Laowai

We had some friends over and celebrated Claire’s birthday on Saturday because we are going to be in Spain (yipeee!) on her real birthday.

Before I write some sappy stuff about my sweetheart – a funny thing: Bea bought Claire some play money for her birthday and we all got laughing because some Swiss 1,000 Franc notes were included. We all had to recall the stories of people pulling out a 1,000 Franc note to pay for something like a carton of orange juice at the grocery store. You hear of it often – people paying with a 1,000 Franc note and not a batting of an eyelash. Oh Switzerland.

This morning I looked back to see what I wrote on my blog when Claire turned two. She was just starting to say sentences and she didn’t really understand what her birthday was all about. What a difference a year makes. After seeing Bea’s party a couple months ago she is all about the party. In the days leading up to her birthday she kept saying “Mommy, let’s talk about my birthday party… are we going to have cake and balloons and candy?” 

I think Claire might be the most outgoing person in our family and that is fun. She looks forward to going to our Mom & Tots group each week because she gets to see her best friend Sophie. She goes to dancing and music class and is so good at listening to what the teacher says. I think she’s the teacher’s pet.

She is a good little caregiver. She reallly likes to play tea party – where I just sit on the couch and she asks me in such an earnest tone what I want to have. She has this way of coming in close, nodding and looking right in your eyes when she says “you want ice cream?”  Or she’ll bring me some pretend coffee and tell me in such a concerned way that it is “really really hot” – shaking her little finger as she tells me.

I’m hanging on tight to the baby things she does. Things like wrapping her arms tightly around my neck when I pick her up. And holding her hand – I hope that never ends. She will once in a while fall asleep in my arms after a really big day and even though it is breaking my back I love it. That smooshy warm heaviness with her blankie draped over my shoulder. 

In my post last year she had started her obsession with kitties and she wanted to do everything that her sister was doing. So I guess some things have stayed the same.