Claire at 21 months

The other day, I viewed some home video clips we took in February of 2007, just days after we returned home from China with our little sweetheart. I knew Claire had changed from a baby to a toddler, but wow! Check out this video clip (where Claire is blowing bubbles while making toad sounds) from nearly a year ago:

We used to get such a kick out that routine!

Now at 21 and a half months of age, Claire has 18 teeth with her bottom 2nd-year molars having recently cut through. They gave her a lot of trouble in the last couple of months: some days she was simply irritable, other days she would fight her naps or not eat much, and there were several nights where she would cry (more like, rage) inconsolably for a couple of hours. In the last week or so, she has been back to normal: happy, playing more independently, and eating much more, thankfully.

Despite the pain of teething, Claire has shown us more and more of her playful personality. Back in December, Paul taught her the saying, "Oh behave!" complete with a little accent and toss of the hand. We laughed about that saying for a few days and then promptly forget about it. About three weeks later, Paul and I were giving silly names to things as we sat around the dinner table, when I said to Claire, "You just tell us if we're being too silly, okay?" Her response? "Oh behave!" with a little flick of the hand. Well, okay, her words came out more like "Oh bee" but it was unmistakable what she was saying. Paul and I can't believe she remembered that phrase, and chose to use it at that particular moment. When she starts to talk more, I think we'll be blown away by her wit.

Claire is really into cooking lately, and not just with her own little kitchen. Whenever I cook, I have to clear counter space so that she can sit up there and help me out. She loves to dry vegetables for me after I wash them, and then she hands them to me one by one as I cut things up. When she pretend-cooks with her little kitchen, she makes a cute little sound as she cracks pretend eggs, and she chops pretend onions like a pro, I tell ya. Claire also loves to help me clean the house (not that it's very often): when I sweep, she is right there with the dust pan and a big smile. It definitely makes my chores around the house a lot more fun to have such an enthusiastic helper.

Claire has been humming and singing lately, mostly to made-up tunes. However, Paul was sure she was humming "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" the other day, and just today as I put her down for her nap, I'm sure she was singing that tune. Update: as we were eating dinner tonight, Claire was humming that tune again. Suddenly she said "star", making it clear that she is singing that song! She speaks a lot at home (she now says just over 80 words on a consistent basis, unprompted) but hasn't yet starting singing the words to songs, other than "Ba ba dee"(ba ba black sheep). I think anyday now, she may start. As for her vocabulary, her favourite word lately is the adjective "big". When she says it alone in reference to an object she is pointing at, she makes a funny face as if the bigness of the object is slightly horrifying. A couple of weeks ago, she was very proud of herself when she said "big door" and then "big ball". The other night, she called me Big Mama. I think I was the one who looked slightly horrified at that (ha ha).

For a while, ABCs held Claire's attention but lately, it's numbers. She uses the word "two" for all numbers, though, and will point, for example, to four objects (one at a time) and say, two, two, two, two! At least she seems to be understanding the concept of counting!

The independent toddler is starting to emerge in Claire, as she is now putting mittens on herself, and washing and drying her hands herself. It's a good thing we have a wide counter so that she can kneel beside the sink; I'm sure it will be a very long time before a stepping stool will get Claire's hands in the vicinity of the sink. It's wonderful to see the confidence in a child as he or she learn to do these things on their own; the look on Claire's face the first few times was priceless.

With other things, she definitely wants our help. Claire insists on doing a large puzzle from our friends Kelley and Paul at least three times a day. She states with great authority, "Mama, down!" or "Dadda, down!" while pointing to the floor, and then once Paul or myself are settled in, we proceed to work on the puzzle together. As you can imagine, she's getting pretty good at it, having done it so many times each day.

I took the following picture a few days ago. Although I usually prefer smiley pictures of Claire, I really love her solemn look in this one.