First Birthday Present

Claire's birthday is a few weeks away, and when Nana and Granddaddy came this weekend for a visit they wanted some ideas for a birthday present. While we were out and about on Saturday, we found a great toy store that had a perfect present - a Radio Flyer Walker Wagon. There was one in the store to try out, and Claire pushed it up and down the aisles, laughing and squealing the whole time. They immediately picked up one in a box and headed towards the check-out counter. Dad put it together while she was napping, and she spent most of the afternoon playing with it.

She got comfortable pulling up and walking with it quickly, and on Sunday we took it out the basketball court. She hasn't mastered turning yet, but as long as she has someone to turn her around when she reaches the side she is good to go!

She started getting tired, so we gave her rides in it. The wagon is the perfect size for her, and she loves being able to pick up some speed. Whenever the wagon starts slowing down, she rocks back and forth trying to get it to go again.

So precious! I have some video that I'll try to post later this week to provide the full effect. I have a feeling this toy will get lots of miles put on it over the next few years.

Memorable Moments

At Claire's new school, the teacher write down a "Memorable Moment" each day on her activity report. I love reading little tidbits about her day and thought I'd use the blog to keep a record:

Monday
"Claire loved playing on the ballet bar today. She had a fantastic first day! :)"

Tuesday
"Claire really enjoyed playing with the blocks today. She walked all around the block bin."

Wednesday
"Claire was amazed at finger painting. She touched the paint, looked at her hand and wanted the paint off her hand - too funny!"
- This was her first experience with finger painting. Her paper has very few little blue raindrops on it (this week's theme is "weather") - I'm sure she wondered why her hands were turning colors!

Thursday
None (sick)

Friday
"Claire has learned to stand up for herself. If another child takes something from her, she takes it back - go girl!"
- That's my baby. She's tiny, but watch out!

In Like a Lion...

So I just realized that my first post in March is about a lion. "In like a lion, out like a lamb," right? Does this mean that my last post in March should be about sheep?

ROAR!

Claire's favorite toy right now has to be her lion walker. She can pull herself up and start walking with it. With a little encouragement (cheers and/or Puffs), she can walk all the way across the living room and down the long hall to her bedroom with just a little help getting over the molding as she goes through the kitchen (change from carpet to hardwoods and back to carpet). It's pretty far for those little legs, and she will just laugh and squeal the whole time. The lion plays music and sometimes roars, and we all roar along with it and laugh.




I feel like I've been working on this post for a few days now - we had a hectic week. Claire started her new school on Monday, and I think it's going to work out really well. The biggest transition for all of us has been dropping down to one nap (her class naps from 1 -3). She has a great time, but she's been exhausted every day when we pick her up and usually wants a short nap before her usual play, dinner, bath, bottle and bed schedule. She seems to be really enjoying it, though. I called mid-afternoon on Monday to check on her, and her teacher said that Claire is maybe the happiest baby she's ever seen. She said that Claire hadn't cried once. I'm sure there were too many things to explore, new toys to play with and new people to meet.

Things were busy as usual, and then on Thursday I got a call around lunch that Claire was sick. She'd thrown up a couple of times and wasn't feeling well. Robert and I were actually planning to have lunch together and had just made it to the restaurant when I got the call, so Robert left to pick her up and I took off to the office to gather up some things before heading to the house to spend the afternoon with her. When I got home, Robert and Claire were already there, and she was having a great time playing with her Exersaucer. She was fine all afternoon - I think she just had a little bit of an upset tummy and was fine after the upchuck. I didn't get any work done at home, but I was glad we weren't dealing with anything serious and I enjoyed the extra time with her. This is the first time we've been called to pick her up from school, so we had a great run!

47 Weeks

Book Review 2009 - 1

A lot of bloggers I keep up with post reviews of books they've read, and I decided that I wanted to start doing my own reviews. I was a voracious reader growing up and reading is still one of my favorite hobbies. I mainly want to do these reviews to have my own record of books I've read and my thoughts on them at the time.

The first book I completed in 2009 was "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. The book was a birthday gift from my mother in law; she was telling me about it during one of her visits, and I thought it was a book I would enjoy. The book is about Mortenson's quest to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mortenson was an ER nurse and mountain climber, and after a failed attempt to climb K2 he was separated from his guide and stumbled into a village in Pakistan. He was very ill and spent several weeks in this village while they nursed him back to health. To show his gratitude, he promised to return and build the village its first school. That one school built by a grateful nurse evenutally turned into a foundation that has since built over 50 schools.

