Six Months

Martha Claire is six months old! It's so hard to believe half a year has come and gone for our little one. She is growing and changing so much every day. She loves to eat anything and everything now, though she still has no teeth (pretty sure they're coming soon, though). She's very into texture - touching and grabbing at everything. The cat doesn't even seem to mind it when she pulls out clumps of his fur in a very energetic mimic of mommy scratching him. She went on her first trip this past week - a beach trip to Charleston where it snowed for the first time in 10 years. No beach pictures this trip due to the weather! She is growing more and more hair every day - a medium brown color, and her eyes are still a mix of brown and blue, but very dark - most of the time they look like a deep olive green. I'm sure there's plenty more updating to share, but mommy's brain is foggy from travel. For now, enjoy the pictures. :)

Will you bee my Valentine? (She's holding a little bumblebee). I took a bunch of these pictures and they all turned out great - that rarely happens!Clean and cuddly from her bath -

wrapped in love in a snuggly towel wrap made for her by my Aunt Kathy.Playtime with Pooh bear in her crib - showing her love for textures, she really likes the way this pooh bear (Merry Christmas from Aunt Gini) feels, and she likes to put him side by side with Eeyore and feel each of them in turn to note the contrast.Eating sweet peas. Mommy makes her food and freezes it. That's going really well so far and she really seems to like everything. We're using the method of feeding a green veggie 2 meals a day plus something else. It really seems to be working. She loves to eat when we eat, so we just feed her whatever we can that she can manage to eat.At Sticky Fingers in Charleston - I didn't take many pictures on this trip. (We spent most of it in the hotel room due to the weather). Notice she is ignoring her sippy cup and is much more interested in drinking out of Pop's water glass.The three gens -
I love the noses - think she's going to look like her mama?
Think her mama looks like Nani?

Phone Photo Digest

Sorry to be so negligent about blogging lately. We have been very busy! She is rolling all the time now, and not sleeping as much as before. She loves to grab at everything and is really into eating - grits, green beans, green peas, sweet potatoes, pears, bananas, apples, yogurt, toast, beets, really just about anything you can name. Mommy is staying busy cooking up some fruits and veggies for this baby and getting her acclimated to real food. We are getting ready to go on our first trip with Nani and Pop! Baby in Blue :)
Play Ball! (She loves this ball which has a ball inside of it that has a bell inside of it)

Aunt Cricker came to stay with us for Mommy's birthday a few weeks ago. It was a great visit! Cricker taught Claire a new song (Way up in the sky, the little birds fly). It was an instant favorite that we all sing a lot now (even Daddy - but don't tell anyone).

Need an instantly happy little girl? Get her naked! (She knows a bath will soon follow and therefore turns on the charm)

As stated above, this girl loves to eat. A particular favorite is pears, and the only thing she doesn't seem crazy about is apple sauce - which we think may be too tart for her - and store bought baby food - which is fine by us because we'd rather make it ourselves. She has had no problem eating anything green and we are using the technique of a green veggie at every lunch and dinner. She does like to help feed herself and Mommy is learning to be patient and let her get messy, because she really does surprisingly well with a spoon if I just let her!

"What? Were you watching that?"

She loves the remote and anything with buttons to push. She continues to love to type on the computer and has now learned to text on Mommy's phone as well. We send notes to Nani and Aunt Gini that look like gobbledigook, but that Mommy is sure mean "I love you" in Clairespeak.

Our newest game is peek-a-boo, which we play with purpose. She's so used to having Mommy around all the time that she's having just a bit of separation anxiety (normal for her age/stage). The other day I noticed, however, that she also worried when this little peekaboo worm was hidden down in his apple. She's still working on learning how to push this button to make him pop back out, but knowing her love for pushing buttons, she'll have it down soon.

Crib Recon

Fun gift from a friend of Geoff's who is a retired Marine (shirt says "Shh! I'm on Crib Recon")
They also gave her one that says "OORAH!" which I think looks so very very cute on her. She looks really serious about her crib assignment in this picture, don't you think?

Mobile Uploads

Thought folks might enjoy some of these more recent phone pictures. My mom gets about a picture and/or video every day, so I decided tonight to transfer these from the phone to the computer.

Checking out the toy basket

This girl LOVES to type!

Eating real food is hard work - apparently she earned a nap

Just try and take my apple juice!

Hat Nana (my great-grandmother) knitted for a baby boy, but I snatched for Claire from her cousin Stone's pile of outgrown clothes!

See - I can occasionally get a picture of her with Daddy!

She was "talking" on the phone - what a face!

Another Nana hat - this one knitted for me when I was a wee one!

Five Months!

So our little girl is five months old, and I couldn't settle on just one picture. I'm sure no one minds as it seems it has been awhile since I last posted anything, let alone a picture or two.
We have had a crazy couple of weeks since the holidays and I really haven't had a lot of time to be on the computer - plus, we've had internet issues that have kept me away.Claire has been growing out of one size or the next very rapidly. As I was going through her old clothes the other day, it occurred to me that her very first picture from the hospital was in the blue ice cream cone shirt now worn by Brown Bear. I tried to take a good perspective shot so you could tell just how much bigger she is now, but Claire is so mobile at this point that staged shots are nearly out of the question.

Love all those sweet baby rolls, don't you?

Newest Milestones to share:

Sometimes waves bye bye - particularly to Daddy

Can point to mommy's nose or mouth when asked

Eats oatmeal, rice cereal, and anything we put in her mouth (saltines, melba toast, etc)

LOVES a sippy cup and will point and reach for any drink that someone else has because she wants one too

LOVES her dogs and cat - Soozie and Irving let her grab their whiskers and ears, but Colson is somewhat afraid of her (he's just a big chicken)

Will point at what she wants, including particular books to be read to her

Does a number of other neat things I can't think of at the moment to share

Baby's First Christmas

I'm so thankful for the many gifts sent to Claire by our family. She loves her SillyTown from Nani and Pop and I love reading to her from her Bible from Mimi. I also used her Christmas money from Poppa and GB to get her some MUCH NEEDED warm footed sleepers.
This child continues to astound me with her growth. We are rapidly approaching 9 month clothing even though she is not quite 5 months yet. She is already in 9 month pants and possibly moving to size 3 diapers soon. I keep expecting her to slow down, but so far it just seems she eats more and more and grows faster and faster. I decided to start her on cereal (which will be the next video posted) thinking this might slow down her eating desire, but she remains as hungry as ever. And boy does the child like cereal! I have a feeling that this child will not meet a food she doesn't like; luckily she appears to be coupling that with her daddy's good metabolism. Speaking of which, let me just say that b*reast feeding has been really good to me - I continue to drop the weight and inches with very little effort. Of course, despite the fact that I eat constantly, I'm starving all the time, but who can complain when it's for such a good cause. I do wish my nearly 5 month old would stop wanting to nurse every hour during the daytime, but I love the fact that she goes all night without needing me to wake to feed her.