First birthday!

Typical end of the semester.  So busy I barely know what day it is.  We're headed into finals week, and I'm so relieved.

Claire's birthday was about a week and a half ago, and we had a party last Saturday.  We were thankful to have so many loved family and friends able to attend, and it was fun to see how much our friends' families have grown since we had Colin's birthday party.  I think there may have only been one other little one at that party, and we were overrun this time!

We went with a very loose theme of Teddy Bears, since we pretty much always call Claire-Bear by her nickname.  We brought down Grandmom's teddy bears and let them be the entrance to the party.

And we had a teddy bear like birthday cake.

But that was about the extent of the bear-ness that I came up with/was willing to do.

We grabbed a bag of ball pit balls from one of my classrooms at work (odd perk to the job) and set up a small ball pit that the kids loved.

Claire was a little unsure of her cake (certainly more unsure than Colin was), but she gave it a try after I helped her a little bit.

She also sat with me while I opened her gifts. She was most interested in sitting in her new chair from Great-Grandpa, putting her cards in her mouth, and hugging her baby doll.  She loves to snuggle her stuffed animals and baby dolls, and it's just about the most precious thing ever.  She likes her new toys, but Colin likes them most.

Claire spent the last month learning to stand up in the middle of the room (before she learned to walk, which was backward from Colin), crawl up the stairs, and learned to walk.  She's doing really well with her walking, using it as her made mode of transportation now.  I just put her in shoes for the first time today, and she was not sure what to make of them.  She mostly just stood still and wobbled back and forth.

She's got 7 teeth, weighs almost 24 pounds, and is 31 inches long.  She's in the 95th percentile on length, 90th percentile on weight.  I'm thinking she might slim down a little now that she's really moving.  We're hoping that this last incisor is coming in right now, because she has been NEEDY this weekend.  She's much snugglier than Colin ever was and demands to be held all the time.  Colin just cried on the floor for a few minutes and moved on with his life.  She's a fair eater; she prefers to drink her calories, and she switched to milk easily.  She sleeps well at night and naps well when she's at home.  She says All Done, Dada, Up, Mama (not as much), and Bubba (also not as much).  I think I heard her say Ella today.  She's still a pretty somber kid, and she doesn't smile for people she doesn't know, mostly just Grandma/Grandpa/Casie/Joey and the girls who run her room at daycare.  Otherwise, forget it.

Colin started back up again in soccer, and he's doing well.  It's nice not having Peter coaching this year, and Colin does well with his coach, who also seems to really like him.  He's one of the older kids on the team, thanks to some national soccer restructuring, and he's a better listener than most of the kids due to the age change.

Peter got to borrow one of my dad's nicer camera lens for the next game.

And finally, just a few remaining cute ones from the past couple of weeks.  Lots of sunshine and more time at work with Dad thanks to our combined ridiculous schedules.