Claire Turns 1 1/2

I know that half birthdays aren't that big of a deal and normally we don't celebrate them however, when Sam turned 18 months old Bill's parents made a big deal out of it and bought him a cake and a present. So, in keeping with tradition we had to celebrate Claire's half birthday too. Bill's parents, Bill, Sam, Claire and I went to Peter Piper Pizza for dinner and to play games and then back to grandma and grandpa's for cake and ice cream. Claire was very excited about the cake and Sam was excited that Claire got to open presents b/c of course that meant that she would need his assistance opening them. Claire got a new ball and a couple of stuffed animals to carry around since she loves stuffed animals. We were worried that Sam would be confused as to why Claire was having a "birthday" when it wasn't really her birthday but he didn't care. He was just happy to have pizza, play games and get to have cake and ice cream too!

Even though Claire is a year and a half we haven't been able to turn her carseat to a forward facing position. You have to face backwards until you are a year old and are 20 lbs and poor Claire just can't get to that 20 lb mark. At her 18 month appointment she finally broke into the 19 lb mark, which means she's only gained a lb and a half since her 1st birthday. Yikes! The doctor said we'd check her weight in another 3 months and hopefully by then she'd be 20 lbs and we could turn her around in the car. Bill and I decided about a week ago that we'd had enough of her facing backwards and turned her around anyway. Shhh....don't tell our doctor! It doesn't seem to make that big a difference to Claire, like we thought it would, but I love being able to see her now.