A couple months ago, Brad put out some plants in our backyard. This is the second summer that we're trying our hands at growing a few plants, and we're hoping for the best. As he was putting the plants out and starting to water them, Claire discovered that she loves the hose. And she really wanted to use it on the plants. Unfortunately, Brad wasn't finished getting everything in place. He told her that it would be about 15 minutes. Apparently, in Claire's mind, counting down the 15 minutes meant singing the ABC's (sometimes, when I need her to wait on something, I give her a song to sing). When she finished it, Brad told her that she would actually need to sing it about 12 more times. She paused for second and then started singing "12, 12, 12, 12" to the tune of the ABC's. She's a problem-solver, y'all.
Some of our dear friends who moved away this summer (#summerofheartbreak) had a going-away party at the beginning of the summer. Colum's parents hosted it at their house in Raleigh. I should take this moment to mention that Colum's dad is a federal judge. You might be able to imagine the kind of house they have. To say I was a bit nervous about my 3-year-old in such a nice house would be an understatement. However, Claire behaved beautifully and did not break or stain a single thing. She did, however, keep wandering away from us once the dessert table was laid. I lost count of how many time Brad, Colum, our friend Michael, or I found her sneaky self hanging at the dessert table (and this is while keeping pretty close tabs on her; she's good, y'all). The last time I found her at the table, I walked up on her explaining the different desserts to a fellow partygoer, describing which she thought would be best...and making puppy eyes, perhaps hoping for a dropped morsel. And y'all, I'm pretty sure she would have been given something had I not walked up in that moment. The lady she was talking to looked at my guiltily; I'm confident she was thiiiiis close to giving Claire pound cake.
On the way home from the Devers' going-away party, Lily lost her paci in her car seat and was crying. I couldn't reach her and tried to comfort her with soothing words (didn't work, shockingly). Simultaneously, Claire had been feeling some fear of the dark around us, and we had been talking about how God is always with us and watching over us. We even spent some time praying that God would give Claire peace. After a few minutes of Lily crying, Claire piped up with her own thoughts for Lily. "It's ok, Wiwwy, God is protecting you. I'm going to pray for you. Dear God, please give Baby Sister some peace. In Jesus' name, amen. Baby Sister, there's not a dinosaur, so it's ok, Baby Sister." And don't you know- Lily stopped crying.
Back in June, we had what Brad dubbed "The Day of Near Misses." Until we unpacked the actual meaning behind two of Claire's comments, we were very nervous that Claire was beginning to express feelings of angst toward Lily.
Comment 1: I want to take Lily back to the hospital, Mommy.
Comment 2: Don't worry, Wiwwy. I will find you a loving home.
I was so concerned. Wouldn't you be?? I worked on cracking the meanings behind the comments and finally got it worked out.
Regarding comment 1
Erin: Claire, why do you want to take Lily back to the hospital?
Claire: So I can ride the alligator! (elevator)
Erin: Well golly, there's an elevator at church. What if we rode that one?
Claire: Yes! I want to!
Erin: Can we keep Lily?
Claire: Yes!
Regarding comment 2
Erin: Claire, why do you need to find Lily a loving home?
Claire: It's from the episode George!
Erin: (smacks forehead) The one where the lady thinks Hundley doesn't have an owner and takes him to the animal shelter?
Claire: Yeah! I will help Lily.
Erin: Ok. But, we'll keep her in our loving home, ok?
Claire: Ok!
Claire often watches episodes of Superbook (Bible story episodes), and one of the main characters is named Joy. Apparently, Claire really connects with Joy because anytime she is pretending, one of her pretend characters is "Joy." Now, when I say "pretending," I mean she takes random objects and uses them the way some children would use dolls. And when I say "random objects," I mean things like salad dressing bottles, a can of dry shampoo, a turkey baster, a spatula, her shampoo bottle, and the like. Practically anything can be Joy. I know this because many times, I have been tidying up and have been informed- very dramatically- that I was putting away Joy! Side note: when we were desperately trying to choose a name for Lily, I suggested we just name her Joy, since it was such a popular name around our house anyway.
Here we have Joy (the Italian dressing) and Joy's Mommy (the Ranch).
In conjunction with the random-objects-named-Joy habit, we were eating lunch one day when Claire took her fork and stuck it in the straw of her water bottle and said, "Ta-da!" When we asked what she was doing with her fork, she said that it was Mr. Colum (one of our friends) doing a trick! Well, yes Claire, that WOULD be a trick!
Apparently, that is Colum doing some impressive gymnastic moves.
Claire is an excellent nighttime sleeper. And as such, in an attempt to continue progress with overnight potty training (daytime has been under control from over a year), we get her up at 10:00 or 10:30 every night as we're going to bed and take her to the bathroom. She almost never fully wakes up for this process, as in we have to stabilize her as she sits there so that she doesn't fall off or in. After she's finished and is heading back to her room, we've noticed that- even in her sleep- once she crosses the threshold of her room, she prance-runs all the way back to her bed. Every single time.
Claire has a very tender heart, which we love about her. She's very sensitive to others' feelings and always wants to help when she sees someone in distress. A few weeks ago, Brad took Claire to the museum for a morning date. While they were playing in the treehouse exhibit (yes, there is a treehouse exhibit, and it's awesome), there was a little girl who was slightly older than Claire who was crying. Claire asked Brad what was wrong with the little girl. Brad, obviously, did not know. Claire took it upon herself to go introduce herself to the little girl and ask her what was wrong. I don't think the little girl chose to make Claire her confidant, but at least she knew someone saw her and cared about her distress. I really hope that we're able to encourage this compulsion to kindness as Claire grows. What a gift that would be to others.
Back in May, my aunt and uncle came to stay with me for a few days while Brad was out of town. It was a huge help and blessing, as Lily was only 6 weeks old. My uncle sleeps with an oxygen machine, and apparently, he set it up after Claire went to bed the first night, causing her to be very confused by its presence the next morning. She was a little scared of the noises it made, so we had to find a way for her to think of it as a friendly addition, Thus, the oxygen machine became Uncle Paul's droid. Like on Star Wars. Claire said "Good morning" and "Good night" to the droid every day and was quite sad when it left to return to Alabama.
The droid.
I'm keeping a running list of stories and snippets like this to post about, primarily because I don't want to forget. These are little glimpses of Claire's life that I love and want to remember, but they're also so small comparatively that I'm afraid I won't be able to remember them. They're much funnier in real life when we can include facial expressions, so if you read any of these little snippets and want to see a reenactment, ask us about it in person sometime. (Note: my retellings are much more dramatic than Brad's, so keep that in mind)
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