exploring our neighborhood...

Claire and i love to explore. We have to get out of the house, or we feel restless and incomplete. Sometimes that means just a quick errand or going over to Melanie's house to play. Sometimes it means going and playing with "baby novi" who claire adores. we talk about novi about 30 times a day. whenever she hears anything outside even older kids playing she looks around and points to the door or to the ceiling and says "baby??!!"

we went walking the other day and found a treasure!!! a park only 4-5 minutes from our home. it feels like a sweet blessing from the Father, because parks are pretty rare in Lebanon. Claire was elated. she is so brave and silly.

after only sliding down a few times on her bottom, she started to dive head first. it was awesome.

one morning claire and i met three different women- new friends! the great thing is if they are shy and walk by us, claire chases them down...she just loves interacting with them! i am getting in so many conversations because of her, and she really is causing waves everywhere we go.

the best moments have been:

one women opening what looked like tooth paste, and then squirting chocolate into claire's mouth. needless to say claire wanted more of that.

then later a little boy ran up and gave her a stick off a kid kat. Claire was on the playground eating it looking at me with big eyes, stomping one foot ( her new dance move) and saying really really loud- HAPPY HAPPY.

which is one of her new words. and she uses it appropriately. it comes the most spontaneous at meal times and chocolate feedings from arabs. ha!

her running up to every baby she sees and saying "baby" and wanting to kiss them. which then turns into her getting kissed by that baby's mom. claire has not quite figured out how to kiss the babe's yet.

all i know is exploring new places with this silly bear has been so much more entertaining, stretching and exciting than by one's self.