Claire nods

But not always as expected ....

Snow day

This is how my day began.



Not my bus, but it greeted me when I arrived, early, to my bus stop at 8 a.m. The commute went downhill from there, literally. The next bus that came more than 30 minutes later also lacked chains. Oregonlive documented the mess. So, with my boss' blessing, I worked from home, avoiding a potential fender bender or unchained, out-of-control ride getting a chance to bust out in the snow with Claire late in the afternoon. Sarah's night assignment got cancelled as well.



We made a mini-snow man and sloshed around before I had to chain up the car.

Does this girl look ready for the snow?


Actually, she wasn't. She was sick. Been sick since Friday, but this was her worst day. Runny nose. Fever. Deep cough. And, by nightfall, an earache. Enough to make you want to call the welfare case workers after seeing these pics, right? Well, actually, Claire felt well enough to reject mom's hand when Sarah tried to lead her inside. She wanted to stay out.




Today's 3 inches of snow were the most we've seen in 10 years here, and it's sticking around longer than usual, too. Temperatures stayed below freezing today. We're braced for an icy commute in the morning. The streets are eerily bright and quiet now. No playing hookie tomorrow, though. The juncos will have to feed themselves....

The Oregon Spaghetti Massacre

Claire's eating habits have changed. Arguably for the worse. She would likely not agree.



These pictures were snapped several days ago. Claire seemed unfazed by the camera in her face. In fact, she seemed to invite the attention. Oodles and noodles of it.




It didn't stop here, either.

This morning, I cleaned banana and cereal off the dining room wall. Mom had to get the vacuum cleaner out to extract shards of Wheat Chex littering the crevices of her plastic high-chair seat. Claire no longer eats. She grazes. She waves. She stabs. She smears. She nibbles. She wiggles. She chomps. She squishes. Then, before it's over, she spits it all back out upon herself.

I now know where the English term "bloody" comes from: Their babies.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Claire's new favorite toy

Old McDonald never had so much fun.

Two's a crowd

Claire really likes CeeCee.

So much that Claire decided, completely on her own, to get in bed with the dog.



Amazingly, CeeCee tolerated this feat. She even moved over an inch to accommodate Claire's rump and avoid a broken paw. Claire put one leg into the laundry basket before hurtling the other one over the side and rolling into the empty half of the clothes pile.



But, you figured it couldn't last very long. Not with CeeCee, age 14. And I don't mean months.

New video of Claire

Claire opens her Christmas legos.

Que Viva Espana!

Is Claire already attracting handsome men?





Not exactly. Sunday we were graced by a visit from our good friend Clifton Chestnut and his partner, Luis. Both flew from Spain where Clif teaches English and Luis stays busy as an architect. Somehow, we figured into their plans. Or, let's say, Claire figured into their plans. So, we met them at Crema and pretended the place was a cafe in Madrid. And that we could actually enjoy going out to a cafe with a 14-month-old.

We ordered Spanish Lattes and an Euro Cappuccino. We spoke some Espanol. But mostly, we watched Claire run around in circles and to and from the windows of this cafe that was full of Internet surfers and fashionistas and slackers and hipsters and absolutely no other kids (Clearly, no longer our crowd). There was even a magazine photo shoot going on at a nearby table. Claire kept distracting the model, pointing at the spotlight and flashing her sign for "light."



Luis doted on Claire, winning her over with his charming smile before our 90 minutes were up.

We hope they'll come back before Claire starts school, but we might have to make a trip to Spain ourselves.

Old video of Claire

Enjoy.

Still about Christmas

Hey, I have no other photos to post right now.

It was tough for granny and Claire to part. They spent the morning of the 25th together. Here, Claire shows her studious face, now a trademark



Grandpa got in his quality time, too....



Later, at home, Claire opened books from Michelle Thompson ...



... and Dana and Charlotte, her most excellent babysitters.