Claire the two-year old

Claire, how old are you?


Two!

Claire, our sweet two-year old, is now 30 1/4 inches tall and 18 pounds (still). February and March were tough months for her, as she was under the weather most of the time with various bugs and teething. As a result, she didn't eat much, was quite irritable at times and very clingy to Mom. It seems like she is now back to her old self, with a good appetite again too. Hopefully she'll regain the weight she lost while sick and will get back on the growth curve she was following.

Do you know how kids make liars of you? Like when you say something about them and the very next day they prove you wrong? Recently it happened to me but in this case, I was happy about it. I had just commented on my friend Carolyn's blog that Claire had not yet verbalized "please" and "thank you" but rather would only sign those words. Well, that very night she verbalized them for the first time and has been using those words consistently ever since! One of her cute variations on polite sayings is to say "no please" instead of "no thank you" when she is offered something. Her Baba loves that! Claire is also very polite when it comes to coughing, covering her mouth delicately as she coughs.

It seems that with the return of Claire's appetite for food, her appetite for language has returned as well. She's trying out new words and phrases every day. I find it very interesting that her phrases seem to focus on (1) letting us know she wants something such as "more apple please mama", (2) asking us for help ("Mama, help please"), or (3) describing what she sees, such as "big blue house". Some of her friends seem to say phrases more focused on action ("me go outside please") so I'm curious when Claire will begin to verbalize that sort of stuff.

One of my regrettable influences is that Claire tends to call things "guys" like I do. Veggies, toys, people, stickers - all these things are "guys". And then there's the pizza guy. We ordered pizza two or three weeks ago, and Claire is still talking about the "pit-see-ah guy" (accent on the "see"). For some reason, he was a huge hit with Claire. She keeps asking where he is. I think it's making Paul a little suspicious.

As for interests, Claire's favourites lately include looking through books or having them read to her, colouring (she's very good at drawing family members, "balls" - circles - and vertical lines upon request), playing with Play-doh, painting, playing with her kitchen, pushing her babies around in a doll stroller, and grocery shopping with a mini-grocery cart. When she goes "shopping", she always places one of her stuffies in the part where a baby would go. She is always sure to buy lots of ham, apples, grapes and niu nai (milk, in Mandarin). Whenever I make my grocery list, she always asks me to include those items as well. Claire also seems to be enjoying the doll house we gave her for her birthday. She often makes the dolls play Ring Around the Rosie together.

Here's Claire inside Kitsya's little tent. We can't believe she can fit inside.


Claire also loves to go riding on her bike outside. Her feet don't reach the pedals yet but there is a little footrest for her to put her feet on while I push the bike. Halfway through our walk, she usually decides that she wants to push her bike. Shortly after that, she decides to simply walk beside it. Thankfully she loves her "blue hat", her bike helmut. Claire indicates her choice in outer wear by saying either "apple" or "rose" (one jacket has an apple on it and the other has stitching in the shape of flowers). She usually gets her way, weather permitting.

When Claire really likes a certain activity, I often tell her we'll do it again soon. She usually then asks, "tomorrow"? Until recently, I could tell from the way she was asking that she thought tomorrow is as immediate as it gets. It sure got me out of few binds when leaving the playground or putting away her Play-doh. Unfortunately, I think she's starting to realize that "tomorrow" is a bit more of a wait than she thought.

Claire is still quite reserved in public and in groups, so not everyone gets to see the Claire-bear we know. The Claire we know is playful, talkative, imaginative, engaging and gentle. She may be tiny but she exudes major charisma. Her affectionate nature blows me away. So often throughout the day, she'll pat my arm, touch my hair and say "pretty", or kiss me. The other day as I tucked her in for her nap, she took my hand in both of hers, rubbed my hand, and planted the sweetest smooch on it. It was yet another reminder that I'm lucky as can be.