Daddy's Girl

When Claire was born, our good friend Susan made the comment, "Claire's a perfect combination of Linda and Stewie." At the time, we assumed Susan was referring to Claire's physical appearance of having Linda's big, beautiful eyes and my shade of dark blue eye color. And Claire clearly has the Stewart baby trademark diastemata (oh no... someone's been using The Google again!). But the wonderful thing about being able to spend so much quality time with Claire as an at-home parent is the opportunity to watch her personality traits develop right before my eyes. And what I've noticed is that Claire actually IS a perfect combination of Linda and me. Like her Momma, Claire loves to work on puzzles, dip cookies in milk or hot cocoa before bedtime, and scream at me for no discernible reason. Claire also believes there's a place for everything and everything must be in its place - and it's apparent Claire has learned from Linda that the place for recently worn outfits is on the floor of her bedroom. And from watching Linda, Claire's learned to be very independent, and she works hard at successfully completing a task before moving on to the next - as opposed to exercising my motto of why even try if it looks hard? And speaking of me, I'm a bit concerned Claire might be spending TOO much time alone with me. Allow me to explain...

Claire is slowly learning to develop a sense of humor and, like me, has taken to laughing at her own jokes even when nobody else does. And while I fancy myself a comic Renaissance man of sorts, Claire's still in the watch me pretend to trip and fall down stage of her comedic development, not to mention her obsession with telling knock-knock jokes that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. But our similarities don't end at the punch line. Claire's prone to excessive drooling after falling asleep on the couch. She has a penchant for whining when she doesn't get her way (and making everyone else around her equally miserable until she does). She thinks my homemade pea salad is the most delicious thing on the face of the planet - because it is - while Linda won't go anywhere near it. And Claire's learned that farting at the kitchen table - while unacceptable - is pure comic gold! And probably the most obvious example of why I think Claire's spending too much time with me - whenever she wants to learn how to turn a closet into an office or how to incorporate farmhouse style to her downstairs playroom decor, there's only one place Claire will go to read our favorite magazine...