You are an incredible blessing to us. We love you so much and cherish you morning, noon and night. You are just an absolute pleasure to be around and we couldn't imagine life without you and all that you are.
You are very smart, incredibly verbal and so engaging. You are sweet and often sing lullabies and songs to friends, family and your beloved stuffed animals. You are confident and brave. You love making people laugh and have a great sense of humor for being so little. We just love you to pieces, Claire Bear!
It has been 16 days since Avery turned six and boy, has it been a busy 16 days. Milestone after milestone over here at the Simpson homestead!
She lost her first tooth!
Her lower left tooth had been wiggly for a few months, but in true Avery fashion, she was a little unsure about wiggling/touching it too much and had no interest in helping the little guy find its way out. So, the adult tooth coming in pretty much just pushed it out. (Yes, she had two rows of teeth for a few months!)
She lost her tooth at recess (like literally lost it - it came out and she didn't know where it went!). Fortunately, the recess supervisor had everyone in the area stop playing and help look for it. Avery's friend found it and then Avery promptly walked to the nurse's office to put the tooth in a special tooth necklace that she proudly wore for the rest of the day.
The tooth fairy came that night and again, in true Avery fashion, she had no interest in having the tooth fairy come into her room to make the tooth/money exchange, so the tooth pillow stayed with Jeff and me that night. Unfortunately, we both slept pretty heavy, so neither of us saw this mystical fairy in action.
Cartwheels!
After many months of practicing cartwheels all over our house, Avery has finally nailed it! I miraculously got her first "perfect" cartwheel on video late last week and it was a magical moment. Her reaction says it all!
(I should clarify that getting it on video wasn't truly miraculous... See, Avery asks me to take videos of her 496 times a day doing various gymnastics moves, so in all honesty, I thought this was just going to be another cute video clogging up my phone's memory. Instead, we got this great memory on camera!)
She has since gotten better at "landing" the cartwheels and continues doing them wherever she can find room. She also practices handstands on every wall surface of our home and we hope to nail that move (without the support of our dirty, footprinted walls) soon as well!
And to round out the milestones, she learned to ride her bike without training wheels!
She was determined to get those training wheels off yesterday, so Jeff and her spent an hour going all over our culdesac. Their efforts totally paid off and now she's off!
We are so proud of our big girl!!!
FPT
Why smile for the camera (and the 15 adults urging you to say "cheese") when you can pretend sleep?
She's six. SIX! We're talking big kid status over here. Five was a big deal, but I can't shake the feeling that turning six was an even BIGGER deal. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she's now in kindergarten and doing a bunch of big kid after school activities. Maybe it's because she matured a lot recently and now has more big kid tendencies than little kid ones. (Believe me, I know she's still "little," but this is all about perspective...my perspective! And believe me, she's not all big kid -- there's still plenty of little kid stuff going on with her, but I can see the shift happening...and I welcome it with open arms!)
Below is her six year interview, as well as some pictures from her birthday festivities.
Since Avery's birthday was on a Saturday this year, she celebrated on Friday with her kindergarten class.
Her birthday morning - this was just after she saw the streamers and presents. Pure happiness.
One of her gifts was a cheer outfit!
Now that she's six, she can ride the big kid cars on the big kid track. She was stoked, to say the least.
Oh, Claire.
Oh, Claire!!
Danda and Papa spent most of the day with us at Legoland!
That's a big kid over there, if I do say so myself.
We let Avery pick out one thing from Legoland as a gift. Legos for the win!
On Sunday we went to the American Girl store in LA with Danda and GramCin!
She LOVED it.
When we got home from the American Girl store we had a little party with friends and neighbors!
Claire recently mastered counting to 10. Her little baby voice counting the cars we see, the toys we are playing with, the food on her plate, etc cracks us up daily.
She has also been on a "happy birthday" kick lately, singing the song multiple times a day. GramCin's birthday is coming up, so it'll be great fun to sing it to someone she knows and loves!
If you're a parent, you know how hard it is to catch moments on camera...whether you don't have a camera with you at the perfect time, or you do and your kid just decides to stop doing whatever it was that they were doing the minute you start recording. Tiny miracle with these here videos!
