We Have a Preschooler!

Today Claire starts her second week of preschool! She goes twice a week, for three hours. She LOVES it! IN fact, when I came to pick her up on the first day, she burst into tears when she realized it was time to go home. I have the only kid who cries when they get picked up from their first day of school! Her school is in a church not far from home. It's called Springs Community Church Preschool, and Claire already recognizes the building. Every time we drive past, she screams, "MY SCHOOL!!!" I choose it because when I was doing tours of various programs, the kids here looked like they were having the most fun! She already knows most of the girl's names in her class, and has a best friend- another talkative fireball just like her! I find myself uneasy with the quiet when she's gone and have decided to use some of that time to go take a class at the gym, and also to give Jude some quality one-on-one time.

Here's Claire about to leave for her first day!

All the sweet toys in her classroom. She's in heaven!

Claire also started AWANA this past Sunday...it's sort of like Christian girl/boy scouts. The focus is on having fun and memorizing scripture. (She also cried when we picked her up from that, of course!) She has already memorized the scripture verse from last week, and the one they will be covering this week. She's sort of awesome! Here's a video of her reciting it: (unless it's broken)

We were toying with the idea of also signing her up for a sport. Claire wanted to do dance, Daddy wanted her to do soccer :-) But we decided she's only 3 for heaven's sake, no need to start giving her a crazy life already!

Our Monkey Boy

Jude is 10 months old now! He's grown up quite a bit in recent weeks. Highlights of things he has learned in the last month or two since I last did a specific post about him:

• He can walk! (Although he rarely chooses to.)
• He loves to clap, especially to music
• He has a nice collection of signs that he does consistently: all done, more, please, bath. (ok, I guess 4 is hardly a "collection", but I'm proud nonetheless!)
• He finally found his voice, and uses it all the time to make nonsense speeches
• He gives those great open-mouth baby kisses
• He has stopped being a giant and is now comfortably in the 10th %ile for weight and 20th %ile for height, just like his sister was. He's been in the same size clothes now for about 5 months, which is a huge change from when he was first born and would out-grow a size category well before the recommended age.
• He's become slightly less independent. He now gets super excited when he sees Kevin or I come into the room. When Kevin comes up from work in the basement Jude crawls to him as fast as he can saying "Dadda, Dadda!"
• He still loves to cuddle. All the childcare workers at church and the gym want to take him home. He's quite the favorite!
• He smiles at everyone in that cute, shy, flirty way that never ceases to melt their hearts.
• He has the most hilarious tantrum technique I have ever seen. When something is taken away from him, or he is set down when he wants to be held, he throws himself prostrate on the ground and then scoots forward on the ground rubbing his face as he goes. Makes us laugh every time! He's given himself some crazy rug burn on his cheek and nose from doing it, and I don't think he appreciates the humor we all find in his distress!

We love him dearly, and can't believe he'll be one so soon!!

California Trip, August 2011

(The picture is a link to an album of pictures from our trip!)

For Claire's birthday, we decided to head out to CA for one last trip for a while. (We just signed the paperwork to build a house, so we won't be going anywhere for a while!!)

We threw a birthday party for her at a park that had a water lagoon for the kids to swim in. It was so much fun! The kids had fun taking pictures under the water. Claire requested a giraffe party, so I ordered a banner, got some balloons, and our friend Tammi made a cute sign. That was the extent of the decorating, since I was planning everything long distance. In fact, I relied on other people for all of the important things. Mikkele spent hours at the park before the party holding the spot for us. She's a rock star! We had a great spot in the grass with plenty of tables! Our friend Cindy baked the cupcakes, which Claire declared were "Super yummy!" My uncle Chris and Aunt Michele went to Costco to wait in the horrendous lines to get the pizza and water. (Seriously, Costco on a Sunday is quite and ordeal!) And our friends and family came from all over to enjoy the day and hold Jude while we all celebrated Claire.

While we were in town, we decided to hit up Disneyland one last time before our annul passes expire in September, and while Claire is still technically under three and free! We spent two full (hot!) days at dland. It was exhausting, but fun. My parents, my sister Vanessa, and her daughter Lucy came down from Northern CA and joined us at Disneyland. Claire loved having her cousin to play with! She was also super excited that her Aunt Mikkele spent one of the days with us going on rides and watching fireworks. During the fireworks show, Tinkerbell flies above you suspended by a cable. Where we were standing, we were actually pretty close to her, and Claire kept screaming, "Tinkerbell, hi!!" She was emphatic that Tink hear her. It was pretty funny.

It was a great trip! We got to see a lot of our friends, and a bunch of our family traveled down to see us and spend time with us while we were there. We're so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives! Thank you all so much!

Our Trip to Durango!