Over Thanksgiving, Claire's Aunt Tara (aka my sister) came home for an all-too-short visit. Aunt Tara went away for grad school when Claire was about 4 months old. Is it just called grad school still when you're getting a PhD? I feel like I should know this. We are extremely lucky to have the majority of our family close to us. But we love our aunt/sister/daughter, so her absence has been a big one in our collective family's life.
Tara has come home to visit several times in the past year. Each time, we've figured that it had been too long for Claire to remember her but each time, we've been proven wrong. Even when she was sub-one year old, Claire took to her Aunt Tara like she completely remembered her. My theory is that Aunt Tara reminds her of her mommy (and her mommy is awesome) so Claire knows she can be trusted. Plus although I know it takes all of her will power to not immediately scoop her up, Tara is excellent about giving Claire her space...and Claire hates space so her solution is to jump into her Auntie's arms :)

We did a quick photoshoot that resulted in one keeper since my little peach is at THE worse age for cooperating for pictures. In my experience, THE worse age last for about a year, so I imagine I'll have lots of "single keeper" shoots in my future. I'm okay with it though since the keeper is so worth it.

Tara brought her boyfriend Phil home to meet the family. He must also look like me because Claire took a quick liking to him as well.

Needless to say, we can't wait for Aunt Tara to come home for Christmas.