Claire's 3rd Birthday Eve...Day

As a means of not preparing for my back-to-back lectures beginning at 10am, I've decided to memorialize a few more Claireisms on the Eve (day) of her 3rd birthday. Claire has been saying some absolutely adorable things lately.

On the way home from daycare, Paige was crying and Claire said, "Momma, I think Paige is trying to say, 'I love you, Momma." I said, "Claire that is so sweet. I think she's trying to say, 'I love you, Claire, too."

I have an old key chain flashlight that I've given Claire. Every night she disassembles it and doesn't quite get it back together the next morning. Andrew put it back together for her before bed and she was shining it in his face. Andrew asked her not to shine it in his eyes to which Claire replied, "I'm just trying to see your beautiful face."

The other day as I was changing Paige Claire came over and said, "Momma, Paige is my best friend."

When I put Claire to bed at night, I'll tell her, "You know Momma loves you all the time, every day. I love you when I'm happy. I love you when I'm sad. I love you when I'm tired. I love you when I'm mad. I love you when I'm frustrated. I love you when I'm scared..." Claire added, "And you love me when you're jealous." This must have been a word learned at school because we hadn't used it before, but I replied, "Yes, I even love you when I'm jealous."

Claire loves picking flowers on our walks and often likes to hold them or lay them by her leg in the stroller. She doesn't like to have her hair brushed, but loves to wear headbands. (This changes every few weeks.) Her favorite color is still blue, but every once in a while she'll say, "blue and pink." Her current favorite stuffed animal is a white bear that was given to her Grannie Beth, and subsequently to Claire when she had grown so attached to it during our visit at Christmas. She also loves a lamb that she got from our church at her baptism. Claire has quite the sweet tooth which I blame on our attempts at potty-training by rewarding with an M&M (We won't be doing that with Paige. She rarely had sweets until we started rewarding her last summer for sitting on the potty.) She is though, potty-trained and such a big girl. Claire loves to make Paige smile, touch her cheeks, and give her hugs. Claire is a wonderful daughter and big sister.