Miss December

What's that? It's January?! Well, too bad! I've been meaning to finish up this post for the past 2 months!!! So let's go back in time just a bit to the month of December. A very special month for many reasons, one of which is that it's this little beauty's birthday month.

I give you
MISS DECEMBER....

Some things about the Little Miss...

1) She puts up with a lot.

Not only is she very patient with her bossy older sister, but also with her mommy who shoves her in things like giant snow suits. She really has been such a tolerant and adaptable little gal in most regards. Probably largely due to being the second child (?).
2) She loves to "read".
No tv interest for this lady. I would honestly say that reading is her favorite thing to do. When we go into the playroom, she typically goes straight for the books, grabs a stack, climbs up onto the reading chair and "reads" away. (She most certainly did not get that love from me!) She also loves to sneak into Reese's room and go through her pile of books.3) She is quite the fashionista. She knows exactly what to do with any headband, hairbrush, or pair of sunglasses she finds. 4) She's a full-on pedestrian. She really took off with her walking the week after Thanksgiving. There was no back and forth crawling-walking-crawling for her. Once she saw that she could use those feet, she was done with her knees. She had plenty of bumps and bruises to show for it too.
(This picture was taken about a week after most of her initial falls so the bruises and cut under her eye were mostly faded.)

5) Her lips! Look out Angelina Jolie. No need for collagen in these babies!
6) Major Daddy's girl! With Reese, Tom was the one getting in trouble for hugging me. With Claire, it's the other way around. She breaks us up, then goes for him. And the second he walks in the door after work it's "mommy who?"

Welcome to a taste of motherhood, Thomas.
7) She's really not all that vocal. The only thing she really says consistently is "Uh-oh". Which is definitely not to say that she's not understanding. The other day I was reading a book to her and pointing out different parts of the face. A few minutes later she was over by herself looking through the book and when she got to the right page she started pointing to her nose. It's so fun to see when they start making little connections.

8) She's happiest when she's holding a spoon. An IKEA spoon to be exact.
When she's sad, you just put a spoon in her hand and she immediately calms down. It also makes for instant smiles for pictures.
9) The love for spoons may have something to do with her love for food. Claire came out ready to chow and not much has changed. In the words of Tom, "she never met a spoonful she didn't like." Her body is definitely not representative of how she eats though. For example, one night after she ate ALL of her regular FULL dinner she then begged to eat Reese's leftover cheeseburger (Reese is on the opposite end of the spectrum and had only 2 bites of it). Claire seriously downed 2/3 of that Sonic burger. And those things aren't little!

Stats at her 1 year visit:

weight- 19 lbs 8 oz- 30%

height- 28 1/2 in- 30%

10) She is a major climber/getter inner to everything. The dishwasher is number one in her book for places to climb. It does, after all, contain her most treasured items.
She's fantastic at throwing things off shelves too. (Long live VHS by the way!!) I realize that this is not uncommon for this age, but Reese was nothing compared to Claire!

Claire has brought so many smiles to our little family! We love you Miss December!