Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely and low-key Christmas this year. We spent Christmas eve having dinner at a friend's house and this morning we woke up to see that Santa had arrived. On Christmas Eve some friends gave Claire some darling Santa pajamas, which she absolutely loved. When we put them on her before bed, she kept pointing at the Santas saying, "Seenta, Seenta". She loved them and she spent the morning in them too!


Claire certainly raked in the goodies. Santa brought her a toddler sized table and chairs as well as a bunch of puzzles and a play purse, complete with cell phone, keys, mirror and lipstick.



From her adoring family members she got an Elmo live, a bunch of Elmo DVDs, books, toys and a giant moose that is as big as she is.


Here is Claire walking around with her moose and her pink play cell phone wearing the lion slippers Santa brought her.


Mommy's friend Jessie sent us matching sweatshirts! How fun! After all, aren't mothers and daughters supposed to dress alike?? I'll go with it as long as I can...


After a long morning of playing and opening presents, Claire definitely needed a little rest!

Let there be light!

We celebrated Hanukkah last week by lighting the menorah and having a nice dinner. Claire enjoyed watching Daddy light the candles.

Breakfast with Santa

It's official. Claire loves Santa. It does help that I've been prepping her by reading Santa books and showing her Barney's Night Before Christmas and talking to her about Santa. Last weekend's Santa arrival was a great help in getting her warmed up to the big guy. I really wanted to be able to get some good pictures of her with him without her screaming and it looks like she bought it!


This morning we went to have breakfast with Santa at one of the bases. We went with our friends Sarah, David and their daughter Sadie. As soon as Santa walked in, Claire walked right up to him to give him a hug. After he greeted some of the kids, he went to sit down and she beelined for him and got up in his lap again. When it was her turn to get a gift and a candy cane, she went right up and happily sat in his lap. It was very cute. She doesn't really make the association with presents and Santa yet, though, but she does like the big guy in red.

The Oranges are Ripe!

Ever since we moved in, Andy and I have been waiting for the oranges on our seven orange trees (three naval and four clementines) to be ripe and they are now ready. The clementines are certainly ready, but I think the navals have a little while to go still. In any case, we will soon be swimming in oranges. I've already started making myself OJ in the mornings, but I'm worried I soon won't be able to keep up.


Claire, who has always been passionate about fruit, loves the oranges. On most mornings there are one or two that have fallen and she loves to pick them up, but there are also a few of the clementines that she can reach an pick herself. She's gotten to the point where she doesn't even want to wait for me to peel it for her, she'll just peel it herself. We were out there on Friday afternoon and she was having a great time picking and eating the oranges.

Claire Meets Santa

Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived today in style on the fire trucks on the base.


After their grand entrance, while passing out candy to the kids, they came into the base mall to do a little meet and greet.



I was worried that Claire would be freaked out by the scary guy in the big red suit, but she did really well... I think at first she was most interested in the candy.


Later, Santa moved to his proper picture taking station and she sat on his lap like a champ. My pictures turned out blurry, but hopefully the professional ones turned out better. I'll be able to check on them later this week.

Hands in Pockets

Claire has discovered her pockets!

We were hanging out with my friend Kara today and she kept putting stuff in the pockets of Claire's track suit for her to find. Later in the day, I noticed that she was putting her hands in her pockets and loved it! She was so cute running around saying, "hands, hands!"

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Italy. A few friends came over to share dinner with us and later that night, Scarlett flew in for a quick visit.

She was literally only here for two full days and left on Sunday morning, but we had a blast. On Friday we went to downtown Naples and took the big red bus tour and went shopping. On Saturday, we went to Pompeii. Andy watched Claire, so she and I could run around and have some good "girl" time.

On Sunday morning, both she and Andy drove to the airport. Scarlett flew back to Seattle and Andy went to the states for 1212... oh, I mean for "important business."

So, it's just me and the Claire Bear for three weeks....

Playdates, Shoes, and Make-Believe

Claire can now say, "play," and boy, does she love to do it! A week or so ago we had her friend Elizabeth over for a play date and they had a great time. For some reason, they wanted to both get in Claire's crib to play with the stuffed animals. It was bit tight, but they seemed to have fun!


Claire has also become a big fan of shoes. She loves all kinds of shoes.... she loves her own shoes, she loves pictures of shoes, but mostly she loves trying on Mommy and Daddy's shoes. She found Daddy's sandals the other day and was able to even take a few steps.


Today, I had a very funny experience with Claire. I was talking on the phone to a friend and as I was wrapping up the conversation, I noticed that Claire had picked up on of the TV remotes (that looks a lot like our cordless phone). She was babbling away at the remote, and after a few minutes, said, "bye" and hung up. It was too funny!


Claire is also fascinated by the computer. Before bedtime tonight, she was having a great time sitting in Daddy's lap, banging on the keyboard, clicking the mouse, and listening to country (Andy's choice, not mine) music. She loves that she can make the screen do things by pushing buttons and moving the mouse. Whenever Andy or I are on the computer, she always wants, "UP!!"

Trick or Treat!

