Mission San Jose

Robert's mom was able to come last weekend for a quick visit. We ran some errands and decided to go down to see Mission San Jose. It is one of the five missions in San Antonio and is still an active Catholic church. We're fortunate to live in a place with so much history. This mission was founded in 1720 and has several areas that have been restored.

Nancy, Robert and I enjoyed walking around and learning more about the mission, and Claire enjoyed being carried around outside - and her nap.

The next day we went to lunch at the Grist Mill in Gruene. It's less than 45 minutes from our house, so it has become a regular Sunday-after-church lunch spot. It was nice to get in some good family time and see more of our new city.

Nine Month Check-up

Claire went to the doctor for her nine month check-up on Monday. She weighed 15 1/2 pounds and measured 26 inches long (still around the 5th percentile). We have a shortie - although I wouldn't be surprised if she has a big growth spurt one day!

In the last week, Claire has finally started rolling with consistency. Yesterday she figured out that she could roll herself over to get to something (or someone) out of reach. She seemed pretty proud of herself! We're working on going from laying down to sitting, standing, and walking while holding on to something (usually our hands or her lion walker).

We've been working on finger foods, and she's catching on quickly. So far we've just tried Gerber Puffs and Cheerios, but I bought today for her to try in the next week or so - veggies, waffles, and some Morningstar veggie patties. We're having fun trying new things!

I'm having a harder time keeping up with the blog with this full-time work schedule. With the holidays, I've just now had a couple of weeks in a row where I worked all week. I miss seeing Claire, but we're adjusting and know that this is the best decision right now for our family. We're fortunate that she does so well in day care - her teachers always comment on how happy she is, and we know that they really enjoy her. Here are a few pics that I've been wanting to post. We're doing our best to keep up with the weekly chair pics, but it's getting hard again to get her to sit still! Now that she's learned how to lean forward to get on all fours (see example below), it takes both of us to take the picture - me to operate the camera, and Robert to make sure she doesn't fall off the chair!

41 Weeks

42 Weeks

Stinker! :)

Nine Months

Claire turned 9 months old on January 8th! Some things about Claire at this age:

• Favorite toys are her new play table, doorway jumper (still), Sassy teething toys and burp cloths. She's started going to sleep holding a burp cloth - she seems to be adopting them as her "lovies."
• She laughs easily. Things that she finds funny: getting undressed, tickling, bouncing, swinging up into the air, Daddy, Mommy, "Peek-a-boo," seeing herself in the mirror.
• Started to pull up. She can easily get to her knees, and many times can stand all the way up. If you hold out your pointer fingers towards her, she will immediately grab them and pull up to a standing position.
• She's consistently able to roll from her tummy to back - finally! :) She's always hated being on her tummy, so I didn't force her into too much tummy time. Now that it's clicked, it's really easy for her.
• I can tell that she's starting to get frustrated by her lack of mobility, so I think crawling (or walking) isn't too far away. When sitting, she'll lean forward on her hands and start to go to her knees, but then she gets a little wobbly and pushes back to sitting again. Then she'll start rocking back and forth and fussing until someone moves her to where she wants to go or brings her the toy that's out of reach.
• She gets shy around strangers but warms up pretty quickly.
• She's wearing 6-9 month size clothing, although she can still fit into some of her larger 3-6 month size clothes.
• Graduated from the baby tub that we used over the kitchen sink to her duck tub. She was really scared of it at first, but once she saw her toys in there she warmed up to it a bit. Now she loves it, and so do I! It's great being able to bathe her in the tub and not worry about her tipping over and hitting her head.

• Eats 3 oz. of cereal in the morning, 3-4 oz. of veggies or fruit for dinner, and 25 - 28 oz. of formula every day. She loves to eat, and the only things she's tried so far that she doesn't like are broccoli (although it's okay mixed with other veggies) and garbanzo beans. Her latest favorite is a mix of spinach, mango and pears.
• Has a mouthful of teeth - 4 on top and 4 on bottom! I think we're going to start more finger foods here in a week or so (her pediatrician said we would discuss at her 9 month check-up).
• Sleeps about 11 hours at night and takes 3-4 naps totaling around 2-3 hours each day. I'd like to get her on a more consistent nap schedule, but at least she's getting enough sleep every day.
• Brings so much joy to our lives!

I'll have height/weight stats next week - I'm looking forward to seeing how much she's grown.

Resolutions

A little over a week into the new year, I'm finally writing down my resolutions for this year. I'm not a big resolution person, but I decided it would be a good idea to write down a few of my goals for a visual reminder.

