Monday, January 28, 2013

Sharing

There are a couple of things I love about this video. First, Claire has been hit and miss on stuffies but for the last few days it has not been uncommon to see/hear her as she crawls around the house with Toodee in one hand and Muno in the other. Second, it appears that Claire isn't the only one who's been watching Yo Gabba Gabba because Prince has learned that it's more fun to share.


Sunday, January 27, 2013

Bath Time

Baby Claire got a new bath toy for her birthday, so after her dinner it was into the tub for some clean fun.


At first all Claire wanted to do was try and drown her new new boat toy. After she decided that wasn't going to work she decided she would try to eat it instead. The picture of her playing nice with it was a moment of transition between her two plans.


She is trying out her old British woman aka Paul McCartney face.


Claire really wanted to know what was at the bottom of her cup. After some taste tests, she decided it was water of all things! Shocked and very excited that we had placed her in the same liquid that fills her beloved sippy cup, she did everything she could to try and get it in her mouth. 




Thanks for sharing bath time with us. Hope your water adventures are just as much fun!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Cupcake Smash: Take One




Yesterday my beautiful baby girl turned one. We'll be having a party on Saturday to celebrate, but we still wanted to mark the day itself. After Jeff got off work we bundled up Claire (who unfortunately is still fighting off a cold) and headed up to Napa for dinner at the Firewood Cafe and a special big girl cupcake from Sift for Claire.

Normally blurry photos don't make it up here, but I love that her face is like the eye of the storm.
I had planned on her birthday being the first time she would have a sweet treat, but her Papa couldn't wait that long and has already shared ice cream with her. Sweets are still a pretty big novelty for her though, so I was looking forward to seeing how she responded. I was shocked when my normally messy eater turned into a dainty little princess when presented with her first cupcake. Please forgive our singing. We didn't coordinate at all before we started and somehow we ended up singing like we were at a funeral or something.



She took a good twenty minutes to eat her little cake, and I swear she was cleaner afterwards than she often is after being spoon fed! I love her little lip smacks in this video.


And one final clip. This isn't the best example of Claire getting excited in her high chair, but it's still pretty cute. Sometimes when she gets really excited she'll stick her little arms and legs out and shake violently. The first time it happened I honestly thought she was having a seizure or something. This is a milder version of it and a definite sign that Baby Claire enjoyed her sweet treat.


I think Claire's cold counteracted any possible sugar high she got from her cupcake, and even though she ate it after 8:00, she was still in bed not long after 9:00. Her first cupcake experience was a success, and being the lucky little girl she is, she gets to do it all over again in a couple of days!

Her friends are never far during food time.



Saturday, January 19, 2013

Brushing Teeth

I had been a responsible mom and read up about how to care for baby teeth, but then six months went by with nary a tooth popping into my child's mouth. Apparently in that time everything I had read disappeared until suddenly last night I realized I haven't been brushing Claire's teeth. Insert mama guilt. At least this isn't as bad as the reoccurring baby dreams I've always had where I did something awful like forgot to feed my baby or left her in the bathtub alone for a day. Yeah, those were great, but on the plus side since having a real baby my bad mom dreams have stopped. Forgetting to brush Claire's teeth isn't nearly that severe, but I did feel pretty guilty. Then I picked this up at the store however, and now I'm just too consumed with the cuteness to feel guilty.



Of course before we could brush her teeth, we had to make sure they were good and dirty. Since I've started giving Claire real food she's discovered the fun of throwing it at me and the dog. I hadn't had to use my  mom voice during feeding time when she was only eating purees, but I think that's about to end. Since she's started getting squishy stuff she's also enjoying squeezing it in her hands until it comes out between her fingers and then flicking her hand until it comes off. Kids are great.


Claire doesn't really get the idea of what's going on when we try to brush her teeth, but she isn't fighting the process either. For the moment she mostly just seems intrigued by this new game called brushing Baby's teeth and wants to know if she gets extra points each time she bites down on the tooth brush. 





Monday, January 14, 2013

Sick Days


So a couple of things happened today. First, Claire and I were both sick and second, I found a new photo editing software. The latter isn't really important except for me to say that I went crazy trying to figure out what all the different setting were, and that's why all the pictures on this post are crazy. I was having fun. It won't happen again. I promise.

