'Clear' or 'Bright'

Good Morning, sleepy face!

 Happy first birthday, little lady.

She and I were having a lovely morning chat until Emmy heard us and came running.

And attacked her, yelling "HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIREY!!"

We're a little forceful in our affection.

If you know Claire, you know her favorite spot is under the kitchen table. Emmy was kind enough to spread out her blanket to make it an extra nice place for gift opening this morning.

This was about... 4 minutes after she woke up. I'm not even positive that she was completely awake, but the kids weren't about to wait. Their excitement eventually wore off on her, but it took a while.

See? Starting to look more awake! She was shaking those baby puffs like nobody's business!

Have I introduced you to Kitty yet? She's the newest lovey. I think she needs a post of her own.

This brilliant (thank you) gift was her favorite of the morning. Pulling the tissues out of the box is her all-time favorite game, coming in right above unrolling the toilet paper in the bathrooms.

Mr. Keep-the-tissues-in-the-box cringes every time he sees her do it. 

He understood that this box was different, that it was only for Claire's tissue pulling pleasure, and he couldn't get over how funny it was.

The last two first-birthday's we've had have been filled with new clothes and toys - but what does this child need? Absolutely nothing. There is plenty of clothing, and too many toys already. For this one, we only got her what she wanted. Things like baby treats and tissue boxes. 

I want to post more photos as the day goes on, this is just a little sample of our morning.

It's a good thing you were born on a beautiful, "clear and bright" spring morning, Claire. 

I wish I could show you a picture of what it looked like outside through the huge window that was right behind me as she was born, but all of those photos have me in them, and they may or may not be appropriate for this blog. So I give you this one instead.

Claire is 47 minutes old in this photo. The blinds are closed, but the light was just pouring in. Claire was the perfect name for this little girl.

I say it was a good thing you were born then, Claire, because if you had been born on this morning today,

We might have named you Blizzard, or Gloomy, or Killer of Flowers. 

Just kidding,

Mom