My Favorite Things

My dogs and cat

A Good Book (especially a touch-and-feel book)

Friends to play with me

And Fun Things to Explore

to be continued...

The Squeaker in Action

Sometimes she giggles. This time it was all squeals of delight.

Sunny Days & Life with an Eight-Month-Old

The whole family spent much of the day in the yard. Geoff managed to get the garden put in - tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, strawberries, bell peppers, and watermelon. I wanted sweet potatoes but we didn't have the room this year. Last year we ate more cucumbers and tomatoes than we could stand, but our squash didn't fare well. Here's hoping this year's squash turns out! Claire loves the corkscrew willow tree in the front yard - and who can blame her? Especially in the spring it is quite a showstopper. I was terribly nervous posing her on the big rock - I was standing inches outside of the shot waiting to catch her if she decided to move an inch.

Life with an eight month old is so rewarding. I love this crawling phase more than I knew that I would, because it's actually a phase I don't have a ton of experience with from babysitting/neices, nephews, etc. Claire and I spent a good part of the evening playing a form of hide and seek in which I crawled away from her and hid and then popped out. She was squealing with delight and crawling around to find me.

She won't be content with crawling for long. She pulls up on EVERYTHING and loves to practice walking with anyone who will help her. After I caught her standing in her crib, we lowered it to its lowest setting.

She has two bottom teeth now, which she cut while we were out of town over easter and the following week. She wasn't a bad teether with these first ones - the only day she ran a fever was probably the norovirus and not the teeth, and though she chewed on things and drooled a lot, she didn't complain too much.

She definitely has a mommy attachment thing going on right now. I think the separation anxiety stems from the night I spent throwing up and the following day spent in the hospital. It's the first time I couldn't respond to her in the night and left her all day with formula. The corresponding difficulties of getting her to go to bed have caused me to start an actual program of getting her on an eating/sleeping schedule. She had a good routine, but not a set schedule up to this point. It's hard for me to let her cry herself to sleep, but in the long run, I think ALL of us will appreciate a little better scheduling with naps and bedtime.

She doesn't show too much interest in talking, although some time with her older, noisier cousins initially seemed to have its effect - some seriously high-pitched squeals of excitement. She seems to only say hey or hi all the time as if "h" is the only consonant. She also waves, though, so maybe she just likes greeting everyone and everything.

She is eating what we eat now and that is going well. I just use a little hand-held food grinder and make sure I only use recipes that will work for her as well (avoiding eggs mostly). She didn't seem to think too much of baby food and would whine almost constantly while eating, so I decided to try her on real food instead. I did make my own food for awhile, but my enthusiasm for doing that has dwindled. I don't mind the few extra minutes it takes to grind what I cooked for her, and she seems thrilled to be eating what we eat. She still gets baby cereal and fruit mixed in and she loves tiny little baby puff/cracker things and crackers and such. I have been pretty impressed with her small motor skills, and Pop says she has good hand/eye coordination.

She is one seriously active little girl, and though I have a friend who is anxious to see her own baby walking, I have no such feelings toward Claire. I am enjoying the crawling phase and the fun things she is into right now and trying to remember to enjoy every moment because I know how quickly this year will fly by!

So Now We're Back from Outer Space

Here is a quick video of Mercy and Claire playing together during our recent visit to South Carolina. Apparently Mercy was afraid of the bees in the backyard and she thought if she could cover every inch of her skin with clothing, they could not get her. (Yes, that outfit certainly needed some explanation!)

We had a really good time at Aunt Gini's, other than when Mommy contracted the norovirus and ended up in the hospital with dehydration. And then Daddy came to pick us up and got the virus himself. Yuck!
More posting on the trip, life with an eight-month-old, etc. coming soon. For now, enjoy the video.