Claire at 17 Months

So our big girl is 17 months old now, just shy of a year and a half. This past month has marked a lot of growth for Claire. Physically she just seems enormous suddenly, but I know a little of that has to do with the change in perspective that comes from having a tiny infant in the house. However, much of it is truly a growth spurt. She's finally outgrown almost all 12 month clothing and moved into 18 month clothing. She seems bigger and heavier every day.

Also, she is growing so much cognitively. She is moving on from books like Goodnight Moon to The Cat in the Hat. Her attention span is so much longer than before. She continues to be fearless, which makes it hard to watch her while caring for Evie as well. She can climb on and off of surfaces and wedge herself into spots faster than mom or dad can even realize that she's left the room.

She loves to be outside more than anything in the world, making this winter weather a real difficulty for all of us. She is adjusting really well to being a big sister - helping mom by fetching things while Evie nurses, patting Evie on the back, often wanting to hold Evie for brief spells, and copying whatever mom does with Evie with her own dolls. She is learning to be more patient.

We are also entering the two's with Claire. She loves the word "No" as long as she's the one saying it. She likes to give her opinion on anything: Claire, are you cute? No; Claire, are you sweet? No; Claire, are you Daddy's girl? (pause) Yes (a real conversation with her the other night). She has started these regular mini-meltdowns where she lays down on the floor and fake (or real) cries. But she continues to be very sweet and enjoyable about 95% of the time - and what more could parents ask for from their child?

Evelynn at One Week

Here she is at one week old. Evelynn is a great baby - a good sleeper, good nurser, with a good disposition. And I failed to mention in my last post that she has an adorable little dimple on one cheek - I've got to get a picture of that soon!After her first bath - see her little curls?Claire wants to hold her, but only for a minute. You have to be ready because when she's done, she just shoves the baby aside!The big sister in her rocking chairCool ClaireGeoff's big project from the honey-do list for the week. He and Pop paved the floor and porch of Claire and Evie's playhouse outside. Geoff came up with the design and took pictures before putting the playhouse in place.

The Long Anticipated Arrival of Evelynn Jane

Lots of pictures in this post. Generally I upload large files of the pictures for family who are saving them on their computers, but I did medium files this time, so let me know if you want/need any copies if they don't save large enough for you! I didn't upload pics of everyone who came to the hospital because the post was getting big - I'll email those to individuals soon.
For now, enoy!

The morning of the surgery - My 39 wk 1 day belly

I was so good about taking regular photos of the growing belly with Claire, but I didn't do it with Evie. I guess my life was a bit busier with a toddler running around.
Scheduling a c-section was certainly easier than the emergency we found ourselves in with Claire's birth. However, it gave me a bit more time to have some nervousness about surgery. I have nothing to complain of, though. The doctors and nurses (including my sister-in-law Lara) kept me calm, and everything went pretty well. I did have adhesion between my uterus and bladder which took a good while to correct before they were able to actually perform the c-section itself. The healing seems slower this time, and the pain a little worse, but of course it's all worth it.

In the process of being cleaned up in the nursery. She was COVERED in vernix which kept her nice and protected in the womb, but didn't make for very pretty fresh out of the oven pictures. I spared you all from those on the blog; this one is a bit cleaner. While she was being cleaned, mommy was in recovery trying desparately to rid herself of the shakes from anaesthesia - not an easy task this time!

Finally in the room with mommy. (Nani made her a hat)!

With mommy and daddy. Unfortunately, the hospital was under a flu restriction and Claire was unable to meet her little sister until we got home. This was hard on mommy who hadn't really been away from her big girl for more than a four hour stretch in all her little life! Daddy decided to go home in the evenings and spend time with Claire, but she sure missed mommy.Born 8:00am on December 31,2010

7 lbs. 3 oz. 20 in.

Evie has thick wavy black hair and dark eyes that have enough hint of blue in them to cause mom and dad to argue over whether they will be blue like mom's or brown like dad and Claire's. Daddy's littlest girl

Already hamming it up with mommyClaire is waiting at home playing with Nani and Pop. Nani made the girls matching hats as a special surprise.Homecoming! Mommy completely forgot the don't-pick-up-anything-heavier-than-your-baby rule and picked up her toddler WAAAAY too soon after the surgery. She had really missed her girl! Claire wasn't super interested in her sister right at first. She was more glad to have mommy home!Trying out the two girls on one lap. It goes well for a few minutes, then Claire shoves Evie aside to have mommy to herself. In her holiday hat

Claire's first attempt at holding Evie (she thinks Evie is a baby doll)

Claire's "I'm the Silly Sister" shirt - It's hard to find "big sis" shirts small enough to fit her!

Claire helping Nani in the kitchen

Mommy's new favorite picture

White Christmas

Christmas 2010 Mommy & Claire on Christmas Eve (Geoff and I got a new digital camera as our Christmas gift this year from Poppa & GB; this was one of the first photos Geoff took).
The only thing more exciting than the presents was NiNi's arrival - in fact, Claire didn't even notice the presents right away. Then, of course, the bows rivaled the presents a bit as well.

