An evening last week she comes into the living room wearing shoes and socks (she had bare feet earlier), with her coat on and carrying a purse. She said “Can you open the door for me Mama? I go to the store.” I told her that we were going to stay home and she said, without missing a beat, “OK, I pretend then.” So she got her shopping cart and pretended to go shopping. Adorable!

We were in the car with Sam, who was crying pretty loudly. Clare watched him and then tells J and I, “he doesn’t like his hat. He wants to take his hat off. You help him take his hat off?” Sam had somehow gotten the string of his had in his hands, so I untangled it and took it off of him. Pretty quickly he did stop crying (probably more from the motion of the car than the hat). Other times Sam has cried in the car and Clare has told me “he’s to little for the car” and “Sam needs a binkie.”

Last week G told Clare she was a big boy, and Clare responded “I not a big boy. I a little girl.” She also likes to tell us that “Daddy is big, Mama and Clare are little, and Sam is tiny.”

Another day G was crying and Clare looked at him and said “you need a nap.” I love that she’s a little problem solver already!