15 months

Clare turned 15 months on Monday!  We took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday night for a check-up.  She's doing really well and hitting her milestones.  After checking out Clare, the nurse practitioner felt it was safe to correct the "failure to thrive" notation that was put in Clare's chart last year :-) The poor little bird got two shots this time around which left her a little cranky for the rest of the night and the next day, but she's feeling much better now!

Here are Clare's stats at 15 months:
Height: 31.5 inches (82nd percentile)
Weight: 27lbs 13oz (97th percentile)
Head: 19.5 inches (100th percentile!)

At 15 months:

-Clare is walking all the time - she rarely crawls anymore. I feel like she was just  log-rolling around the house to get to where she wants to go.

-Clare's showing us that she has a real stubborn streak... and quite a temper. When things don't go her way, she'll throw a nasty tantrum which can include throwing herself on the floor, loud screeching, or head-banging.  Oh boy.

-She's also super-cuddly and loves to be held. She also likes to rough-house, which is good since Sean likes to rough-house :-)

-Clare loves music! She loves to sing and she loves to dance. Her favorite songs right now are "Old MacDonald," "Itsy Bitsy," and Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds." She also likes to bop around to the too-hot-for-Sesame-Street duet between Katy Perry and Elmo "Hot n' Cold."

-She likes books - she likes being read to and she likes to pretend to read to others as if she's a little teacher.

-She eats like a champ! Right now her favorite foods are pineapple, watermelon, and cottage cheese. She loves to have a banana at breakfast and to munch on pretzels for a snack. She only has a bottle at bedtime now which means we only have to bring a sippy cup of whole milk to school in the mornings. Clare always needs a utensil at mealtimes now - we usually give her a spoon to hold while she eats, but sometimes she'll try to get food on her spoon and feed herself.

-She's starting to babble conversationally and can say a few words such as "hi" and "uh-oh!" Her signing is really coming along - she can sign "more" and "please" and knows some colors.

-Clare is totally in copycat mode - she can mimic what we do and what we say. She especially likes to mimic Sean when he's being noisy which can make for very loud dinnertimes :-)

-She's a very good helper. She likes to carry things and put things away and clean up.

Swimming

We took a nice long break and went to the beach for a few days.  The Sooy Babies played in the sand and got to practice all the skills they've learned at swimming lessons this summer. Tonight was their last lesson - Sean can go underwater and likes to try to swim on his own - "all by myself!" Clare likes to be dunked under water and can blow bubbles like a champ :-)

The two newest grads of the Aqua Tots program:

The two Bs of summer

Beach and Blueberries!

The Sooy Babies have been having a good time at the beach this summer. Unlike last summer, when Sean wouldn't go near the ocean, Sean now loves swimming in the ocean and jumping in the waves! Clare likes to take breaks from playing in the sand and go swimming, too.

After the beach, the little helpers get to work sweeping the sand out of Pop-Pop-Pop's garage:

This morning we had blueberry pancakes with what were probably the last good batch of Jersey blueberries for the season.

"More?" Sorry, little bird. Maybe we can have peach pancakes next weekend :-)

Summer fun ... and s'mores!

One of our favorite things to do on summer mornings is to play with sidewalk chalk and lately we've had even more fun with sidewalk chalk paint:

We had a fire one evening after dinner and enjoyed a treat after dinner - s'mores!

We learned that, in addition to graham crackers, Clare loves marshmallows...

...and Sean likes his marshmallows untoasted, thankyouverymuch!

We painted coffee filters with watercolors to make "stained glass" window hangings...

...Clare doesn't have much patience for painting (she's more of a marker girl), so she works on getting colored tape off the windows:

We also have been playing with bubbles - with wands that make regular bubbles, big bubbles, and many many bubbles:

Clare sometimes branches off and plays with rocks...

...while Sean spent a nice long time chasing many, many bubbles!

Order up!

Thanks to a neighbor's yard sale, the Sooy Babies have their very own kitchen!

Sean likes to cook dinner for everyone - his specialty is corn on the cob...

...and coffee!

Service with a smile - 

Clare loves all the doors that open and shut. She likes to put toys in the oven and the dishwasher and take them out. And then she puts them back in and then back out.

Sometimes Sean and Clare play nicely together:

 

And sometimes they end up wrestling/hugging on the floor:

Odds n' Ends

These Sooy Babies are growing up quickly.  Each day they're into something different and trying something new.  Here's a little snapshot of what they're up to lately:

--Sean  loves to help in the kitchen.  He helped out with almost every part of dinner tonight!

--Clare loves to pack and unpack things.  She'll carry around a small tote bag or little box and put random toys in and then she takes the toys out. Then she puts the toys back in and takes the toys back out. And again.

Getting silly with crepe paper. Mommy was getting desperate on this rainy weekend morning.

--Tonight I said to Sean, "Hey Buggins, guess what?" and Sean said, "You love me, I know!"
--A couple of nights ago, Clare was getting really squirmy during book time, so I let her off my lap so she could walk around. She toddled over to Sean's bed, climbed in, waved to us and said, "Na na na na!" Sean leaped out of the reading chair to join Clare and they giggled and pretended to go night-night.

Sean's wearing his hat, scarf, mittens, and boots since he was so, so, so cold!

--About half and hour after bed, Sean will call out to ask to have his shirt taken off since he gets "too sweaty" in bed... under his 2 blankets.
--Tonight Sean asked to have "yogret" after dinner. We only had plain yogurt on hand, so I mixed some up with blueberries. When I asked Sean what he thought, he said, "This yogret is so yummy, but I don't like the white stuff - I like the blueberries. Yum!"