Like rearranging the furniture, opening drawers and cupboards, pushing around the laundry basket, inspecting anything new in the house (like boxes, bags, and magazines), finding things on the floor, crawling under the table and chairs, chasing the dog, and pushing all of the buttons on the remote control. Whew! Sometimes I wonder why I buy this child toys, since she’d much rather play with household objects than her toys. The other day she got a hold of a wet washcloth from the kitchen and played with it for a good 20 minutes.

Behind these sweet little smiles there is a strong-willed little girl. One of her latest words is “no.” She doesn’t say it defiantly yet, because, honestly, she doesn’t need to. Her whole little attitude is pretty defiant. When we tell her not to do something then she views it as a challenge to continue doing exactly what she was doing. When I tell her “no no” to something like running into the street she giggles and says “no no no no no!” while running even faster. For the most part our little girl is a joy, but I can tell that “obedient” and “compliant” are not words we will ever use to describe her. I try to remind myself that’s OK, to follow the old saying that “well-behaved women rarely make history,” but the other old saying is that “challenging children give their parents gray hair.”

Clare is starting to really imitate us lately. In this picture she has a hold of J’s iPhone and is having a very serious “conversation” with someone. I’ve also seen her wiping her nose with Kleenex and then throwing it away (imitating my allergies), and trying to put on our shoes. She’s also sometimes pushing her little cars around saying “vroom vroom” and other signs of the beginning of imaginary play.

Lastly a picture of Clare and I cuddling. I can’t get enough of this girl!

So we’re back home from Hawaii (and have been for a week now) but I have these pictures in the blog this week because I wish we were still in Maui. That and it’s been such a whirlwind for me that I haven’t taken out the camera this week.

All of the pictures in this post were taken in the Iao Valley on Maui. It was a cool afternoon trip that we all took into the rain forest in the mountains. There were a few days toward the end of our trip when the ocean conditions weren’t very beach/swimming/snorkeling friendly so we all went inland. It was a pretty minor hike, but it was fun to see a different part of the island.
Our trip was J’s first time in Hawaii, and he loved it. He went snorkeling just about every day, including spending probably an hour and a half out on our last full day there. He saw a few turtles, a shark, huge parrotfish and got himself a nasty sunburn. He also took surfing lessons while we were there (I have those pictures somewhere…), went out on the boat ride with Dad and I, and pretty much loved the island outdoor life. We adore the Mexican coast, but there is something special about Hawaii.

Our trip home was uneventful. Clare did great on both flights (thank goodness!) and adjusted to being home really well. I haven’t adjusted quite so well, in that I was back in the office on Friday, and then had to work part of the day Saturday and all of Sunday, not to mention the next week. I’m looking forward to a whole two days of weekend to finish up laundry, tidy up around the house, and actually relax at home with my husband and daughter.

Some fun things about Clare at almost 15-months:

• She is seriously the most verbal one-year-old ever! She repeats just about any word after us (chicken, rice, bean, spoon all being said during dinner), and has a vocabulary that includes “walk,” “rock” (both as in a rocking chair and as in a rock on the ground… and she knows the difference), “bath,” “bonkey” (monkey), and “banky” (her blanket). More then that she “chatters” in a way that is very much like English pretty much constantly.

• She is becoming quite the little social butterfly. When we’re at the grocery store, or anywhere really, she usually sits in the front of the cart greeting everyone (and I meaneveryone) with a wave and a “Hi!” If the person doesn’t respond to her then her “Hi’s” become more insistent and often louder. We’re trying to get her to realize that not everyone is just waiting to respond to her, but this may take a while.

• We’ve started Clare in a new in-home daycare on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Up until now she’s been home with either me while I was working from home, J, Adam, my mom or some other person watching her. It’s been piecemeal and increasingly difficult as Clare is getting more complex and wanting more attention. Gone are the days when I could get a whole day’s work done while she slept peacefully in the sling. So we found a very nice lady named Ami near our house who watches a few kids at a time in her home. This last week was Clare’s first time over there and she took to Ami and the kids without batting an eye. Seriously, I hung out with her for about ten minutes and when I went to give her a good-bye kiss she didn’t even want to stop playing to let me kiss her. They do all sorts of fun outings to the library, park and community center and Clare LOVES the other little kiddos. I know we’ll probably go through a phase where she cries when we leave her with either Ami or Adam, but it hasn’t happened yet. In fact on Thursday morning she ran to the door as soon as I put her shoes on and banged on it yelling “bye! Bye! Bye!” She had her shoes on and was ready to get out and start her day with her friends.

• As independent as she is though, our girl is still our sweet little cuddle bug. On Thursday night (after a big day of playing with her friends) we played a little game of “Pass the Clare” at our house where J and I sat on the floor at opposites sites of the room and Clare ran between us pausing to give us each a big hug and kiss. She literally went from J to me and back to J for ten minutes giving out all sorts of loves. She’s not always so sweet and loving (especially at the end of a big day) but there was all sorts of joy pouring from our house that night.

Lastly, the big news in the family is the announcement that JP and Deb are expecting Clare’s first cousin in April! Baby Dion (aka Peanut) is very loved already and we can’t wait to meet him/her! Now we just have to figure out a way to get the three of them to move back to Oregon…

We call this her “serious disco baby” pose.

I’m so glad that Adam caught this picture! Clare has been making this face for a few months now and I haven’t been able to get a picture of it. I have no idea why, but it’s a favorite expression.

The McPherson family has traveled en masse with the Dion’s to Maui for a week of sun, surf, snorkeling and good old fashioned kicking back. It’s absolute heaven and J and I are secretly scheming ways to stay here longer (mostly kidding).

