You Can Learn A Lot Of Things From the Flowers

We learned the hard way the other day that most bulb flowers are poisonous. We have been really free about letting Claire explore the world around her and thought nothing of letting her taste this daffodil - WHOOPS! She had a VERY upset tummy that kept the whole family up most of the night. So parents/grandparents, be aware of this!

Boy, Mommy sure does look tired! Colson is on Claire's right and Soozie on her left. This was an early morning picture. Mommy has been exhausted lately due to some very unexpected wakefulness from Claire (one night she managed to wake 14 times!) and due to a Vitamin D deficiency which has caused her to feel unusually exhausted. The deficiency is being taken care of and Claire has MOSTLY gone back to her 11 hour schedule - thank goodness!I liked the little look on her face in this picture. She even wears food cute!

Brotherly Love

Above: Claire with her two "brothers" Colson and Irving (aka the Pooky and the Putty)

Seriously, does anyone out there know of a more tolerant cat than this one?

The Jury's Still Out

Above: Meredith...Claire...Geoff (around 3 months)

Below: Meredith...Claire...Geoff (around 6 months)

Start the Day with Some Play

Ever just have a picture you like for no real reason, you just like it. This is one of those for me. :)

Hippity Hoppity

Spring Time, Swing Time

If you look closely, you will see Geoff up in the oak tree in our backyard. On Saturday, he climbed up the tire swing to replace the rope and to hang rope for Claire's swing. Soozie is delighted for the moment to have the tire swing and it's old rope on the ground to play with. I'm just looking forward to getting Claire outside in her swing on one of these upcoming gorgeous spring days. (And yes, that is one ENORMOUS oak tree and Geoff is one AMAZING climber).

Oops! Seven Month Recap

Seven Months went by and I didn't even post or take a picture for the website! Shame on me!
To my credit, we did go and have family photos and her portraits made professionally just before that milestone hit. Unfortunately for my blog-only followers, I won't be able to post those pictures here since they were done by Olan Mills. But if you want to see them, send me an email and I will send you a link to view them online. They turned out great!
Seven Month Milestones:
Claire is certainly on the move. She can get where she wants to when she wants to, although crawling still is mostly done with tummy touching the floor and if there is anyone (or anyTHING) around that she can pull up on to walk, she will fuss and wail until she gets help walking. She would much rather walk than crawl and she will let you know it. She is actually a good stander (good balance), and can stand on her own already for a bit, and can easily do this if she has something to hold onto.
She loves to pat things. One afternoon I showed her how to pat her knee and she liked that so much she started patting every surface to see what it sounds like. She will pat her knee if I play the guitar as well, which is pretty cute. She likes for me to play the guitar and sing to her, and she likes to play the piano (both her toy one and my real one), but so far the guitar appears to be her instrument of choice (yes, I let her play it too). Her love of patting things has now extended to taking two objects and smacking them together to see what they sound like, but she won't clap her hands unassisted yet.
Claire will say "hey," but we're not 100% sure it's intentional. She went through about a week long phase where she would say "hey" to Geoff when he came home from work and would say "hey" when we said "hey" to her, but she's not really talking much at all right now, so it's hard to know if that was just a sound or if she knew what she was doing. We tend to think it was intentional, and since she seems to be focused on moving right now, she's neglecting speech for a little while to work on movement.
No teeth in sight yet, though she sure is cranky and we keep hoping that means teeth. Not that we're anxious for her to have teeth, but that we're anxious for the crankiness to stop.
One of her favorite things right now is to sit in the desk chair and for me to spin her around. She also likes me to hold her hands and feet and swing her - although Geoff is worried this is dangerous. (I know Geoff telling me I'm doing something dangerous is funny to everyone who knows us both).
She's still eating very well - three meals a day and nursing five times a day, and until the other night, she was still sleeping her 11 hour nights. She's going through a little separation anxiety, teething, and/or crawling practice in her crib and the past few nights have gotten pretty rough as far as sleeping goes (she's waking at least EVERY hour - and no I am not exaggerating)!
I'm sure there is more to it than just that, but I think that probably hits the highlights of what life is like with our seven month old for now.

stack 'em up

These are part of a stacker toy, but we had fun putting them on her legs and arms the other night - what a crazy girl! :)

Kissy Sissies

I decided to share these pictures even though I know there are folks who are terrified of pitbull/baby combinations. I figured noone was all that interested in how I clean my house unless I posted some pictures of Claire helping me or something, so it was time for a new post and these were the pictures I had on hand. Just FYI, in Great Britain, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier (Soozie's technical breed) is called the "Nanny Dog" because they are notoriously great with children. Soozie is certainly good with Claire, and Colson is just scared of Claire because he's afraid of everything!

