++This is it!++

The last of the monthly updates.  Really?  She's twenty-three months now and not changing all that fast.  I stopped with Wyatt at two and so will I for Claire.  By that time I was updating you on monthly belly shots.  No new news like that here.  Our family seems perfectly complete just the way it is.
So here goes...at 23 months:
++Claire loves to sing songs.  She can sing word-for-word the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, You Are My Sunshine, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Ring Around the Rosie, Hot Cross Buns, "Clap Hello" (her version of the opening song from music class), Jingle Bells, The Wheels on The Bus (but she prefers the silly made up verses that mom sings)---and I'm sure there are more.  The girl pretty much sings her days away.
++She is getting better at reading books.  She much prefers just to carry around on them.  The smaller the better.  For weeks it was this tiny white Bible that they gave us in the hospital when she was born. 
++She is still totally obsessed with her loveys and pink blanket.  She likes her loveys clean.  This is good because they start to smell like garbage after a day or two of her chewing on them.  I'm happy to wash them, anyime.
++She'll ask us for something and we'll tell her where it is.  The she'll look at us with her token deadpan face and say: "get it".  The other day she asked for Daddy when she woke up.  I told her he was already at work.  She told me: "get it". 
++She is grasping when we joke with her.  She'll respond "Noooo mommy" with a chuckle.
++She is really blossoming in her communication skills.  She still hasn't stopped telling us about her trip to the zoo.  She recounts how the elephant was eating (complete with actions), she imitates the face of the big monkey (orangutan), she remembers that the giraffe was pottying, and that Larson was chasing the peacock who was marching.  It's hilarious what those little minds hang on to.
++There are certain parts of her that are so much easier than her brother.  Her attention span is longer, she plays by herself better, and she participates in class.  On the other hand, she can be quite the handful.  She insists on taking her shoes off wherever we are.  She doesn't like to sit in shopping carts.  She won't hold our hands in parking lots.  It can be lots of fun! 

Onto planning a birthday party for our little one.  Big surprise: we're having the music teacher come.  The theme is purple lollipops.  A combo of her two favorite things.  Oh--that reminds me.  She can sing that song too--we hear it over and over:  "Happy Birthday to Larson".  There is no convincing her that we can put other names in the song.  Love that girl.