Anywho, the important part, we were very sick today. Claire had a little fever that topped out at 101.3 and I was back to being very congested. Some day the Asbury house will be back in good health, but it is not this day. I decided to turn this lemon of a day into lemonade so I  made it an opportunity to introduce Claire to an important sick day tradition, the TV marathon. 

Since we are nerds and Claire must learn to accept this, I picked the theme of her first TV marathon to be Star Trek. Lucky for us, Netflix has all the shows on demand. Its not like the old days where you had to go through shelf upon shelf of VHS tapes to find the episode that interested you or where you last left off. Within seconds we were snuggled in on the couch and enjoying as much Deep Space Nine as our (or my) little hearts desired. Claire was in and out of consciousness during all of this, but I think she enjoyed herself. In fact, I think she's planning to be "sick" again tomorrow so she can see what Dr. Bashir, The Chief, Captain Sisko and the rest of the crew are up to!  


My poor red cheeked baby girl, but feeling bad doesn't have to ruin your whole day.





Don't pause it Mama, just tell me what happened when I wake up.
 I couldn't bring myself to play with this one. Her little face was just too precious.
Well, the laundry pile in the other room may be threatening to become the tallest member of our family, and I am definitely ready for this plague to leave our family, but I still had a fun time introducing Claire to the lighter side of sick days.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Higher and Higher


Well we might not have a Gymboree anywhere near us, but we make due with what we have. This little girl will not be stopped!

Monday, January 7, 2013

Fact vs. Fiction


I know there are differing opinions on this topic, but I kind of like that mom blogs (and food blogs for that matter) seem just a little too perfect. Its a fine line between annoying and inspiring when they are that way, but when someone finds the balance then I've generally found a blog that I can enjoy. Their houses always look a little too tidy and well decorated, their children and husbands a little too well dressed and their stories would have you believe that their daily lives involve a lot of tip toeing through tulip fields. I find a little of that inspiring and then enjoy when they do a post that pulls back the curtain, letting the reader in on a bit of the reality of their daily lives. The part they don't normally photograph.

A glimpse behind the scenes is what I thought of when I opened Claire's door this morning. Good Lord Baby Girl. I did a post a while back highlighting her nursery, but honestly, this is how it really looks. I go through once or twice a day and put everything back together (it only takes a few minutes). It's really just resetting the clock for the destruction to begin again, but she likes it, and knowing that it's tidy for a little bit keeps me sane.

Oh and just a note on one of her new favorite games. The drawers are all open because she likes to either pull all her clothes out onto the floor (which isn't new) or move them to other drawers (which is new). The other day I was about to ask Jeff why he put all Claire's socks in the wrong drawer, and right before I opened my mouth to criticize him I discovered what our little girl had been up to. Delightful.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Finding Her Own Snacks

Claire has made a discovery. She now knows where her snacks live and how to access them. Luckily she hasn't figured out how to open the sealed tops yet, but that's only a matter of time. The day care lady at church is into Montessori style child care and she was praising the idea of having her snacks down low where Claire can access them herself, but I'm pretty sure that's just going to lead to me walking into the kitchen one day to find Claire and Prince feasting on several tins of cheesy puffs. We'll see. 


Hmm, what to have, what to have...


What's this?


Mmmmm, waffles. Yeah I want those.


Why won't these open? I need my cheesy puffs!


Claire has her appetizer and dessert picked out. Now what to have for the main course? Wait, why is she staring at me?

Thursday, January 3, 2013

One Less Obstacle

I'm a mix of excited and nervous about Claire's new ability to confidently go up and down the stairs. On the upside, she is most likely not going to try and go down them face first when we aren't looking anymore. On the down side, she can now get anywhere in the house on her own. Why haven't we bought baby gates yet?

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

11 months

Oh goodness, the one year mark is quickly approaching. A few days ago baby Claire hit the eleven month mark, and she is super excited about getting bigger and faster every day. At least I assume she's super excited and that's why she isn't napping as long these days! Although eleven months isn't really one of the big ones, I'm not all that good about doing updates on here, so I thought I'd take a moment to capture what Claire is like right now.

