Well, I DeClaire

that we have an 18 month old on our hands! (Pretend it's June 2nd.) Remember this super sweet and chill baby? Well...she's been missing for a while. In her place is a spunky, feisty, sassy and hilarious toddler! Who knew this little body was going to be packed with so much personality?!

Even with all her craziness, she's still as cute as can be and we find ourselves mostly laughing. So we've decided to keep her. After all, we're pretty sure there's still a bit of sweetness in there...somewhere. ;) (I just read this to Reese and when I got to the part about "deciding to keep her", Reese shouted, "Yeah I want to keep her! She's my favorite kid!")

A few of our favorite things about our favorite (18 month old) kid.....

1) Her sassy pout--- She is hilarious when she's mad. We see this face multiple times each day. She totally stares us down with these furrowed eyebrows and pouty lips if we offend her or don't give her what she wants.

2) She puts herself in time-out--- So along with the sassy pout, when she gets mad at us, she does one of two things 1) folds her arms, stares us down and slowly backs up until she runs into a wall, OR 2) picks up the time-out chair, carries it to the time out spot and sits in it.

She sure shows us!

3) Nap/Bedtime singing- other than the obvious warn-out-mom reasons for loving nap/bedtime, I love that sweet time with her when she's actually holding still, looking up at me and singing lullabies. She really does sing along with me and I think it's darling. I tried to capture it on camera, but it's hard to act natural when there's a video camera in your face. Yeah, you Bachelor contestants know what I'm talkin' about. You get to hear a teensy bit of the singing but mostly her super cute laugh if you watch the video (which I've discovered nobody ever does).

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

4) She thinks she is so big! Not exactly shocking for an 18 month old. Especially one with an older sibling.

• She has graduated herself from the high chair. I try to keep the control with feeding my children for as long as possible. I hate for them to have that independence. I just barely caved in with Claire. Once I stopped spoon feeding her myself she didn't want anything to do with the high chair either. She sits on her knees at the table like big sister. The mess factor has drastically gone up, but oh well. That's why kitchens aren't carpeted and clothes and children are washable.

• Now that Reese has a bigger bike, Claire has officially taken over the little one. Her feet barely touch the pedals, but she insists that she rides it whenever we're outside. And "by herself" of course. We came up with a compromise by attaching a rope. We all win. Oh, and we had nothing to do with putting the sunglasses on. That was all her.

Our Biker Chick

5) She's prissy. Everyone likes a woman who can be tough, yet beautiful at the same time, right? Well, that's my Claire. While she's been known to pin her older sister to the ground, she knows the importance of looking beautiful while doing it. When I'm doing my hair she will quite often run in and grab my mini blow dryer and small round brush and work her magic. She is also all about purses, jewelery and chapstick.

6) Words- she is saying quite a bit and will mimic most things we say. A few of her more consistent words:
Okay

hi (to everyone in stores, just like big sis used to)

thank you

I love you ("I you"),

Reese "Ree"

all done

bye daddy

ball

today

uh-oh

stinky

sorry (said more often than we'd like)

blankey

-If Reese is crying, Claire will run up, rub Reese's head and say, "is okay".

-She says "uh uh" (can't figure out how to spell it, but as in "no") for yes. She'll nod her head yes while saying "uh uh". Tom always tells her "you're gonna be awfully embarrassed when you figure out what that means."

-And not that she actually has it down, but a few months ago she started singing the ABC's and does it whenever she sees letters. She'll point to a letter and start "singing" the tune.

7) She loves all animals--- and hyperventilates when she sees a doggy or kitty. Here she is imitating a piggy...with an added bonus at the end...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

8) She's a good sleeper--- that's one thing that has remained the same since she was a baby. She's down to one nap and is pretty adaptable with it. Depending on our day's schedule, she'll go down early if needed or later if needed and will sleep anywhere from 2-3 1/2 hours. Bedtime's generally easy too. We just lay her down around 6:30/7 with a "boppy" and her blankey and she sleeps until 7.

There's plenty more that makes up Miss Claire, but that's currently our little peanut in a nutshell!