Papa's Early Birthday Party

Papa Alley came down over the weekend to see his girls and celebrate his brithday early. Here Alley and Claire getting ready a card for him.

Of course this is the part they were looking forward to was the cake.

Story time

Claire joined Alley's nightly storytime with Daddy.

More

We all did the "Marathons of Hope" - which was actually a walk for us to support the Park Nicollet Cancer Center last weekend. We didn't make it through the whole route - as there was a playground in the middle that Alley got stuck at for a while. But it was a fun event with coworkers, their families and even a few patients.

Claire still isn't saying much - but has finally used the sign language words "MORE" and "MILK" a few times. I really hope she picks up more sign language because she it doesn't seem like she is going to talk any time soon and gets so frustrated and realizes that a high pitch scream is just as affective as talking.

Growing bigger

Claire still loves to eat! She had her one year old checkup and she is 21 lbs 11oz - which is actually only 60th percentile - but almost 3 lbs bigger than Alley was at this age. She's pretty tall 70th percentile and still has a big head 97th percentile!

She is very active- getting into everything. She keeps climbing up the stairs and trying to gracefully go down - but has tumbled down a few times- somehow that doesn't deter her though. She is now cruising the furniture and walking behind push toys, but doesn't walk on her own. She did however pull herself up and open the shower door this morning. She then slipped and caught the edge of her eyebrow on the metal edge coming down. It bled quite a bit and we were afraid it would leave a big scar. She fortunately avoided stitches but did get Dermabond (the super glue stuff).

Still partying

We really had a great time in Fargo on Claire's birthday. We started the weekend by seeing her great Aunts and Uncles on her mom's side in Valley City and Jamestown. Then the big party on Sunday Aug 17th. She was a little overwhelmed by all the presents. Fortunately she had her sister and cousins to help her. Alley and Claire had a rare moment of playing together putting a puzzle together that Grandma Erlys gave her. Otherwise, Alley pretty much believes all of Claire's new toys are just for Alley to use. I got all the kids balloons and Claire thought they were pretty neat to look at- but not so much touch. We finished the vacation by going to Grandpa Alley's lake place where Claire got a little sun.

She was lucky enough to have 2 more parties all in honor of her first birthday. At daycare they had cupcakes and all the kids "signed" a card for her. The week after her birthday it was our turn to host the ECFE picnic - so we went to the park across the street, played on the playground, ate hot dogs and beans and of course cupcakes. Claire was worn out by all the partying though by the end of the night.