Yep, we definitely liked the bows! After unwrapping a few gifts, Claire finally realized that there was a big red wagon sitting behind them. She climbed right in and opened the rest of her gifts in style.

Fishing through her stocking...

Lacing beads - a stocking stuffer (Aunt Gini is going to have to teach us how to use these things; they're some sort of Montessori learning toy or something).

The weather wasn't great today, cold and rainy. We caught a brief break from rain mid-morning and took the wagon out for a quick ride. Claire had trouble deciding which seat was better, and of course Aubie (from Poppa & GB) had to ride along.

Christmas sure is tiring! Daddy and Claire are sacked out watching Claire's new favorite thing - "movie" - a word she knows well and apparently really only refers to the Baby Faith "God Made Christmas" video, for which we can't seem to offer a pleasing substitution. (Baby Faith videos are like Baby Einstein only better in my opinion, as they are based on Bible stories and concepts; Claire LOVES them).

And yes, we had a white Christmas ending to our day even way down here in the South. Claire thought the snow was just amazing, but she didn't have too much time in it since it came down after dark.

We bundled up quickly and briefly for a short walk in the front yard. She was fascinated with her footprints in the snow, and really enjoyed stomping the snow out of her boots when we got back to the front porch.

After the snow romp, it was straight into the warm bath to play with her new bath boat and it's accessories. If you ask Claire what the lobster says, she pinches her fingers together and makes a clicking noise with her tongue - so cute!

Altogether, it was a very enjoyable Christmas. She loved all of her gifts and mommy even got two very clear "thank you's" from her today - a first for using this word. Mommy's Christmas gift will be a little pink bundle who is all set to arrive in six short days. Yep, Evelynn's birthday is quickly approaching. Until then, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

Sweet Sixteen (Months, That Is)

Life with a 16-month-old is sweet, sweet, sweet. (But maybe that's just because this baby is so sweet)! A new favorite thing - putting on a pair of Daddy's socks (hey, they keep her feet & legs warm)
A bathtub tea party - so much fun!

At sixteen months, Claire is so much fun. She understands more, does more, says more, she is truly more of a blessing and a joy every day. Developmentally she has gained a number of new teeth, adding 3 molars in the past month and soon to add #4. She's a good teether - a little more restless at night, but generally I haven't had to deal with the fevers/diarrhea that I hear about from some moms. Her hair is also thickening up with a lot of new growth underneath. It was sooo dark when she was born, but neither of us is surprised to see it getting lighter as Geoff and I both had sandy blonde hair as kids. I describe her hair color as "honey."

She gives more kisses and makes kissy sounds at the dogs and cat - so very, very precious. She's very affectionate and loves to give hugs, sometimes clinging to Daddy's leg as he's trying to go to work. Her favorite person other than mom and dad appears to be her Aunt Lara who often helps keep Claire so mommy can go to doctor's appointments. When Aunt Lara goes to leave, Claire will wave bye-bye to mommy and try to follow Lara out.

Her vocabulary is astounding - not necessarily in spoken words, but in words she understands. She says words from time to time that we didn't even know that she knew. She seems a little self-conscious when trying a word for the first time. Often she will mouth it or whisper very quietly. What is astounding is the sheer number of words she recognizes. She loves flashcards and is quite capable of picking up the requested one out of a huge stack. We also discovered purely by accident that she has learned to recognize some of the letters of the alphabet - AMAZING! Her memory is powerful. Quote any part of any of her books and she will immediately go and get that book from the shelf and bring it to you.

Right now she's really into her baby dolls, which I'm encouraging. Our neighbor "Nanny Barb" gave her a baby doll carriage and she loves to take the babies all over the house in it. I can't wait to see how she'll do with a baby sister.

And on that note -

Evie is still doing great in the womb. Her C-section is now 15 days away. Her bags are packed for the hospital and I am so so so ready to meet this baby girl.

War Eagle, Baby! (aka, Snow Auburn Style)

Congratulations to our UNDEFEATED 2010 Auburn University Tiger SEC Football Champs and to the UNSTOPPABLE Cam Newton. We are excited to be contenders in the BCS National Championship game - coming January 10! For those who are unfamiliar, the town of Auburn has a tradition of rolling a couple of Oak Treees at a spot on campus known as Toomer's Corner in celebration of sports and other victories. While we didn't join in with the multitude yesterday night, we got up first thing this morning to show Claire her first viewing of snow Auburn style. "You mean I get to play with this stuff? This is right up my alley!"
Claire doing her part

I wouldn't want it in my yard - but it actually looks pretty amazing

Touchdown, Auburn! (Mommy is too pregnant for close-ups these days)

Claire tried to take home a souvenir, but Daddy had her throw it in a trashcan on our way back to the car.