fing? fing?

My momma bought us this swing that we really wanted. Last time we just borrowed one from our friend, who borrowed it from a friend. We used it for like six months, so we were glad to get one. It came in the mail yesterday. Claire was so excited! She calls swings, 'fings'. I guess that blend of letters is just a little hard for her. te he

Anyway, we opened it up and put it together---a nice little 2 hour project, no big deal with a 2 year old around...It probably would have been faster, but the screwdriver kept disappearing and reappearing in strange places. I would be using it and then Claire would ask for help with something and I'd take it with me to the potty, or wherever it was she needed help, and then when returning to my task, forget where I put it. Placenta brain.

I finally finished with it when she was down for a nap. I didn't make a big production of it to her. Just put it in a corner. But when she found it, I wasn't there. I did hear "fing? Fing? help?"


She didn't wait for me or Nick...


I also love her outfit. Some coworker of Nick's (a girl named Mallory) decided that Claire needed a birthday gift. Overly thoughtful of her. It's a Princess Arora costume with a crown, shoes, top, skirt and purse. Ummmm...wow. talk about pink. thank goodness no one will gift Monster #2 with pink (although I would not be surprised to receive something pink for him just because everyone thinks its so funny that I don't like it!).

BOM camp...

Nick:
Nick went to Youth Conference in our stake (he's in the YM presidency). It was three days of reenacting the BOM. The kids were all supposed to have read it through before they came. Nick played a priest in the court of King Noah. He even had to say a line! Obviously, he loved that. But besides that, he really did enjoy it. They had great speakers, great kids and went through the whole BOM, even with a earth shattering midnight on their last night to represent Christ's crucifixion in the Americas. He came home with a sword that he had to battle with during the Alma chapters.

Deb:
Deb is so anxious to get this kid out of her! Contractions are called "useless pain" by a SIL when they do nothing to further things along but still cause pain and sleepless nights. I have thought that we were ready to have this kid four times now. The first time, we went to the hospital with minute and a half apart contractions and were sent home (35 weeks) because nothing else was happening. $400 dollars to basically check my progress is so not worth it, so deb has made a goal: only going in if the water breaks. Thought we were close three other times, but after HOURS of painful contractions, they would go away for a few days before returning with a vengeance. He'll come when he's ready, despite my efforts of mowing lawns and taking long walks. I need to be more patient. Especially cause when he does come, I might be wishing for peace and quiet. ;)

Claire:
such a super star! She is still whining and doesn't listen as well as she did a month ago, but ohmigoodness is she the cutest thing in the whole world. Her vocabulary is astounding (to the bias mother, of course!). She asked to speak with her dad on the phone this morning when he called. I had just put yogurt in front of her and she said to her dad, "Hi Dad! I blue spoon! Yogurt aldiging ha so eat. Yeah... High chair." Then she hands the phone to me and says, "More yogurt weease?" I love that kid.

We went to Grandma Rosi and Grampa Bill's house while Nick was at camp. She asked to go to Emma's house (her cousin) every day about 50 times. Her cousins came and had a sleepover with us and slept in the big family room in the basement. Claire saw Emma, Ty and Quincey's sleeping bag and knew right what to do. She curled up in Quincey's sleeping bag and refused (more on that later) to get out. I didn't think she could handle sleeping with all those cousins without staying up late so I wasn't going to let her stay until I saw she was practically asleep already. I made her her own sleeping bag out of blankets and she got right in and fell asleep with a little of my prompting and a little reminder from Emma to lie down. It was the cutest picture when I would get up to pee in the night and see all the cousins sleeping together. At one point, Quincey had rolled right over the top of Emma and they both stayed asleep.

Claire is really starting to be able to share. Not willingly at first, but she's learning. If you tell her it's Emma's turn, she give it right over to Emma and then wait (for about 30 seconds) till she can have it back. She sometimes will give it to the person she's to be sharing it with and then stomp her feet (well, stomp her ballerina toes---she still never walks flat footed. you should see her calves!) and yell "uhhhhh uhhhhh uhhhhh uhhhhh uhhhh!" because she didn't really want to share, but she did because Momma asked her too. This is exactly what happened when I asked her to let Quincey have her sleeping bag back. She knows she's supposed to share, and she will, but it is not always with positive enthusiasm. All of her kookiness makes her that more endearing. I couldn't have asked for a better kid. I'm so grateful.

potty update...

