Lake Superior #2

We had a wonderful time on our week long vacation with the Whitcomb clan on Madeline Island. We were all in the same house and got to spend a lot of great quality time together. Claire certainly enjoyed being with everyone and talk a lot about riding the ferry from Bayfield, spending time with Grandma Jackie and 'going into the deep' with Dad.

The shores on Madeline Island are remarkably sandy and Claire took advantage of all that great sand. She wanted to be just like the big kids and go down to the beach nearly every day.

She also had a blast 'racing' with her cousins. The kids would line up and race each other. They were kind enough to include Claire on several occasions which she totally loved. On more than one occasion I heard her say, "where are my friends?". It was too cute.

Some firsts for Claire on this trip:
1. Her first shower. She's been hesitant before and I'm not sure what made the difference this time but she didn't skip a beat and even took another one to clean off the sand the following day.
2. Her first hotdog. I know, can you believe it? It's taken her until she was three to try a dog. She had zero interest in them and may not have eaten it had we been at home. But the cousins...
3. Her first 'swim' in Lake Superior. I had her at one point and she jumped into the water and had part of her head go in (nothing to worry about) and on another occasion her dad took her out farther. The waves were quite high that day so she had a great time. You could hear her saying "whee" when the waves rolled on through.
4. She fed the ducks. There were several female mallards on the south shore of LaPointe and she had a blast giving them bits of bread.

It seems as though all the time with her cousins has made her grow up right in front of our eyes. She just seems older after interfacing with them all. Her cousins (and their parents!) were fantastic with Claire. I'm really glad she had the chance to be with them for longer than a day and to get to know them all a bit better.

Pictures to come - we tried to do a bit of both. But here are a couple of videos from the trip.

Between trip fun

Burning off energy at the north shore

The girls burn off some energy running around.

Anyone of my video pals know how to play with the speed of the video in iMovie? Would love to play with slowing down some frames.

Claire's definitions

The peel of the cucumber is the 'cue'.

The inside is the 'cumber'.

That's how she rolls.

North Shore - Trip #1

We're going to get plenty of Lake Superior this year - much to our delight. Last weekend we headed north to Cove Point for our annual Pichner family gathering. It's been fun to watch the kids grow and experience different things as we head there every year.

Showing Hazel how to properly spin with a tutu.

Having some fun with birthday balloons. Claire was schooled by the master kicker herself, Hazel Marie. Look out Mia Hamm.



Channeling her inner rocker chick. Pete said this shot reminded him of Janis Joplin. I noted that Claire's hair isn't quite that messy and she isn't high.... but you get his drift.

No Diaper Night

Last night Claire asked if she could go to sleep without wearing a diaper. The last several nights while getting her ready for bed I commented that someday soon she wouldn't need to wear a diaper to bed at night. It wasn't a big thing to me - just helping her get her head around it. In my mind we were still a couple months away from that day...

She made it through the night without and accident. But - she woke up in the middle of the night either from a nightmare or b/c she had to go potty. She was really worked up. Pete finally was able to get her to use the potty.

We'll see how it goes tonight.

Maybe I should do the same carefree way of suggesting that pretty soon she won't need to go poopy in the diaper. That battle still rages on.

Getting Girly

For most of her first three years on the planet Claire has been a bit of a tomboy. She still loves to get dirty and pays no mind to the fact that her favorite colors are more 'boy-ish' (red & blue) - and that is right up mom's ally. However, I've begun to see some slight changes in her - all of which I attribute to her father's influence.

Example Number One:
The other morning, as I was going through the morning routine, my little girl sprang up out of bed and before making her way into the kitchen stopped in our closet to pick out some shoes. She's been into wearing my dressy shoes (the heels I can no longer wear). She's especially fond of the silver-glittery pair. As she traipsed into the kitchen, she announced that she was going to put on her Ariel costume and "get prettied up".

She had it all planned out. First, the shoes, then the dress and finally her tiara. Those are the important pieces to being a princess in our house.

Example Number Two:
Last year we bought a pair of fairy wings at the Ren.Festival. She didn't show much interest in them until recently. I came home from work the other night and heard Pete asking her if she wanted to put back on her fairy wings after finishing up in the bathroom. I'm going to shamelessly copy Sarah's tulle masterpiece for Relia and try to make Claire a skirt sometime in the next month or so.

I do attribute some of the fairy fascination to her love of all things Abby Cadabby related.

Example Number Three:
While at Target last night as we were looking at some of the items in the dollar bin I heard Claire ask, "Do you think Fancy Nancy would like this?". In other words - is it posh?

Example Number Four:
On the way home from Target Claire asked me what I was. I answered that I was a woman, which is another way to describe a big girl. I asked Claire what she was and she responded, "I am a girl. No. I am a princess." Her tone was very factual and I nearly laughed out loud when I turned around and saw the look on her face. She was very serious people. No kidding around. She is a princess.

This morning as I relayed the story to her dad she once again reiterated, in all seriousness, that she indeed a princess. When Pete asked what that made me, she responded, "a queen". What does that make dad, he asked? "A king", was her response.


It's coming people. The princess years are coming.