Doing the Wave

I probably haven't posted since I compared Lee to Stalin, but I wanted to write about one of my favorite parts of the day.

I try to leave for work around 6:45 in the morning, to avoid rush hour. Elsa usually hears the garage door opening. When she does, she runs to her bedroom window, pushes the curtains and blinds aside, and waves to me as I back out of the driveway. If I do not see her in the window, I back out very s l o w l y to give her time to get to the window. Even if she doesn't make it, I ALWAYS wave to her. The best days are when I am running late -- because she is often already downstairs drawing or coloring. So I get some hugs and kisses before I leave and she goes to the family room window to wave to me.

This got me to wondering whether Claire will eventually be able to wave to me in the mornings. Elsa has floor-to-ceiling windows facing the driveway, but Claire only has a normal window -- way too high for her to look through and wave to me. Either she will have to run into the bathroom for the lower windows or we'll need to keep a chair by the window. Or maybe we need to remodel so Claire can have floor-to-ceiling windows. (I hope Lee is not reading this.) Or maybe -- and I shudder to think this -- Claire will retain her stubbornness and not even WANT to wave to me.

That said, Claire has been MUCH more giving of hugs and kisses lately. She'll still often say "No" when asked for them, but when she does give them they are oh so sweet.

Other miscellaneous stuff on Claire:

Her nickname, which has stuck since the hospital, is "Claireykins." I am sure she will love that nickname as she gets older.

Sometimes I sing a song to Claire along the lines of: "Claire has hair, sits on chairs and eats bears." Elsa usually corrects me that Claire does not eat bears.

Finally, I miss Claire's Devil Voice™, which she used a lot in Door County. It is very deep, throaty, husky voice (I guess that means the devil sounds like Kathleen Turner) and she usually used it to say "Daddy." It was really funny.