Shake your Bum Bum

Claudia isn't the most verbal toddler, but she sure comprehends a lot and manages to communicate pretty well with sign language. She loves pointing at her body parts and my mom taught her to shake her bum when you say "where is your bum bum?" My dad reminded me of a song we used to do as kids that includes hand motions, so of course Claudia loves it:
High Five
Low Five
Cut the pickle
Tickle Tickle!

She has added one new word, "bubble", and she is doing even more animal sounds. She has also started signing "I don't know" (palms up, raising her eyebrows), which is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I have no idea where she picked that up. She got two more teeth this month, so now she's even on the left and right, and she has 6 on top and 6 on the bottom. Claudia got her first hair trim, but I'm not sure if it was the official first hair cut because I just trimmed her bangs (fringe). Her hair is very thin and it won't stay in a hair clip or tie, so I needed to do a little trim because it was falling in her eyes.

Everyone keeps complaining about our wimpy summer and how it's already raining in September, but that hasn't stop us from getting out and about a lot. We have been visiting with family so that Claudia can show off all her new skills, going to several parks, and we even went to a Mariner's game. Claudia had a little interest in the game at the beginning, but she mostly liked all the people watching and climbing on our laps and on the chairs.

Here's a movie playing on the swing with Neely by pretending to kick her in the belly.


All the "cool kids" wear their Sounders FC jerseys to daycare on game days. I think Claudia is the only girl that does, but that makes her extra cool!


We like going to University Village because they have a big courtyard and a covered toddler playground.


At the Mariner's baseball game.


Claudia liked playing with the stadium chairs and sucking on her binkie.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Claudia is becoming quite the toddler. I'm amazed at how many words she can understand (even if she doesn't talk back) and impressed by how well she is able to run, climb, and maneuver. She is still a baby in many ways, like we give her a bottle of milk first thing in the morning when she wakes up and she still has these tiny size 3 feet. Her belly is keeping up with her age though and she's in size 18 month clothes to accommodate it! And to keep up with her tooth count, another incisor on the bottom right popped up, so she now has 6 incisors (3 top, 3 bottom) and all 4 first year molars.

She has always liked to "bop" to songs, but now she is starting to dance a bit. She likes "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" because she knows to grab her toes, and she will dance a little to The Wiggles on TV, but her attention span for TV is only a couple minutes. We have been trying out a few cartoons and kids shows in preparation for our long flight to Australia in October. We need to have as many sitting activities as we can. I'm very thankful she has taken a interest in books lately, so we will bring lots of those.

We made another trip over to Alta Lake this August and Neely, Emilio, and I took Claudia to Slide Waters Park in Chelan. She really liked going down the kiddie slides with me. Glen was able to get in some excellent golf as usual, and we all enjoyed relaxing on the deck with some good summer food and drink.

Eating watermelon, yum!


Oops, dropped some on my belly.


Climbing in and out of chairs is one of her favorite activities.


Puckering up for a kiss.


A short video at home.

Balls, Books, and Elephants

Claudia is doing so much cute stuff lately. She is now 16 months old. She has really started to enjoy board books and now has the patience to let Glen or I turn the pages and read to her. Her favorite thing is to point at objects on the page, say "uh", and have us tell her the name of what she is pointing at. She mostly points at the animals, which I know she likes because they do a lot of learning games at daycare with animals. She came home one day, saw a picture of an elephant, and made a noise and motion with her arm for elephant! Now she can "make an elephant noise" if we ask her to. Her other tricks are stomping her feet in place, walking backwards, puckering up and sometimes giving out kisses, running away when you pretend to kiss her, and waving her arm up and down for "stinky". And cutest of all, she will nod her head "yes" if you ask her a question. If she knows what you're asking and she doesn't want it, she will shake "no" or just stare at you, but the default if she doesn't know the words you're using is a yes nod.

She has started to throw mini-tantrums when she doesn't get her way. She arches her back and flops on the ground and sometimes head butts, but she does it very gently, so it's more like a tap. We can usually diffuse each situation very quickly -- distraction is the key!

