Back in the Mountains

Wow, we are back!

We have been in GA for four weeks (not including Christmas!) while Spencer completed one of his clinical experiences...and we got to stay with my parents the whole month!!! It was awesome to spend so much time with them. Claire was spoiled (as she should be at Nan and Papa's house) and had such a great time.

She helped Nan load the dishwasher...

She got to visit with friends, like Aunt Bamber...


and the Furrs...


She spent lots of time in Papa's chair...

She ate lots of food...



She got very excited when Spencer got home every day...


Unfortunately, halfway through our visit I got the flu, and just as I started to feel better Claire got it too. That was no fun at all, but at least we got sick when we had Nan there to take care of us!

We were so thankful for the time we spent in GA.

In other news, today was BEAUTIFUL. We went to the park for a couple of hours this afternoon and just soaked in the warmth. Thank You, Lord, for gorgeous sunny days in the middle of the winter.


Claire is so full of joy these days. Every day is a new adventure. She cracks up at the drop of a hat; if you so much as look at her she will start laughing. She understands more and more every day. Today I told her to throw something in the trash can, and walked with her to the trash to show her. Then, every time I directed her to put something away (put your crayons up!), she would walk over to the trash can and try to throw it away.

We have a cd by a company called "Seeds Family Worship." It is full of scripture verses put to music, and Claire loves it. She starts clapping her hands every time it comes on in the car.

And finally, the other day I found half of a banana in my shoe.

The end.

Oh, here are some videos.

Claire playing on her new slide...


Claire eating her oatmeal...


Claire playing with Spencer...



And Claire rocking her baby...

Claire Lately...

• When she gets excited, she screams. It is...ear-piercing.
• She holds phones, remotes, and anything that is close to the same shape, up to her ear and says, "Whoa-whoa?" Other recent words include "nye-nye" (night night), "la-la" (elmo), and "hey."
  
• She calls my dad "Papa." But she doesn't say it out loud; she whispers it.
• She is really starting to take the initiative to ask specifically for what she wants. She will take my hand and lead me to the kitchen, point at the refrigerator or cabinet, and make the sign for milk, food, etc.
• When Spencer gets home, she almost explodes with excitement. Developmentally, she is not supposed to be able to run yet...but I promise, she definitely "more than walks" (complete with very excited and very loud screams) to the door as soon as I say, "Daddy's home!"
• I pray with her before she goes to bed at night. I often pray in a whisper to set a quiet mood before bedtime, and she whispers right back. I have no idea what she is saying, but a one-year-old whisper is very cute.
  
• She has learned how to kick a ball. She is so very coordinated for a 14 month old. We are pretty sure she will be a natural athlete.
  
• The other day, she wanted to wear my big fluffy winter vest. She looked like an Ewok.

Or a mummy.

Shugart and Spice, and Everything Nice

Just wanted to put in a plug for my new blog, "Shugart and Spice." I'm going to try to post different meals that I cook for my family, mostly as a record for myself so I don't forget all my recipes! But if you are looking for meal ideas, you should check it out!

The Greatest Show on Earth...

We took Claire to the circus today...

...and she loved it!

It all started before the show. We got there about an hour early so that we could meet Gran and Me-Maw and spend some time with them before the circus started. Since we knew that we would be sitting down for a while, we took her down to the floor of the Coliseum to get some energy out. She walked around...and naturally wandered right to the nearest dog...


It was hard to pull her away from this pooch!



But soon it was time for the show to start, so we made our way back to our seats. The question: How would our fourteen-month-old ball of energy do, sitting down for a two-hour circus show??? The answer: Amazing! Yes, she did have a few "ants-in-my-pants-I-have-to-get-out-of-here-and-run-around" moments. But, with a little help from a steady supply of cheerios, clementine slices, and chunks of almond-butter sandwich, Claire remained surprisingly still and incredibly focused!

Some of her favorite parts included the lions...


The man jumping through a hoop of fire...


