Easter and other things

I know I'm a little behind as always, but wanted to share a little about Claire's first Easter and other things going on in our life. For Easter my parents (Nana and Papaw) came in to share in Claire's first Easter. She had such a fun time with her grandparents! She shopped with Nana and her and Papaw swung in the swing a lot! I remember when I was pregnant thinking of her first Easter and how far away it seemed to me. I bought several possible dress choices because I knew if I waited until the last minute I would never be able to choose.  and thought wow she will be a little over 7 months when Easter comes. Interestingly enough I found her dress at a consignment shop when I was about 8 months pregnant for $2! Smocking, boutique brand, and all! Time sure has flown. Pretty Princess is now almost 8 months! Where does the time go? Claire had a blast helping make a bunny cake. When my brother and I were little Mom always made us a bunny cake for Easter and I wanted Claire to experience the same tradition so me, Claire and Momma (Nana) made a bunny cake! Claire also had her first Easter egg hunt at church and thought colorful eggs sure were fun to pick up. We also dyed Easter eggs. I actually thought this project out and did it in her diaper right before bath time. She spilled more dye than anything and wanted to play in the mess, but she had fun dying eggs.

                       With her Bunny Cake                          Making cake with Mommy and Nana

                                                                  Hunting Eggs!

                                                          Hunting Eggs!

                                                                 Dying Eggs!

                                                                  Dying eggs!

                                                                     Checking out what the Easter bunny brought!

                                                                      Easter with Daddy!

                                                                         Easter with Mommy!

In other Claire news today she decided she had mastered the art of pulling up by herself at no other time than naptime! I put her down for a nap to hear her fuss and squirm and when I looked on the monitor she had pulled herself up to stand and was trying to escape the crib! Needless to say Eric now has the project of lowering the crib mattress! Since she did that early afternoon she has spent the rest of the practicing her new talent and trying to pull up on everything including toys that can't quite withstand her 15 or so pounds and topple on top of her. Last week she decided army crawling was a lot of fun. She holds herself up on all 4s and rocks back and forth takes one crawl and decides army crawling is better. It's never a dull day and I love it!

Strong little bugger!

Little miss sure is getting strong. She is trying to pull up on everything! She hasn't quite succeeded in pulling herself up by herself, but I know it's a matter of days before she does. I know mobility will shortly follow and that excites me and terrifies me all at the same time. She really isn't all that interested in crawling. Some days she acts like she kind of wants to and will push up on her hands and knees and then fall down and get mad. I think she would rather just stand like a big girl.

We had a wonderful visit back home this past weekend. A good friend from high school got married and I was in the wedding. We got to spend a lot of time with our families and Claire is having a bit of detox today from all the love and attention she was spoiled with. Now she is back to just stinky ol Mommy. She is also so close to cutting a top tooth and it is really bothering her. Hopefully it will pop through shortly and give her some relief. I'm so excited my parents are coming in this weekend for Claire's first easter! She is going to have a blast with them!

If Claire gets cranky all I have to do is take her out in her swing and she is instantly happy!

Baby talk

Little miss has started babbling! She has gotten really good at saying Mamamama. Not sure if she knows Mama is me, but I like to think she does. Poor Eric feels left out and practices with her saying Dada every night. The last few days she has also starting spitting. You know pushing her tongue out and blowing. Some call it blowing rasberries without actually blowing on someone.  It's rather funny. She has tried several more foods. Loves butternut squash, sweet potatoes, pears, bananas, and grapes. Notice the trend all sweet stuff. She seems to take after her Momma on sweet stuff. Hates carrots. Tried and tried carrots, but she sputters and gags and begins to protest carrot bites. We got some hilarious video of  carrots. She doesn't care for green beans either, but I can at least manage to get 1 cube of green beans down her. She loves to stand these days. She is very wobbly, but is so proud of herself when she is standing holding on to something. She has been trying to crawl for about 2 months now. Poor thing can't quite get her arms and legs all up at the same time, but she can inch worm herself across the floor. I am excited for her to be mobile because I think she will be less frusterated about not being able to get what she wants, but I am also scared because once she is mobile there is no going back! Since the weather is finally nice again I am back to running and it feels so good. Claire loves being outside. I used the elliptical most of the winter, but it is no subsitute for running! We took pictures in the bluebonnets last weekend. Eric of course as usual thinks pictures are stupid, but I want Claire to look back at her childhood and see lots of pictures of herself and her parents and have memories of all the fun things we did as a family. Ok I will stop rambling now and take myself to bed, but I will share some bluebonnet pics.

6 Months!

Pretty Princess is 6 months old! I cannot believe how fast time is going by. It makes me sad to think she is 1/2 a year old, but excited to see what the future holds for her. At her 6 month appointment she weighed 14lbs 1oz (10-25%) and 26 inches long (50-75%). The doctor said her top 2 teeth look like they are close to coming in. I'm not sure I'm ready for more teeth she seems to think biting is quite funny. She has become quite the wild animal as we call her. Changing her diaper takes an army. Holding still just isn't her style. She flip flops all over the place grabbing everything in her reach. The doctor appointment was quite entertaining too. I couldn't wait for the doc to come in because it was all I could do to keep her still. She ripped the paper off the exam table then tried to eat it, then she pulled everything out of my diaper bag as I tried to fix the exam paper and then as soon as I could hand her toys she was throwing them on the floor. She keeps me laughing that is for sure. This past Sunday we had Claire's dedication. It meant so much to us to have all our family standing with us and committed to helping us raise Claire to be a Godly woman. Claire's Mimi and Aunt Kayla spent most of Spring Break with us and Claire sure had fun with them. Then over the weekend Claire's Nana and Pappaw and Uncle Eric and Aunt Jessica came in. Claire didn't know what to do when Monday came and all she had was Mommy. Mommy was quite boring to her and she decided to fuss at me all day asking where all the fun people went! Here are a few pics from Claire's dedication and some of her 6 month pictures that my wonderful friend Bekah took!