Stats
Claire in currently about 28 inches long, weights 20 lbs. and has no teeth. At least her hair is finally starting to grow a little bit. It's still fairly thin, but it's getting longer. We also think her eye color has settled into a nice hazel, and everyone still says she looks just like her Papa.

edit: I started writing this post yesterday and since then there has been a major change. Claire has a tooth! I had stopped checking for them a few months ago and just figured she planned to wait until after her first birthday. Now the sleeping section maybe makes a little more sense. We noticed a tooth last night when we were at the AT&T store getting a new phone and she let out a big yawn. If some bad sleep was all she suffered with her first tooth I think we got off easy!


Personality

Claire seems to have conquered her stranger danger and once again loves everybody. She doesn't even cry at her Uncle Shane anymore! Its nice to have my happy baby girl back and while she still prefers momma and papa, she'll give anyone a try.

Claire is still pretty cuddly, especially during sleepy times like first thing in the morning and before bed, but she likes her alone time too. While she's happy to play with people, she likes to sit in her room and explore on her own. She's getting to be an independent little lady. Sometimes if we've been out and about a lot, or around people all day, she just likes to sit with her familiar things for a while and decompress. Sooner or latter though she comes crawling to find us and have family time again.


Sleep

Our night time routine has stayed the same since she moved into her own bed. She still generally wakes up and eats once a night. I feel like this should have stopped by now, but she goes right back to sleep afterwards and so do I so its not so bad. She has been wanting to go to bed more between 8:00-8:30 instead of 9:00, but like her wake up time, it varies from day to day. These days she wakes up any time between 6:30 and 9:00, but averages around 8:00 am.

Until recently, Claire had a wonderfully predictable nap routine. An hour and a half after she woke up she'd go down for a two hour nap, and again around 4:00 or 5:00 she'd take another two hour nap. She would also normally put herself down for these naps without a horrible amount of crying. Lately however, she only wants to take one hour naps, and when it comes to when she takes them, well, she says that's none of my business. In addition to them happening at random times, she also wants to be rocked to sleep now. I'm hoping now that the holidays are over we can get her back on a good routine.


Movin' and Goovin'

Claire has places to be! My little lady that for so long seemed only interested in crawling to the next toy is now scurrying from one room to another like its a race. A common sound in our house now is Claire's  hands loudly slapping against the hardwood as she crawls down the hall and onto the next room that needs to be explored. She has become particularly fond of the bathrooms because a toilet with the lid down is really just a big drum.

Claire is surfing a lot and has become much more confident on her feet. Even in pj's that don't have grip she now has no trouble walking around in them. She also does the tip toe dance a lot these days as she tries so hard to get the ever so pretty remotes off of our TV trays. Since Thanksgiving she has started standing independently, but I don't think she understands how that is a bonus over surfing or crawling so it hasn't progressed to trying to take unassisted steps yet.

Baby discovered stairs in the last month. She just crawled over to them and with all the confidence in the world decided they weren't that big of an obstacle. After a try or two she can now go up them like a pro. On Christmas she made it up a full flight of stairs (under Papa's watchful eye of course) like it was nothing. Just today she finally started to get the idea of going down backwards. I think it will still be a little bit before she fully grasps the down idea, but she's getting there.

As her new love of stairs demonstrates, Claire is really excited about climbing on things. I'm going to be doing some research over the next couple of days to see if there are any gymboree type classes in our area for her. A few days ago we caught her using her new found climbing skills to climb into the dishwasher!


Her Favorite Things

Claire is still madly in love with Yo' Gabba Gabba. If I'd let her she'd watch it happily for hours, and for those times when nothing seems to make her happy, DJ Lance Rock is always there to save the day. We've already started collecting decorations for her first birthday which will of course be Yo Gabba Gabba themed. She has also started to watch a few other shows, though not with as much enthusiasm as Yo Gabba Gabba. She is now also fond of Word World (which I have a terrible time saying) and a little Sesame Street.

Toy wise Claire is also still devoted to her Little People and the ancient Sesame Street play set that is so old it probably is made with lead paint. I'm also pretty sure its a choking hazard but unless Jeff has a sibling I was never told about they all seem to have survived it just fine. She got quite a few new goodies for Christmas so we'll see how those all shake out over the next few months. She seemed particularly interested in a Little People car she got. I swear we now have enough Little People in this house for Claire to form her own army.