July just flew by! Jeff actually had off for the entire 4th of July weekend, but we didn’t really do a whole lot but relax. We met up with Mary and Audrey a few times and hit the pool. We had some record breaking heat here which apparently is very rare for Seattle. Everyone keeps saying we brought the cold winters and hot summers from Minnesota with us when we moved out here.
Claire has been very interested in the potty this months. She has her own little potty seat and so I talked to daycare about taking her through the process with the older kids when they can. The director was hesitant about this because she said Claire wasn’t old enough to know how to hold her bladder, but the teachers agreed to go with it anyway. And, guess what?!! She went pee for the first time on the toilet only a few days later! I’m sure it was by accident, but it was pretty exciting for us! She didn’t do it again for the rest of the month, but we figured, when she’s ready, she’ll let us know.
It’s been kind of odd for Claire and I on the weekends since we don’t have her music class for the summer. We definitely miss it, but are finding other t hings to do.
We celebrated my birthday with a wonderful dinner and awesome new guitar! Claire loves playing it too! She’s also into singing happy birthday all of the time now and making fake cakes at daycare, so she was very excited to sing happy birthday to me which was extra special.
This month for daycare was a bit difficult as well. Two of her teachers left. One because she had a baby and decided to stay home, and the other got let go for stealing. It’s kind of weird too because she was my favorite person there and I thought she was so trustful. Very sad. I really miss her, and I’m sure Claire does too. I was a bit upset that daycare didn’t catch her record when they did a background check, but apparently the background check is only for violent acts or acts against children.
We went to North Dakota to visit the Dolan family for a weekend of camping! Claire loved seeing her grandparents and immediately when we got off the plane let her grandpa hold her hand. This is surprising because it usually takes her about 15-30 minutes to warm up to someone. It was great to see though. We had a wonderful time hanging out with everyone and relaxing. Claire slept with us in Jeff’s parents bed in the camper (they slept on the pull out couch). Claire did great with everything. A little difficult to put down for naps since she wanted to hang out with everyone, but not bad considering she was out of her element. Her grandparents also got her a little pool to hang out in. She absolutely loved it! Grandma got her some roll on soap that she had so much fun with. She’d go in and then out of the pool, then in, then out. So cute! She wanted to go for rides on the golf cart all day long. And, they were doing Christmas in July, so everything was decorated. Claire completely took to her Uncle Mike as well. He was great with her! It was a short trip, but very worth it. We hadn’t seen everyone since Kerry and Mike’s wedding, and it was great to relax and be with the family again.
When we came back, we walked into more record breaking heat. Most people don’t have air conditioners out here because you don’t need them, but when I went to the store to buy one the day after we came back, they were sold out statewide!! It was upper 90s-100s for about a week or two. Absolutely insane! It was so awful sleeping, so we decided to try downstairs. Claire didn’t like that so much since we just got back from traveling and she was out of her room. I think she was a bit confused. I finally found a portable a/c unit online and ordered it. It got there the next day. Ahh relief! The thing didn’t work that great, but anything was better than the sweltering heat. They couldn’t even have the kids outside at daycare because it was too hot. That’s all everyone talked about here and we all wanted rain back. And wouldn’t you know it, the day after we got it, it started cooling off. The things you’ll do for comfort!
Let’s see what else Claire’s up to:
- Talking in short sentences.
- Understanding what we say and abiding by it.
- Singing so many songs.
- Voicing her opinion.
- Climbing up and down stairs on her own (no falls yet!!)
- Telling stories.
Love my little angel!! That’s our July in a few paragraphs.
