The Banks Family: Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year! Everyone was healthy and Claudia brought joy to a lot of people. We started off hosting Neely, Emilio, and Gina for Christmas Eve dinner, exchanging a few presents, Skype with the family in Australia, and then church service where Claudia tried to ham it up as much as we would let her including some dancing in the aisle. For Christmas morning, we decided to postpone Santa for another year because Claudia does not understand yet, although she was pretty excited and knew something good was happening. We had a relaxing morning as a family and then headed off to my parents' house in Kirkland for our annual Christmas day celebration. Claudia is on the only grandchild on my side of the family so there is a lot of attention on her. It is easy to joke that she is spoiled, but there is also a slight bit of pressure for her behave and to be excited about every present. Of course we would all love her just the same if she had a meltdown, but it was sure nice to see her so happy and appreciative of all her gifts. She was prancing around in her new clothes and seemed fascinated with every toy she received. She also got to stay over for the night like she did on Thanksgiving so that her great grandparents could spend some extra time with her.

Claudia has learned one important task since my last posted -- she can now jump! At first she just swung her arms up, but now she actually gets some air. She also discovered that she can get more air if she does it on the bed or the couch, so we now have some trouble on our hands. She is getting more bold and can now climb on the chairs and up on the table. She is slowly but surely adding words to her vocabulary, although she still has a way to go on a lot of letters and sounds. She mostly just chants daddy and meow when she is around me, but will try to repeat most words I ask her to, and then quickly goes back to making animal noises. Compared to other kids her age, she is less book smart (language, colors, letters) and more creative at this age (20 months). She really likes imaginative play with her dolls or stuffed animals, she likes to draw and can hold a crayon properly, she loves to copy hand and body motions to songs, and she's very clever about watching adults and mimicking their behavior. She also really likes to follow directions, which is good because they encourage the kids at daycare do many things themselves (clear their plates, put away their toys, etc.)

On a sad note, my parents' cat Pepper Face died unexpectedly last week. She was only 12 years old. She was acting lethargic and not herself so my dad took her to the vet and they found a tumor in her belly, as well as diabetes and kidney problems, so he decided to let her go because she was obviously in a lot of discomfort. We will miss you Pepper.

Check out her Christmas dress and cute shoes!