Over the past week Claire has managed to grab her toes everyday. She has also started talking or raising her voice at large groups of people, mainly strangers, without fear. At home she started saying or kind of humming "baaaa" while spitting bubbles. The last two actions were great accomplishments in her language development. Another interesting noise is a grunting sound when she wants my attention that has a rounded tone like when we say "uh huh" to signify agreement or understanding.

For three nights we hosted a French student, Noemie, who was my host sister eight years ago when I studied abroad in Lyon, France. I took her to the beach, we watched three different movies, I made her hot chocolate mixed with milk (cuz I knew she used to like that as a seven year old and still does), she played with Claire, we listened to little French songs and riddles on a CD that she brought for Claire and that she used to listen to as a little girl in France. She had to translate some of the words for me. We were busy, but we rested too. It was hard to know if she was having fun, mainly because she's so quiet. Noemie will be in Portland until the end of July, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with her.  ¶ 8:30 PM