
Besides Dada and sometimes Mama, Claire has not been saying much that sounds like an attempt at English…until yesterday. Not only did she repeat shoes and socks (”hsoos” and “hsock”) when we held them up for her, but she said them over and over yesterday evening. Then this morning, without being reminded, she pointed to one of Josh’s shoes and said “hsoo?” I think she’s got it!
~ Anna

The Texas weather has been unseasonably warm this week, so we had to take advantage of it and take our first trip of the year to the park. After months of being restricted to playing indoors, Claire was reminded how much she loves the swings!


Since she wants to walk everywhere now I had to watch her closely because she really wanted to run around and pick up all of that mulch. Now we’re just waiting for the real spring weather to arrive so she can really run around outdoors. I can definitely wait on the Texas summer heat though!
~ Anna



Most ladies would be mortified to leave the restroom with a trail of tp a fraction of this size, but not our girl! Claire tracks her tp trophy around our bathroom proudly because she is just so delighted that she could pull it off the roll. I guess it’s good that we’ve started purchasing our tp at Costco.
~ Anna
Claire loves the toy storage bins we have in the playroom. She loves to take things out and put things in. She loves to take all of the bins out and bang them together leaving both the toys and bins strewn about the room. So much for organization.
Occasionally when one of the smaller bins is out, her little self decides it is a good idea to twist and squeeze herself to fit into one of them. After it happened the first time I got the camera ready.


I wish you could really see the size of these tubs. They shouldn’t be big enough to accommodate her. I’m not really sure how she manages to fit in there, but I can only imagine she’s going to be great at Sardines when she’s a little older.
~ Anna
We made the decision to celebrate Claire’s birthday with family only this year. We had a celebration in Flatonia with some of my family after Christmas and then we celebrated with Josh’s family this past weekend.
Flatonia

One of the few pictures where the hat is ON

Not really into the cake

Starting to realize how to smile for the camera

Dad helping open gifts

A book! How exciting!

Nanna, BigDad, Uncle Zach, and Uncle Chris

Claire with her new corn popper (I know we'll soon regret this purchase)

Uncle Zach helps Claire play with her new toy
GG and Giggy were there too, but they escaped detection by our cameras, mainly because they were behind them for a large portion of the event. We’ll be sure to catch them next time!
Midlothian

Smash cake

Cake for the adults - can you tell I picked the flavor (chocolate/chocolate)?

Nonna and Claire

Grandad and Grandma Cochran and Lou Jean

Aunt Jess helps Claire get into her cake

Claire feeds Daddy

Messy and happy

Overview of the cake destruction

Loving her new penguin

And her new ball

Birthday girl on the move

Our picture together as a family
Grumpa is missing from these pictures, but he was there too!
Thanks to all of our family for helping us celebrate Claire’s first birthday in style! It meant a lot to have each of you with us!!!
~ Anna





