Time with Claire

Mashing up bananas for some banana bread

 Melanie has been going to summer camp each weekday morning for the last two weeks, and it has given me a wonderful opportunity to spend more time focused on Claire.  I often feel like she's the one that gets the least attention being in the middle, since Melanie is better at speaking up when she wants/needs something and Amelia makes it very clear when she needs my attention as well.

 Claire is such a happy, content girl that she just goes with the flow most of the time, unless she's super tired or teething (Which has been a bit of an issue recently.  Darn 2-year molars.)  You don't really know if something is bothering Claire until she melts down, and then it's a challenge to figure out what the problem is.

I've really enjoyed this time with Claire (and Amelia too, but she's pretty laid back in the mornings).  We've been able to chat while running errands (Melanie makes it tough for Claire to get a word in when she's with us).  We've played games, done puzzles and colored, and last week we made banana bread and Claire got to do all the helping herself without sharing the mashing, dumping and stirring duties with her big sister for once.  Don't get me wrong, she really loves doing things with Melanie, but it was fun to hear how excited she was when she told Melanie she had helped make banana bread while Melanie was at camp.  I hope I can make a more focused effort to give each of the girls some undivided quality time with me each week.  They deserve it, and I need it to be able to remember their sweet little personalities as they grow, because it won't be long before they're teenagers, and we all know what that does to a child's sweet personality, don't we? ;)