Stuff Claire is saying (and what it means)

Claire is talking full-time. We always knew that once she started, she would not stop. Pretty much ever. We are there, and it's pretty fun. She has so many thoughts going on and is very interested in sharing them. Sometimes, it's pretty clear what she means, and other times, it only makes sense to Brad and me (and sometimes, it makes no sense to anyone). Before I had a toddler, I always thought it was funny how moms could make out what their kids were saying when what the kids were saying sounded NOTHING like what Mom interpreted. I get it now. I'm actually to the point where I find myself saying the words that she uses- because it sounds normal to me now. How did this happen?

Here is a sampling of how our days go:
To get the day started, Claire enjoys a sippy cup of warm gok (milk) and a bowl of oat-no (oatmeal). Brad then changes her dypuh (diaper) and puts on her hat, boo (boots) and haddah (headband), even though we aren't immediately going anywhere or even changing her out of her jammies (she is really into accessories, y'all).

These boots are well-loved.

One of many headbands.

Mommy comes downstairs and is greeted with a "MOMMY! UPUPUP!" before even getting off the stairs. Kisses are exchanged (and a mini-nose wiped this time of year) before launching into a list of potential activities for the day (list generated by Claire, not Mommy...Mommy just wants breakfast). First request is always Doh (Curious George, not play-doh. We haven't embarked on that childhood adventure yet.). If Mommy doesn't respond to her request for Doh, she immediately follows up with Hunny (Hundley is George's dachshund friend). 

Mommy counters with the suggestion of reading (I try to limit tv to in the evening when I'm cooking dinner and need a distraction for the Bear). She begins listing some favorite books, which typically include Cow-we-you (Corduroy) and Skeeeek (Babylit The Hound of the Baskervilles is a book of onomatopoeia, one of which is "screech." That one took me a while to figure out.).

Reading "Bossy." Mommy can only read this one so many times before getting sad and missing Bossy too much. Note the necklace...I'm telling you: accessories.

After reading those (plus a few others), Claire begins asking for a sack (snack), and Mommy redirects with other suggestions (because it is not even close to time for snack yet). Claire asks (enthusiastically) to go ahSIE (outside) to blow bubbos (bubbles), look at twees (trees) and watch skuhs (squirrels). Sometimes we do this, depending on the weather, and other times, we stay inside for warmer activities, like cah-yee (coloring) or stuck-uh (stickers). When she's bored with that, she'll ask to spend time with or call various friends and loved ones, like Wichee (local friend named Richie), Nana, Poppy, Gah (Gran), and Pah-pah (Grandpa). 

Around mid-morning, Mommy <finally> agrees that it can be snack time, so we put on a bob (bib) and begin going through the list of snack options: cacky (oyster crackers), wingy (raisins), seerio (Cheerios), yogi (yogurt), appy (apples), namia (bananas), and pow pow (fruit pouches). Oh, and of course, wah wah (water, not to be confused with Way-Way...who is Aunt Ray Ray).

A yogi day.

Found "A seerio!" under the fridge.

Our day continues with more play time, errands, general housework, lunch, and naptime.

Post naptime, it's time again for a snack, but this snack is usually served in her COP (snack cup...but always said loudly and emphatically). Before it's time to watch Doh while Mommy cooks supper, we may go ahSIE to the park to play on the sie (slide). Claire always asks for sahns (songs) so that she can dass (dance). The song asked for is usually Essa (Elsa = "Let It Go"). We also sing songs that she learned from the local library programs, like "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Guy Skuh" ("Gray Squirrel"). Sometimes, if she's feeling ambitious, she'll ask to watch Diddio (Veggietales "If I Sang a Silly Song") instead of Doh (I usually decline, as we like to save Diddio for special occasions). 

At dinner time, we put Claire (who calls herself Care- minus the "r" sound- by the way) in her see (seat) so that we can pay (pray). She demands hahn (hands to hold for praying) and always says, "Ah-men!" Her favorite item to see on the table is buh (bread...but can also "bird" if she sees one outside). After dinner, she immediately asks for a baff (bath) and to play with ties (toys) in the tub. 