FVT
Below is a little video the girls made for my dad for Father's Day. Claire was hilariously all over the map with her message. At one point, you can hear Avery say, "she's trying to say Father's Day." Ha! At the end of the video, you can see that Avery wrapped up the message perfectly and concise.
An added bonus FVT was taken yesterday during Avery's "free dance" portion of her dance class.
Claire Bear! You are getting so big, my baby girl!
Here are the stats:
Weight: 25 lbs 4 oz (81%tile)
Length: 33 in (84%tile)
Head: 46.5 in (56%tile)
Talk about growth spurt. While you have always been curvy, you have never been "tall." Well, you shot up these past few months and now look at you!
Here are some things that Claire is into at 18 months:
People
Claire is a people person. She still loves saying hi and bye to anyone and everyone. She confidently interacts with people of all ages and hilariously calls anyone around two years old and younger, "baby." Just today she said, "hi baby" to a two year old girl who just ate it up and said, "hi!" right back. Claire makes friends with adoring people wherever we go!
All that said, Claire is still a momma's girl and will tell anyone new (and sometimes even people familiar to her) that I am her mom (she says "momma" while patting my chest if I'm holding her or my leg if she's on the ground). She makes it clear to them that she is not going anywhere without me. Once this relationship is established, she will become your friend for life.
One thing that I have come to notice a lot in the past few months is how much Claire is drawn to older boys (yikes, right?). We have a handful of boys in our neighborhood between 5 - 10 years old and many times she prefers following them around and trying to play with them over doing much else when we are outside. Maybe it's the attention they show her or the fact that she loves to try to play what they're playing (baseball, soccer, hide and seek, etc), but she can usually be found on their heels whenever we are outside. While she seems to be drawn to the boys (again - yikes, right?), she also just adores our neighbor, Kylie, and when the boys aren't much fun, she can be found playing with her and Avery (who are undoubtably playing pretend/house/make believe).
And, it's not just the neighborhood kids that Claire gets a kick out of; just the other day at a play date in another neighborhood I found Claire inside the host's house sitting on the floor hanging with three 3rd grade boys. And, a few weeks ago at the park, she became best friends with two older boys (4th grade maybe?) who were playing football, but decided to indulge Claire in some baby catch and running races. I kept telling the boys, "thank you" while trying to usher Claire away so they could get back to their game, but they kept trying to engage her and play.
Chatting with the neighborhood boys.
Her laugh in this photo is too much. Hysterical!
We captioned this one: Their First Date.
Talking
Claire loves to talk. She has a great ear and can mimic/repeat almost anything you say. She loves to say people's names and has a great memory, so she shouts, "hi so-and-so" many times throughout our day.
She is getting more clear with her speech, so other people (besides Jeff, Avery and me) are starting pick up a lot of what she's saying. That being said, while at her first dentist appointment recently, the dentist informed me that she has two tongue ties. While not severe cases, she said we may notice a speech inpediment or lisp as she gets older. It's hard to distinguish a lisp from general toddler speak, so I'm not concerned about it yet. We'll just have to keep an ear on it.
At this time, I would say that Claire can say around 100 words, including names of familiar faces. She puts multiple words together frequently and my favorite might be, "peas, momma" when she wants something. On my mom's birthday last week she started saying, "Papa, how are you?" (It comes out like, "Papa. How. Are. Youuuu?") What a conversation starter! She also started recently saying, "Okkkaaayyyy?" when someone is crying, hurt or upset.
For my birthday lunch, I took Claire and Avery to Islands and during our meal, Claire got into a precarious position in the highchair. She looked at me and said, "leg is stuck." Avery looked at me and said, "did she just say, 'leg is stuck'?!" We started laughing and then Claire said it again, this time loudly and with heat!
At her 15 and 18 month well visits, the doctors were very impressed with Claire's speech and communication. All that aside, I have to make a mention that at Claire's recent 18 month visit, it was Avery who pretty much handled the appointment. The doctor would ask her questions about Claire's eating and sleeping habits, etc and Avery answered calmly, confidently and correctly just like she was the mom. It was hilarious and the doctor and I were both quite amused!
Dancing/Music
She loves to dance! She loves to sing! You can pretty much just hum a catchy tune and she'll be swinging her arms and bouncing in no time. We watch Mother Goose Club Playhouse often and Claire has learned the words of many songs and loves to sing and clap along when she can. I need to get this kid into a music class!
