It's been a long long time

It's been such a long time, but the time just seems to be flying by.  Claire is growing like a weed and it's amazing.  She is a spirited young girl that is always on the go.  We never rest, but it's a good kind of exhaustion.  These past months have brought much growth in her development, skills, and speech. At one point I felt that she was a little behind in her speech, but she has definitely caught up. She NEVER shuts up now.  And she's able to tell us stories about her day and has a great imagination. 

She takes gymnastics and has been for a while.  She had her first Ribbon day which is like a recital.  She was a little nervous at first as there were a lot of people there to watch.  I think Claire had the most family members there to watch her, Grandparents, Aunt, cousins... but she did great and nailed several of her moves.

She was so proud to get her own little trophy and ribbons.  Her Daddy got her her first bouquet of flowers and she was particularly proud of those, telling us "Daddy give me my own flowers...they for me".  Then we all went out to eat in celebration.  So proud of her.

We recently got a small above ground pool in our backyard.  Being a Peds nurse I was a little weary about her inability to swim yet. I see things at work that are so preventable.  So aside from the other safety measures...like taking the ladder out when we're not using it and extra high locks on the exit doors for the house.. we pushed her to learn to swim without any assistive devices like floaties or noodles.  Our little angel learned to swim in one week(now we have had her in the water a lot consistently since bringing her home).  So on Father's day after everyone left our house, she took a huge breath and swam the length of our pool.  Pictures will follow..Like I said...growing by leaps and bounds