Following bathtime, she likes to help bush (brush) her teeth and hair before heading to her room for a stowee (Bible story). We read a story from her Storybook Bible and pray for friends and family. Then it's time for kisses! And saying night-night (which can also mean Goodnight Moon or the "Goodnight, Junior" song from Veggietales- it's all about context clues) to owies (owls on her mobile), turning off yights (lights), and pointing out the fuh (fan- not to be confused with flower or fire). She snuggles up to Mimi (Lambsy) and Fotsi (Flatsy) and drifts off to sleep.

There are many other words that are said throughout the day (MANY words). Some words are said only in certain contexts (like tactoh- tractor- at Gran's and Grandpa's house or tuck- truck- while driving down the interstate), and some things are mentioned very randomly (like gassies- glasses); this is a list of her regularly scheduled vocab. I know there are things I'm forgetting. Hopefully, I'll remember them before she grows a little more and her language grows with her. I'm honestly not in a hurry. She's growing fast enough as it is. Oi.

Gassies.

Insta-updates

I realize that this doesn't exactly count as a real post, as it doesn't contain any interesting information. However, I realize that not everyone who reads this follows me on Instagram or is a Facebook friend...so I thought I'd post some pictures that I've put up on those sites recently with a few captions to keep you updated.

I found her trying to shut herself between the storm door and the real door. She was very determined and very much didn't want my help.

This outfit is very Claire. What does that say about our future?

Putting herself away...?

Trying on some glasses to see if it helps her look smarter. I think yes.

She gets bored on long car rides.

Dancing to Christmas songs

Brad and I were able to go to a performance of The Messiah at the Duke chapel. It was fantastic! I got a picture of the MASSIVE Advent wreath. It was about four feet in diameter.

Fifi needed a bath. Apparently.

Reading Bible "sto-wees" on the bathroom floor while I cleaned.

Reading a book...in the play place at Chick-fil-A. Obviously the place for a reading nook.

First time on a rocking horse. She was in looooove.

Claire playing with a tiny puppy. Claire was fan...puppy was a little terrified.

Dressing up as either Mary...or a babushka. It's a toss up.

Happy weekend, everyone!

She's a collector.

A few weeks ago, I introduced Claire to stickers. It was pretty immediate love. She is very into "stuckas." I bought a variety pack and stuck it in my purse for situations like church services or car seat hostage situations. 

Our church in Boston always gave everyone sticker name tags, and the church we have been visiting quite a bit here does, as well. She likes to pull off hers, mine, and Brad's to play with every week. It provides quite a bit of distraction during the service, so we're cool with it.

Well, for the first time in forever (much like Anna from Frozen), she stayed in nursery for the entire time this week. This is very much a victory. And...when Brad went to pick her up, her jacket (which she was inexplicably wearing...I'm assuming she asked to wear it. She does that.), she was fairly covered in name tag "stuckas" that she had been collecting off the backs of the other kids. Those name tags came home with us.

Bless us all.

Traditions

I read an encouraging blog post the other day about moms creating traditions for their small children. I have a small child, so I find things like that terribly interesting these days. This time last year, I didn't worry about creating traditions with Claire; she was too little to know or care about it. This year, she is still too young to fully understand much of the Christmas season, but she is definitely able to take in quite a lot. So, I've been trying to thoughtfully and carefully sort through all of the stuff that we could be doing and choose the things that I think will be meaningful to us, teach something to Claire, and prove to be sustainable. We've landed on a few activities that I think we can maintain through the years, knowing that other things can be worked in for different seasons of our life. 

The first thing we knew we wanted to do was go through the Advent readings suggested for The Jesus Storybook Bible. We read a "STO-WEE!" with Bear every night anyway and are Church calendar followers, so this seemed like a perfect tradition to put into place. I found the reading list posted online, and we do one reading each night. She is getting more and more into STO-WEE! time, and we are enjoying watching her connect with the process. We also have an Advent calendar (like, a REAL Advent calendar...the kind that celebrates/counts down to Jesus' birthday. Not just a fancy countdown system to the day that we open presents. Those jokers are all over Pinterest, and I take issue with the fact that they are called "Advent" calendars when they have no connection with celebrating the advent of Jesus. Sheesh.) that we updated daily. So far, we have two stars in place. I think tonight might be an angel. We'll see...

