This evening, about 45 minutes ago, we had what probably qualifies as our first major overnight 'incident'. Claire's had an upset stomach all day. She did a great thing. She got up after midnight, got herself into the bathroom, and mostly got everything into the toilet. While bathing her, she had the following insight.

"Daddy, I got almost all of the pieces. I wiped them myself"
"That's great Claire. Good job. Which piece did you miss?"
"The piece on the floor"
"Oh, I see"

There was a long pause, and she continued

"Daddy, how did it get on the bottoms of my feet?"

You can fill in roughly how much fun we've had tonight. :) As incidents go, this one was pretty well contained on the tile. Lots of little footprints, an earnest attempt to clean everything up on her own, and two proud sleepy parents that she did so much by herself, even if we did need to scrub up a few foot prints.

We were at Kansas City's Union Station today, walking through it on the way back from a performance by a local Irish group a few friends are in on the way back to the car. As often happens when we wander through the halls of the train station, Melanie pointed out to Claire that this was where I proposed to her and where she got her ring.

As we walked, Claire's shoe came off a little, so she and I stopped while Melanie and Ella gained a little distance. As I was kneeling down to help adjust her shoe, Claire asked me a very simple question.

"Daddy, was Mommy sad here before you came to get her? Was she so sad waiting for a daddy to come?"

On Monday night Claire had her second concert with the studio where she takes violin lessons. June marks one year of lessons for Claire, and it is neat to see her little fingers really starting to move.

Just in the last few weeks she has begun to place her fingers on the fingerboard herself to play an E scale (technically just the first four notes of the scale) and an A scale. This is a pretty big step. Having played myself for so many years I forget just how many little skills go into something as 'basic' as coordinating finger placement on the left hand with bowing on the right.

She did well at the concert - my primary goals are that she be proud of whatever she did and that she enjoy herself. Both were true. She was glowing when we were done.

Three years ago, when Claire was too small to come see the show, I played pit for Beauty and the Beast at the Theatre in the Park in Shawnee Mission Park. It was one of the best shows I had played, well scored, great music and such a strong production.

Given how much Claire enjoyed Peter Pan the following year and The Music Man in 2007, I was always a little sad that she was just eight months old and not ready to see Beauty.

Because the show was so popular Theatre in the Park brought it back pretty quickly. While I will be on vacation during the run and am not playing in the show, Melanie and I took Claire to see the final dress rehearsal, combining a visit with friends in the pit with a show.

This past weekend I took Claire camping for the first time. She loved it. We went to a local event called the String Band Rendezvous, which is a weekend of camping with about a hundred musicians where groups are playing informally all around the camp sites and there is a stage with scheduled performances for much of the day Saturday and both nights Friday and Saturday.

Claire was a great camping companion and is looking forward to the next trip. She was full of fun little observations too. Such as "My ears are buzzing!" as she runs away from the gnat that had discovered her.

She was very excited by the tent and her little pink sleeping bag. When we arrived Friday night she spent the first 45 minutes after the tent was set up running around inside of it and jumping on, in and under her sleeping bag.

I was driving yesterday and came to a quick stop at a light. I then hear from Claire "Woh that was close - GIRL!!" Pretty funny. Not sure where the GIRL part came from :)

Claire is ready for bed, I've just kissed her good night. Total silence is is broken by one final conversation.

Daddy, sometimes snowmans have sticks for noses.

When?

When they don't have carrots on sticks. Why are carrots sometimes on sticks?

I suppose to make them better noses.

Why are carrots a vegetable?

Why are you a little girl?

Because I like being a little girl. Why do carrots like being a vegetable?

For the same reason Mesquaki is a cat. He has always been a cat and always will be a cat. Just like a carrot is a vegetable.

I'm on bed rest.

Last night Claire wanted to play Monopoly again, or as she calls it, "That game up there [points] with the little man on it". She is three, so obviously we don't play by the full bore rules. Melanie and I have each simplified the game in our own way when we play with her, and it has never been all three of us together so we didn't really know the rules each other has used until we spoke about it yesterday, after Claire and I played.

