horse at Mimi's house. She can list all the horses and dogs that Mimi has.



She practiced trick or treating this morning which was a good sign that the costume would get on. At about 5:30pm we went back to see Noah and Leah which was fun. Daddy carried Claudia back so she wouldnt tire her foot out.



We then headed over to Aunt Patty's and Uncle Mark's house where we saw Grandma as well. We went to three separate houses and did real good at each one.

Claudia is having lots of fun playing with her Grandmother. They have been reading and visiting places all day. We went out for pizza for lunch and they also went to look at pumpkins this afternoon.

I will post photos and videos later.

Mimi's here!

Update: X-Ray was negative. She is a trooper.

2nd Update: Well, it is broken. No cast. Went to orthopedist today (Wednesday). Apparently she is having a bad day all around so she did not appreciate going to the doctor either. She is very patient.

Claudia fell while playing "Ready, Set, Go" and racing on the front walk. We went to the doctor today and we have to go for X-Rays tomorrow on her foot. Hopefully its not broken.

She is a tough kid!

Claudia had lots of fun at her friend Lauren's birthday party on Sunday. She had a hot dog for the first time and liked playing downstairs in Lauren's "kitchen".

Today she went to the league cross country meet to watch Daddy work and see all her friends run. She calls them the "happy girls". Her favorites are Olivia and Carrie.

Claudia likes her shapes. She asks us to draw them whenever we color. So I say "Claudia-what shape do you want me to draw??"

Claudia: "Hexagon!!".

Me: "Uh, Kasey, how many sides on a hexagon?"

I have a feeling she will keep us on our toes.

Tonight we saw Thula Sizwe in concert. They are a group that is touring the country as they visit from South Africa. We saw them in town at a church. They were very good and Claudia enjoyed it very much.

Claudia has had several birthday parties to attend so she is quite the social animal this week. She is also quite obsessed with her favorite part of the week: Monkey Business. She goes every week and plays with her friends (Timmy) and on the slides and sings songs (Itsy Bitsy Spider). She probably asks to go to MonKey Business 200-300 times per day. Money well spent I guess.

Yesterday we went to a cross country meet and Claudia had lots of fun. She likes talking to all the girls and practicing her starts. Ready-Set-Go!

Today we went to Quassy park with Jack and Hunter and will see them again soon for a birthday party and some fireworks at the Southbury town celebration.

Homework time.

Claudia enjoyed watching the Southbury 10K road race which went by our house last Sunday. Abby enjoyed it as well.

Cousin Monique is over right now so Claudia is having lots of fun. Claudia really adores Monique, which is good because Monique is a fabulous role model.

She went out with Uncle Rick and Aunt Pidge for dinner the other night as well. She smiles and giggles everytime she says "Uncle Rick".

Claudia has had an interesting week. She has started her "school" where she goes once per week to Monkey Business. She sings songs, plays on the mats, and listens to the teacher for about an hour. She talks about this all the time, which is good. She likes to point out her teacher's house when we go for walks (of course, it isnt her teacher's house). Claudia loves talking about school busses as she likes getting her Cousin Jack on the bus and her neighbor Leah also started kindergarten this year.

She also got a basketball hoop (3ft) that she is playing with. She loves practicing her shapes and will color in her coloring book all day long.

Claudia had fun today at the Newtown Labor Day parade and then saw lots of her relatives for a birthday party. Claudia practiced drawing her shapes with Elizabeth along with Tyrone and Tasha (Claudia loves the Backyardigans!). Needless to say, Claudia is a bit wiped out and had a bit of a tough afternoon. But after her nap the old Claudia has returned!

As most of you know, Claudia is very talkative with us and very shy with others. She has two "jokes" she likes to tell. We are curious to see if any of her friends and family can get her to say them. Of course, she won't stop once she starts.....

Claudia had a nice visit to Pennsylvania to see her Grandma and her Aunt and Uncle. Claudia really likes it there (as does Abby). She had fun going to the Corvette Parade that was shortened by a real severe storm. Made the news. Tree came down right in front of Aunt Susannah's house. Needless to say they sent all the corvettes home.

Claudia loves her purse.

Claudia is back from her vacation in Vermont. She went to Sunset Lodge where her daddy and her Grandma went when they were kids. Something like 55 years of visits. She was a very good girl the whole time.

Claudia loved going swimming. We swam once or twice a day. She liked sitting with Mommy and then swimming out to the dock. She is a big girl swimmer and likes to use her arms now (with help!).

After swimming we would have popsicles!

Claudia really wanted to use the kayak.

We had lots of nice meals.

Claudia loves her corn.

Claudia went to a carnival this week with some friends. She had a good time riding the cars and the slide.

Soon we travel for vacation. Lots of packing to do.

Claudia loves to sing.

Claudia went to watch Daddy ride in the Litchfield Hills Bike Tour. She checked all the equipment out when we finished.

Bathing beauty.

Claudia was part of a language study today at Haskins Laboratories. She was in a study last year as well. This time they were measuring how children respond to words spoken in differrent accents. Does Claudia understand a Connecticut accent as good as Jamaican accent?

After the testing we visited the Yale Art Gallery and Claudia did real well as this was her first visit to a real museum. We looked for babies and horses in the pictures and that kept us going pretty well. Its a real good museum (and its free..).

Claudia worked at the Kopec family farm today where she picked bushels of berries in her bathing suit (she also swam for a few hours).

She picked up the mail as well. In this picture she is waiting patiently for tomorrow's mail.

Claudia has had lots of meals out to celebrate birthdays. She ate celery while Mommy had chicken wings and had lots of cake and ice cream. She had big fun with her cousins Hunter and Jack.

Of course, her sleep schedule had been crazy with all the food and crazy routine so she has been a bit....challenging at times.

Claudia has had a busy week. Her grandma visited from Pennsylvania for a few days and they had lots of fun talking about stuff. Claudia is also helping her grandma Kathy move into her new house.

We went swimming many times. Claudia can float on her back now if we hold her arms. She is getting real strong and big.

I have been having difficulty fixing a leak at our dishwasher so I asked Claudia to help me hold the flashlight and hand me the screwdriver. She also made several suggestions and I think she may have fixed the problem.

Claudia also very much likes throwing rocks for Abby in the river. Abby likes it too.