Growing a Little Schulze: Claire at 23 months

23 months: January 24th-February 24th

Claire's language continues to develop quickly. So quickly that she comes up with and then grows out of cute little Claire-isms so quickly. In one month Mickey Mouse went from "it ee ouse" to "mick mouse." :( "It ee ouse" was so cute! I think "hooch" is gone and many other cute things that I can't remember!

She's progressed to being able to label most animals instead of just saying their noises. Including dog and cat! She's learning about asleep/sleeping vs awake and how to tell someone to wake up. She says it as "Gup!" So we'll be sitting on the couch and she'll tell me "Mama night night." So I pretend to sleep until she tells me "Gup mama!" Which happens quickly because she doesn't like it when I'm sleeping.

These are not necessarily brand new, but things Claire is saying that I haven't documented yet.
heavy
bright light
unch (lunch)
nack (snack)
Alright!

In the car she still loves to say mama over and over. But now she also loves to say "mama dada mama dada mama dada" all run together over and over.

We've officially entered the repeat everything stage. We were riding in the car with my parents and something in the road hit the tire well and made a loud noise. My mom impulsively said "Oh, sh$t!" So Claire repeated it. And my mom says "Did she just say what I think she said??" And I say "Yes, she did. Because you said it!" And my mom says "Really? I did?" And then tries to teach Claire to say "sugar beets" instead.

Jeff and I took a 5 day trip to Vermont with our college friends. Claire stayed with both sets of grandparents for a few days while we were gone. She picked up a few skills while we were gone. She suddenly started saying "yeah" in context. And relatedly, she became a pro at saying "No!" Claire are you done with lunch? No! Do you want more food? No! Do you want to get down? No! Oftentimes I think she says it just to say, not really knowing what she means. She also was calling us mommy and daddy (instead of momma and dada) which was cute but also a little unsettling. I didn't feel quite ready to graduate to mommy just yet, so she's back to momma and dada. She learned the names of the Schulze's cats. Olive and Martini are known as "Ah-wiv and Tini." And she learned about Eskimo kisses or nose rubs, which she thinks is hilarious.

Physically she loves to "jump, jump." On the trampolines at the play space we visit, on the couch, around the floor, wherever. She doesn't quite have the regular 2 footed jump down yet so she does a kind of 1-2 hop. She also loves "running." Which to her means running around in a circle. Apparently she started doing this at school too. Lovely!

She got a small ball from my aunt on our trip to Maine (more about Maine in the next post). She likes to tell Jeff or I to catch or kick. But she can't catch! At all! She doesn't even put her hands out to protect herself from being hit. Jeff was trying to toss the ball to her. She would just let it hit her right in the face! Baseball is not in her future! Her kicking isn't too bad though, so maybe soccer.

And my favorite development of the month.......nuggles!

Also know as snuggles! She has become much more physically affectionate (which is not hard to do compared to none!) She will give me hugs or a squeeze at random times. She'll come up and hug my leg, or if I'm playing on my phone or the computer, she'll climb up on my lap for snuggles. She'll lay her head on my chest and say "Awww! Nuggles!" So cute! She's not quite so giving of the hugs and snuggles with others. Even with Jeff. But we're working on it.

And now time for pictures!