The elephants, of course...

And her favorite act of all, which held her attention the whole time, was the acrobats!


We had such a good time with Gran and Me-Maw. We were so glad we got to see them and share Claire's first circus experience with them! (The next two pictures were taken after the circus was over. By this time, you can tell, Claire was "done" with sitting still and being focused!)


The end!

Four-wheeler Fun

Since our main computer is being worked on right now, I'm going to be a little late uploading the rest of the Christmas pictures. However, I did remember that I had saved a few pictures on Spencer's laptop, so I'll just go ahead and share those now...

Gran is very creative. She found an old toddler sized four-wheeler at a yard sale. She painted it pink and Claire loved it!





Playing with Daddy...

Swinging away...

Christmas Catch-up

With so much catching up to do, I think I'll start with some "Claire-facts." I love that I'll be able to look back on this blog and remember Claire at every stage. Right now, at the "almost-fourteen-month-old-stage," here are some things I don't want to forget...

• Over the past month or so, it seems that Claire's understanding and ability to communicate have increased every day. Somewhere along the line, she started to understand and respond to things such as, "Can you go get your shoe, please?" "Where is your book?" "Are you ready to eat?" All right, maybe she has been responding to that last one for quite a while now. But not only is she understanding more and more, she is also really starting to communicate back with us. The simple sign language that we have been doing with her for months suddenly seemed to click around 13 months old. With her hands she now says "eat" (of course), "more," "drink," "please," "thank you," "banana," "dog," "fish," "I love you," and "all done." Some of her verbal language includes banana ("ba-ba"), baby ("bweh-beh"), ball ("ba"), dog ("duh"), mama, dada, hey, and bye ("die" - possibly my favorite :) If there is something that Claire wants or needs, between her words and her body language she is pretty capable of letting us know what it is.
• She remains a very good eater. Although she is beginning to have some *relatively* picky days, all in all she still devours whatever we put in front of her and continues to ask for more. Some of her recent new diet staples include almond butter, soy milk, and turnip greens. We did find out that she is allergic to cow's milk, eggs, and peanuts, as well as dust. I am hoping that she will outgrow at least the food allergies very soon!
• One of her favorite games right now is the hiding game. I'll hide one of her stuffed animals in one room, and as soon as I ask her where it is ("Where's Elmo????") she will grin and take off to go find it. This game can go on indefinitely.
• She has her quirks. Recently she has been falling flat on the floor a lot, for a couple of different reasons depending on the context. Either she is just tired so she falls down and lays there for about three seconds to recharge, or she is throwing her version of a tantrum. This consists of falling down, rolling over onto her back, and just looking at me...at which point I usually burst out laughing. I'm not sure how she feels about that.
  

Now on to Christmas! I'll start with our time with Spencer's side of the family. We left town a week before Christmas to head down to a dear friend's wedding, in which Spencer was a groomsman. This is important because it was the first time that we have ever left Claire overnight!!! She got to spend some quality time with her Gran and Pawpaw while we went to Scotty and Jadison's wedding. She did great, of course, and we did pretty good too, if I do say so myself!

The wedding was beautiful, and when we got back we had a few days full of fun with Gran, Pawpaw, and the gang. Here we are riding in the golf cart...

...and enjoying a nice walk with Gran...



Claire had a lot of fun seeing some people that she doesn't get to see very much, like her cousin Hudson...


And her Uncle Travis!


Here she is helping Uncle Travis open his gifts.


And here is a shot of our time with Gran, Pawpaw, Nanny Faye, Papa, and Uncle Travis.

She absolutely adored the piano that Uncle Travis got her!


Christmas Part 2 - Coming soon!!!

The Littlest Christmas Angel

We had our children's Christmas play at church tonight. Claire was the "littlest" angel.


Here she is not the happiest angel.


Here she is playing on set before the play started.

And here she is doing what she did best. Being the star of the show, even when she wasn't supposed to be.