I came home from Utah last night - and wow, it just seems a little too quiet! Claire & Company arrived on September 22nd and it has been non-stop since then. I'm walking around the house seeing various pieces of evidence that Claire was here. Also going through pictures -lots of proof!
Claire loved my bathtub...sometimes we had a bath twice a day. Amazing how much I could get done while she was occupied for a few minutes in the bathtub. 
Some mornings when she woke up she was particularly happy to see Caleb - and occasionally she would pose for a picture with him...
Claire loves to be outside. I have a hammock on the deck that she quite enjoyed playing and relaxing in. The weather was pretty much perfect for their visit, and therefore, Claire wanted to be out there most of the time. We tried to fence her in - rather unsuccessfully. She quickly learned how to move the chairs and put them back as they were so we wouldn't notice her escape. One morning I looked out a kitchen window only to see her headed into our neighbor's yard without a thought to look back. The girl is fast! 
She loved, loved, loved playing the piano and loved, loved, loved entertaining us on the drums! 
Claire loves powder! After every bath we have "powder time" and she puts it on rather generously. Well, one Sunday morning we couldn't find her as we were trying to walk out the door. We did, however, find a powder trail that lead to my closet where she was hiding. She had managed to get the bottle of powder and I guess she found it rather entertaining. 
Claire loves to play with rocks - there's just something about rocks. She loves to pile them up, put them in her pockets, put them in a bucket, or line them up creatively. 
This is pretty much how my living room looked for about 3 weeks. I have waited to be a grandma for a long time and have been stashing things away. It's way fun for me to bring it all out and I didn't mind one bit that she'd go in there and bang away on the pots and play with the dishes. She did, however, manage to get a spice jar off the kitchen counter (I think it was the tarragon) and dump it all over one morning. 
We had the funniest experience the last night she was here...ok, so it was probably one of those moments that was much funnier had you been there in person. Claire was not about to eat her stew, even though she generally likes everything it was made with. We all tried everything we could think of. In desperation Katie tried to reason with her, showing her that the elephant was more than happy to eat the stew...didn't work...clearly didn't work! 
Ummm...walked down the stairs. I thought FOR SURE I had put away every marker and pencil and pen I had. Wouldn't you know I missed a couple of them. And wouldn't you know that she'd feel the need to further decorate my pretty wallpaper! Oh Claire, Claire, Claire...
I'm not sure that I'm too anxious to remove her artwork - it's a sweet remembrance to me. I love her!! 
