Pooh, Pooh... Look Who's Two!

Claire turned two years old on Thursday. She started her day with a dance party in her nursery where she "got down" to various alternative country songs Stew had burned onto a CD. After getting down to some Lyle Lovett and Deadstring Cowboys' tunes, Claire and Stew headed to the Maple Grove Community Center to play at the indoor playground. After an hour or so of jumping in the ball pit, sliding down slides, climbing up slides and pointing at other kids, Claire met Andrew... a crazed kid on some sort of freakish sugar high. In the ball pit, Andrew "accidentally" fell on Claire's ankle, leading to a meltdown befitting a 2-year old diva. On their way out of the community center, Claire and Stew stopped by a big window so Claire could watch kids playing basketball (Stew's dream is for Claire to win a full-ride scholarship to be starting point guard for a Division I women's basketball team to be named later - but I prefer the U of M Golden Gophers - which proves I have the intellectual capacity to refrain from grouping all rodentia into the category of "terrorist"... a lesson for the thick-headed neo-conservatives out there who still fail to recognize the difference between "Muslim" and "terrorist").

After play time, Stew and Claire headed to Costco for lunch (Stew pushes Claire around the warehouse in a cart, stopping by all the free food sample stations... and they circle the store at least twice in order to insure Claire gets enough to eat). After Costco, the two arrived at home so Claire could color in her new coloring book while Stew baked her a birthday cake. Most of the day's activities were digitally documented, and Grandma Helen is coming to Claire-sit while we move on Friday (which means another birthday party for Claire on Saturday), so there's a good chance a video will appear on this blog at some future date. But, I believe I'll be packing up the computer early this week and likely won't return to blogging until we're in our new Chaska home. In the meantime, enjoy these photos of Claire enjoying her special day last Thursday...
And here's what happens when you turn your back on a toddler who likes to play with washable markers (you have to look closely at Claire's right eye to see the full extent of the "damage")... Anyone want to place a wager on how long it will take before Claire gouges out her eye with a marker while under Stew's care?