Claire's thoughts on life

Historic? Cool.

2008-03-05T10:44:00.001-08:00

Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama (by Evan Vucci/AP)
Originally uploaded by Stijn Vogels

[A conversation in the car while driving to school, listening to NPR]

"Who's Barack Obama?"

"He's a gentleman who's likely to be the next president of the United States."

"What about that girl that you were listening to before?"

"Hillary Clinton? You're right, she has a pretty good chance to be the next president instead."

"Huh?"

"Well, in November everybody in the country is going to pick who the next president is. Right now, there are a bunch of people -- called Democrats -- trying to decide who they want to vote for in November. We call these the primaries. If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic primary, there's a pretty good chance she'll be the president. If Barack Obama wins, there's a pretty good chance he'll be the president."

"You know what, Daddy? On the presidents wall in Ms. Shanaz's classrom, where all the presidents are, there aren't any girls there yet and if Hillary Clinton wins Ms. Shanaz will get to put a picture of a girl on the wall!"

"That's true! And I don't know if you noticed, but there's nobody with dark skin, like Kamsi or Pauline up there either. And if Barack wins, he'll be the first person with dark skin on that wall, which would also be pretty cool. Either way, you're going to be telling your children and grandchildren about this election."

"Why?"

"Because this will probably be the first time either a woman or a black man gets to be the president of the United States. It's historic."

"Cool."

Book boundary

2008-02-27T13:17:00.001-08:00

Book boundary
Originally uploaded by navratil

Pete likes to eat his book, but he can't, so I use it to sit in. My ponies are with me, and sometimes I read a book. That's The Wizard of Oz.

Unconventional family

2008-01-13T11:57:00.001-08:00

Frog and Toad and Dora are the ponies' parents. The ponies have two daddies and one mommy. They're very lucky.

Rock on!

2008-01-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

I like playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero. MY favorite songs from Guitar Hero are "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and "My Name is Jonas." And my favorite songs in this game [looking at Rock Band] are "You Gotta Let Me Know Should I Stay or Should I Go?" and my other favorite is the one with... "Ballroom Blitz."

Beethoven

2008-01-12T10:03:00.001-08:00

[This was colored by Claire at school on Monday, 1/7/08. We discussed it in the car.]

Claire: This guy is Beethoven. He played music.

Debbie: That's great coloring! He looks grumpy, though.

Claire: He's grumpy because he can't hear.

Debbie: That would make me grumpy too.

Claire: Plus, he's dead.

Mwahaha! They're mine!

2008-01-10T22:19:00.001-08:00

Mwahaha! They're mine!
Originally uploaded by navratil

My baby brother Pete got me Uniqua for my birthday, cuz that's what I really wanted all my life. Santa gave me Pablo cuz Uniqua was so sad she didn't have him. Grandma and Papa got me all of them so now I have 2 Uniquas, 2 Pablos, one Tyrone, one Tasha, and one Austin. I have a Dora doll from Dawn and Terry too, but I never got a Boots one cuz Mommy said they don't make him.

Hay! Hay you!

2007-10-27T09:52:00.001-07:00

Hay! Hay you!
Originally uploaded by navratil

That's me in the hay corn. I'm smilin' because I need to smile. I stopped doin' it for the picture. I like the hay mazes. And I stop at a stop and I asked which way to go. Daddy which way to go. And I thought it was funny.

Picking Pumpkins

2007-10-24T06:15:00.001-07:00

Picking Pumpkins
Originally uploaded by navratil

Daddy and I love to pick pumpkins. We go to the pumpkin patch and look at all of them. We're gonna carve them and put them on the front porch. I carry my pumpkin.

Soccer Practice

2007-10-22T23:12:00.001-07:00

Soccer Practice
Originally uploaded by navratil

I go to soccer at John D. Morgan Park. This is the picture of me getting a goal on my Coach Tom. He's not in the picture because you [Debbie] took it, but he's there. I got 3 goals.

Yee-ha!

2007-10-21T22:12:00.001-07:00

Yee-ha!
Originally uploaded by navratil

I've got my Daddy's sense of style.

Always moving

2007-10-20T09:54:00.001-07:00

IMG_0220
Originally uploaded by navratil

Heartbreaker

2007-08-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

[At a San Jose Giants game last week, Claire was especially listening to the music of the batters at bat. She loved getting up and dancing to it.]

