feeling better

Claire is feeling better but still has a little nose running and cough. It hasn't slowed her down much.

I gave her an old cell phone to play with. A few minutes later I asked her who she was talking to. She says, "Daddy." I asked what he said and she replied, "No biting crayons. I love Claire." A moment later she said, "Love you, love you."

She almost always says, "See baby!" when she sits on my lap in front of the computer so I go to flickr and show her our photos. This time she looked at the keyboard and said "Q,R,S,T." Next I showed her the letter C on the keyboard and said that was how her name starts and she said "R,E". Then I showed her the rest of the letters. She never ceases to surprise and amaze her folks.

Primeras Palabras

I was thrilled when upon handing Claire a small rubber duck I heard her soft sweet voice saying "pato." She also will repeat "bebe" and "agua." So, my not-so-concerted efforts of teaching her some Spanish are finally bearing fruit. It is hard to remember to talk to her in Spanish.

Speaking of language learning. I want to record a list of all the words she says by category. It may take a while, in the bits and snatches of time I have for such things.

Body parts head hair eyes ear nose lips cheeks neck arm hand tummy knee feet toes

Animals and sounds animals bird tweet bunny chick cheep monkey [mono] eee eee turtle cow moo sheep baa horse neigh duck [pato] quack mouse cat kitty meow doggie bow-wow pup puppy ruff, woof tiger grr lamb fishie

Sounds only "cah-doo-doo" for rooster and uuu, uuu for Owl gobble gobble for turkey

household/misc book hungry (hun-yee) on please two up wall candle door house home chair tape

Clothing button shirt pants tights hat scarf dress shoes snap socks zip

verbs kiss pat hug push close pull walk bounce go read open

a top-10 board-book list

Here are some of Claire's current favorite books. Many of them are thrift store finds.

The touch-and-feel books are the lightest on the literary scale, but she really likes the extra tactile elements.

Some enduring classics are: Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann-- I'd like to see this in a larger format since the pictures are very detailed --it doesn't have much text on the pages, so leaves the parents free to ad-lib. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle -- she likes several of his, but this one has tactile features. The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown has a very catchy rhythm to its rhyme (1948), and the pictures by Felicia Bond are warm yet sharp (1989). Linda Bleck's illustrations for A Children's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes are retro-cool reminiscent of the 1960's.

Honorable mention goes to Fuzzy Bee and Friends which is a floppy cloth book, one of her first, and still a favorite. I couldn't find it for this photo--probably in the car with Mom who is away at a Lady's Advent Tea.

--Mark