Walking chronicles continued again

April 23rd




April 25th

Vocabulary lesson

Today, Claire & I drove home from swap at Matt & Sonya's house in a hard rain. Harder than we usually get up here in the Northwest. Claire was impressed. She kept asking me to turn off the windshield wipers so she could see how long it took before we couldn't see out the front windshield.

Near the Sellwood Bridge, the rain came in sheets across our car. A word popped into my head. I figured it might be a word Claire hadn't heard before. Being the wise and earnest father that I think I am, I decided to use our pause at a stoplight as a teaching moment. I turned toward the back seat.

"This is what I would call a torrential rain," I told Claire.

"Me, too!" she cried. "A torrential rain. Yeah, let's call it a torrential rain."

The light turned green and I started to drive away when Claire spoke up again.

"This is what I would call a tantalizing rain," she said.

So much for my vocabulary lesson.

Easter

Better late than never. Easter came and went quick, but the candy still lingers and so do these pictures.




We met neighbors at a local park for an Easter egg hunt on Saturday. It was over in about a minute for the 3-and-under group. Claire staggered out into the middle of the field in time to collect some eggs before parents of younger tots nabbed (or stepped) on them. Not sure I'd never seen an event end so quickly.



Afterward we hung around, visited the firemen, toured the fire engine.



The two Claires, pictured above, piled onto a tire swing.









Before long, all four girls from the 'hood got on.



Listen to Claire clarifying: "I hadn't been on a tire swing before, mommee!"

One. Already.

Yep, Saturday was it. Paige's birthday. She pigged out.



About the time Paige dipped her face into this cupcake a year ago she was rocketing into our world in our spare bedroom. Seems almost like yesterday.



No holding this girl back. She was ready.







Claire insisted, like another sibling her father knew, that her birthday be declared as well.




Mom and Claire made vanilla cupcakes. We opened cards and gifts from relatives.





Damage eventually was done.

Walking chronicles continued

Just in case you're totally bored, some walking videos.....

Paige's other new trick

Claire never did this.

Progress!!!

Paige took her first steps tonight. We all saw it. We were gathered in our bedroom, Claire jumping around our rug like a gymnast and mom and dad lingering on the bed.

It went down like this: Paige stood up, raised her hands in the air and made a "Tah!" sound. She's been doing that for some time. Then, she dropped her hands, looked at the end of the bed, brought her right foot forward without much of a wobble and followed a second or two later with the left foot. Then she lunged forward to the end of our bed. We all clapped. Paige herself clapped for about a minute. She has been quite pleased with her own progress.

Last night, Paige stayed up until 11 p.m. in the kitchen, practicing peek-a-boo, gabbing and walking. She outlasted her sister and mom. I caught a half-step on video. You'll miss it if you blink. Here it is:

Paige upright

Paige is on the move. One week from her first birthday, she seems to be on the cusp of walking and very interested in trying.

Here's a quick glimpse of Paige standing. She's learned to stand on her own, without pulling up on any thing.



That's Claire whining in the background. Nothing serious.

Paige gets more excited about walking than we do.

Little orphan Claire

Claire got to see the movie Annie for the first time recently.

Guess what I found her doing when I got home one night last week?