I’m behind on monthly updates because things in the Champion household have been insanely busy. Lots of fun things have been happening here. September involved a work trip to Charleston for Eric, and Clara and I tagged along to see my dad and meet up with my friend Nicole. We had a fantastic time with them, and we loved spending time in downtown Charleston. In October, we started a kitchen renovation that we are currently in the process of finishing.

That, sadly, went well into November and December, but we still managed to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas and even made it to DC to see the National Tree. Our Christmas was low-key since it was just the three of us, but we still had a fantastic time. We had some of our neighbors and their kiddos over on Christmas Eve, and it felt amazing to have so much noise and laughter in our house for a few hours. The little ones got to play while all of the adults got to catch up. We were happy to spend Christmas at home again, and we had a leisurely day making and eating waffles and then watching Clara open her gifts and play with her new toys.

Now that we’re in another year and Clara’s second birthday is two months from today, I figured it was time to catch up. The past three months have involved some of the best moments with Clara. Her affection is showing even more now, and it melts my heart. She is always ready to give a hug, kiss or pat on the back – to us, the animals and her babies. In the past few weeks, she’s started puckering, which is ridiculously adorable. I can hardly stand how cute it is.

She’s really into dancing and loves to run up to us, grab our hands and then start spinning in circles. As you can see from the picture, she still loves reading, and we spend a lot of our days doing just that. We’re still enjoying our family story time each night, and we’re about halfway through The Two Towers right now.

Over the past couple months, but last month especially, she has become increasingly vocal. Her current favorite words are “baby” and “brrr.” She’s also very into making animal noises, which is really amusing for us.

The past few months have been filled with so many special moments with Clara that it’s hard to use a single blog post to encompass all of them. Her loving, thoughtful personality is really showing through, and I love spending every day with her. Even though things have been crazy here, the three of us have been enjoying ourselves, too.

We already picked a date for Clara’s party, and I’m super excited about it. I can’t even believe it’s right around the corner! I know we’re going to have so much celebrating with everyone, and even though Clara won’t remember, I know she’s going to have a lot of fun, too.