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I couldn’t have picked a worse time to start skipping Claire’s monthly updates. The last post was at 17 months and since then she’s changed so much! I have heard the 18-month mark referred to as the “language explosion” age, and although I’m not quite sure that’s what I would call it, I will say that Claire definitely has no troubles getting her thoughts across these days. This is a great thing!

Each month there are times that I just hold my baby and half-way wish she’d stop growing and stay this age forever. These past two months have not been an exception by any means. I don’t ever want to take this precious time for granted - it’s just too special!

Claire hit the 19-month mark on Wednesday of this week. Here’s what she’s been up to:

• She has a small cut on her left thumb (not sure how it got there). She is obsessed with it and is constantly telling us about her “owie” or “boo-boo” and then giving it kisses. I tried to put some ointment on it and a cute band-aid, but that seemed to add fuel to the fire. She couldn’t concentrate on anything but the Cookie Monster bandage on her finger!

• On the subject of boo-boos, she likes to point out all of mine, which are actually moles. She’ll say “mole” when I correct her, but 20 minutes later they’ve reverted back to boo-boos. Ha!

Not much is sweeter than a sleeping baby!

• She loves to climb on top of mommy or daddy and bounce up and down on our tummies or chests. Daddy calls this the “Atomic Bootie Drop” and it’s one of Claire’s favorite things to do. Most of the time it’s fun for us too, but not so much at 7 in the morning!

• It no longer is feasible to make a list of new words, because she says so many and is constantly learning new ones.

• In addition to high-fives, she also is happy to give you a fist bump.

My precious blue-eyed girl doing one of her favorite things - swinging!

• If you ask her how much mommy or daddy love her, she’ll open her arms up real wide and say “tis uch!”

• She is working on learning colors. She can say several of them, including yellow, purple, blue and green, but can’t identify them yet.

• In addition to the lion, sheep and cow, she now knows what sound a dog, snake, horse and bird make. She can point out other animals, like a pig, duck, monkey or a frog, but has trouble making their specific sounds.

• She can whisper, and loves to vary her voice level (and attitude) while playing the “I’ll Say Daddy When Asked to Say Mommy” game. This one is an all-time fave.

• She received so many nice gifts for Christmas and is enjoying playing with all her new toys. The dollhouse and tea set have been great for encouraging her imaginative play, and she is crazy about building “towers” with her Mega Blocks.

• She loves to play basketball with daddy. He’s so good with her and it makes my heart happy to watch them play. We’re thinking that with her size, she’d be an awesome post player! However, she’s not a huge fan of sitting still during the Dragons’ games. She doesn’t like not being able to go sit on daddy’s lap! I spend a lot of the games following her to the bathroom where she points out all the “poppies” and asks for lots of “wa-wa” from the water fountain.

Very difficult to catch a pic of this girl with a basketball - she’s fast!

• She continues to love books and flash cards. Anytime the child is learning something new, she’s happy. She soaks things up like a sponge.

• She is a big help when grocery shopping. She loves to walk with mommy and put all our items into the cart that daddy is pushing.

• She talks about her friends from school (Dawson, Avery and GiGi) constantly. I would try to write how she says their names, but I’m not that good at spelling things out phonetically. Let’s just say that Eric and I understand her, but I doubt others would know what she is saying right away.

• She loves to look at her picture book of family members and say them by name. Her favorite is Poppy. She immediately turns to the page with his photo and starts laughing. It’s too cute!

The cute grin is in response to the puppy at the playground- she LOVES dogs!

• She is a BIG girl! She is off the charts when it comes to her height. All they can tell us is that she’s above the 95% for her age. She is also in the 80% for her weight and head size. That explains why her belly is close to poking out of 2T shirts and she’s wearing hats sized for 3-5 year olds! Ha! She also switched to size 5 diapers this week.

• She’s doing a much better job of using utensils while eating. She went through a stage where she would refuse to let you feed her or use a spoon/fork. That was a messy time, considering some of her favorite foods are mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, yogurt, and applesauce! Several of these we just had to put on hiatus for a while. I’m happy to report that she now eats these foods (and others) with a spoon and even eats a few other foods with a fork (like waffles).

• She’s currently a girly girl, despite her daddy’s best efforts. She loves to play with mommy’s bracelets and makeup brushes. She’s also a big fan of lotion and deodorant. She will even ask me to put a bow in her hair. I love it!

Super cheesy face!

• She gives the BEST hugs and kisses and usually isn’t stingy with them. She gives them on demand and to cheer up a friend who is sad, but also just because she feels like it.

• She still loves dancing and singing. Her new favorite is “This Little Light Of Mine.” She waves her little finger around and loves the part about Satan blowing it out.

•  Still haven’t really found a food she doesn’t like. She usually tends to favor dairy, veggies and fruits over meats, but the girl can put away some Chick-fil-A nuggets! New favorites are rice & beans, broccoli, carrots and fried popcorn shrimp.

She loved going for a ride on the carousel in the mall and was not a happy camper when she had to get off!

• She can do just about anything she’s asked to. Whether or not she chooses to do it, well, that’s another story!

• She knows the sound and motion associated with the words baby (”waa waa”), car (”beep beep”), and train (”choo choo”). I taught her these just the other day during our 10 minute drive home from daycare and she’s been saying them constantly ever since.

• She has three new teeth - all of her incisors are in. Total teeth count is 16.

• The warmer temperatures this past weekend made it possible to take Claire on a bike ride to the park. I can’t even begin to describe how excited she was! She asks for a “ride” just about every time we are in the garage getting in the car and I hate having to turn her down.

Opening her gift from Josh and Meredith. She loves it! Thanks, guys!

As always, there are plenty of more pictures in the January 2010 gallery. We’re headed to the beach this weekend for some long-awaited family time. Nan and I are spending Saturday in Myrtle Beach for our semi-annual shopping trip while the kiddos stay at home and play with GaGa, PaPa and Eric. Claire will be SO excited to see “Yash” again and I’m hoping to score her some great deals for next year!