The New Clean Regime

Some folks have asked when I've had a productive day, how I've been able to be productive. I've started a new clean regime and I thought I would share it, because so far it is going well. It's very simple:

Monday = Mealday, the day I cook anything needed for the week (note that I attempt to have 3 months of main courses cooked in advance, but if I'm behind, this is a good day to catch up, and if I'm not behind, it's the day to prepare any side dishes needed for the week)
Tuesday = Toiletday, the day to clean the bathroom (I've also added towels and sheets to this day so that I cut down the number of loads needed to run in the wash in a single day)
Wednesday = Washday, the day of laundry (includes washing, folding, and ironing)
Thursday = Wildcard (for catching up or resting)
Friday = Floorday, the day I vaccuum, sweep, wash rugs and dog bedding, and dust
Saturday = Storeday, the day of grocery shopping (I also call this Caturday because it's the day I clean the catbox)

Other than this list, I just remember "Do the dishes daily." Other tasks done daily include putting away all of Claire's toys and making the beds. Claire enjoys watching me at my tasks and "helping". She particularly likes folding laundry (pulling down stacks of towels and such), and anything that involves wiping a surface with a towel, wet or dry.

Good luck with your own clean regime! :)

So Sassy!

Shirt says: "I get my good looks from my Dad" - too cute!

Old and New Videos

This video is from my phone, so not sure on the quality, but I've been meaning to share it for a long time and am glad to finally have the time to put it on the blog. Can't remember exactly how old she was in this - I think around 5 months.

And another video from a few days ago. It is HARD to make this girl laugh and giggle, but every now and then something tickles her for no apparent reason. Hope this makes you smile, Dr. Long - and I told you the puppy met with her approval!

How Many Cute Pictures Do You Need?

Her Dad asked me tonight how many cute pictures I needed of Claire. Well, you tell me - had enough yet? We had an outing today to lunch with a friend and this was Claire's outfit. So fun what you can throw together for a baby to wear. The shirt was gifted, the hat a hand-me-down, the overalls a thrift store purchase, and the shoes a $1 sale at the consignment store (but new in the box). The look - priceless! :)

Consider this a sneak preview for the family portraits to be taken this weekend. Daddy bought her this tutu swimsuit for Valentine's Day. Sooo adorable!

Look at her big girl shoes! Another $1 find at the consignment sale and she's already trying to walk in them. She is seriously pulling up on everything (and everyone) already. Mommy is sooo not ready for this!

If only the lighting had been better - this was a cute, cute picture. She loves to play in my jewelry box and with these little electric tea lights. Don't worry, folks, she is heavily supervised, I realize the choking hazards, etc. But doesn't she look adorable with the necklace on her head like a little tiara? You know, for all our talk about not having a girly girl, her mom sure is bad about dressing her up like one!

Little Mechanic, etc.

Cousins Stone, Mercy, and Wyatt sent some toys over for Claire recently and right at first, she didn't know what to think about them. A LOT of them made noise, and we are pretty quiet around our house. However, she has learned to like most, if not all of the toys that we decided to keep. Whenever she plays with this schoolbus (one of Stone's personal favorites), she does two things. First, she pulls out the little girl. Don't ask me how she knows that the girl is the one for her, but it's always the girl. And second, she turns the bus over and plays with the wheels. So, what do you think? First female mechanic in the family? Hey - in today's economy, I'd encourage that over a degree in liberal arts!
Mommy is starting to get a little freedom to get some things done around the house even when Claire isn't napping now that she is so much more capable of playing alone. Sitting up and able to get around a bit, she shows some signs of crawling, but is sooo much more interested in walking, which she does on her tippy toes. I never have to worry about leaving her alone while she plays, however, because she is never alone. The putty is her constant companion, as seen here.
The pets have been better with her than I would ever have imagined. Colson is scared of her, but he's afraid of EVERYTHING! Soozie, who we initially worried about is actually great with Claire. In fact, this morning, we played pony and Claire rode around on Soozie's back. And Irving (Putty) only draws the line when she bites him, and even then all he does is walk a little further away from her and plop back down. It is so great to have such good pets to grow up with her.

Everybody loves daddy-daughter pics! Here are the two of them in their boots. Our next-door neighbors have a 13 month old little girl and a month old little boy (no, not on purpose), and Claire is happily sandwiched in between these two ready-made playmates. They have been so kind to pass along Katie's clothes and shoes to us, and Claire is shown here in a cute pair of black boots that Katie sadly was never able to wear. God bless hand-me-downs! I think I'll hardly have to buy this girl anything to wear or play with until she's much bigger!