Saturday, December 29, 2007

More family fun

Paul's brother Dorian and his wife Sylvie had the clan over for dinner one night. Claire loved going up and down the stairs with everyone, but especially Baba (Ukrainian for Grandma). Here are Baba and Uncle Dorian walking with Claire to the table where a wonderful dinner awaited us.Claire loved their island in the kitchen. It was the perfect spot to sit and be entertained by Baba and others.Claire really enjoyed the process of opening gifts, saying "more, more" after almost every one. We all observed that she is meticulous when opening presents. Each time she ripped off a piece of paper, she'd hand it to somebody before continuing. Even when she could see the gift inside, she would keep her attention on removing the paper until every last piece was off. Then at last she'd examine her gift. She was also a great little elf, handing out presents to family members and helping them unwrap them.
One of Claire's gift from Auntie Sylvie and Uncle Dorian was an awesome tent set, complete with an igloo-shaped tent, a teepee-shaped tent and a tunnel to crawl from one to the other. She spent hours playing there. Here she is taking a break in the tunnel while Auntie Sylvie looks on.

Grandpa loved feeding Claire strawberries, so much in fact that now when she sees a strawberry or a picture of a strawberry, she says "Dido" (Ukrainian name for Grandpa). I love these types of associations; she also says "Marianne" (our friend who built a gingerbread house for her) whenever she sees something gingerbread related.

3 comments:

Kim said...

Love the pictures...
Looks like everyone had a Great Day....
Love Claire's little sweater with the fur around the collar...
Love how she picks the wrapping off...
Have a Wonderful New Years...

Rae said...

By the looks of these last two posts you guys had a wonderful Christmas, too. I love Claire's little white and green dress and the photo of her cuddling with her Auntie Betty-Ann is just too cute. And what a cool tent! How did you manage to get all of her loot home? :)

Beth said...

Soon you won't be able to fit anything in your basement. We did the tent thing for awhile with H and you just put some stuff away and rotate. She'll have a blast. We'll have to come play some day.