Landscaping cont.

Now that Brad and Bettie are here, the moratorium on posting photos of our completed path has ended.



We got a truckload of bark dust a few weeks ago and filled in the gaps between the stones. It looks pretty nice; sort of faux-forest-like.



Claire got into the back of the truck and started ordering us all around. She walked around the bark dust like she knew its very fiber, had trampled it before.



Now the challenge will be to keep the bark dust off the stones and out of the crevices of our shoes so we don't track it in the house.



Next: Raised beds.

This girl loves to swing

She must've spent 45 minutes total in a swing Sunday morning.



She stopped only because her hands turned light blue from the cold.

Good friends

Good neighbors Eric and Luca paid a visit this weekend while dad was giving the front lawn a much needed mowing. Luca is a few months other than Claire but the two of them seem to be more in sync each time they meet. On this day they hugged, held hands and started down the sidewalk together. Claire wore her treasured new lady-bug boots.





Claire took a keen interest in the push mower. Before long, both of them were at the steering wheel, so to speak, hauling down the walk, cutting anything in their path.







We can only hope they parlay this enthusiasm into their chores a decade from now.






Mowing wasn’t the only chore Claire embraced this weekend. She also voluntarily sat on the toilet, buoying our hopes that potty training won’t be too far or too difficult. That’s a Philip Roth novel she has in hand. Like I said, she's got her own ideas now.



Mary came by, too, and provided two hours of free babysitting. How lucky can we get! It was great to see her. We miss Mary. She took Claire to Border's, bought her a copy of "Where's that duck" and reconnected with a little girl who isn't as little as she was last time Mary saw her.

More changes

Claire is more than 17 months old and quickly growing into her own (and out of her clothes). Over the past three weeks, particularly the first part of April, she changed in subtle, yet significant, ways, all of which added up to be quite noticeable. She has gone from observer to asserter, copier to creator, dependent to intuitive. Her facial expressions are more numerous and complex. She casts furtive and skeptical looks as if she were an adult. She has expanded her communicative vocabulary exponentially, merely through the use of her new glances.



She's putting two and two together. Many times she gets 3.7. But who's counting? This week, Sarah drove her to her friend Jude's house. Before they even reached Jude's driveway, Claire started saying his name aloud. Then, with no cue from mom, she added, "Hwwiiiiiinnnng." That's Claire for "Swing." That's what they do when they go to Jude's.



She has started recounting events from memory. Last weekend I took her to the park without Sarah. When we got home, Claire walked into the room where mom was standing and said "Ot-tide" (Outside) and then she said "Hwwiiiiiiinng." Indeed, we had swung.



She demands more of what she wants. She often points at the stool folded up between the fridge and the counter because she wants us to get it out so she can climb it and watch mom fix dinner or dad make breakfast. She tries to say many more words, though the pronunciations themselves often throw her father for a loop when uttered out of context.

She runs more, though it's more of a duck waddle. She puts her head down and throws her feet out to the side in a half arc as she propels herself forward. I love watching this from behind. She seems intent, a bit lumbering, and yet pleased with herself.



She likes to read. But she really loves playing in the water and dirt and mud and hail (this week) and rocks. "Ot-tide" is her favorite word. Dana, her babysitter, calls her a naturalist.

Her latest thing is to hug other toddlers, some complete strangers, as if they're dear, long-lost friends. She smiles widely and geniunely when she locks them in her bear hug, entertaining any adults that happen to be around and smothering her subjects. She kisses and says "na-nat," waves good bye to people and objects she likes and blows kisses to spiders and worms and my belly button.

Easter moments

It was Claire's second Easter, and mom really did it up for her. She bought her an Easter basket with grass and multi-colored plastic eggs.


She let her play with the grass on Saturday. Claire promptly tried to plant it.



If only it would work on our front lawn.


Granny and granddad sent her a box of new dresses, books and other gifts.






The most popular gift of all, since she can pronounce its name perfectly, was her very own, bathtub-resistant Elmo. Take a look...



More Elmo-Claire moments here.

Happy (late) Easter

Last Easter, Claire looked like this photo here.



This year:




Yes, she was a bit melancholy. But we survived.

The bathroom incident

It happens to the best of us. We take a seat on the toilet, our pants down. We get good and comfortable. Then, midway through the designated task, we realize the toilet roll is empty. Nothing but a cardboard spool.

This problem happened recently to a member of our family who shall remain nameless. But, as with many of life's challenges, this one led us to a pleasant discovery.



Claire happened to be in the bathroom at the time. She often is when we're showering or using the facilities. She's fascinated about the goings on. She's training herself to use her own potty one day. We in now way want to discourage that.

So, when this anonymous family member ran out of paper, s/he turned to Claire and said, "Claire! Can you go into the other bathroom and get a roll of toilet paper and bring it to XX-XX?"

Claire nodded, "Uh-huh." She walked right out of the bathroom, the THUMP-THUMP-thump of her footsteps growing faint as she tottered down the hall. A dull thud sounded as she dropped her toy on the floor. A few seconds later, thump-thump-THUMP-THUMP, she returned, walked through the bathroom door, a full roll of toilet paper in hand.




The unnamed family member later proclaimed, "That's the first time having a kid around the house has actually been practical."





But it's not the first or last time that we've detected signs that she's once again going through a developmental growth spurt that's both fascinating and exciting.




It seems as if she's changing before our very eyes. She absorbs and replicates word after word after word. She now tackles words with multiple syllables. She might not be precise, but she's definitely persistent. And her facial expressions are becoming more complex. She's into routines. She wants to eat sitting in chairs at a table. She demands the stool each morning and evening so she can stand at the counter and help us make coffee or prepare dinner. She now says "nyah-nyah" (night-night) without our prompting.


All of this reminds us: Claire understands much more than we know.

The final path

Sort of. Still needs to be adorned with bark dust. The rest of the place -- especially the front lawn -- begs for a lot of work. We got to it this weekend by hauling in our first yard of soil, which we laid down as flower beds around the perimeter of the patio that you can't see in the above photo. Plus, our old concrete retaining wall blocks and stepping stones we put up for free on a website; two sets of strangers responded almost immediately and hauled them away Saturday. Already, the back yard has improved considerable.



Looks good in the rain.