1. Finish losing the pregnancy weight - I have about 3-4 pounds to go, depending on the day. Fortunately all of the holiday goodies didn't set me back - not sure how that happened, considering how much I ate!
2. Exercise at least 3 times a week. Claire really enjoys going for walks with me now, so this one should be pretty easy - at least when the weather is nice.
3. Pray with Claire every night before bedtime.
4. Finish the top of my t-shirt quilt. I've had a stack of college t-shirts set aside for a quilt for probably 7 or 8 years now. I even bought backing for the t-shirts a few years ago, but have always been too intimidated to start. My sweet family helped me out with buying a nice new sewing machine (I love it!), so now I'm developing some sewing skills on small projects to give myself confidence to make a quilt top. I have no interest in the rest of the quilting process - I'll be hiring someone to do that - but I really want to make the top myself.

Obviously there are more things I'd like to accomplish this year, but these are the goals I want to be held accountable for. Wish me luck!

38 Weeks

We've been slacking on chair pictures over the holidays and have missed taking pics the last two weeks. I think that gives me a new resolution - do better taking weekly pictures for the next 14 weeks!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Pictures: Part 2

From our Christmas celebration in Arlington:

Claire opening her stocking

Mike & Ashlee

Standing with Ma

Daddy looking at his Obama golf ball (one of many Obama related items from Mike!)

Mommy with her Obama keychain

Clark & Tom

Aunt Carol & Jeremy

Gayle, Tom, Lee & Ashlee

Claire with one of her favorite toys - stacking rings

Gayle & Tom

Claire playing with Daddy's new basketball

Daddy showing off his new saw

I was excited to get a digital picture frame for my office to

fill with pictures of Claire - thanks Robert!

Sweet baby!

At home with all of her loot! (Not pictured - her play table and some items of clothing)

Thanks to everyone for making Claire's first Christmas so special!

Christmas Pictures: Part 1

Here are photes from our first half of our Christmas vacation (at my parents' house in Vernon). Get ready for picture overload!

Ready to go in her Christmas outfit

Look at all of those presents!

Mmmmm, yummy!

Playing with Penny & David

Peeking

Opening a present with Mommy

Nana & Granddaddy were really happy about this present - photos of Claire

What a sweet bib!

It was balanced out with one for Daddy's alma mater

One of Claire's favorite presents - her Chicco Music 'N Play Table

Playing piano with Nana

Christmas Week

Our Christmas lasted all week this year with celebrations in Vernon and Arlington - our tour of Texas! I have a ton of pictures to go through and will post those later, but here are the highlights of our week:

Friday (December 19th)

Drove to Vernon from San Antonio, arriving that evening.

Saturday

Christmas with my family. Granddaddy, Nana, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Kerbow, David, Penelope, and Jonathan were there for opening presents. Claire's favorite gift was her Chicco Music and Play table from Granddaddy and Nana - it was a big hit! My cousin Sharon, her husband Mike, and my uncle Pruitt joined us for lunch.

Sunday

Attended church, and Claire slept through the entire service in Nana's arms. We relaxed that afternoon and rented a movie that evening - "The Dark Knight."

Monday

Drove to Ma & Bob's in Arlington and made a couple of stops to stock up on supplies - humidifier, more cereal, more formula, etc.

Tuesday

Drove to Dallas to try to see Santa at NorthPark - what a fiasco! I knew that we needed to get there early to get a number. We arrived around 9:30 am and found out that we would be #163. The guy told us that they were calling for #120 around 7:30 pm the day before. Decided that we would be happy with an Arlington Santa. :) Did a little shopping, then had lunch at Hattie's with two of Robert's friends from high school, Ashley & John, and Ashley's boyfriend Chris. Finished up our Christmas shopping and bought a present for ourselves with some of our Christmas money - a Sony HandyCam.

Wednesday - Christmas Eve

Went to see Santa at the Parks Mall in Arlington, and only waited in line for 15 minutes. Take that, NorthPark! The "official" picture was a happy one:

Here's the picture with our camera about 5 seconds later:

So, we got a good, smiling picture along with the more typical "crying baby with Santa" picture. Success! :)

After Santa, Robert dropped me off at a nail salon for a pedicure and some R&R while he and Claire visited Ashley's family. We visited Grandmommy and Granddad and attended the Christmas Eve service at First UMC of Arlington. It was beautiful. Claire slept through the first half and needed to leave during the sermon, but we were able to make it back to the sanctuary for communion. That evening we went back to Ma & Bob's where the rest of the family was beginning to arrive.