The first video was taken before a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. She is dancing around with Avery and Kylie.
Once a month, parents are allowed into Avery's dance class to watch for the hour. Thankfully, Avery's classmates and teacher get a kick out of Claire and she is invited to dance and play with them from time to time throughout class. This video was taken during their "free dance" time.
A little grove time magic in the playroom. Those moves though.
All this talk about Claire's dancing may have overshadowed how amazing Jeff's moves are. Clearly, she gets all dancing skills from her dad.
Running
Claire loves to run. She'll run short distances just to run. Today we were on the rug in the family room and she said, "bear, cookie," which means she wants to play the game where I hold a teddy bear and she holds a play cookie and I make the bear eat the cookie all silly and crazy. Well, when I replied to her, "sure," she took off running full speed to the playroom, which is a mere 6 feet away.
This running passion isn't without its injuries. See our recent Camping post about when her forehead met pavement. That being said, she has gotten quite good at falling (or maybe just better at running?!) and can now almost always brace herself when she does tumble.
Speaking of the "bear cookie" game, I came across the video below that I snuck of us playing the "bear cookie" game recently. Oh, that laugh.
Not only does she love to run, she loves to run from people trying to "get her." We play that daily in our house saying, "I'm gonna get you." She squeals and runs around the house in delight!
Claire is such a huge joy in our lives. She is so sweet and so loving. She is funny and loves being silly and making people laugh. She is incredibly smart and picks things up so easily. She is a great eater and will try anything you give her. She is very strong-willed and if she doesn't want to do something, she will let you know loudly and clearly. She is quite dramatic and will fake cry like a Hollywood actress to try to get her way. Recently, she was upset she didn't get a piece of "chochy" (chocolate), so she spun around in upset little circles and then threw herself onto the floor facedown. She was fake crying and snuck a quick peek at me to see if I was watching and then started to fake cry again. Oh, the drama!
But, you know what? We will take the drama any day, any time, Claire Bear!
FVT and FPT
Move over, rock climbers, there's a new gal in town!
I don't even need to caption this photo of Avery's recent mani/pedi!
Well, if camping for one night 45 minutes from home at a "full service" campground is considered outdoorsy, then yes, we are soooooo outdoorsy.
Jeff and I grew up camping and have always loved it. Now that the girls are getting a little older, we want to share this adventure with them.
(Side story... when Claire was first born and needed me a lot, Jeff made a point to show Avery special attention as often as he could. One of his daddy/daughter ideas was camping in a tent with her in our backyard. They had a blast! After this experience, we were anxious to do some real camping and a few weeks ago was finally the time.)
We all had a ton of fun! Claire was a little tricky the first day we were there due to her intense curiosity about everything (read: dirt, bushes, fire, fellow campers, etc) and her love for running (read: Claire caught a shoe edge while running and slammed her head onto pavement a few hours into our adventure). She was loving it all, but keeping her safe (and close by) proved to be a little hard at first. Thankfully, Avery was awesome and helped us with her.
Going into the trip, I was most anxious about how Claire would sleep at night. Would we put her in the pack n play? Would she sleep through the night? How would she fall asleep with all the campground noises still going strong at 7:00 p.m.? Well, my little one rocked it! She fell asleep with ease in her own sleeping bag nestled between mine and Avery's just after 7:00 p.m. and didn't wake up until 6:30 a.m. the next morning. We all felt like a million bucks with her sleeping success!
We looked forward to camping many more times with friends and family!
Toddlers get MESSY while camping. I let go of keeping my kids clean the minute we stepped foot at our campsite.
Avery was excited to practice sleeping.
We did a lot of exploring around the campgrounds.
This was taken shortly after Claire's forehead met pavement.
Avery was the epitome of a Mommy's Helper!
Handing out hugs and all.
This was taken after our "real" hike. Both girls rocked it. Avery hiked the entire thing herself! (A part of me never knew if this day would ever come!)
Jeff and I met on a blind date in December 2004 and were married in October 2007. He is the apple of my eye, the hop in my step and the love of my life. In September 2010 we proudly welcomed our first child, daughter Avery Elizabeth and this site was created to share with our friends and family, near and far, Avery's journey through this magical thing called life.