Reading this book, I was amazed by Mortenson's dedication and the sacrifices he has made in order to give children in another part of the world a chance to get an education. Living in his car, time away from his family, learning about Middle Eastern culture and politics, making contacts (and, inadvertently, several enemies) - there were so many obstacles he faced in order to build these schools, and he always found a way to continue on. The book also offers interesting insights into the people and culture of these countries. There were many stories and lessons in this book that have stayed with me, but one of the things that impacted me the most was Mortenson's belief that one of the best ways to fighting terrorism is to provide access to education and alleviate poverty. The Taliban targets the poor and uneducated, and children who are unable to imagine a better future for themselves are easy prey.

I really enjoyed reading this book - it was a great reminder that one person CAN make a difference.

Crib Fun

This is what I found when I went in to get Claire from her nap on Saturday - such a happy girl!

Cruising

Sorry for going so long between posts - we've had another full week! Lately I feel like Claire changes and develops so much every week. She just started doing a full on crawl week before last, and now she loves to "cruise" - pull up on a piece of furniture, window sill, etc. and walk around holding on to the edge. We've had to move things off the coffee table - they were fully within her reach now! One of the teachers at her school told me that one of Claire's favorite things to do there is to walk around the outside of the Exersaucer playing with each toy. She's also started using her lion as an actual walker and can walk across the living room without any help. We got a video of her "walking" that I'll post soon. I don't think it will be long until we have an independent walker!

Claire's also started trying more to communicate with us. Sometimes her babbles take on the pacing and intonation of actual conversation - so funny. I think she's started saying "Mama" and actually meaning it in reference to me. It just warms my heart - so precious!

Sweet Claire has been a little under the weather the past few days. She's had a runny nose for quite awhile that didn't seem to bother her too much, but she started coughing on Friday and just didn't seem to be getting any better. We took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday and were relieved to find out that she doesn't have anything serious (I was concerned about RSV or bronchitis). The doctor went ahead and lent us a nebulizer to use for breathing treatments twice a day for the next 10 - 12 days. Claire doesn't love the treatments, but she doesn't fight them too terribly. They do seem to help her relax and breathe easier, so it's well worth the effort.

We're leaving for Arlington/Dallas tomorrow afternoon, and I'm excited to visit with some of our friends and family - and visit some of the restaurants we're missing!

Busy, Busy!

Claire has been busy in the past week! She's graduated from sitting and a sort-of modified Army crawl to a full-fledged crawl. She's fairly picky about what she deems worthy of crawling for - the leading contenders are her stacking cups and magazines (they are fun to chew on and tear up!). :) I have to admit to tricking her a little by putting these objects of desire just out of reach, and then moving them further and further away as she starts crawling for them. It's really cute! Mom and Dad visited over the weekend, and she really impressed them with her new trick.

We've also continued working on eating finger foods and transitioning from bottles to cups. She's having a hard time tilting the sippy cup far enough to get any liquid out, and doesn't really want any help. For the past couple of nights we've offered her a straw cup (it has a little valve that reduces some of the spilling), and last night she really seemed to start understanding how to use it. She would take a few bites of her pancake, then reach for the cup. I'd hold it for her so she could get a few sips of her water, then she'd turn back to her pancake until she would indicate she wanted more water. If anyone has suggestions on transitioning from bottles, I'd love to hear them!

Another big change - Claire is going to start at a new school at the beginning of March. She's been doing fine at her current school and always seems to have a good day, but we'd been feeling like she needed a little more stimulation. So, we decided to move her to another school that seems to have a better curriculum (it was my first choice from the beginning, but they didn't have an opening when we moved). Since she's so close to turning 1, they want to go ahead and put her in the 12 - 18 month room rather than having her start in Infants and move over a month later. I was really impressed with what her new class was learning - they sit in chairs at little tables rather than high chairs, nap on mats rather than in cribs, learn signs and new words, do lots of crafts, etc. The lead teacher of the class has a Masters in early childhood development, so I'm really excited that Claire will have such a qualified person watching over her while we're at work.

Claire demonstrating her favorite game - "Bang! Bang!"

Another Milestone

In the past week, Claire has learned how to sit herself up:

You reach for what you want...

...then push yourself back...

...until you're sitting!

We're proud of her, but it has thrown an unexpected kink into the bedtime routine. When teaching her how to get from laying on her tummy to sitting, we didn't really think about the fact that she'd be able to sit herself up in her crib. Rookie mistake. Yesterday morning I woke up when I heard her start babbling and turned on the video monitor to see what she was doing. When I saw her sitting up and grabbing for the front rail of the crib, I dashed down to her room to grab her before she could pull herself up. Robert lowered the crib mattress down to the lowest level, so now if she manages to pull herself up she can't get out...yet...

After we put her to bed last night, we watched her for awhile. She would roll over, sit up, play with lovey, lay down, roll over, sit up, play with lovey, repeat, repeat, repeat... After about 20 minutes we stopped watching her, so I have no idea what time she actually went to sleep. She does seem a little more tired today, though. Hopefully she'll eventually figure out again how to put herself to sleep quickly.

43 Weeks

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!