Loving Life

Not a lot of super exciting news to report, but life sure is good. Pretty Princess is growing and changing so quickly. I cannot believe she is nearing 6 months old. It is bittersweet how fast time is going. I love each new stage she is in, but I also miss her being so little and snuggly. She is trying so hard to get on her hands and knees and gets so mad she can't go and do what she wants. She is sitting so good all by herself and prefers sleeping on her belly which makes Momma so nervous. Within 5 minutes of being in her crib she has already rolled to her belly and fast asleep. I am curious how much she will weigh at her 6 month appointment.  I can tell she has grown because my arms sure are getting tired. She thinks her Daddy is the funniest person she has ever seen and has a special squeal she does only for him. It melts my heart watching those two interact and play.

We have a busy week ahead of us. Claire's Mimi (Eric's Mom) and sister Kayla are coming to visit during the week and then over the weekend my brother and his wife and my parents are coming to visit. On the 13th we are doing Claire's dedication at church and all our family is coming in. We are super excited to spend time and see everyone. I apologize in advance to anyone coming if Claire is not on her best behavior. She is in a bit of a stage right now where if Momma leaves her sight for too long she tends to freak out.

My little bugger will probably kill me for this when she gets older, but she loves her some nakey baby time. So of course Mommy has to snap all the cute naked baby butt pictures so I leave you with this picture of my tiny hiney!

Valentine's Day!

I've never been one to think too much of Valentine's Day.  Yes I am the synical one who calls it a "card company holiday" and thinks how special is it if everyone else is celebrating too.  Of course we always celebrate in some way. This year seemed different. I don't know if it is because of Claire or what, but I did appreciate it more. We got Claire a sweet card for her scrapbook and a soft doll that says "My First Valentine's". She loved the card and wanted to eat it and loved her doll.  She talked and talked to it. These days are talking is more screeching, but still adorable. Claire and I got Eric a frame for his desk at work with several pictures of Claire. Eric got me some candy (which if you know me that is the best present, I have a terrible sweet tooth) and he totally surprised me with a little bag from Victoria's Secret. Now before you start thinking you don't want to hear the rest of this story I promise it's nothing risque, lol. The other day he noticed my "sexy" (sarcasm) bra. Now this bra is special. It is black, but the strap has a lovely piece of white elastic sewn on part of it. My dear mini Cooper decided that the last time I bought bra's they would make a nice chew toy and chewed the strap of my brand new Victoria's Secret bra in half. Well these new bra's were bought 2.5 years ago. I am not one to complain. I try to make due with what I have, but my sweet husband felt bad it had been so long since I had a nice new bra and that one of the few I have looks terrible that I needed a new one. He did so good picking one out too! I must say this really was the best Valentine's Day ever!

Claire will be 5 months on Wendesday! I cannot believe how big she is getting and how fast time is flying. She is so goofy, but I guess she gets that honestly, lol. She has started sitting on her own for 20-30 seconds at a time and trying to push up on her knees when she is on her belly. She thinks Cooper is the funniest thing she has ever seen. She talks and laughs at him all day long. Poor guy is so good with her as she pulls his ears and drools on his head. We are also slowly introducing solids to her. We have given her cereal a handful of times which she could care less about. She is always staring at our plates and trying to grab food off them, but when we feed her cereal she looses interest so quickly. My original plans were to wait to start solids until 6 months any way so I am backing off, but she does love to drink out of sippy cup. She thinks she is such a big girl. I have also been doing some reading on another way besides purees to introduce solids. I had all intentions of pureeing all Claire's food and not buying any of the typical jars. What I have started reading though is the "Baby Led Weaning" approach. I am quite intrigued by it and may actually try it with Claire. Here is a link to more information about this approach if you are interested.
http://www.babyledweaning.com/

Here is my Pretty Princess!

4 Month Stats and teethies!

I'm just a little behind as always, lol.  Claire had her 4 month checkup last Monday and she is growing growing!  She is 12 pounds even and 24 inches long.  Doctor said that puts her weight between the 10-25 percentile and her height in the 25 percentile.  She said she was well proportioned and even called her petite!  Who would have thought I would have a petite child? The doctor said she is in the teething stage, but it may be several months before we see any teeth.  I of course assume it will be several months before we see any teeth. Boy was I wrong!  All weekend Claire was in a terrible mood.  I felt so bad she was in such a bad mood.  My parents were in town to play and Claire was a turkey.  She didn't have a fever, but seemed to feel better after a dose of Tylenol.  She also sure liked to gnaw on my Dad's hand.  Again never thought there would actually be any teeth.  Well this morning I decided to check her gums, so I rubbed my finger on them and I felt something rough!  Sure enough not one, but two of her bottom teeth are starting to come in!  My baby is growing up way too fast!

This was taken right after her 4 month check up.