We also knew that we wanted Claire to participate in giving each Christmas (not just to family and friends). To that end, we decided that we will help her pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child every year, as her way of giving to children on an international level. Obviously, this year that meant that I packed a shoebox for her. I had a lot of fun with it. I'm looking forward to when she can give her opinion on what should be in the box (heaven knows she has LOTS of opinions). 

We also want to make a habit of helping her to give locally each year. This year, we chose Salvation Army. I think she will enjoy putting money in the buckets, so we are going to pull out the amount we want to give and let her stuff bills into buckets around town. The organization we give to may change each year, but Salvation Army is it this year.

Those three things are the things we decided on as our yearly activities. There are definitely other things that we're doing to be merry and bright, like watching Eloise at Christmastime and Curious George's Christmas movie, decorating (and undecorating and decorating and undecorating) the lower levels of the tree, and listening to Christmas music. She'll be joining us for the Boswell Family Christmas Eve party (dressed in her Who costume, of course) and I may even let her eat some sugar this year.

I'm interested to see how our Christmas traditions evolve over the years, but for now, that's what we are doing. It's working, so I'll keep it.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to celebrate with the ones you love. I, certainly, have a ridiculous amount to be thankful for, and the 10-hour (each way) car ride to Alabama wasn't nearly enough time to list them all!

Pictures from the bathroom

I know it's weird to take pictures in the bathroom, but as I mentioned in my post from Vermont, there were some killer bathroom signs at a coffee shop on our way north. I found the pictures of those signs that I snapped for your entertainment.

I don't know about you, but in my head, a bathroom is the obvious choice for trash disposal when traveling through the middle of nowhere. But, this establishment felt so strongly about their trash aversion that they chose to YELL at patrons. I hear you, employees.

But, in case I didn't hear you, here is a more detailed explanation of your thoughts, apparently. A few comments: 

1. The bathroom was nice enough, but I would never recommend it to my friends as exceptional or call it a privilege to use.

2. What if my disposable diapers aren't Pampers? We buy CVS brand when we aren't using cloth. Can I not use the trash can if Claire is wearing CVS brand?

3. I don't remember being given trash by the store, although, it seems that I could throw it away if I had been given trash. And, that is a big bad run-on sentence. I consider run-ons trash. If you aren't keeping your grammatical trash to yourself, I feel that it negates the need for me to keep my trash to myself. It's only fair.

Flashback Friday(on a Saturday...): Roadtrip to Vermont

One of our goals while living in New England was to visit as many of those little tiny states as we could. We did fairly well: Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont (plus several drives through Connecticut). 

Just a couple months before we headed south, we finally made it to Vermont for the weekend. We decided on Brattleboro, as it wasn't too terribly far from Boston. We knew we didn't want to try to tackle a roadtrip longer than 3 hours, so Brattleboro it was.

We headed out of town, and, for the first time, really, headed into western Mass. Let me just say: once you get out of Boston, you are pretty much in the country. Massachusetts is not that bustling. I think that, having grown up in the South, I just kind of assumed the whole state was teeming with people. Not so. 

Being the patriotic souls that we are, we stopped for lunch in Concord. There was basically nothing in Concord, but the pizza place we stopped at was excellent. We liked the pizza we ordered so much that we recreated it when we got back home. Claire won over a bunch of burly firefighters, so...all in a day's work.

We stopped once between Concord and Brattleboro because we saw an interesting coffee/ice cream/antiques place. The ice cream was good, Brad thought the coffee was pretty good, we didn't really pay too much attention to the antiques, but the bathroom signs made the stop worth it, for sure.

Friends of ours had explained to us that within New England, Vermont is considered the weird, hippy, "out there" state. Within Vermont, Brattleboro is considered weird, hippy, and "out there." We were definitely interested in seeing what that looked like.

It looked like a lot of things, actually. Like almost more bicycles than cars, solar panels on almost all houses, "shop local" signs everywhere, words like "locally sourced" proudly displayed in restaurants, stores selling hippy clothes and paraphernalia. It was the kind of place that made me a little self-conscious about driving an SUV. But it was beautiful. It was nestled in the Green Mountains and had taken great pains to preserve the original buildings of downtown. 

