Nine!

Clare is nine. It has been such a strange, sad year, but I still want to celebrate my amazing girl.

Speaking of this year, Clare is handling the pandemic fairly well over all. She is turning out to be quite a realist. She told me well before it actually happened that she knew the State Fair would be canceled. (Although it still brought tears to her eyes when she got the news that her prediction was correct.) She has handled all of the cancellations with grace, although sometimes all of the feelings come out in other ways, including some fairly epic tantrums. She seems too old for this behavior, but as everyone keeps saying, these are "uncertain times". Distance learning has been tough and she misses her friends, but she willingly participates in the challenge work that her teacher assigns. She hates writing in her journal and we have fights about that daily. Clare also does her "daily whining", as Christopher puts it. (He does plenty of his own daily whining.)

Clare is doing her best to find things to look forward to, which I think is great. She came up with something exciting about each day for the two weeks leading up to her birthday. They were mostly small, but I am happy she was able to find something good about each day. I certainly haven't been able to do that recently. She is extremely excited that she gets to spend her birthday with some family members in person. We are taking precautions, but we are having a small get together with my sister and her family and my parents. Clare is thrilled.

One activity that Clare was looking forward to was the removal of her expander. It was supposed to come out in March, but the appointment kept getting rescheduled. I brought gummy worms for her to eat as soon as it was gone, at her request. I am sure it is a relief to finally have that hunk of metal out of her mouth. Now she is free from the orthodontist for a year. (And we are free from orthodontic bills, at least temporarily.)

Most of Clare's activities are on hold, of course. Pre-COVID she was participating in Girl Scouts, piano and soccer. She was hoping to start Irish Dance lessons, too. She will be back to playing social-distance soccer in a few weeks, and will participate in a virtual Girl Scout camp this summer. She loves swimming, and is hopeful that she might get to swim if we are able to visit my parents this summer.

One thing that is keeping Clare busy during the pandemic is Minecraft. She and Christopher are both obsessed. I like it because it gives me a few moments of peace, and I can justify this screen time because they are being creative and using their brains. As a bonus, they can play online with some friends, which provides much-needed social time for Clare. (Clare is also able to keep in touch with her friends via Messenger Kids. Technology is a Godsend.)

She is still best friends with Natalie. Her other close friends are Kaia, Ehna, Amelia, and Colin. She is still close with out-of-school friends Nora, Simon and James. (Simon, James and Benjamin are her Minecraft buddies.) She loves all of her cousins, and calls Josie her sister-cousin. She hopes to see Marios and meet Dinos this summer, and loves to hug Otto whenever she sees him.

Clare says she wants to be a lawyer or a judge when she grows up. I think this quote from Clare is a nice summary of why she might make a good lawyer:

"I'm really good at comebacks. Some people have to think deeply about them but I just say what comes out of my mouth and it usually works."

She also has a memory like a steel trap, and, as I have said before, will be sure to remember exactly the words you used and use those words to argue against anything you are trying to get her to do. I do wish I could get her to argue less, though, and just accept what I am telling her to do without question. This is incredibly difficult for her to do. I am not sure if this is good or bad.

Oh, and Clare is writing her first novel! (Funny, considering her aforementioned hatred of journal writing at school.) She is still finding the plot, but it keeps her busy.

Some current favorites: the color lime green, pickles and olives (she requests to have these for a snack daily), the Harry Potter books and movies (she is through book four), reading, the Inbestigators on Netflix, PBS kids games, especially anything Odd Squad-related, Ghost in the Graveyard, playing board games, especially Clue, making bracelets with those colorful rubber bands, Legos, hiking, camping, swimming, riding her bike, and of course MINECRAFT.

Some dislikes: storms (the tornado warning last week was quite traumatic), spinach, frosting that is "too sugary", sunscreen, insects, and helicopters. The helicopter is a new fear. See previous post.

Clare recently requested that we watch the Pride and Prejudice miniseries starring Colin Firth. Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book, so I was thrilled to watch it with her. She loved it, and wants to watch it again. (I am not ashamed to say that I have seen this miniseries probably 50 times. I read the book every year.)

She is so like Ben in so many ways. Her brain works more like his than mine. We do share a love of planning, however. Clare is so interesting to talk to - we have long talks about all sorts of things.

Happy birthday, Clare! I hope you can make the most of being nine. I love you more than I can say.