Claire: What's that song?

Daddy: "Heartbreaker."

Claire: What's a heartbreaker?

Daddy: Well, sometimes when you're really good-looking, people call you a heartbreaker.

Claire: Am I a heartbreaker?

Mommy: (under breath) I hope not.

When I get big...

2007-08-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

[Claire has begun looking to the future. She has made some major decisions about what she's going to do/be when she grows up. For her, being a grown up waffles between being 5.5 and being 9.5. Here are a few of the better statements and pronouncements about here future.]

"When I grow big, I'm going to be a chef." [Mama's proud.]

"When I'm nine anna half, I'm going to have two boys and two girls in my belly." I asked, jokingly, "At the same time?" She responded, very seriously, "Well, yes!"

"When I get big, grown ups will have medicine with flavors. I'll make them. Then I can ask them if they want lemon or lime, and I'll give it to them, or they can have no flavor."

"When I'm five anna half, I'll be able to reach the top shelf and get my own toys down." [The top shelf is 7 feet up. I can't even reach it without a step stool.]

"When I grow up, fish won't die in their tank." [RIP, Boots, the Black Molly.]

"When it's time and he's big enough, I'll buy Pete a bicycle so we can ride bikes together."

"When I have enough money, I'll buy Pete all the clothes he needs."

.... and....

"When I grow up, tampons will come in lots of colors, not just red or white."

Ah, they grow up so fast.

Dreams

2007-06-20T20:39:00.001-07:00

When we put Claire to bed, she knows she shouldn't get up again unless she has to pee. She also knows she shouldn't come bother us - out of her room - unless "I have a pee accident, a poopoo accident, I puke, or I have blood all over." She still does, and then she has to surrender one of her stuffed animals or her pillow. She has decided this isn't worth it for the most part, but tonight's exchange was hysterical. It follows a discussion we had about bad dreams last night; she's been in bed less than 6 minutes.

Claire: I didn't have the dream I expected to have.

Mommy: Yeah? What was it about?

C: Spiderman and Venom.

M: Cool dream!

C: No. Venom was all black...

M: Sounds right.

C: Even on his face! And Spiderman has black on his face, too.

M: I think Spiderman does have black on his face. What were they doing, flying around between buildings with their webs? That's what they do usually.

C: No, they were walking. Walking and playing goop.

M: Hunh. I don't know how to play goop.

C: They throw goopy stuff at each other and... um...

M: Do they make a mess?

C: Yeah. But then they cleaned it up.

M: Oh, good.

C: But then they threw mud at each other and bounced in the mud.

M: That sounds like a funny dream.

C: It was a little scary... (walking away)

M: I'm sorry. Goodnight.

C: (turning back) It was kind of funny now I think about it. Hehehe. Goodnight.

Anticipation

2007-06-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Pete's coming soon. Mommy and Daddy will be at the hospital and cousin Chrissy might come! Is today the day we took pictures? Yes? Susan took our pictures. She looks like the lady on my show that sings "I'm different, different, different." [She's thinking of Laurie Berkner, but that's not who sings that song.]

Elementary!

2007-05-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

[on the phone with Adelle this past Friday]

Adelle: Are you excited about Pete coming and living with you?

Claire: Yes!

Adelle: Do you know when he's going to come?

Claire: He's going to be born on his birthday!

PSE for pre-school

2007-03-06T16:23:00.000-08:00

My mommy and I scrapbooked with her computer. I told her I wanted to have a picture of Maggie and Sam and yellow paper and stickers. She said I could use the fuzzy stickers. I picked them and she put them on the paper for me. My picture's good.

It's been a while...

2007-02-26T19:15:00.000-08:00

This song ["Bing Bang" from the show Lazytown] is my favorite song. All the Lazytown songs are my favorite song.

My fish have line poop.

Now I want to write about Kiersten's dogs. I saw 2 dogs. I want to know what their name is.

Counting in My Language

2007-02-10T12:31:00.000-08:00

All of us have time to count to funny tens in our own new number languages.

Eh
Vrr
Evh
Mudge
Dus
Vruh
Engk
Vargh
Rug
Simba

I love to do tens and elevens and twelves. Simba's "one", and Care Bear's "two". Those are some of the new words. And Nala's "three".

