Claire's 2nd Birthday Party 'American Clairelines'

Saturday marked the two year anniversary of The Claire.  I've learned a lot from her, and I'd like to think she's learned a thing or two from me too.  The humans celebrated her with a big party, gifts, and yummy treats.  They don't do that for me, so I guess I know where I stand now.  I've been working with her a lot recently and she's getting more and more vocal as the days go by and putting those words into sentences.  She also loves to sing.  She serenades me with "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" on a daily basis.  Even though I wasn't invited, I was able to secure some pictures from her party.

Oy, what to do with all these toys?

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.

Claire spends time with family

The Claire has been spending a lot of time with family recently. Andrew, Gloria, Ben, and Molly came in town.  As you can see she was very excited about this.

DINNER TIME!!!! Why wasn't I invited?!?!

The newest Litt!

Hey Uncle Andrew, Peek-a-Boo! 

That's right ladies, he's single and ready to mingle.

It's everyone climb on daddy time!

Claire used to look at me like that...

Margaret Olivia Litt (Molly)

That's about as good of a kids pic as you're going to get when they're all under 5 years old.

She's watching me.

Things Claire loves

Helping Daddy around the house (don't worry this doesn't happen much)

Making friends with the enemy ("dog")
Loving on The Great One

Reading

Deep conversations

Visitors from overseas

Feeding myself

Fake family portraits
Captaining the ship, ahoy!

Most of all, Claire loves the hummus

What? I thought all Jews ate hummus

Lunch...the baby takes over!

Sunday, June 21, 2009 is the day the baby couldn't make up her mind on what she wanted for lunch. We sat down at Cindi's Deli (delicious), and peered at the menu only to find that EVERYTHING sounded good. This is not a dramatization. What I'm about to describe are the real events that took place. I proceeded to order matzo ball soup for an appetizer, followed by an omelet. This was not just any omelet. This was a 3 egg white, jalapeno, bacon, and muenster cheese omelet. This omelet came with your choice of a side...for me, pancakes, in honor of my Dad on Father's Day. Pancakes were one of his favorite things to eat. The crowning piece of the meal was the side order of pickles that I just had to have. It was AWESOME! (didn't eat all of it, but sampled everything) James was in awe of my order and took this picture because he didn't think anyone would believe the story.