We ate dinner at a REALLY yummy restaurant on the river and walked over the bridge to the New Hampshire state line. Just because.

Our restaurant

Crossing the river to get to...

...New Hampshire.

Our love for AirBnB paid off again; we stayed in an ADORABLE little cabin in a family's backyard. It was just too cute and quite perfect for a weekend. And, I think we only paid $85/night.

Seriously. How cute is this?

Sun room. I totally laid on that rug and took a nap when Claire was konked out.

A rather unfortunate element of our Vermontian adventure was that Claire decided it was time to have Opinions and Feelings and Self-Expression. It made our visit pretty miserable on some level, as we were dealing with an incessant flow of Disgruntled Sounds and Whines. Eating out was rendered quite difficult because there was nothing to stop the Frustrated Noises. Loud Frustrated Noises. It was the first moment of our parenting career where we realized that we couldn't just take our baby out and expect her to be on cruise control. We were definitely going to have to be on alert and prepared at all times. It was a blow to our happiness. (It also inhibited my interest in taking pictures...)

Views around Brattleboro

If you're going to hang out on the side of the road, you might as well have a couch, right?

View of the mountains in between buildings.

Back when she still had a paci and needed help walking.

It was a fun visit to Vermont, but Brad and I were glad to get back to Boston and to a routine that didn't bring out the Whines and Cries quite so much. Our initiation into Toddlerdom, perhaps? Bless.

Life update: Erin

I've updated on Claire and Brad, so I thought it might be time to update on me a little bit. 

First, a quick disclaimer: I am not unhappy or wallowing in bummed-out-ness or hating my life. But, in an effort to be honest and not use social media as a way of making my life look more awesome than it is, I'm going to tell it like it is.

Life is full of ups, downs, and in-betweens. I'm pretty much in one of the in-betweens. Life isn't gloriously awesome or dreadfully terrible. We still don't have a church, which, for us, means we don't really have friends. We have a few people here and there (between school and connections we have from our past), but we don't have a network of friends yet or any real support system. That makes life a little dull. 

Or sometimes really dull. I'm not the biggest extrovert that ever lived (Ukraine knocked a lot of extroversion out of me), but I do occasionally want a buddy around. 

My days consist of Claire, all day every day. We read books, go for walks, blow bubbles, collect acorns, play hide-and-rawr, work on the alphabet, color, draw with sidewalk chalk, play with blocks, and watch Curious George. We add some flavor into our week by going to the grocery store on Mondays, one of the local libraries on Wednesdays, and another library on Thursday. The local libraries around here are fantastic with their children's programming. Both of the libraries we go to have music and story times, which could NOT make Claire any happier. She's starting to remember some of the words and motions to the songs, which is great fun (and helpful for distracting her and keeping her hands busy at various points throughout the day). I'm also thrilled that it provides her with appropriate social interaction with her peers. She doesn't have too many other opportunities for that (remember the over-the-top separation anxiety?). She is a funny little person, and I really do have fun spending my days with her (most of the time).

On the "fun" front, Brad and I watch Survivor each week, which adds some flavor to the Claire-sleeping times. And Friday nights are for The Amazing Race (which, by the way, I think Brad and I should apply for. I think we could rock it out). Because Brad is the world's best student, he spends a lot of his evenings studying or participating in lectures, which means I end up entertaining myself a few nights a week. It looks different on different nights. I really need to be more intentional about choosing activities that make me a better person or make me smarter...a lot of times it looks like me watching tv shows on Amazon Prime while folding laundry. Or scouring Yelp to find local hairdressers that fit in my budget (update: haven't found anything that looks both reputable and economical yet) or dentists covered by my insurance (jury is still out on this one). I am just full of excitement and fun.

I am enjoying trying out new restaurants when we have company and learning about new places to take Claire. I also enjoy having a house (as opposed to an apartment) and continually getting it set up the way we want it. I love getting to hang out with Brad when he has time, and I am really glad I get to stay home and take care of Claire. We have been finding some fun and interesting places to visit and are learning more about Durham regularly.