It'll be a boy, they say.

2007-01-30T19:44:00.000-08:00

I'm going to teach my brother...

... how to hold piggies.
... how to carry Funshine Bear.
... how to carry Baby Doll.
... how to brush his teeth.
... how to play on my "Finding Nemo" and "Dora" on my Leapster.
... how to hug and Eskimo kiss.
... "A Ram Sam Sam" and the gumdrop song ["Kookabura"].
... how to play catch and maybe kick... balls.
... how to dream.

One day, I'll think about more stuff I'm going to teach my baby brother to do that then you can put that on.

Uno!

2007-01-29T19:04:00.000-08:00

We played Uno. You have to have cards. You have to win. You say "I win." The cards have numbers and letters and colors.

[Daddy says the Huffmans love Uno. Mommy says Maggie likes playing it.]

Facing death head-on

2007-01-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to Iowa for PaPaPa's funeral. It was really good.

He died. He's going to the dirt.

I'm very sad.

Heaven = Hospital?

2007-01-23T17:51:00.000-08:00

[Since her great-grandfather has been on the last steps of life for several weeks now, we've been talking to Claire about death a lot. This is one of our latest conversations. It was short.]

Daddy: PaPaPa's sick, he's not feeling good. Pretty soon, he's going to go to heaven.

Claire: Heaven's where you go when you're not feeling good, so you can get better.

Daddy: .... um, kind of.

Mommy: I think people definitely feel better in heaven.

Busy day

2007-01-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to my friends' party, to Amelia and Gabriella's party. I thought there was going to be a bounce house, but there was no bounce house. I made a puppet out of a paper bag and did some painting.

Then Mommy went to a shower and Kiersten came over to play. We shared Play-Doh and I let her feed my baby.

[Mommy took no photos at the party today, and Daddy didn't take any while the girls were playing. Sorry. We'll try to be better.]

2007-01-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

I love Mommy. And I love Daddy.

I have two new duckies that I got from Aunt Lynne. I saw a seal that Anna had. She had that in her bath. At school, I did a punching for Daddy, a punching for [Mommy], and that gluing thing for [Daddy], and me, and Mama.

After Brit's, we came home. And before Brit's, we went to the mail thing with Mommy. She didn't get to mail her thing though because they didn't want her thing. [The mail counter at the drug store was already closed.]

Right now, I love playing with balls. I have a blue Dora one from Dawn and Terry.

Last night, I went with Daddy to go watch a movie. Haroon is Daddy's guitar teacher. It was about a baby named Oblio, and his dog's name was... he was blue.

MLK Observtions

2007-01-16T20:15:00.000-08:00

"Today I went to the big kids class [the kindergarten]. They read a book about a dead guy named Dr. Martin... except he wasn't dead in the book."

Mom: Oh yeah? He's one of my favorite people.

Dad: What else do you know about him?

"He had a birthday."

Dad: That's right! Do you know when his birthday is?

"It was Monday."

Mom: That was yesterday. You're right. Do you know anything about him? Did he say anything?

"Um, yeah... I think so. He had a loud voice and he said, 'This is my dream!!'"

Dad: What was his dream?

"oh, I don't know."

Dad: He wanted everyone to be treated fairly.

"He wanted people to be fairly, Mommy."

[Mommy loves her 3-year-old.]

Boyd gets a haircut

2007-01-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

Mommy got Boyd [from Debbie: the brown bear on the right] from her friend Shelley. He goes to houses to meet people. He came to our house. Care Bear said she wanted a haircut, so I gave Boyd one too. I cut the hair on his bottom. I'm sorry.

Thoughts during bathtime

2007-01-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

I really love Baby Jack.

I can wash the back of my hair by layin' down.

At the playground, we were playing telephone with the tambarks. And it was so funny.

Ernie

2007-01-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

Ernie's orange. Why's he like that?

I'm silly.

2007-01-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

I'm silly. I really love Adam being a lion for Halloween. I really like to marry Adam.

First post

2007-01-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

I love all of the people, Mommy and Daddy, and Rosetta and Alex. I don't know who else I want to do... Adam. Just those people.

When Mommy picked me up at school, we got Seamus an ice cube and I did that funny water thing job. When I got home, I watched Dora, watched the cowboy one.

That's it.