Monday, April 27, 2009

A Girl and Her Tricks . . .

Not those kinds of tricks . . . sheesh. She has added a few more what we have come to call "Parlor Tricks" to her repertoire.

She is now doing a very good job of standing up. She has to hold on to something and is a bit wobbly but there she is. And to showoff for the cameras, as you can see, she is doing it one handed and turned her head. Fancy! (She is also trying to pull herself up to standing but hasn't mastered that)


And she is on the verge of crawling. Well, I say that and she has been for a few weeks now. She gets up on all fours and rocks and then decides to roll her way to get what she wants. I am expecting crawling any day but still not overly encouraging it. (shh!)


She can grab the camera cord and chew on it . . .


She has four teeth now and judging by this evenings performance at bedtime, there might be five by morning. Poor girl has been miserable at night for over two weeks now. You should feel sorry for Mommy and Daddy too . . . Teething is tough on everybody.


This is Claire's Colonel Sanders impression. We did not put the suds on our poor baby's mouth. She does eat a lot of soap though . . .


And this is how the bubble beard gets on there. I had the bubbles in the bath for her skin and you have to give her something to play with or she starts going for the side of the sink or tub or the faucet or the paper towels or the rinse water bucket etc etc. So we as bad parents took a picture this time before we washed it off for the thousandth time.

Other interesting tricks she has up her sleeve - drinking from a straw, starting to really reach for people, getting faster at catching Hazel, almost getting to sitting from being on her back, and probably much much more that I can't think of. She is after all the best baby ever because she is ours!

And yes, the I ♥ NY onsie is the first outfit Mike and I bought for her. It was on our trip to NYC last March - a trip in which Claire was in attendance but didn't get to see anything. She finally got to wear it!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Beautiful Day



I took this picture of Claire yesterday morning because I thought she looked so cute in her ducky jammies on her flowered bed sheet. This one doesn't show as much as the next but I just thought this was such a good picture of her. So cute!


This picture shows the duckies and flowers much better.

And much to my chagrin, I believe she has inherited her mommy's thighs. *sigh* I put her 12 month jeans on her yesterday morning to go to grandma and grandpas and I could barely get them over her thick wittle thighs. Poor girl. She wore them anyway becasue once on they were fine but getting them on was a struggle. So when she got home we decided to see if they would fit anywhere else . . .


We believe she may have been double cursed in the large noggin department as well . . . poor kid. Mike and I think it means she will have a big brain - especially since that is what it meant for the two of us . . . HA!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Just call her Snaggletooth . . .

Sweet sweet Claire Elaine hasn’t been so sweet this week. She hasn’t made it through a night without out a crying spell or just waking and hollering out and going back to sleep. This is reminding Mommy and Daddy of earlier days - like the first month when she didn’t go to sleep until four a.m. ugh . . . we aren’t used to this stuff. Luckily it isn’t that bad but still . . . I miss sleeping through the night, not only for me but for her too. Anywho, we think she is teething. We know she has a new tooth this week and can’t help but think there is another on the way. During the day she isn’t too bad, except not wanting to take a bottle, argh, but is otherwise her happy self for the most part. Poor kid. Anyway we are calling her Snaggletooth (not really) because it is on the top but not one of the middle two incisors, it is instead a side incisor on the right. Where are the middle ones !?!?!?

Anyway I haven’t gotten any photos of her new tooth but here is a weird one that I finally caught on film. As you all know, Claire likes/has to taste everything – including the pack and play. I catch her running her tongue on it from time to time and staring out to the other side. Today I finally got a pic – WARNING – It isn’t pretty!


I told you it wasn't pretty . . .

So here is something cute from the other day of playing ball.


And here is one that I took last Thursday when that big storm came through. This is the calm AFTER the storm on our back steps.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Happy Easter! - Part Deux

Yes, yes . . . the Easter basket is quite large in comparison to my child. The Easter Bunny must think Claire is going to be tall some day . . .

Anyway so on with Claire's Easter recap. Waking up to a cold and rainy morning, Claire hung out with Aunt Becky while Mommy & Daddy went to Mass. We then went to Grandma & Grandpa Deal's for Easter brunch.



Claire enjoyed a nice blend of apples & blueberries with her cereal while the rest of us had Easter quiche.

After a short nap and bottle we bundled up and faced the storms and went across town to Grandma & Grandpa Hassler's for Easter lunch. Claire entertained the lunch table while eating her stars. She likes all of her aunties, uncles and cousins.

