Claudia had A LOT of fun at her friend Mateo's birthday party yesterday. She ran around and played the whole time (except when it was time to eat cake).

Today we went swimming (last time for the season) and then Mr. Kurt came over to watch basketball. Claudia likes Mr. Kurt a lot.

Claudia and Daddy had a big date last night. They saw "Horton See a Who" which was Claudia's first big girl movie. Claudia sat through the whole movie, although she ran out of snacks around half way through. We then got a slice of pizza which she ate very slowly.

We both enjoyed the movie. Today is a big birthday party of one of her friends that she is very excited about.

Claudia thinks the baby is coming Saturday. We shall see. It has got to be soon.

Claudia has spent the evening making thank you cards and drinking a smoothie ("De-li-cious!!"). She played outside most of the day.

Elizabeth and Kerry came to visit Claudia today. Claudia has been talking about this for days and had lots of fun with both of them.

Claudia has had several play dates recently and has had lots of fun with her friends. She is talking a little bit more with people which is nice.

We have been learning people's names and letters ("What name starts with R?" "Ricky!"). It helps if your name is five letters so we can sing it (B-I-N-G-O). We've got a pretty good handle on Margo's name as well.

Claudia went to the doctor's office with Mommy yesterday. Dr. Thomas is her mother and fathers doctor. Dr. Thomas was also Aunt Susannah's, Grandma Mimi's, and Grandpa's doctor. He was also her great grandmother's doctor! So, needless to say, he has the family history pretty good.

Claudia was very good and told Dr. Thomas how old she was, her name (Claudia Lynn Schneider!!), her phone number, and address. She told Dr. Maggie as well.

She is definitely becoming more independent and wanting to do stuff herself. She gets very upset when she thinks she did something she wasnt supposed to. She is very excited about the new baby and has been practicing lots of things like rocking the baby chair. We have a video of her teaching the baby letters that I will try to get posted soon.

We are pretty much done with the new babies room. Its turned out pretty cool. Should be soon (today....???).

This weekend Claudia went to a hockey game on Saturday and saw her friend Ben on Sunday. We think she is slowly becoming less bashful. She was fairly talkative at both events. Hopefully, this will continue to improve. It was real nice to see her really play with someone her age.

Claudia has been a good girl this week. She saw her friends Mitchell and Jordan yesterday and today she saw Jake and baby Hailley (sp??). Right now she is out shovelling snow.

We have been practicing saying our name and our address and phone number (just in case we get lost...) and she is getting pretty good with us. Of course, we have to work on it with other people.

Claudia helped paint the new baby's room and is pretty excited, we think. Pretty soon.

So on Tuesday night I was getting Claudia ready for her bath.

"I am not taking a bath"

"Why, Claudia?"

"Because I am going on a TRIP!!"

"Where to Claudia?"

"To Elizabeth and Kerry's!!"

Thankfully, Elizabeth was home, packing for her own trip and took our phone call. So then Claudia decided she needed to get out both her suitcase and backpack and sleep with them.

She woke up the next morning: "I wanna go on a TRIP!"

Luckily, a trip to the museum and Friendly's made her happy for now. With Elizabeth and Kerry and Margo going to Ireland and Mimi going to Portugal she has heard about lots of trips and definitely wants to participate.

Mimi arrived today from Pennsylvania. This resulted in lots of crown wearing and parades. Claudia was very excited to show Mimi everything.

Miss Judy and Mr. Stuart came over for dinner and had lots of Ravioli with us. Miss Judy has been to most of the red dots on our clustrmap in the past few months. Perhaps she can help boost our reads in the "Stans".

Last night we are upstairs and Claudia says "Daddy, can you get my suitcase"?

"OK, Claudia" I get it out. She starts rolling it to her room.

"Where are you going, Claudia?"

"To Kerry and Elizabeth's" she says very matter of factly.

Pretty soon she will know where the bus station is and we will be in big trouble.

We have been going swimming every Sunday. Today Claudia was able to pull herself out of the pool all by herself. It was very impressive. She did it many times because she was having so much fun.

She went to the first half of the Super Bowl party in her cheerleading costume so she could yell "Go, Giants, Go!". She has a friend named Peter who is a few years older and was very nice and played with Claudia. After that she was waving and running and having a good time. Thanks Peter!

Last night Claudia and Daddy had a "Big Date" and went to Friendly's. Claudia got all dressed up and wore 2 bracelets, 2 necklaces, and her earings. She was very beautiful and very excited.

She ate a ton of macaroni and cheese and ALL of her ice cream ("ConeHead"). We then came back and read books, took a bath, and went to bed ("I'm tired!"). Claudia likes to "read" her bedtime books herself now. She reads one side and we read the other.

She continues to be quite talkative and fun with us and quite bashful with everyone else. We are beginning to try to get her out by herself a little more so she can't completely lean on Mom or Dad.