- She loves shoes. She has a definite opinion on which shoes she will be wearing and will change them if she is not happy with what's on her feet.
- She loves to color. She will sit at her little table and color away while I'm on the computer. Although, she will usually pull on my arm, and then show me where I should sit at the table to color with her. "Assis mama!"
- She's adjusted to having a regular babysitter while I go to work. She will still complain a little bit when Mari arrives but will quickly get over it and enjoy her time with Mari. I always come home to a quite house with Claire already down for her nap. When she wakes up, she is SO HAPPY to see me.
- She idolizes her brother ("joo-yen") and is absolutely in love with her papa. She tries so hard to get involved in whatever Julien is doing. And she, of course, has Arnaud wrapped around her little finger. They've been spending more time together as Claire stays with Papa on Mondays when Mama goes to work and we don't have the babysitter.
- She loves music. She loves for me to put music on my iPhone or our iPad. She especially loves videos and she knows what she wants to listen to. It's especially funny when I put on a song and she shakes her head and says "Not this." And she'll do this over and over again until she is happy with the song choice. And then she will bounce up and down and move her arms around to dance. Too cute!
- At least once a week, these days, I will find her taking her clothes off. She will strip down to nothing and run around until I can catch her and at least force a diaper back on. Luckily, our gas fireplace is working again since it's getting cold!

Dear Julien,
I just want to put into words how proud I am of you. You started at Westminster this fall. A stricter school with a more rigorous curriculum, so different than the school you've been going to since you were 3. To say it was hard is really minimizing how the transition went. We had long afternoons of homework that stretched into the evening. You got frustrated, I got frustrated and sometimes, I'm sorry to say, I didn't react in a way I can be proud of. Each day, though, we slogged through it and it was always a relief to be done.
But now, with more than 2 months under your belt, it really seems as if you've hit your stride. You get right to your homework after school, with little or no complaints. And you tell me to leave you alone so you can do it yourself. And you're working HARD! I can see that you want to do well; that you are enjoying the challenge.
I know that you still have hard days but the good days now outnumber the bad. I know that you still get frustrated, but we talk it through and move on. But you've really shown me how smart, hard-working and persistent you can be. Keep up the good work, bugaboo!
Love, Mom

Grammy and Bompie came to visit us this year for Halloween but we all know their real excuse ;) was to go to the Rally to Restore Sanity. In any case, we were glad to have them here. And I think we made use of every single second!

We had our traditional first night dinner at Silverado. Then on Friday, we first set off to watch Julien's first Halloween parade at his new school.

Then, with Arnaud at work, Julien at school, Claire with the babysitter, I joined Grammy and Bompie for a trip down to the National Gallery. We enjoyed the art for a little bit but the freezing cold wind changed our plans, perhaps for the better? A yummy lunch at Legal Seafood. Good food, good wine and a nice, nice waiter! Don't forget the broken side mirror story!

The next day was the Rally. Grammy & Bompie got all dolled up with their roasting pan hats and went off to brave the huge crowds. We stayed home and tried to see them on TV but the crowds were huge and they called it quits before it was over and went in search of food and drink.

That night, Arnaud and I, or should I say the Cowboy and his "girlfriend", went to our neighbor's sort-of-annual adult Halloween party. Lots of fun!

Sunday was Halloween. And we filled that day up as well. We spent the morning at Mount Vernon. We'd never been before and it was a great way to spend time outside on such a beautiful day. And we of course, could not forget to add a great meal into the day. A great little place in Old Town Alexandria.

Sunday evening was a race as well. Julien and I had a great opportunity to go trick-or-treat at the White House. Our friends got several of the exclusive tickets and off we went. It was a lot of waiting to get in and we didn't see the President but being on the grounds of the White House and walking up to the front door was really a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

We then raced home to trick-or-treat with Claire and Bompie. Julien ran from house to house, as usual, and Claire tried her very best to keep up. She was ADORABLE at each door, showing the people what she already had in her bucket. She only got scared at the house where the lady gets all dressed up as the Wicked Witch of the West. Claire SCREAMED! While we were going door to door, Grammy manned our door. She had her white haired witch hat and would cackle and scare the kids. Unless, of course, there were little ones. We had so many kids come by that we started using candy from our kids bags after they came in!

The last day that Grammy and Bompie were here, Julien was lucky to have a day-off from school. So we headed over to the National Zoo. It was chilly but fun. We saw orangutans up on the high wire, interesting birds in the rain forest and you can't miss seeing the pandas! But the highlight of the trip to the zoo for Claire - COWS!

And through it all I tried to keep up with photos but ended up forgetting to take one of the most important ones of all. So I set up a photo shoot just to get this: