Claire's 7th birthday was 2 1/2 months ago. I just realized that I never made a post about her because we celebrated her birthday and then went on our summer vacation. When we returned, we had one thing after another until school started . . .
Claire read the book Pinkalicious months before her birthday and decided she wanted a Pinkalicious party for her birthday. The book is about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and develops a case of pinkatitus and turns pink. For Claire's party, each of her friends got to decorate two cupcakes (pink of course). Then we gave each girl her own copy of Pinkalicious and my mom read it to the group. Afterwards, we had cake and ice cream. The giant cupcake was made by Connie Easterwood; I was so surprised and impressed because she made it look exactly like the cupcakes in the book!
What can I say about Claire? She is interesting because she is simultaneously introverted and very social. On the one hand, she keeps her thoughts and emotions to herself and it often takes a little work to get her to open up about how she truly feels about things. (The one exception to this is when Jack is annoying or bothering her; I WISH I could get her to keep those thoughts and emotions to herself!). Once I get her to open up, though, I am often so impressed with her insight and perception about people and the things happening in her life.
And in spite of being introverted, she is, as I said, very social. To say that Claire doesn't want to do anything unless someone is doing it with her is a pretty fair summation of her. She will sit for 45 minutes while I read to her, but finds no joy in reading the same book if she has to read it by herself. T.V. and movies aren't as fun unless she has someone to sit on the couch with her and laugh or cry with her. Church is fun -- if she can bring friends. Even chores are actually fun for her if she is doing them with someone else.
We call Claire our monkey because if something can be climbed, she will climb it. She really wants to get into rock climbing/repelling and has begged us to build her a climbing wall. Once she scaled the outside of the tall slide at Sonic and then jumped off of the top of it. (I am glad that I was helping Brookie with something at that exact moment because had I seen it, I might have died from a heart attack right there on the spot!)
Claire has a tender heart. Last year a little pre-kindergartener was crying on the bus. Prior to that point, Claire had only seen her. Claire invited the little girl to sit with her and then helped her stop crying by making her laugh. Claire is the same sort of tender comforter for Brookie when Brookie is upset (usually because she has been denied something that she wants to play with).
She is also the most generous little girl I know. She has a very tight budget ($2/week allowance=$1.80 after tithe). At the end of August, she had Jack figure up how much money she would have from then until December so that she could start planning to buy presents for Jack and me for our birthdays in November and December. Most of the time she spends her money on sweet treats that she shares with whoever is with her. Again, this is probably because even a sweet treat is a better experience for her if someone else is sharing it with her.
Here are her answers to the following questions:
Favorite Restaurant: IHOP
Favorite food: peanut butter and jelly sandwich (she only gets to eat this when she is at a friend's house or at school because of Jack's allergy and I think this has increased its value to Claire)
Favorite Color: light blue
Favorite song: The Climb by Hannah Montana
Favorite book: All about Sam
Favorite snack: butterfinger mix from Braum's
Favorite activity: cooking and climbing
Favorite game: mouse trap
What she wants to do when she grows up: hairdresser
One thing that makes her happy: ice cream
Happy Belated Birthday, Claire!
