Hair:
Still growing. My mom got a bam bam ponytail in one day. It was cute but I’m still enjoying having one that can’t talk about how they want their hair done. Claire can say hair and she can pull her own hair and say owwww just like her sister’s do when she goes after their hair.
Teeth:
She got her remaining two bottom teeth (not molars - the ones on either side of the middle 4 (incisor??). You’d think by now I’d know what each tooth was called. She loves brushing her teeth and she’s pretty good at it for a 16 month old. It is defintely one of the skills she has picked up by observing her sisters for the last year.
Sleep:
The no bottle thing didn’t last and she’s back on 1. She rarely finishes it and it’s definitely habit. She wakes up, spits out her soother (or throws it) and says Mak Mak Mak getting more and more agitated. I don’t have the energy to break her but if I were Claire I’d have August 26th marked on my Mak Calendar (the day my mom gets her for a week while we’re in vegas).
She is still hit or miss with her nap. She naps at daycare which is good. The only thing I really worry about is her sleeping past 3pm because it pushes bedtime back and it’s not worth it. Having her all by myself this week I desperately wish she would nap but most days it doesn’t matter because there is so much going on and no chance of time off for me anyway.
She’s still pretty attached to her soother and we need to get better at limiting it to sleep time although she rarely walk around with it for long during the day - usually because she has something to say.
Getting around:
I read last month and it makes me laugh because it took her a few days to master the uneven outdoors. She has also added climbing the kitchen chairs to her bag of tricks. I clearly remember the day the girls started doing that. Just like her sisters, she has mastered climbing and can sit up properly…she just has lapses where she forgets she’s 3ft above ceramic tile so she can’t be left alone.
This month she started going to the park. Again I thought she’d never work it out that she had to sit before walking onto the slide. A week later and she was climbing up and yelling weeeee on her way down both on her bum and on her belly (feet first). She also seems to have figured out playstructure cliffs but again has lapses in judgement. I never took Leah and Emma to the park at this age - and it is one thing I don’t think you could manage safely with twins.
She has also started climbing the stairs holding on to the rail like her sisters. We have a lock on the basement door but her radar for an unlocked basement or bathroom (or recently a garage) door is incredible.
Being around Claire this month is not for the faint of heart!
Things she’s saying:
The girls were just a bit younger when I landed them in speech therapy for not having 5 words. If that tells us anything, I think we have another chatterbox on our hands. Claire is talking all the time and saying all sorts of words. Off the top of my head she has added more, please, up, down, walk, choo choo, car, bird, hat, soodooo (soother), door, key, apple, hungry. Not all perfectly pronounced but consistent. She’s picking things up every day and will readily attempt to repeat anything you ask her to say.
The biggest change this month is her ability to follow instructions. She’s apparently been listening intently to me asking her sisters because she can do all sorts of things if you just ask her. The other night she was trying to bring some play plates up from the basement and I said that the plates had to stay downstairs. She looked up at me and I said how about you put them in the shopping carts (which was all the way down the hall). She trotted off down the hall, put them in the cart one by one, looked back at me and did her signature clap and Yay!!. Most times when we ask her to do things she finishes with the clap and yay! Leah and Emma do that to cheer her on so she’s picked it up.
Eating:
My mom sucked it up and took her off the day bottles on her watch. It wasn’t as bad as I expected and Claire immediately started eating really well. She’s added all sorts of things to her like list and it is really enjoyable having a child who eats.
SHe now only gets a bottle at bedtime and in the night. The rest of the day she drinks from her straw cup. She’s snacking well. If I think she’s hungry I’ll just ask her. If she’s not she says no. If she is she says hungy and walks over to her chair.
Things she’s doing this monthL
-Eating!
-Not drinking bottles in the day.
-Pulling her sister’s hair and thinking they think its funny.
-Trying to comfort her sisters when they cry (usually after they’ve had some hair ripped out).
-Wearing a hat and putting it back on when we ask her.
-Learning to walk outside and holding our hand. I always appreciated how the girls knew they had to hold my hand or get in the stroller or be carried. It worked out well for us in terms of keeping them safe.
-Helping us get her dressed
-attempting to wash her hair, brush her teeth, brush her hair
-feeding herself with a spoon
-singing a bit more of her abcs - she presses the leap frog letter thing on the fridge and sings a b g q and z consistently. Other letters sometimes make it.
-loves playing in gravel - doesn’t eat it. In fact she rarely puts things she gets off the floor in her mouth. If she finds money (I watch her find it), she brings it right to me.
-she had gotten over her love of toilets and now climbs up on the stool and tries to wash her hands or brush her teeth
Personality:
No change. Happy girl.