I don't know if I'll ever get this right, but I'm sure trying. Claire will go to the potty, only if I tell her she's going. I think this told her brain that she doesn't have to tell me/herself when she needs to go because I get her to go whenever I do (as a 37 week prego woman, that is plenty!). Anyway, I don't think she's learned to feel the 'urge'. I've started asking her if she wants to go potty, and she ALWAYS says 'no'. I don't think I want potty training to become a traumatic event for her, but I am loosing my patience! I gotta back away...again! AGH!

On a happier note, she did tell me "potty" in the middle of breakfast. She headed straight for her room to play with toys (or something) when I got her down. I redirected her and she went potty! YEAH! Small success....sigh

Silly note: I try to leave her without a diaper so she'll 'feel' when she needs to potty. it has worked two or three times.

I got her out of the shower today (she likes the 'sprinklerrr' of a shower instead of a bath now), and put a towel on her and she ran around with her cute purple hippo hooded towel on trying to ride her little car. I called her the purple-hooded-bandit because she was trying to be mischievous about getting her car outside!

Prego note:

This kid is causing contractions like crazy! Last Sunday, we thought he was going to come and headed to the hospital. The contractions were about every 1 1/2 minutes, but nothing else was progressing fast enough---which is good, he would have been considered a preemie. This Sunday, I thought we would end up going again because the contractions kept me up all night long. Nope. We rode out the pain and they went away on thier own.

Yesterday, I was walking down Old Main Hill from work (about 125 steep steps) to meet up with Nick and Claire to go home. The sprinklers were running on different parts of the hill and I didn't think about it much, just avoid the water kind of thoughts. Well, the steps about half way down were covered in quite a lot of water. I slipped and fell pretty hard. Gashed up my legs pretty badly and went down about seven steps before I stopped. I've had contractions ever since and feel like I'm wetting my panties all the time! Not sure if it's that or leaking amniotic fluid. Doing tests per the doc to find out right now. We are all fine though. Every time Claire sees my owies, she kisses them better and says "sowwy, Momma." We're just fine, just wanted to note this for posterity! I love my kid. She is so gentle hearted.

"how old are you?":

For a few days, Claire has been able to answer "2!" whenever we ask her age. But, sometimes she gets the question confused with "what's your name?" and will answer with "Claire Sore-sen" when she should have said "2!" Pretty adorable.

Anyway, yesterday was her birthday. we have pics coming from Nick, but I'll start out without them.

Friday July 2, 2010
Claire, Dad and Mom went and had a picnic in a parkish area and watched fireworks. Claire was up til 12pm! Ouch!

Saturday:
nothing special

Sunday:
Almost had a baby brother! Claire keeps asking about "Mat-thew" and kissing and touching my belly. She's such a sweetheart. I hope she won't be too upset when she has to share the attention.

Monday:
Claire, Mom and Dad when to the Hyrum Parade. It was about 2 HOURS long. Claire was plastered with fliers, candy, a helium balloon (red, if you're wondering), water from water guns and Popsicle. She loved it.

She went home to take a reluctant nap that Daddy had to actually wake her up from so that we could go to her BBQ. Was a little fussier than we would have prefered. but, once the other kids got there, she was swinging on a robe swing, playing in the dirt (including throwing dirt in her friend Rayliegh's hair and Ray threw it back at her and they giggled a ton), eating hot dogs, chips, corn on the cob and about 2 bites of birthday cake. Must be a true Sorensen not to like birthday cake!

Then the kids all played with sparklers (with adult supervision) and went home.

Claire, Daddy, Momma and one of the families that was at the party, went with us: the Pabists, to Hyrum to watch a firework display. I have a feeling Claire will be asking for fireworks for a few more months. Great day and celebration.

sucker, sucker?

When Claire tells me she wants a sucker, it's code for: "I have to pee, Mom." She has been pretty successful at it. I can't get her to go #2 and if I try and catch her in the act and put her on the toilet, she holds it in for a few days and then I have poopy diapers that leak! help? anyone?

pee pee...

Claire was picking me up from work on Friday (with Nick). She was adorable, and kind of a pain in the neck (what kid isn't). She decided that she HAD to run up the hall (pretty long hall) so she said, "Run, run?" No one was there, I work after hours, so I said, "okay! run!" She took off down the hall. Stopped for a second, said "uh-oh." and then started running again. She didn't want to come back, but as soon as I started counting, she turned around and starting running back to me. Again, she stopped, said 'uh-oh" and her diaper totally FELL OFF! It was stuck to just one of her legs and she was, half running, half shaking the leg to get the whole thing to let her loose. It was a scream.