As Claire grows older, it’s becoming apparent that our elder daughter is quite the character. If she’s not awing those around her with her keen sense of observation and imagination, she is cracking us up with her anecdotes and attitude.

I’ve decided to share with you some of my favorite stories from the past few weeks…

(Once again, if you are a Facebook friend, you’ve probably seen these in my updates so please feel free to skip this post.)

These sunglasses make her look like a granny, but she loves them.

A couple of weeks ago, the weather forecast predicted scattered thunderstorms. But since the sun was shining as J prepared to go to work, he and I had a short conversation about whether or not he should bring an umbrella. In the end, he decided not to, and I guess Claire was listening, because later that afternoon…

Me:  “Look out the window! Look how hard it’s raining!”

Claire:  (looking very concerned) “But appah didn’t bring his umbrella! He’s going to get all wet!”

I then assured her that her daddy has an extra umbrella at his office, and she seemed satisfied with that answer.  🙂

Wearing her giraffe on her back

Later that week, as Claire was running around the house with her giraffe in the air —

Claire:  “Umma, look! The giraffe is flying!”

Me:  “Wow, how does he fly? Where are his wings?”

Claire:  (after thinking a bit) “His wings come out of his butt! He farts them out!”

She then ran away, giggling. I couldn’t help but wish for a giraffe that would do such a thing.

Aerin sitting on Claire’s lap, who is sitting on my lap. (Wow I suck at selfies.)

I’ve found that when both girls are being cranky, one of the easiest things for me to do is to start a new activity or show them something they haven’t seen before. I did just that last week when I pulled out my wedding album for the first time in years. The girls were AMAZED to see mommy and daddy on the pages of a book. As I flipped through the pages, Claire kept saying things like, “와, 이뻐!” (“Wow, pretty!”) and “엄마 아빠 사랑해!” (“Mommy and daddy love each other!”)

Then we came across a picture of our wedding cake. Claire then started singing the birthday song, taking care to sing, “Happy birthday dear umma baba” in the third line.  🙄

Pouring tea for everyone

We go over to my parents’ house almost every Sunday. And since my mother has off on Mondays, Claire usually spends the night there. I’ve heard some hilarious things from her adventures at halmeh and halbeh’s house, but my two recent favorites are:

• When she saw my sister’s dog Dante licking my FBIL Andrew, she remarked, “Dante, Andrew, so cute!”
• When she saw that it was raining, she put her hands out, palms up, and said, “비와. 어떡해?!??” which translates to “It’s raining. What are we going to do?” (It’s a lot funnier in Korean. 🙁 )

I threw Claire’s giraffe into the wash this morning because he was getting pretty grimy. When the dryer buzzed, Claire ran over and hugged him tight in her arms. As she was walking away, I could hear her telling him, “괜찮아, 기린이 더러웠어. 미안해…사랑해!” (“It’s okay, you were dirty. I’m sorry…I love you!”).

She loves her giraffe so, so much.