What has Claire been up to?

Good people of the interweb,

I know a lot of you have been wondering in addition to the pictures I've posted of the Clarie, what else is going on in her life?  Well, let me tell you that kid has been fine tuning her vocabulary and has become quite the communicator. Her favorite phrases include, but are not limited to:

"I need insert food item here"....cookie, chocky (chocolate), stawbies (strawberries and raspberries, let's face it, they're basically the same thing), bocki (broccoli - the kid freakin loves broccoli, who would have guessed?), apple juice (has never actually had apple juice though, but cousin Allie had it and Claire loves her cousin)

"Mine!"  It's a little harsh, but it gets the point across.

"I love you!"  She's very sweet.

"Please" and "Thank you" have also been used in proper context as of the last couple months.  We're pretty proud of that.

She also knows the humans and grand humans by their proper names.  I've seen her take a human's phone and call people and carry on conversations.  It's quite amazing.

She also has a great memory.  She'll tell me stories about a balloon she let go to the sky weeks after it happened.  She tells me what she did each day at school like playing with Debbie (her teacher) and going swimming.  She always makes sure the humans put on "rub rub" (sun block) before they leave.

She loves to read and count and can even say her ABC's up to P.  Sometimes it's not in the correct order, but  we'll call it a win.  She can high five with the best of them and can even "pound the rock."  If you tell her to blow it up, she'll literally blow on your hand.  Very cute.

The humans have begun putting her in time out when she's disobeyed house rules like climbing on the furniture and the occasional hitting incident.  Love and logic doesn't always work though.  In the heat of an argument about who should be fed first, I may or may not have swatted a paw at her.  She immediately looked to the male human and said "Meow hit.  Meow out."  She had sold me down the river and I had to go to time out.  The rules apply to everyone.

She's going to be 2 years old before we know it.  Growing up too quickly if you ask this cat.