Melanie plays it by handing Claire a stack of small bills and having her pay small random sums for properties she lands on. The face value of the bill is not relevant, it is "that one costs three". Claire rolls the dice, gets cards, gets to acquire houses and loves it.

"Because I was distracting the wind."

*sigh*

I'm playing with Claire in the basement building a castle out of lego bricks. The bricks are a mix of 1960s, 1970s early 1980s and then late 1990s parts and I'm impressed how well they all work together, but Claire could care less. She has a castle.

I need to get up to go for a little bit, so I ask her if I can tickle her belly before I go.

"No daddy, not my belly"

"How about your toes?"

"No daddy, not my toes"

This goes on. Cheeks, forehead, arms, fingers, back, legs, nose, hair. Finally she spells it out for me.

"No daddy, I'm busy, I can't do that now!"

Well I'll just have to get on her calendar then.

Scene 1, the present. Dinner Thursday night. Ella, Scott and Claire are around the table eating. Dinner is winding down, Claire has her typical plate of food getting consumed slower than molasses in front of her. There have been a few moments of silence.

Claire, looking up from her food: "I hate grandpa"

Scott pauses, surprised. "Which one?"

Claire: "Grandma and Grandpa Grandpa. I hate him"

Scott: "You hate Grandpa Bob?"

Claire: "Yes, the grandpa who was here just now with Grandma"

About a month has passed since Melanie's parents were visiting, and this is the first Claire has expressed this particular feeling.

This evening I was out in our backyard with the two little ladies while Melanie was out for the evening. I was sitting and watching them play on the swing (Claire), slide (Ella), pick through grass (Claire), bang on the wheelbarrow (Ella) and other little kid playtime activities.

Claire had found a stick that she was perfectly happy to carry around. It became quite useful when she discovered a spider on the concrete slab under the deck, right near where I was sitting.

She could prod the spider, and it would run along and then stop. Prod again, run more. A simple game. She was tremendously gentle with the spider and had no desire to hurt it. She just liked to prod it to run along.

Today the girls and I had a nice morning out playing at the park and shopping at Target. When we got home I was unstrapping Claire from her car seat and felt this overwhelming need to just kiss her and hug her. She did not want me to do it. So I said OK and I walked around Van to unstrap Ella and said "Ella would you like some love?" and I gave Ella a kiss and a hug. Claire got upset and started slapping Ella in the face (not too hard but enough). I got very stern with her and told her to get out of the car and get in the house. She was crying because she knew she did something wrong. I put Ella down for nap and came down to have a discussion. I asked her if she knew why I got upset with her. She says "because I hit Ella". I said yes. I then asked her why she did it then she says "Because I wanted to get the love out of her heart". I almost fell over with laughter. I had to hold it in since we were having a serious conversation. Oh this child comes up with the most adult like language.

It was Chloe's birthday last week. She turned four.

One of her gifts was a beach towel with Hop Scotch on it and two bean bags to toss into the numbered squares. Her mother Melanie and Claire's Melanie taught Claire and Chloe how to play.

The following day, the two little ones got chatting about the great game Chloe received. Claire could not quite get the name. It's apparently called "Hotch Skop". Or "Hooch Scoop". Should the latter name have me worried?

Claire has had quite an infatuation with the Broadway musical Cats. It began in late March when I took her to see the national tour of Cats.

My mother bought her the book of TS Elliott poems, which she loves having read to her.

Between seeing the live show, listening to the CD several times a day, having the poems read to her and then just once seeing the DVD of Cats that arrived magically at our house last week, she knows the words to most of the songs.

Take, for example, the Gumby Cat. Something like 'I have a Gumby cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots'

It's sort of fun to take tunes she knows and twist them, so I do. Tonight, during an especially turgid diaper change, it became "I have a stinky girl in mind, her name is Elladiaperpants"