We have done a lot of fun activities in the last few weeks. Many of our friends have birthdays in late July and early August, so we went to several fun BBQs celebrating adult and child birthdays. We broke a heat record last weekend with 95 degree sunny weather. Glen went golfing in the heat twice, once with friends and once for the Edgar Martinez Muscular Dystrophy golf tournament at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge. While Glen was golfing, Claudia & I had a family extravaganza, visiting both Aunties, Grandma (for her birthday), and Great Grandma & Grandpa. Auntie Neely also babysat Claudia one morning and took her to a park and they went down the slide. Over, and over, and over again! We also all went in the swimming pool a couple times and Glen practiced dunking Claudia and trying to teach her to hold her breath. I think she did well for her first time dunking and didn't seem upset by it.

Claudia loves to throw balls.


And carry them around.


She is even throwing another one here, but I cut off the ball when I took the photo.


She will sometimes walk from the car to our building now, but she still likes to be carried.


Glen and Claudia like to go to the park together.

15 months old and new words

Claudia's new words are: bye, hi, wow, and oh. She's also saying daddy now instead dada, which is very cute because she yells "dah-day" from the bathtub for Glen to come get her. I still usually bathe with her. She has formed a strong attachment to her red hat and it is now part of her drop-off and pick-up routine for daycare. She's still a great eater with blueberries and strawberries topping her favorites list and since she has some good solid teeth now, we just let her eat them whole. She can be a slow eater, so if you ask her "are you all done?" and try to take her tray away, she frantically grabs all the food left and stuffs it in her face. We somewhat regrettably introduced ketchup (tomato sauce) into her diet and she loves dipping food in it and then licking it off. She also likes to use a bowl of applesauce as the universal dipping sauce for everything.

She had her 15 month appointment at the doctor and she is 30.25 inches long and 22 pounds, which puts her in the 25-50th percentile. She is starting to get interested in dress up and likes to play with bracelets, hats, sunglasses, purses, and barrettes. Her hair is getting just long enough to fall in her eyes, so I hope she will let barrettes stay in her hair soon because I'd rather not cut bangs (fringe). She is really enjoying water now and likes to play in Grandma's kiddie pool, the big real pool at our condominium complex, Splash Day (Wednesdays) at daycare, and of course in the bathtub. She can kick her feet and put her face in the water, but we haven't tried a full dunk yet.

Claudia's first time to the Seattle Aquarium.


Playing in the kiddie pool at Grandpa & Grandma's Alta Lake house.


Gotta wear shades.


Claudia loves to run laps around my parents' kitchen and living room. This is her red hat which, like most of her cool clothes, Nana bought for her.


More red hat while the carseat, in addition to a binkie, sunnies, and blanket. You can never be too comfortable!

Show me your belly

Claudia has discovered that her body parts have names and she's learned nose, head, ears, and of course her belly! If we ask "where is your belly?" she lifts up her shirt and shows us. She also likes to pat, pinch, and rub our bellies. In fact, she does a lot of hitting and pinching lately, which gets a little old. It's amazing how much she is understanding these days. She is not as verbal as some other 15 month olds, but she can definitely comprehend a lot. It's really fun to see the wheels turning when we ask her a question or give her instructions on what to do.

A week ago Claudia had ear tubes put in for chronic ear infections. We did it at Virginia Mason hospital and even though it was a surgery, it was fairly simple and quick and she didn't have to have an IV because they were able to give her the anesthesia in a face mask. The tubes will stay in for 6-18 months (they just fall out on their own) and they will hopefully keep her infection free. She did great and by that afternoon she was running around like nothing had happened. The ear surgery coincided with her becoming a "wild woman" though. Gone are the days when my little baby can occupy herself quietly with stacking cups. Now she wants to climb and run and her attention span for any one activity is only a couple minutes. It's a bit exhausting for Glen & I to keep up with her. Her agility is fairly good for her age, so she can climb in and out of a chair and maneuver on the playground well. Her favorite is the slide. She continues to be somewhat conservative on what she will try or how far she will stray from her caretaker when she's out of familiar territory.

