Thinking of Claire being 19 months old, made me think of the fact that just two short years ago, I was pregnant. I was just starting to get over morning sickness and starting to feel like a normal human being again. A year ago, Claire was just sitting up and far from mobile. Today she seems to run everywhere. She gets a second wind every night when Charles gets home, and we sit and watch her run with joy from one toy to the next, bringing us book after book. She loves to help around the house and build houses with her blocks. She likes making soup and eggs in her kitchen and then sharing it with us, asking us to "taste." She also loves to play with a number of stuffed animals, putting them to bed, feeding them, and changing their diapers.
Helping to rake the leaves.
Sharing her breakfast with Whale.There are all these little things that point to all the ways Claire is growing up. She recently started spending Wednesday at Parent's Day Out. We registered her for preschool this fall. She is starting to string her words into sentences. You can see her mind working as she wraps her mouth around multiple syllables to say "Daddy's coming" or "Mommy sit." Today she started referring to herself as Claire Bear. One night at the beginning of March, Claire was having a particularly hard time falling asleep and needed a little extra love. I went upstairs and rocked her for awhile. Eventually, she looked up at me with the sweetest, little satisfied smile and said "Night, Night. Tay." It was a perfect example of all that Claire is right now. Still needing us, starting to know what she needs, and being able to take care of some things herself.
Occasionally, Claire will wake up in the middle of the night with a bad dream or a night terror. She has a certain cry, and we know she's going to keep crying until someone comes and comforts her. It usually happens around 11 pm, before we have actually fallen asleep, and more often than not, as sad as her cry is, we love the moments we get to just sit and rock with Claire curled up against our chest like she did when she was a baby. We don't get many moments these days when she is willing to just be held.
We've been enjoying days of spring like weather followed by days of rain and snow. When the sun is shining, we take every opportunity to get out of the house - going to the park or the zoo. Claire loves to be outside. Many mornings her first words to me are "swing?" Luckily, she calls the backyard the park, so we don't always have to go far to make her happy. With our extra hour of sunlight, on nice evenings we are all able to head to the backyard and get in some quality swing time before it gets dark. I personally dread waking up to a cloudy day and having to find ways to keep us entertained indoors that do not involve watching Pooh or Sesame Street while simultaneously explaining why we can't go outside.
I'm finding myself constantly reminded of childhood feelings as Claire grows up. The way it feels to have spent most of the day playing in the sun. The feel of sand falling through my fingers.
The mad dash to get to my favorite animal on the carousel.
The freedom of swinging higher and higher.
I see her starting to have these same experiences, and I get to experience them all over again with her. While parenthood can be incredibly hard, it is most often incredibly sweet.
