Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Visiting the Blancos

As many of you know one of my dearest and best friends is Daymara. We met in Graduate School and she is my Venezuelan sister. We have been friends for a long time now and we always try to get up to see her and her parents when they visit. This past Saturday was the “Come see Mama and Papa Blanco party.” So Claire, Grammy and I made the trip up the hill (not to Venezuela – maybe some day). It was a lot of fun. The Blancos do not speak English, but neither does Claire, yet. Luckily “baby” is international. They had a lot of fun visiting, chatting and giving high fives.

Also while we were there we got to see my other dearest and best friend from Graduate School, Isabel, and her adorable kiddos. Her parents are also visiting. They are from China.

And one other note from the party, Claire found a new boyfriend, Mateo. He is a 21 month old blond Italian of few words. She was just chasing him and patting him and putting her head on him. Mateo didn’t have a clue as to what to do. What do we have in store for us?



Claire with the Blancos



Claire and Isabel’s parents, the Fangs



Claire and her Auntie Daymara (after they both had to change clothes because Claire urped all over the both of them . . . )



Claire and her Auntie Isabel and Kaia.



Claire with her new found love, Mateo.



Claire with all of the kids – Mateo, Yamen, Kaia, & Claire

Monday, September 21, 2009

So Much to Post, so Little Time

So it has been a while since my last post. I know, I know . . . Everything has been a bit crazy getting the house ready for market and fixing the Advanced Master Gardener Class Cookbook and everything else going on. But you know it is really bad when the men start to make grumblings about the blog not being updated. I am used to the women folk saying something if it has been a day or so since the last post but not the grandpas. So I knew it was way over due when I heard from the men. I will try to post more often and catch us up over the next few days. Right now the power just flickered so here is hoping this one at least gets posted tonight . . .

Here is a recent pic of Claire. She has a kerchief on her head because she was helping me clean and wanted to keep her hair out of her eyes.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Walking is for Tuesdays

You may recall in the last post that we told the world that Claire was walking. She was indeed and showed-off a lot that day. We hadn’t walked since until yesterday when she showed off all day again but for Grandma and pa Hassler. But alas she is on a walking hiatus once again. Kind of hard to get a pic when I wasn’t there this time . . . Maybe she will try again next Tuesday.

In other exciting news, Claire is trying to sell her house. She has found another she wants to move to but it is contingent her selling her house. Anyone interested? Let us know before we sign with a realtor and you could get a heck of a deal!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

One Small Step for Claire . . .

One giant leap for the rest of us to try and catch her.

Well the rumors are true . . . Claire started walking today. She had taken a step here and there before but today she took several steps in succession and did it several different times. No, I didn't capture any of this on film. :(

So here is how the story goes . . .

Mike and I were in my parents backyard unloading some stuff (another story for another day) and had taken Claire in to play with her books and Grandma while we were accomplishing our task. Mike's phone rang and he answered and I here "Oh really, that is great, I'll have to tell Meg, Congratulations." In my head I am thinking his friend got the job he interviewed for and his wife called to tell him (hospital folk) and how intuitive I am . . . ha ha ha. Then Mike said "Claire just walked for your mom." "Huh, really? She does take steps." "No she said she took several steps for her. Twice. You can go in and see if she'll do it for you." "Ok." All the time thinking, she'll never do it again, but I am getting out of work, and of course she does it for anybody but Mommy, and what is going to be the blog title (can't remember the great one I came up with at the time . . . getting old is tough)

So I went in and Mom tried to get her to do it again and she just did her jelly legs. ugh. Then she did it. A good couple of steps and a plop. Giggles followed and more reading. Then Daddy and Grandpa came in and she did it a couple more times. So we now officially officially have a walker on our hands. I think her preferred mode of transportation is still crawling for sure (Cristin dubbed her 'Lightening' this weekend when she saw her take off on all fours). But life as we know it is going to change, once again, for sure. I am now tasked to get this monumentous occasion on film but all I have is a still camera, I guess I can try for some action shots, the shutter speed isn't too fast so we might be able to get some blurs.

In the meantime, here are pictures of Claire's other new favorite mode of transportation - by Green Bowl.



Claire's love affair with her Green Bowl continues.