Claire Wiegand's Story: 2002 - 2003

This was Claire's second year at Fishers Junior High, again with Heather and Brooke. She was now 13 years old and equivalent to an 8th grader. Claire hit puberty this year and suddenly gained an appetite. For years, we had been feeding her Instant Breakfast and all of the high-calorie foods we could get into her. Then, one day, she woke up and decided that she loved food -- all food, all the time. Over the course of a year, we changed the types of foods we fed her. She went from drinking Instant Breakfast with lots of calcium and vitamins to drinking calorie-free Crystal Light drink mix and taking children's chewable vitamins and chewable calcium supplements. Marshmallows and chocolate chips were replaced with grapes, bananas, and grape tomatoes. We had to put bungy cords on our food cabinets to keep Claire out of them, so she developed the habit of taking our hand to lead us to the kitchen to feed her.

We decided that after years of having bangs (that weren't always evenly trimmed by Mom), it was time to grow out Claire's bangs. We knew it would be difficult at first, but that it would be worth it. Claire's hair is extremely thick and grows very quickly. We held it back with strong plastic hair bands and within a year, her bangs were long enough to stay pulled back in a ponytail. We're very glad we made the change.

	Claire participated in Challenge Day for the second time. It is a part of Special Olympics geared toward more severely disabled athletes like Claire. Here is Claire with her family after receiving her participation medal. (October 2002)
	Claire and Jill are too cute in their matching sweaters and hats from Aunt Helen. Draping Claire's arm over her sister's shoulder is another little trick to help keep Claire in the frame long enough to take her picture. (December 2002)
	They are equally cute in their Christmas dresses in front of the Christmas tree. (December 2002)
	On Christmas Day, Claire showed what a good Scandinavian she was by eating plenty of homemade lefse from Aunt Mary, while Grandma Becky looked on. (December 2002)
	Once again, Claire participated in the MATP portion of the Special Olympics spring games. She loved hearing her name read over the loudspeaker as she receives her medal of participation, because Claire loves loudspeakers of any type. (May 2003) Next: 2003 - 2004