Claire had a very fun and very busy Halloween week. It started with an extra special Kindermusik class on Thursday where the kids got to wear their costumes. Claire and her friends, Sadie and Elizabeth had a lot of fun in the class with their costumes on. Claire was very good at identifying Elizabeth and Sadie as a duck and a bee. She would frequently point at them and say duck or bee.

On Friday we went to Carney Park for their big Halloween party. We met up with Sadie and her family and the girls had a good time riding the Halloween train around the golf course and they had their first taste of trick-or-treating. The best part of the evening was certainly when the parents were hanging out eating dinner and the Sadie and Claire spent ages taking candy out of each others' trick-or-treat buckets and putting it back in. They had a fantastic time re-arranging the candy and taking it and giving it to one another. I think in the end, Sadie ended up with more candy, but Claire held her own.



Saturday was a very busy day. In the morning we went to see Elizabeth and for a fantastic brunch with her family and Sadie's family. They live closer to downtown Naples and they have a fantastic view. The girls had fun playing, as usual.


Saturday evening we went to the support site to have dinner at a friends' house and then we went trick-or-treating. Claire had a great time walking around, holding her daddy's hand and her pumpkin bucket. I'm not sure she really "got" what was going on, but she loved seeing all of the kids in their costumes and running around after them.


She especially fell in love with a little boy dressed as Elmo and as he walked away, she promptly followed after him. I'm sure she would have happily joined that family if I hadn't run after her.


Now, she is peacefully sleeping after a long couple of days and I am doing what I'm sure every parent does on Halloween night after their kids have gone to bed.... eat their candy!

Little Walks in the Parco

In the evenings, Claire loves to go on little walks around our 10-house parco (gated community).


She likes to stop and check out the leaves and flowers along the way and stick her feet and fingers in the puddles.

Mostly, she loves to visit Ginger, the very old dog who lives at the end of the row of houses. Sadly, Ginger was not at the gate today, but normally she sits very calmly on the other side of this gate as Claire pets her and pokes her.

Pumpkin Carving

In honor of Claire's interest in cats, this year we chose to carve the profile of a cat and a crescent moon into the pumpkin (it's obvious, right... right?).


She was somewhat interested in the initial opening of the top of the pumpkin, but sadly, she quickly lost interest. We were hoping she'd dig into the seeds and insides with both hands and make a big mess, but sadly, that did not happen.


I was able to get her to pose with the pumpkin a little bit on the front porch, however.

Sunny Days

Last week we were lucky enough to get tickets to a live Sesame Street performance on the base. This is a great traveling show that spends much of the year traveling around to different bases and performing for the kids and families there. The show was about thirty minutes long, which was a perfect length for Claire, and the singing and dancing was great.


Leading up to the show, I think I was more excited about it than Claire was. We had never taken her to a live performance and I thought it would either be a huge hit and she'd love it, or she would be freaked out and I'd have to remove a screaming baby from the show and try not to disturb anyone else.

She wasn't too familiar with Sesame Street before a few weeks ago, but leading up to the show, I showed her some episodes and DVDs of Sesame Street. She has quickly learned to recognize Elmo, whom she calls, "EL!"

The night of the show was great. We met up with Sadie, Elizabeth and their parents (poor Andy was in Germany on business, so he had to miss it). We all sat together and the girls were mesmerized by their light up Elmo spinny toys until the show began.


When the characters came out, singing and dancing, all three girls immediately loved the show. They were each so focused on the characters and so excited by the singing and dancing.

Claire absolutely loved it. She was smiling and dancing the whole time. She clearly, thoroughly enjoyed the show, which made me very happy. I am really looking forward to taking her to more things like this in the future!
This is a video of Claire watching Sesame Street. It's not the best quality and there is no audio, but it's a good snippet of how much Claire enjoyed the show.

Claire's Little Friends

It's taken us some time, but we have a great daily routine set up, which Claire seems to love and gets mommy some exercise. When we moved here I was really lucky to meet two other moms on the playground with daughters near Claire's age. For the last couple of months, we've been meeting nearly every morning to jog, walk or go to an exercise class. The girls stay in the strollers, entertained with their toys and snacks. After the moms have exercised, we go to the park.


We had a tough time getting the girls all together in one shot... Sadie and Elizabeth seemed to be having a better time at the park than Claire was that day. They had a great time running around. She mostly wanted to stand by mommy.



Sadie, Elizabeth and Claire have a great time playing together and they have become more and more interactive with one another. And of course, I really enjoy the time hanging out and talking with the other moms, who are quickly becoming two of my good friends here.


Elizabeth and Sadie climbing the stairs while Claire looks on. Sadie has some of the best expressions!


After the park, Claire and I will sometimes run a couple of errands, then head home for lunch and her nap time.

The Garden

Our house in Pozzouli has great outdoor space, which is certainly one of the main reasons we chose this house. We have a lovely front yard with various trees and bushes, including something that looks like a Christmas tree and also a palm tree... just one of Italy's many contradictions.


Our backyard is even better. We have about a dozen fruit trees, two lemon and the others are orange trees. Some don't seem to be doing so well right now, but we sure are looking forward to some tasty fruit.


Claire loves being outside both in the front yard and the back. I usually just let her roam free in the backyard because it is fully enclosed with no gate to the outside. She even has a little baby slide (thank you Solley's) which she loves!