July is always a busy month. We celebrated 4th of July with my parents, grandparents, Gina & Jeremy, and the Martinkas. Then the next week I turned 33 and Glen turned 35. We tried our best to celebrate, but I ended up having some health issues at the same time, so that put a damper on things. We don't really need to celebrate how old we are anyway. :-) I'm still recovering from a minor surgical procedure and some issues with my ulcerative colitis. Last week was tough, but I'm on the mend.

Auntie Gina got us a table & chairs for our birthdays, which turned out to be just Claudia's size. How did that happen? Haha.


Go Sounders!


Silly girl in the bathtub.


My sleeping baby is one of the sweetest things ever.


Running around Grandma's big living room.

Boo!

Claudia now likes to say "dat" and "boo" constantly. She's always pointing at things and saying "dat" and she loves to play the boo game. It started with us pretending to scare her by saying boo and now she does it back. Sometimes, she greets Glen when he gets home from work with a boo. It's really cute. She is incredibility snugly lately. After daycare, she just wants to snuggle with me on the bed or couch before dinnertime. It's supposed to be summer now, but the weather is still so-so. On the days it's actually sunny, we will go for a stroller walk around the neighborhood. I think Claudia is so exhausted from all the commotion during the day that she just needs to wind down with cuddles or a ride in the stroller. We went through a tough month when she insisted on walking up at 5:30am, but now she's back on her 7am schedule, thank goodness! I think she's happier when she gets more sleep and Glen & I are certainly happy to sleep in a bit.

Claudia's personality is really starting to develop. One, she does not like to be messy or dirty. She likes to pick lint off the carpet and hand it to the closest adult. She enjoys, in fact insists, on getting cleaned up well with a washcloth after eating. She has started coloring with crayons and when she tries to eat a bit of the crayon, she gets upset by the "yucky" crayon in her mouth. And second, she is not one to run off and explore. Other parents tell me stories of chasing after their kids, but not Claudia. She is always in arm's reach, especially in public when she will rarely leave our arms. Even at home she mostly likes to crawl around on top of Glen & I or engage us in a game.

Claudia and daddy have been watching the World Cup Soccer.


She loves to play with any kind of cup, putting things in and out.




Claudia loved playing in her kiddie pool on the deck of grandpa and grandma's Alta Lake house.

14 months old and First Word

Claudia is now 14 months old and she said her first word! And the word is... BALL. Of course she has been saying "da da" since she was 6 months old and "ma ma" and "ba ba" for awhile too, but she uses those sounds for a lot of things. A few days ago while playing with her pink ball, Glen taught her the word ball and she repeated: baaahl. And just yesterday, she picked up the ball and said baaahl again, so she definitely knows what it is. She continues to work on a couple signs and now does "please" (making a circular motion on her chest with her palm), although it tends to mean "more" too, as in "more food please." She is still a great eater and her favorite is blueberries. She goes through an 18 oz (510g) container every week. I've been giving her pita bread and bagels so she can work on using her teeth to chew pieces off. She still has 6 full teeth in, but the 1 year molars on the top and bottom are starting to poke through too. At this point, they don't seem to be bothering her much. We've started brushing her teeth at night.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been able to catch up with a lot of my friends, which has been great. Amanda, Ellie, and I and our daughters went to the Children's Museum in Everett. Claudia was a little young developmentally so she mostly watched, but the other girls loved it. Carey & I went for a swim in our condo's pool and Claus tried to teach Claudia how to say "boo-berry". He's quite the talker and he's only 16 months old. And, two old friends of mine got together for a long overdue catch up. We've all grown and changed a lot since we worked together 8 years ago (really, has it been that long?) so it was cool to share and hear about all our different experiences.

Glen was able to do his annual boys' weekend to Alta Lake. In addition to Alta, they also golfed Desert Canyon, which was apparently a beautiful course, and it sounds like everyone had fun. While Glen was away, Claudia & I spent a lot of time with Grandpa & Grandma so that she could show off her walking skills.

Claudia, me, Angie, and Martha at the zoo.


At the Children's Museum. She had that unsure look on her face most of the time, but she livened up when we went on the toddler slide.


Grandma brought Claudia back a pretty dress from her Maui vacation.


"Pick me up!"


I was trying to get a photo of her Miss America shirt, but kitty got in the way.