Fiesta 2009

Fiesta is a huge city-wide celebration that happens every spring in San Antonio - it's kind of like SA's version of Mardi Gras. It stretched over two weekends, and we were out of town for both of them, so we weren't able to participate in any of the official events this year. Claire was in a Fiesta parade, though - at her school! They asked the kids to bring "floats" made out of shoe boxes for a parade last Thursday. Claire's float was a joint effort between me and Robert - he provided most of the creative design and fringe cutting while I was in charge of materials and assembly (good chance to put those dusty scrapbooking materials to use!). We thought it turned out pretty cute, and most importantly, Claire seemed to like it!

We weren't able to be there for the actual parade, but we saw a couple of pictures at school, and it looked like Claire had a good time in her first experience as a parade participant!

Party!

We had a party in Arlington at Robert's grandparents' house on April 18th to celebrate Claire's birthday with family and friends. We all had a wonderful time. I was a little concerned during the planning phase that she would be tired or overstimulated, but she was in a great mood the whole time and really enjoyed her party. It was so much fun catching up with everyone, and Claire loved unwrapping all of her presents. She was so interested in each one of them and couldn't wait to start playing with everything. We are blessed to have so many people who wanted to celebrate with our sweet girl!

With Daddy & Mommy

Claire, Granddaddy and Nana - so excited!

Great-Grandmommy & Aunt Carol

Waving with Bob and Ma

Great-Grandmommy & Great-Granddad

Blowing out the candle

Unwrapping presents!

At home with all of the gifts - wow!

A big "Thanks" to everyone who helped make her big day so special (Thank You notes are coming soon)!!!

Easter 2009

This Easter was Claire's first - it fell early last year and was before her birthday. We had busy weekends before and after Easter weekend, so we kept it pretty low-key this year. On Saturday our church had a cookout and Easter egg hunt. It was pretty chilly so we didn't stay too long, but we enjoyed watching the mad dash for eggs and visiting with some new friends we've met recently.

On Sunday we went to church (Claire looked so sweet in her smocked bunny dress) and then drove to Gruene to have lunch at the Grist Mill, one of our favorite places. We go about once a month - everyone likes it, so it's a good place to take visitors. We walked around Gruene for a little while and tried to get Claire to touch the flowers (she was scared of them, of course, although she liked looking at them from a distance) and then enjoyed a quiet afternoon at home. I think Easter 2010 will be a little busier as she'll then be old enough to participate in some egg hunts!

Claire at Twelve Months

Claire had her one year check-up the day after her birthday. Her stats at 12 months are:

Height: 27.5 inches (5th percentile)

Weight: 16.5 pounds (3rd percentile)

Head: 17.625 inches (25th percentile)

She got 4 shots - what a birthday present, right? She did really well and only cried for a minute. We were all glad when they were over, though!

Claire seems to have developed so much in the last few weeks. She can say a couple of words - "Mama" and "more" - and she tries to say many more. She's learning "hi", "bye bye", "book" and "woof woof" (she has a book about dogs that has lots of barking words). Claire waves like a champ - her daddy thinks she may have a future as a parade princess!

Claire is learning to follow simple directions such as "come to Mama/Daddy" and "wave hi/bye bye", and we know she understands what "no" means, although she likes to test her boundaries. She's also initiating little games, like sometimes when I go to pick her up, she grins and starts crawling away, then looks back to see if I'm following her. She also likes to "get Mommy" - she'll reach out and grab my arm or shirt, and just cackles when I pull away in mock surprise. So cute!

Right now we're really working on walking since she's the youngest in her class and the only one still crawling everywhere. Over the weekend we saw her let go of the furniture and stand by herself for a few seconds, and today her teacher said she saw Claire let go, too. Claire likes walking if you hold her hands, and she can go really fast! At this point I think she could physically do it if she wanted to, but she's not quite ready to fully make the leap.

We're also working on table foods, and getting ready to transition away from bottles. We have busy weekends coming up, but I'm hoping that we can just go cold turkey on the bottles one Saturday and see how she does with the sippy cups, although I may let her keep her night bottle for a little while. She still loves puffs and cheerios and gets really excited for her yogurt every morning. She's getting good at chewing (with her 10 (!) teeth) and enjoys eating chicken, peas, fish bites, macaroni and cheese bites, applesauce and carrots.

This is such a fun stage of learning and exploration - I'm looking forward to seeing what she's able to do next month!

Happy First Birthday!

Happy birthday to our sweet Claire! It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since I first saw her face, first held her, first kissed her cheek. Robert and I are unbelievably blessed to have such a beautiful, sweet little girl. In her short time with us, she has already brought immeasurable joy. Claire is such a happy baby, and her smiles and laughs are infectious. I love watching her explore and learn and can't wait to see what the next year brings.

To celebrate today, we gave her a ride in her new swing. She loved it - lots of giggles. I have a feeling that "swing" is going to be one of her first words. We also gave her a little bit of cupcake - yummy!

Claire also took her last weekly chair picture - we're now going to once a month. I've loved having this weekly record of her first year.

Here's to the first of many birthdays together! I love you Sweet Girl!

Caught!

Claire keeps us busy with her new-found mobility. A few weeks ago I kept my camera close by and snapped some shots of her getting into things she supposed to stay out of. Testing those boundaries! :) We know now that she understands "No," and she usually will stop what she's doing - although she like to try to just wait until you're not watching her anymore to return to what she was doing. On this day, she...

...examined the diaper bag and my work bag,

and the entertainment center,

and the cubby with the cable and DVD boxes (the lights are so tempting!).

She also tasted the piano bench...

...and checked out the new pedals on the piano.

Busy day!

Last weekend..

...before Claire turns one! She made the most of it. On Saturday we had lunch with my friend Kelly and her family. Kelly was in my sorority pledge class and we recently reconnected. She and her husband have a little boy, Luke, who is 20 months old and a bundle of energy. He kept Claire entertained - she just laughed as he ran around, climbed furniture, threw balls, etc. She was enthralled!

That afternoon she discovered a new walker - our kitchen chairs. I was folding laundry in the living room keeping an eye on her as she crawled around under the table. She pulled up on one of the chairs, and I watched as she pushed it all the way across the kitchen and back. She was very proud of herself!

On Sunday we met with our small group and went to church, and then we got ready for a visit from a photographer. I found someone who is offering good rates as she builds her portfolio, and we had her come take some pictures of Claire for her birthday. Before she arrived we got in one last chair picture before her birthday and read for awhile. She's still a little more interested in touching and trying to eat her books than just looking and listening, but we're working on that. :)

After her pictures, I got this sweet shot of Claire and her daddy. Two more days until the big milestone!

Tuckered out

Claire fell asleep on the way home from school on Monday (and it's only about a 5 minute drive to our house). She was still asleep when I carried her in, and I needed to change clothes, so I just laid her on the floor for a what I thought would be just a minute. She slept for over 20 minutes and would've gone longer if I hadn't woken her up to eat dinner. Who knew our floor was so comfortable?!?

I just loved how she had that little hiney sticking up in the air. This is a frequent sleeping position - I'll never understand how she finds this position comfortable, but it's always good for bringing smiles to the Mommy's face.

Monday also brought our first biting incident. They called Robert that morning and said that another child had bitten Claire on the arm, but it didn't break the skin. They iced it down and gave her lots of extra attention, and they said she only cried for a minute. When I picked her up her teacher felt so bad, but I told her I'd felt like it was inevitable at some point. I'd heard lots of stories about biting at the toddler stage. If you look closely in the pictures below (or click on the picture to enlarge it), you can see the mark on her left wrist. Hopefully it won't happen again, but she handled it like a champ.