I put together a nice little story in my head about the trip to write on the blog and was going to arrange the pictures accordingly, but blogger isn’t cooperating so I’m going to just use the unordered pictures below to tell about our vacation. Forgive the messiness of the story.

We go to the pool each day, which Clare really loves. She especially loves “jumping in” from a seated position on the edge into my or J’s arms.

Above is the view from our deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We spend most of our time out here, as you can imagine.

Clare is going all day and pretty much crashes for naps and sleeping in her “Peapod.” I bought this for our upcoming trips and, honestly, I wasn’t sure if she would take to it. I half expected her to hate the sight of it and end up sleeping in our bed. Fortunately for everyone she really likes it! She settles right in and goes to sleep almost as easily as when she’s at home. If she does wake up she usually plays in there until we come and get her. It has a little air mattress in it and is pretty comfy. She really has been a little traveling champ and has adjusted really well to both the time difference, the change in schedule and the new surroundings. I’ve been a little bit crazy about keeping her schedule fairly consistent (right now J and I are back at the condo while she naps, then we’ll join the rest of the family out for adventures) and it’s made for a pretty happy baby.

This is the picture I wanted at the top of the post with the caption “Clare says Aloha from Maui!” I took this picture before the rest of the family went snorkeling in Kapalua Bay. I’ve always LOVED snorkeling, and now J does too. The conditions have been murky the past couple of days but we’re hoping for better conditions for the rest of the week. Clare plays on the beach and sometimes wades a little in the ocean (extremely well supervised) while we’re in the water, or she goes and has adventures on land. Yesterday she and Grandma found all sorts of fun at a nearby hotel while J and I were snorkeling including a luggage cart, outdoor shower and stray kitty – y’know, the exciting things on vacation 🙂

No story here, I just thought it was cute that Clare and Grandpa were washing dishes this morning.

Eating dinner with Grandma on the ‘lanai.’ We’re all getting used to dining with a view.

Lots of book reading…

JP and J enjoying their own “bottles” on the lanai. Like I said, it’s going to be rough going home.

Some cute pictures of Clare and Auntie Debbie. I think Clare’s absolute favorite part is that there is always someone to read to her whenever she brings them a book.

Again with the out of order pictures! Grrrr! As you can see, while our girl likes the ocean just fine she is not such a fan of sand. She’s also not such a fan of sandals so she spends most of her time barefoot.

Off to read a book on the lanai until Clare wakes up! Then we’re off to the Iao Valley State Park for some hiking and inland island adventures. It’s a rough life…

Mahalo!

Seven years ago today J came over to my house in Phoenix and we sat on the couch, watched Lord of the Rings, and weren’t apart another day after that. It’s had its ups and downs (especially that first year!) but six moves in two states, countless vacations in six countries, one wedding (well, technically two ceremonies), one mortgage, two pets and one little girl later we’re still in it. Happy Anniversary my dear!

Our girl seems to have developmental spurts focusing on gross motor skills, fine motor skills or verbal skills one at a time. Suddenly she’ll go from crawling to walking within a few weeks, but she won’t add any new words during that time and almost seems clumsier with her fine motor skills. Now that she’s pretty much mastered walking (no more crawling for this toddler!) she’s adding new words left and right. Her new words include “Mama” (yay!), “hungry,” “rock,” “vroom (when playing with cars),” “bir(d),” and “Bampa.” We’re also figuring out Clare’s words for some things – “Ish” for shoes, “bonky” for her blanket, “bookabah” for peekaboo and a few others that she’s probably been telling us for a while but we hadn’t connected with a specific object.

Here are some cute pictures that my mom took of Clare and her “Bampa” washing the car. Clare always has a special smile for her Bampa, and the feeling is mutual.

When she’s not eating, Clare can usually be found running and getting into things. These pictures were taken last weekend in Bend, and you can see how active and agile our girl is. She’s particularly fond of active toys that work on her gross motor skills, like balls, push/pull and ride-on toys. She’s also beginning to climb on things (though fortunately not the couch yet).

I love this picture of J and Clare because it reminds me of a conversation J and I had when I was pregnant. J told me that he didn’t think he would read to the baby very much. I think his exact quote was “you’re the reader, so I think you’ll do the reading. I’ll play ball with them when they’re older because I’m more athletic.” Well, fast forward a year later and J is reading, playing ball and doing whatever else Clare asks him to do. I consider this picture the very sweetest and nicest “I told you so” ever.

Things I want to remember about 13-month-old Clare:

• She’s taken to walking like a duck takes to water. In just a few short weeks she is toddling/wobbling everywhere. She still crawls about 30% of the time, but she seems to prefer walking.

• One of the cutest things she does right now is when she wants to go somewhere but doesn’t want to crawl (she usually has something in her hands) and doesn’t want to push all the way up to her feet she’ll try to walk on her knees. Her little little legs aren’t long enough for her to really ‘walk’ on her knees, so she doesn’t go very far.

• Clare has always been a silly baby and loves to make people laugh. When she’s feeling particularly goofy she’ll crawl or walk with a little head and butt wiggle and song. It’s pretty funny and we generally laugh along with her. She loves nothing more than making us laugh, even most of the time she doesn’t even know what it is that makes us laugh. It doesn’t matter because once she realizes we are laughing at her she claps her hands, throws her head back and does her little wiggle even stronger than before.

• She is becoming quite good with her sign language. She signs “milk,” “all done,” “more” and “food.” Now we’re working on “please” and “thank you.”

• Despite all of her words these days Clare won’t say “Mom” or “Mama.” Apparently she sometimes says it when I’m not around, and she has said it to me once or twice, but she won’t say it to my face. I ask her to say it or I’ll point to myself and say “mama” but she usually just grins and says “dada.” Little stinker…