We're getting close to two. Like, final-countdown close. My baby is definitely turning into a big girl and  for some reason, I'm missing the sentimental part of this whole transition. I think we're in the sweet spot of parenting: having a non-nursing, sleeping through the night, tells you what you she wants, sits nicely in her carseat for extended periods, sort of kid. Combine that with the fact that she's the only kiddo for now, things have gotten pretty darn easy in our household.
So while there are definitely things I miss about the baby stage, and things about almost-two that I'm not crazy about (can you say drama?), I love this stage of independence. Sure, it takes about 5 minutes for her to walk down the stairs by herself. Seriously, it's a stairwell, how many things can you really get distracted by? And having my little gal insist that she is qualified to brush her own teeth gets a little tricky. But it's exciting and it's fun. Bring it on two!

We'll see if I'm singing the same tune when two actually gets here.

Here are some pics of Claire and our sweet neighbor friend Emery. She is crazy good with Claire. Yes, she's kissing Claire's hand in this pic.

Claire adores her.

Which is easy to do, since she's adorable. And rocks the backlit hair look.

She also gives excellent pony rides. Claire spent the evening crawling around the house after this.

Yep. Two is looking pretty darn good.