18 months

My baby toddler is 18 months now. WOW!!! Time flies to fast when you get older. Claudia is such a Joy to be with. I don't know how I got so lucky to be her mom. She truly is AMAZING!!!! People ask me how I could be pregnant already and if it was an accident since Claudia is still so young. But the answer is NO. It was not an accident. Because Claudia is such a good baby I feel Totally ready to bring another Child into our family and I feel so blessed that the Lord has given me that confirmation that more children need to join our clan. I would feel guilty not having more children. Especially since pregnancies are relatively mild for me. (Knock on wood, this one is not over yet.) 

Okay, this post is supposed to be about Claudia! After all she does deserve a whole post to herself since she is child number 3 and does not get as many camera moments as the other two did. But let me reassure you, she is in NO way over looked in this house.  

Claudia is the LIFE of the PARTY! She is always happy and smiling. She loves her brother and sister so much! But she LOVES her Daddy even more. Every time she sees him she just lights up! It is so sweet. 

Her words have started exploding recently. She's been babbling like crazy for a while now but just recently words have started forming. When I took her to her 18 month doctor appointment the doctor asked me if she said words and I said of course and she can point to and say several of her body parts. So that doctor asked her where her nose was (which is her favorite) and she just stared blankly at her. Come on kid, you totally know how to perform. But she would not. As the doctor continued her check up she pulled out her little light to check her mouth and Claudia immediately pointed to it and said "light" Hallelujah! she can perform,  I guess she just didn't want to perform on command. Her check up went great!!!!! The doctor is very pleased with her height (31 inches) and weight (23 pounds) and is very happy with her eating and sleeping habits. And she did pretty good with her finger prick and shots. I could tell that the shots were a little more painful this time around. She was limping around the house for the rest of the day. It looked so sad. But she was back to normal by morning.

Claudia is very active and loves to play. She keeps up with her siblings and enjoys being outside. She climbs on everything and does a pretty good job of getting herself down off of things. She also LOVES to color. I am finding it more difficult to keep crayons and markers away from her because her siblings have a habit of leaving them out. Luckily most of them are washable but for the ones that are not I have some leftover paint so I can touch up my walls. 

When she is done eating she will give you everything on her tray. One at a time, and will refuse to eat anything else. It's really funny but gets annoying. By the time I sit down to eat my dinner I get about 3 bites in and then she's done and wants to get out of her high chair and sit with me so she can steal my drink.

The past few months I have been babysitting my friends two boys several days a week. The youngest is 6 months older than Claudia and they have a great time together. His name is Parker and Claudia calls him "Paw-A" Recently he mastered her name and so they get so excited when they see each other. Several weeks ago in sacrament meeting when we were sitting in our row Parker walked in the chapel and saw Claudia and started calling her, then Claudia would call him back. It was so funny. Then they would start doing it in the middle of the meeting. It was very cute. I'm glad they get along so well. 

When she started nursery on her 18 month birthday it helped that Parker was in there. She did a great job going in without crying and I've been told she's doing well. It's nice but weird to sit in Sunday school and Relief Society all alone. 
We LOVE LOVE LOVE our Claudia and can't wait to see how her personality and words continue to explode!