Happy Birthday to Clare! We celebrated with a small family dinner on her actual birthday, and a bigger party extravaganza over the weekend. I had big plans for a wading pool and sprinklers, but the weather had other ideas so we had a BBQ and nice family party.

Clare went down for a late nap and when she woke up the party was in full swing. She was a little overwhelmed by the balloons, people, presents, etc. but soon relaxed and enjoyed the festivities.

Clare’s favorite treat – angel food cake with whipped cream and berries.

• Last week she got a balloon from a store. Her eyes lit up, she gave the balloon a big hug and said “I love you balloon!”

• She’s started to talk to the baby in my tummy. She tells me “baby is kicking you” (which is true). She also said to my belly one day “Hi Baby! You hear me? I Clare!”

• She’s still working on her personal pronouns, with mixed success. She says “My do it” instead of “I do it” and when she wants us to do something for her, like pick her up, she’ll say “pick you up” instead of “pick me up.”

• The picture below is the hose in the back yard. Clare calls it an “octopus.”

Today you are two-years-old. You don’t fully understand what that means yet, but it means that for 730 days, or 24 months, or 2 years, you have been studying the world (often with a wrinkled brow), making assessments, and beginning to make your way into it. You are a very, very loved little girl. For your birthday dinner once again we had your Grandma T, Grandma and Grandpa Dion, and Great-Grandma all gathered around the table hanging on your every word and gesture. You love all of these people very much as well, and it’s wonderful to watch your relationships with them blossom.

One of my greatest enjoyments of the past year has been watching the joy you get out of life. You are thoughtful and sensitive to other people, and also very enthusiastic and embrace things fully (in your own time). Your favorite things are animals, books, being outside, climbing and challenging yourself physically, and giggling at your dad. You are my arts and letters girl, who loves music, dancing and singing. You can identify all of your letters and have a strong interest in reading. I secretly hope you will be a writer someday 🙂

In the past few months you’ve become more confident with approaching other children and engaging them in play. You are very empathetic and have a nice, gentle way of dealing with people. It concerns me that your sensitivity and gentleness will sometimes get you hurt by those who are not so kind, but I hope to always show you that a gentle, loving heart will always be respected and valued at home.

A loving heart aside, you have a strong-willed backbone that I hope will serve as your compass through life. You can be stubborn when you make up your mind about something. You and I will definitely clash as you grow up, but please remember that I love you very much regardless of how frustrated I may seem.

In the next few months your life is going to change quite a bit when your new baby brother is born. This may be hard for you at first, but I truly believe that having a partner-in-crime will be one of the best things we can give you. You’ll have to trust on that – especially when he’s taking your toys, messing up your stuff, or following you and your friends around.

Until then, enjoy being the Queen of your world. Know that your Daddy and I love you endlessly and that we wait to see what the next day will bring with you.

Mama

Happy Independence Day from Miss Independent herself, Clare McPherson (and her parents). We spent the long weekend in Bend with my parents, the wonderful Grandma and Grandpa. They are wonderful for many reasons, and not just because they have a beautiful house that we stay in while we’re in Bend. Here are a few pictures from the weekend and the festivities, mixed with some cute quotes from Clare.

Speaking of the swans, Clare LOVES them too. She doesn’t especially like it when they honk (she tells them “no beep!”) but she loves to look for them and talk about them. She told me that the swans “have glasses.” It took me a while to figure out what she was talking about the black marks over their beaks – she thought they were sunglasses.

We spend lots of time climbing on rocks in Bend. It’s Clare’s favorite activity when we’re there, so it means that we spend a lot of time “spotting” her. There is a great playground on the river that has rocks set up for children to climb. The downside is that it’s set up for a little bit bigger kids, and once Little Miss saw the big kids climbing on the largest rocks then she had to follow. On the picture above you can see that J and Grandpa are actually 3 feet off the ground, so that gives you an idea that Clare climbed up about 9 feet more or less on her own (with some serious “spotting”).

Grandma and Grandpa bought Clare a inflatable pool, which she was thrilled by and played in for about two straight hours. At one point she was scooping water from one cup to another for several minutes and my mom asked her what she was doing. She said she was “picking up dog poop.” O-kay then…

Lastly – this is why we don’t have many family portraits. Trying to get 3 of us to look at the camera at the same time poses challenges. Still, this picture makes me giggle…