Naughty!

I guess the wall is my fault. I wrote her name and the date on the wall where I'd marked her 18 month height. Stupidly, I didn't wait until she wasn't watching. I didn't think anything about it.
I turned my back and found her addition to my wall...
I guess I just need to consider myself lucky that this is the first time my walls have ever been colored on!! How did I know it would be Clare?? :-)
Not even 4 hours later she found where I kept the markers, and made herself "pretty." She loves to watch mommy put on her makeup and LOVES when I let her put on "lips." So hey, the marker was pink. She was sooo happy about this. She thought she looked just lovely! :-)

His newest look.

18 months

Sassy!
At 18 months Clare is a petite little thing. She is 30 inches tall (7th percentile) and 20 pounds (3rd percentile). But she packs enough sass for a child 5 times that big. :-) She also has a monster appetite and out eats Shea at every meal so we'll see how long this petite thing lasts. Although she is sassy and definitely knows what she wants and doesn't want, she is so much fun right now. She follows "SheaShea" as she calls him, around and tries to do everything he does. One of my favorite sights is to see him holding her little hand and walking along with her. My hands are always full of stuff from the car to the house, so he "protects" her and holds her hand while they're walking. I love it!
She talks a lot! She parrots pretty much everything we say and even said her first prayer the other night by just repeating what I said. It was too cute.
She carries her teddy around all the time and will lay the blanket down, wrap the teddy up, tell us all to shh, shh, rock her for a minute and then do it all over again.
She can also be found with a phone in her hand pretty much any moment of the day, carrying on the sweetest little jibberish conversations with "Bampa."
She weaned herself this past week. We were down to only one feeding right before she went to bed and we had a few weird, out of routine nights and all the sudden I realized that it had been 3 days since she'd nursed at all and boom, that was that, she was done. I was sad that I didn't get to savor that last sweet tender cuddle but happy that I now get to sleep through the night!
So that's our girl right now. You never know if you'll get screaming, time out, hating sassy pants or sweet, singing & dancing chatter box. Either way, she's an adventure and I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world!!

Sweet

Her first french braid!!

His very own iPod

I know!!! I know!!! He's only 4. We feel a little silly, but he LOVES, and I mean LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it!!!!!!!! We took my old iPod and put the scripture stories and primary songbook on it. He gets a few minutes of iPod time as he's lying in his bed before he falls asleep each night. I promise he's listened to the 3 1/2 minute story of Joseph in Egypt 20 times. I love as a parent when you get to make your kids this happy. :-)

Her favorite thing

is coloring. She asks to color about every 15 minutes throughout the day.

Oh, and she also loves to eat her colored pencils. :-) Look at those smiles, they must taste delicious.


Love you baby girl!!!

The Dentist

The Pediatric residents at the UCLA Dental School were so cute with my kids. Shea now thinks that all dental tools are toys with cute names like Mr. Thirsty. He had more fun at the dentist than he's had at any of our outings yet this summer. And we're so happy to report that he still has zero cavities! :-) Thanks Dr. Michelle and Dr. Eddy. WE LOVE going to the Dentist now!

Swimming Lessons

We just finished Shea's very first swimming lessons. I don't ever remember having swimming lessons. I can swim, but I'm not any good, so this whole process was new to us. I am surprised by how much fun it was for both of us. Shea's teacher, Lucille was so sweet with him and he can actually swim now, after just 9 lessons. He still can't do big strong arms, his strokes are kind of pathetic little swipes, but hey, he can get around and better still, he has no fear of the water. He jumps right in, holds his breath, swims around, dives for toys and generally has a blast! Here he is demonstrating his new skills:

Glory, glory

iPhones!


At last!!!
Chris and I, after almost 3 years of coveting everyone else's, are finally the proud new owners of our very own iPhones. Holy cow, these things are cool!!! I sure love my sexy little white machine, in it's purple, silicone kid cover. Too bad I have to fight both my kids for a turn to even hold it - maybe all those kid apps weren't such a hot idea after all.
And to put the cherry on top, which lets be honest, it didn't even need, I was so excited - one of my favorite characters (Hodgins!) from one of my favorite shows (Bones!) was directly in front of us at the Century City Apple store.
What did I think of ole' TJ? And did I talk to him?
Shorter than I pictured, and even cuter in person - he was beardless, the curly hair was short, short and the eyes were even bluer than on TV. And no, I'm always too chicken to speak when I see someone famous, although, trying to get Chris' attention, point said famous person out, get across the gist of who they are and what show they're on, all while trying desperately to remain inconspicuous is probably not the better option.
Yeah, it was a good day! (Oh, and call me, so I can have a turn on my phone. :-)

My little rooster

We were sitting on the couch together today, Shea and I, and he'd apparently become bored of Top Chef Masters, because he started to say that he was a little rooster. So, I, of course, said things like, "Well, and what a cute rooster you are." and all those other good mom things, while thinking, Rooster? What!!?? Where did that come from?

After a minute he started bouncing up and down a little bit every so often and I couldn't figure out what he was doing. All of the sudden it occurred to me and I looked at him and said, "Shea! Are you laying eggs???!" He smiled up at me and pulled the three little balls he'd been playing with out from under his bum, with a big, "YEAH, mom, I'm laying eggs and now these are my little rooster babies."

I thought it was a hilarious, classic bit of Shea randomness, but Chris who was apparently disturbed by the lack of testosterone in the whole exchange said, "All right, that's it, I'm ordering the Greatest Hockey Fights Ever DVD."

6!

6 years already. It really has flown by. Chris treated me like a queen this week. He's sooo good about special occasions. These GORGEOUS flowers came while he was out of town Thur.
And on Sat, he took me to...
Spago!!! Spago!
I've dreamed of going there for as long as I can remember.
It was all I've dreamed of and more! It was so awesome. This was my first course. It was totally and completely delicious!! Herbed goat cheese and roasted beets. I will definitely try this at home sometime. It was divine.


It was pretty funny though - as we pull up to Spago, "consistently recognized as the ultimate in fine dining." in our minivan, we felt distinctly uncomfortable. Then as we're leaving, we see that they didn't even pull the van into their lot - too embarrassing, I guess. We laughed a lot about that. :-)
But we had one of the best nights ever. I love you Chris and am looking forward to lots and lots and lots more of these posts.
Happy Anniversary