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| No more sitting in the shopping cart for you! |
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| She definitely has her own sense of style! |
Claire is one of those lucky few that is self-possessed and confident, no matter what anyone else has to say. It comes out in her sense of style, her natural radiance, and her kindness.
She’s naturally smiley, even if her toes are frozen or she’s hungry or she can’t take another step.
Even though she’s often goofing around, running a mile-a-minute, and doing constant cartwheels, I’ll still catch her quietly pondering, a skill she seems to have inherited from Jack. When Claire is thinking, there’s no telling where her imagination and mind are taking her, and there’s almost no getting her to listen without repeating myself a few times until she snapped out of it.
Though Claire is just as comfortable being the center of attention and making friends wherever she goes, she also is just as comfortable being alone, reading or practicing her drawing or playing with the cats or working on her engineering skills.
Someday, I foresee Claire being our very own personal chef. She’s the first in the kitchen, volunteering to flip pancakes and scramble eggs.
She has never been one to be stopped by her fears. Claire is the first to climb higher, try a new food, touch a creepy crawly, or experience a new thrill.
I also love and appreciate that Claire is (usually) inclined to help, whether it’s babysitting her younger siblings, pulling weeds, feeding the animals, or milking the cow.
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| Claire loves a good parade! |
Cat socks, cat print pants, cat stuffed toys, cat drawings, cats on the carousel, cat shirts, cat ear headbands…to say nothing of Hercules, Nova, and Snickers.
Even though Claire loves cats, she’s kind to all creatures, whether it’s a tiny baby crawdad, a fat June bug (one of my favorite interactions she’s had with bugs so far), the chickens, or an errant snake on the school playground.
And, even though they’re not her favorite, I am determined all my kids will know their way around a horse.
On the actual day of her birthday, Henry, Zoey, and I went to eat lunch with her at school. I’d say it was a surprise but she’d already surmised it was going to happen since we ate with her last year.
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| A real life TIGER!…Sort of. |
It’s always incredibly difficult to sum up a child that I’ve known every day of their short-yet-eternal existance. Claire is a bright light, a ray of hope, a giggly, squirmy, cute, girl full of moxie that is slowly becoming a young woman of strength, backbone, courage, and good-humor. We can’t wait to see where life takes her and are happy to have her along for the ride with us!
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| It’s great to be eight! |
