A few more things

A few more things I wanted to mention about Claire. We gave up the soft-top sippy cup. She was basically making them useless by chewing on them at the rate of about one a week. I finally had enough. We went to walmart and bought "special" cups just for Claire. I let her pick them out, and even spent $15 on just 4 cups (yikes!). But, she likes them. She picked two with Elmo and two with Buzz Lightyear. I'm not really sure why she likes Buzz, or even knows his name. She has only seen the movies a handful of times, and they certainly aren't her favorites, but whatever. She uses them and hasn't asked for her old cups back. I hid away the old cups, and will get them out in about a month or so, so I can introduce them to Alex. I was trying to give them to Alex before, but he really can't deal with the flow after she has used a top, and there was no way to separate out the tops.
She is currently obsessed with monsters. Something about fairy tale creatures really strikes a chord with her. She LOVES Shrek. Shrek 2 is her favorite, but she likes all of them. She asks for Shrek pretty much once a day. Not that she watches it every day, but she always asks. We also got Monsters Inc lately, which she does okay with. She likes Boo. But her new favorite is "Fra Mon!" AKA- Fraggle Monster. It's funny when she says monster because she kind of roars when she says it. I'll have to try to get it on video. Anyway, there is a Fraggle Rock episode where Wembley and Red find a creature that is anything they believe it to be. They follow it into the Gorg's basement and the gorgs think it is a monster, so it turns into a monster. Then of course at the end they realize it wasn't really a monster after all. But she runs around asking for "Fra mon!" all day. For the last three days. It's getting a bit old.
She also really likes the "If you give" series of books. Alann reads really well to her, and she is able to say parts of the book herself. We have the mouse one, the moose one, and the cat one. The cat one got packed away, and I just found it the other day. It's "If you give a cat a cupcake." This is important later. Claire had Alann read it, and when he was done, she jumped off his lap and said "me, cake?" She ran over to me and said "me, cake??" and cocked her head. It was really funny. So, instead of being productive and cleaning the house, we made cupcakes. She is a budding chef. She wants to help me all the time in the kitchen. I'm learning to just let her go. She wants to crack the eggs in the bowl for me, so I let her. Sometimes they are crunchy, but she is getting pretty good. We make muffins or baked goods together every few weeks, mostly because they are easy and a little mess isn't a bit deal. She wanted to help cook dinner tonight, but that is harder because it's on the stove top. She isn't quite ready for heat yet I know. So I have to find things for her to do while I cook. But I'm happy to have a helper, at least who will be a good helper in a few years.
We've started giving her a few minutes to read books by herself at bedtime and that seems to help her go to bed. We've been reading to her before bed, and we still are, but now she gets a few more minutes to chill before lights out. She doesn't really read (okay, look at the books) I don't think, but the quiet time is good for her.
And weekly weigh in 4- according to mr Wii, I've gained 2 pounds. So most likely, it's just normal fluctuations and I haven't really gained or lost anything this week. Or as Alann said "Maybe we gained muscle mass from our trek up the hill" when we were sledding yesterday. I'll just have to watch out for this week and work hard, watching what I eat.