Sweet Baby of Mine

It's official. Claire has now crossed over into her terrible twos. That means my baby is no longer a baby. She now wears the same size clothing as Cora (although Cora's torso is longer so she wears a bigger shirt). She talks up a storm. She is still a major bookworm. She loves to sit on your lap and cuddle (mostly with daddy). She loves playing hide and seek. She can almost count to 20 and can say her ABCs. She is a really bright, really funny, really spunky, really brave, really wild, and really active child. She is a smile generator, a mess-maker (um, disaster-maker), a patience tester, and a "song" singer. And we love every bit of her.

Claire Brooklyn entered this world via scheduled c-section on August 28th, 2006 at 7:52 am. In striking contrast to our purple newborn Cora, Claire was a perfect pink color and got her first "A" just seconds after being born: an APGAR score of 9 (already an overachiever!). And because they did not have to whisk Claire away to the NICU like they had Cora, we were able to hold her right away. I admit, I had been losing sleep over my ability to love a second child as much as my first, but in the first few seconds of making her acquaintance, I was hooked. She snuggled into my chest and with that, our family was complete. We are blessed to know her and are eager to watch her grow into a beautiful little girl.

Here Claire is, tucked safely inside me for a few more minutes.

Cora was in awe of her 7lb, 8oz, 21 inch long little sister.

Her announcement picture.

Here she is at 6 weeks. She started smiling around 5 weeks, but would never smile for the camera. I was searching through hundreds of photos to find one of her smiling when I realized that to capture who she really was at 6 weeks, I would have to show her dislike for the camera.

And at 6 months with fabulous chubby cheeks!

All smiles on her 1st birthday.

As Chicken Little on Halloween.

I picked this particular photo for a few reasons. First, it shows her "boppy" (aka. pacifier) which as of 2 nights ago is no more. It was the easiest thing on earth to take away. She is a pretty easy child to reason with and cried for 2 minutes and then practically forgot all about it! Second, this picture was taken in January of this year. Notice how just a few months ago she still had wisps atop her head. I was sure she would be a bald kindergartner. Luckily, she sprouted a few more hairs and the day arrived when a ponytail was realized.

And here she is today. As good parents, we bought her a large supply of copy paper to call her own (the girls are always fighting over paper for coloring purposes). We had a small birthday gathering with my family, ate pizza, sang Happy Birthday and devoured cake. Claire finally realized the attention was directed towards her and loved every minute of it!

Happy Birthday Claire Bear. We are honored to be your parents and love you heaps!