Claire

Our little girl is a year and a half old! It’s crazy to think about how much she has changed in the past 18 months and even crazier to think about how much she will change in the next 18 months. I’ve realized that as a parent my worldview has become very myopic- I can’t seem to think beyond this afternoon let alone a year from now and things that happened just a few weeks ago seem like they are in the very distant past. I guess that is how life is with a child. You are always living in the present. And I actually really like that.

So I will try to think back over the last couple months…Claire has become more mobile, more vocal and more child like. I think she officially left the baby stage behind in early April when she stopped breast feeding on her own accord. I had plans to keep it going until 2 years but Claire just didn’t have the patience for it anymore. I finally gave up trying to force her to it and it made me really sad for a while. Breast feeding gave me such a sense of fulfillment. There was absolutely nothing better I could have been doing with my time in all those hours I spent nursing Claire. And the closeness was so sweet and intimate. I will always treasure that time.

On the plus side I have felt less anxious and our days have been more flexible since we stopped nursing. We go to Stroller Strides at least twice a week at the park by our house, take walks to the park, visit Daddy at work, and take lots of trips to the grocery store and Target. We go to lunch quite a bit and even out to dinner and Claire is usually really good at restaurants. She is a really good eater and will try most anything I put in front of her. Her favorite thing to eat is any kind of fruit, especially grapes and blueberries. If we are having fruit I have to hide it from her until she eats the rest of her meal, otherwise she won’t eat anything else. She also loves cheese, tomatoes and even steamed broccoli. I still give her a big bowl of greek yogurt every night before bed, just so I can be sure she is getting all her fat and calcium.

Claire still goes to therapy at Kids at Play twice a week, once with Tanya for OT and once with Alyse for PT. Therapy has gotten a lot better in the last few weeks– Claire doesn’t cry as much and actually has fun sometimes. I still have to wait in the lobby or hide around corners while she is working. If she sees me, all concentration is lost and she breaks down in sobs. So I have learned to be like a ninja and watch her work from my hiding places. We went to OT today and Tanya had Claire try walking while wearing this vest called “walking wings.” It seems to be working! It lets Claire walk independently while still feeling like she has support. (She is very wary of falling forward. Her sensory system doesn’t tolerate that feeling!) She took several steps on her own today at therapy with the vest, and then did it again at home. She is already a pro at walking around with her push-walker, so I think this vest might be the last set of “training wheels” she needs before she is truly walking independently. We are getting close!

One of Claire’s favorites things is singing. All day long she sings “Let it Go” from the Disney movie Frozen. I have to admit, I played it for her a lot, thinking she might like it. All my friend’s little girls are obsessed with the movie. Well it worked and now she sings it all the time, whenever any music comes on. It’s as if that is the only song in the world. Claire really feels it when she sings; it’s so cute! She closes her eyes and waves her arms around with such drama. Hopefully I can get her to start singing other songs too… I want her to love music!

The talking is really taking off as well. She tries with real effort to repeat any word I say, though sometimes she doesn’t have the ability to make the right sounds yet. She is proficient with lots of words like, Mommy, Daddy, Honey, up, bird, off, more, drink, eyes, baby, and probably more. (I love hearing that tiny voice say “moMEE!”)  But she understands the majority of what I say. I can actually give her verbal directions now and she will follow them. Like, “Put the baby in the box” or “let’s go to your room.”  That’s gotta be a huge development in that little brain! I wish I could see what’s going on inside that cute noggin.

One other thing she’s really into right now is giving kisses. She gives me kisses all the time, and Daddy too. But Claire doesn’t just kiss people. She kisses her toys, her stuffed animals, and her water bottles. After she kisses them she says “Oohhhh” and pets them with this sweet empathetic look on her face like she is comforting a sick puppy. It’s pretty much the cutest thing ever, and very dramatic. I think this is the beginning of a lot of pretend play and possibly a lot of drama with this girl!