I'm definitely not the kind of person who says, "I wish something interesting would happen!" because I feel like that is just asking for trouble. However, I do find myself saying, "I wish we could find a church to join and friends to hang out with so that we don't feel like such strangers in a place we weren't crazy about moving to in the first place." That's way more real life for me right now. I'm not really sure what I would most like to see happen in my life right now, so I'm mostly content with what's going on. I think I find life in Durham a little more difficult to adjust to because, for the first time in my adult life, I am not living somewhere intrinsically cool (Ukraine...Boston) or working (for payment- Claire definitely makes me work for it), and I'm learning to adjust to that. I'm doing my best to find the "cool" in my day-to-day and think I'm starting to make progress. 

So, like I said, I'm living in the in-between. I'm glad that Brad and Claire are my companions. 

P.S. Thanks for all the writing encouragement, guys. I will stick it out.

Is anybody still reading this?

I feel so torn about blogging these days. I love to write and to make myself do something relatively creative. Discipline. A creative discipline. It's a nice element to add to my days (which are comprised of a lot of things that aren't really creative). I enjoy writing and taking pictures and thinking of things to say.

Unfortunately, I also seem to get mentally tired more quickly these days, thanks in large part to chasing a toddler around and trying to entertain her when her attention span is so very, very short. So, by the time she goes down for a nap or for bed, I'm either needing to catch up on housework or I'm just no good in the thinking department. Thus, the struggle.

All that to say...I am way behind on things I want to say.

For example, my parents visited almost two months ago, and I am just now posting about it. They popped in for my dad's birthday weekend, and we tromped around Durham for a few days. We visited Kipos, the Greek restaurant in Chapel Hill that we reallllly like, as well as Bull City Burgers (which has a corner full of toys and books and kid stuff that is AWESOME). Everyone was a fan of everything, food-wise.

We wandered around part of downtown Durham, which was really a nice surprise. Durham has been working very diligently on revitalizing their historic downtown area, and it is really quite nice. Durham has a VERY tobacco-y history. There are lots of old tobacco factories in downtown, and the city has been turning the area into a historic district full of quaint restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and little shops. The Durham Bulls (minor league) baseball stadium is also right smack in the middle of downtown. By the way, the Bulls feed into the Tampa Bay Rays. In case you were wondering. 

Kind of hand-in-hand with the history of tobacco industry, Durham has a steep history of racial tension, as well. I was really encouraged by the efforts the city seems to be making (small though these symbols might be in the grand scheme of things) to elevate the history of the black community of Durham. Outside of the baseball stadium, there were plaques commemorating the Black Socks, the all-black baseball league that used to play in Durham. There was also a plaque marking "Black Wall Street," which I'm planning to research a bit more. It sounds fascinating.

Around the Lucky Strike factory is a lovely, restored walking area (that proved to be nice for walking on a pretty Saturday morning).

Outside the Bulls stadium was this bull-shaped bike rack.

Playing at Bull City Burger.

We also went up to Duke for an afternoon. We started at the basketball stadium, which, of course, was closed. Oi. Also, I'm not supposed to admit to you that I didn't know how to pronounce the men's basketball coach's name, but it's true. I didn't. Here's a sign with his name (plus "ville"), in case you've never seen it written:

Apparently, it's pronounced "Shi- shevski." Did you know that? I don't think I deserved the look of shock and disbelief I received when I didn't know it. I am a) not a basketball follower b) not an ACC fan and c) don't speak Polish. Cut me some slack, y'all.

Here's the stadium.

And Mom and Dad posing outside the closed stadium.

Clock tower walking into the residence quads.

So, there is a ton of construction happening around the chapel and all of the fences surrounding the construction are covered with plastic that looks like the stones of the buildings. Isn't it impressive?

Outside of the Divinity school where Brad has most of his classes.

Koi pond in the Sarah P. Duke gardens. It's absolutely beautiful. And, those koi are gigantic. I think they could probably eat Claire, and would, if given the chance. 

I snapped these pictures of Mom and Claire singing/reading "You Are My Sunshine." They're some of my favorite pictures! Claire is making picture taking difficult these days, so these shots are gold.

So, although I still miss Boston every single day (which isn't hyperbole...the struggle is real), we are learning more about our new city and are doing our best to love it. We hope to continue finding things we love and making it our home. Come visit, and we'll take you to the Incredible Man-Eating Koi Pond. You'll never be the same again.