Claire and Cousin Blake


Cute picture of Aunt Cindy and Cousin Blake


So as you can see it was a great first Easter! Next year we'll even hunt eggs!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter! - Part One

The Easter Bunny visited Claire!


And Hazel!


I think Claire likes ears . . .




Of any sort . . .

I now have a better understanding of Hazel’s attitude towards Claire – cautious tolerance . . . I would be too if somebody tried to eat my ears of any sort . . . my guess is Daddy’s ears are next (his are bigger than Mommy’s :))

And this is the best pic we could get of the both of them together . . .


Claire had ducky feet Grandma Deal made for her for Easter since it was too cold to wear her sandals.


And she wore her long johns under her dress because of the cold but she was still so cute.


This all that I have time for tonight. I hope to get more posted tomorrow. I hope the Easter Bunny was good to all of you! Happy Easter!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easter Eve

Well it is the day before Easter and we were busy little bunnies today.

Grandma, Auntie Alison and Thor came over to dye Easter eggs.


Grandma is so silly.


Auntie Alison and Thor are so funny


I tried to take a picture of Claire with her egg. I succeed but I thought it would be more of a “Claire sits behind the egg and smiles” picture -


instead of “as soon as Mommy picks up the camera Claire puts her egg in her mouth” picture. Luckily pink Easter egg dye comes off.


I don’t think this Mommy will ever learn that just because she asks nicely and really wants it to be doesn’t mean that Claire understands or really cares to comply even if she does. I guess time will tell.
Hoppy Easter!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Star light, Star bright . . .

how many more stars am I going to see tonight?

Actually quite a few. Claire has finally emptied out her first tube of stars and has started the second and somehow in just a few days we are already almost half of the way through. There are approximately 432 stars in a tube. The first can took close took over a month . . . I think her star habit might get expensive. Anyway, for those who don't know, stars are like cereal but the dissolve in your mouth (or a really wet bib) and come in a variety of nauseating flavors. They are little snacks to get her used to feeding herself and work on the pincher move (index and thumb). So in the last few weeks we have really been working on this. After each meal she gets several stars to eat. She usually makes about 75% to her mouth and about 15% hit the Hazel zone and the rest are either melted on her outfit or bib or in her seat. While Hazel and I sit with her we usually have a couple as well. Her first tube was sweet potato and Aunt Becky pegged it - "they taste like Vanilla Wafers." Ahh, yes, that was the taste because it wasn’t sweet potato. So this new can is strawberry/apple. Ick. I have to say I prefer the nilla wafer tastin' sweet potato ones to these. I think Claire does too but we have to finish the can - Hazel would but we don't want to give her a tummy ache. The tube in the cupboard is banana, I’ll report on those after Easter – we think the Easter Bunny might be bringing stars and whatever shapes the Parent’s Choice ones turn out to be. So exciting!

In other exciting news this week – she seems interested in wanting to crawl but just can’t quite figure it out yet. So I keep her in the pack-n-play and exersaucer as much as possible to prevent mobility from blossoming . . . Kidding! No, she has a quilt zone that she can be on in the living room. Not that she is interested in staying on it but it is there just in case, I guess. She likes to roll or reach to the edge and look under the quilt and see the other side. So many things to explore.

That is it, sorry for not having pictures. I’m a bad mom and just plain forgot to. Maybe I can get a ball rolling action shot. Oh, speaking of, I got the ball out in front of her today and was about to roll it to her and she said “Bah” very loudly and forcefully like she was saying ball. It wasn’t like her other ba ba ba ba bas but very distinct and different. She wouldn’t do it again and I know it probably wasn’t yadda yadda yadda but a mom can dream . . .

Friday, April 3, 2009

Happy Friday!

Alright, we’re back. There has been a request that all blog entries have pictures . . . I will try but no promises. So I got brave and cleaned off an old SD card since I have been having so many problems with crappy Kodak ones we got the day after Thanksgiving at Wal-Mart and took some pictures of our little miss tonight.

Before her bath . . .
During her bath in the kitchen sink which she just loves and doesn’t hurt Mommy’s back too much.
Tasting the hippo washcloth . . .

Trying to drink out of the cup . . .

Trying to get the camera - to taste it no doubt.

In other Claire news – sorry there isn’t a picture – she can roll a ball! We sat on the floor today and rolled the ball back and forth several times. Hazel was very sad because she thinks balls are her toys and she couldn’t play. Only one being’s slobber on the ball at a time, please. She also kisses and coughs on demand . . . she is growing up so fast . . .