Clare's 2nd Birthday

What a day... hard to believe my little one, my first born, my eldest child (all unbelievable monickers to me) is two years old today.  Look at this picture.

I love seeing that little girl learn, have fun, express herself, even get mad.  She's turning into a great little person.  The day started by Clare coming into the living room greeted by birthday wishes from all of us and a couple of balloons, which she loves.  She's been talking about balloons for weeks with Mama.  Those have been a great play item all day long.  I feel like I've been feeding Rosie non-stop today (exaggeration), so Clare got some good TV time... when better than on her birthday?  We turned the TV on early and watched some of the dinosaur program, forget the name, then all of Sesame Street.  I used some distracted time to turn off Clifford the Big Red Dog... that's a pretty annoying show in my opinion.  We watched a lot of Sesame Street together, which I'm trying to do with her, discussing what's happening, counting, repeating words, etc.  Pretty fun.  She's a sharp cookie and I love it.  Clare told me again today that she wanted some tunnel time, so we built a tunnel.  Not sure what her expectations are, but tunnel time has been kind of a flop the last couple attempts.  Today, she liked running her cars off the top of the tunnel and watching them crash into the floor.  From tunnel time, we did some finger painting on the kitchen floor.  I spreaad out some brown paper leftover from some shipping box and stripped the kiddo down to her diaper.  Good thing because she was covered by the time we were finished  (see picture).  

She loved it, went after it solo while I gave Rosie *another* bottle.  After that it was straight to bath to wash off the paint... from myself and her.  She gets a bonus bath today... when better than on her birthday?  After bath she got to run around naked for awhile and took a liking to the new heels Bubba got her... check out the video in the above video bar... you might just have to go to my youtube channel to look at it, but it's worth your time if you're a Clare lover.  Only one little pee on the floor accident.  We're not there yet on the preemptive, "I need the potty"... moreso the after the fact need for cleanup.  Soon enough I suppose.  After that came lunch and the beginning of Clare's downward spiral toward nap.  She went down pretty early and very easily and is getting a big bonus nap... when better than on her birthday?  Right?  Just started snowing again by the way... will spring ever come?  Dave out.