Thursday - Christmas Day

Christmas with Ma, Bob, uncle Lee, Ashlee, Mike, uncle Clark, Gayle and Tom. Claire's favorite toys were her stacking rings and Daddy's new basketball. Discovered Claire's seventh (!) tooth.

Friday

Relaxed with family, then headed to Fort Worth for the traditional day after Christmas dinner at Joe T. Garcia's. Before dinner, Robert, Claire and I checked out a fabric store that I'd heard about - Cabbage Rose Quilting. They had so many fun fabrics that most fabric stores don't carry - much more variety and a lot more modern and fun prints. Even Robert was impressed. We decided that we'll have to come back after I have some specific projects in mind.

After the fabric extravaganza, we met up with the rest of the family to see the nativity artwork at the Kimbell before our dinner at Joe T.'s.

Saturday

Home! It was wonderful to see everyone, and we enjoyed visiting and relaxing with family and friends, but it was nice to be back home and sleep in our own beds. Unpacked, went through stacks of mail, and just enjoyed some time together before starting back to work the next week.

Coming soon: Pictures from our trip, and Mommy's new toy!

Updates to come...

We've been out of town since Friday for family Christmas celebrations and I haven't had time to update the blog. I'm planning to do a nice long update this weekend after we get back home. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Homemade Baby Food

I've been planning to do this post for awhile now and even planned ahead and took photos during the process...six weeks ago. So, Claire is a little bigger now, but the process is still pretty much the same!

While I was pregnant I started thinking about making baby food rather than buying jarred. I really wanted to try to stick to organic food as much as possible (and practical), and I liked the idea of being able to control exactly what was going into her food. I also heard that making your own food makes it easier later on to introduce babies to table food since they're already used to the flavors of homemade food. Finally - it's cheaper. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stick to it, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised at how simple the process is and how little time it takes.

Here's my routine:

Step One: Choose the food item. The photos were taken the week we introduced peas. I've found in some cases frozen foods work as well as fresh, so I bought some organic frozen peas.



Step Two: Cook the food (skip this step for foods like bananas, avocados, etc.). I usually steam the vegetables on the stove-top, but these had a microwave steamer bag. Even faster!

Step Three: Put the food into an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

Step Four: Using the super awesome Vita-Mix (or a regular blender or food processor), puree to desired consistency, adding water as necessary.

Step Five: Pour puree into an ice cube tray, reserving one portion for the next meal. Freeze cubes for next time.

Step Six: The taste test - looks like this one was a hit!

Since we're only introducing new foods once or twice a week, I usually just pick one day to make food. Everything makes multiple portions, and it's so easy to thaw a couple of frozen cubes every day for that evening's dinner. I've made butternut squash, sweet potato, peas, green beans, broccoli, corn, bananas, and avocado. I did decide to give her jarred carrots (Earth's Best) - apparently it's actually healthier to give her the jarred version as it has the nitrates removed. We've also fed her Earth's Best when traveling. I think it's a good option (organic, no additives, actually tastes good), but making your own is definitely cheaper. If you have any questions, let me know!

Weekend Update x2

I've gotten really behind due to this new job thing...

Last weekend we took Claire to her first parade. We looked at the SA calendar of events and found out that there was a festival in Boerne complete with an evening Christmas parade. Boerne is only about 30 minutes away, so we decided to check it out. The parade turned out to be a much bigger even than we expected - the main street was packed with people. We found a good spot, and Claire was entertained by all of the lights, music, and people. It was next to impossible to get her to look at the camera - she just wanted to stare at the parade. We had a good time and will probably plan to attend again next year. We also decided that we need to make another trip to Boerne when it's not so crowded. The main street reminded us of Fredericksburg with several interesting shops and restaurants. Glad to find a fun place so nearby!

My first full week of work passed by pretty uneventfully. Things are slow since it's near the end of the year, but it's nice to have time to learn policies, procedures, new programs, etc. before it gets busy. There was only one day of tears (mine!), but I think we'll all get used to the new situation and everything will work out just fine.

This weekend has been a blur of marking things off of to-do lists and a quick trip to Gruene today for lunch at the Grist Mill - soooo good! The house is (almost) clean, Christmas cards are (almost) ready to go out, most of the Christmas shopping is done, and we now are ready to start wrapping presents. We're leaving on Friday to celebrate Christmas with my family - can't believe it's already so close!