Invisible

My daughter has discovered a magical secret about our house. She has learned that if she stands in a specific spot in the living room, even though it's in plain sight, she turns invisible. She's milking this for all it's worth because she knows it's only a matter of time until we grown ups figure it out and ruin the game. Until then, this will continue.

Mama's Little Helper

Claire loves laundry day. Mostly she spends it jumping onto piles of dirty clothes and wearing underpants like a scarf. Today, however, she decided she had watched for long enough and was ready to lend a hand.

Sunday

Sunday we had our open house, so while Jeff went to Sacramento to play golf with Shane, Baby Claire, Helen, Prince and I all headed to Muir Beach. I feel like beach days always sound better in theory, and then when you get there its kind of windy and not quite what you imagined it would be. I think part of the problem is Claire isn't quite old enough to appreciate the beach for long periods of time. I think beaches with babies are perhaps better enjoyed when you are renting place nearby and can come and go through out the day. To my surprise though Claire's reaction to the ocean was not to be afraid but to run at it and try to catch the waves as they receded  The beach has a little creek running behind it and it widens into a splashing area which Claire sat in for quite a while playing and having a good time. Next time I will definitely wear my swimsuit instead of normal clothes. You can only get so wet and sandy before all you want is a dry pair of clothes and some hot chocolate. Also, how do other moms manage all the sand when it come to babies? Claire ate a lot (which I was cool with) and got a lot, well, everywhere (which I was less than cool with).

Proof that my daughter kept her hat on, and that she loves Auntie Helen.

Towards the end of our day the wind really started to pick up . The result was Claire perfecting her flying nun  impersonation. 

This picture is really more about Prince looking like a good boy.

Once we got home and Claire had rested up, she found a burst of energy and spent a half an hour doing this over and over.

I think there might have been a demon inside the Hooka Room, and Claire was trying to warn me about it. I can only imagine she vanquished him herself because when I went in to check on things I didn't see anyone. I think its time for Claire to get her very own play house.

After so much play Claire needed to refuel and ate her first piece of fruit like a big girl. By the time she was done that pear was just a little ball of the core.



And of course no day would be complete without an injury. She fell and scraped her knee on the concrete so bad she bled and got her first band aide. All in all a very full Sunday.

How to Explain Growing Up (in the least grown up way possible)

I often forget that I'm a grown up. I know, you'd think the baby would tip me off to my adulthood, but no. I have definitely hit the point where I can understand where people are coming from when they say, "but I don't feel [insert age]." When people say that they are visualizing how they saw people their age when they were ten years younger and lacking the slow trek that brought them to their current age and has changed them from the person they used to be. I recently took a look back on my own trek and discovered a very personal change that I have experience several times now. Each time it has happened marks a growth in who I am and who I've made room to love. Allow me to take a moment to talk with you about my zombie preparedness plan.

My zombie preparedness plan has gone through many changes, and I originally wrote this post with a detailed explanation of it's evolution, but then it was really long and I figured none of you wanted to read all that, so here is the nutshell version. I have people whom I love spread across Northern California, should the zombies begin to spawn here I have choices to make about who I would try to get to to form my band of post-apocalyptic survivors. The biggest changes were the people I would round up, and the order I would get them in. I couldn't tell you the exact date when it happened, but at some point a little alarm went off inside me alerting me to the fact that should the end come I needed to find Jeff,even if that meant making risky decisions to search for him. I had gotten nice and comfortable with this notion and for a long time my zombie preparedness plan remained basically the same. Then something crazy happened. We had a baby, and I understood that if it came down to Claire or Jeff's survival I would pick Claire. Ouch.

It's a strange moment when you realize that you would abandon your spouse to save your child. I don't love Jeff any less than I did before Claire was born, in fact, I love him more than ever. I also don't love Claire any more than I love Jeff. I would leave Jeff behind because I believe that when we became parents something primal changed within us that put her safety above our own. We made a little life and it's our job out of love for her, and love for one another, to protect her. I would consider it an act of love for Jeff to leave him behind if it meant saving her because I know that would be the choice he would want me to make for our family. I'm not saying I would shoot him in the leg to distract the zombies from chasing Claire and me, but if a zombie hoard broke into the house and started attacking Jeff, I would grab Claire and run.

I don't think there is anything uncommon about this revelation. I imagine this is how most parents feel, but when you experience it yourself it's a little unsettling. I also imagine most people don't think of this change in terms of zombies, but I am who I am. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make sure our zombie packs are all ready to go. Stay vigilant.

Bay Area Discover Museum

Last week Ruby and I took Baby Claire to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito. It's a beautiful location right on the bay and the museum is right at the base of the Golden Gate. Ruby ended up being a little late so Claire and I spent a little time admiring the view from the snug warmth of the car.

The museum is broken up over several buildings each one having a different theme. For Claire's age the Tot Spot was the building most suited for her. One room was wetlands themed and had three "ponds" that were basically water beds for the kids to run around on. Two of them had a tunnel running between them (which Claire thought was delicious) and the other was enclosed like a little cave. The other room was dessert themed with a cave tunnel to crawl through, lots of padded areas for them to crawl over and a giant shape sorter. Outside in the Tot Spot there is a raised creek that starts up high with a water fall and then snakes back and forth around until it flows to ground level. They also had an area with tons of wooden xylophones that the kids could play while bubbles drifted around them from a machine.

When we first got there I wasn't horribly impressed, but once I saw the pure joy on Claire's face as she ran madly from place to place I knew that I was wrong. This place was indeed awesome and can't wait to take Jeff there sometime soon.

Ruby made a little friend who brought her a skunk outfit to wear around. She tried to share it with Claire latter, but Claire had very strong feelings against dressing like a skunk.

I could not keep her from tasting the water and eventually figured whatever disease she was going to get from it she already had. I even tried giving her a paci but she just started dipping it in the water too.

These little aprons where just too precious. 

This pretty much sums up the day. Claire running from one thing (the water) to another (the xylophones) so fast that we didn't have time to get her out of her apron and get her shoes back on. 

I swear she was having fun, she just takes her music super serious.

Claire had to get in one last xylophone session before we left. As we passed them she started struggling against me and when I put her down she made a run for it back to the xylophones.

Most of the pictures I tried to take in this room turned out like this. Claire wanted nothing to do with staying still.

Of course, being the Claire that we all know and love, she couldn't go a whole day at a place specifically designed for kids to play safely and not hurt herself. The creek had a little bridge with stairs on it that she managed to fall down and land forehead first on the concrete. Then she managed to find the one rough spot on the stumps that were in the xylophone area and scrape her cheek on it as she bent down to pick up a stick. That's my little lady.

Mother's Day 2013

I don't know if all new moms go through this, but I think the first few Mother's Days seem a little strange. It seems wrong to think of celebrating yourself on that day when (thank God) your own mother is still very much alive and has always been the one that the day is suppose to be about. In addition, there are also the other mom's in the family that are just as special and deserve to be celebrated. I'm hoping that in the next couple of years we find a nice tradition for celebrating that balances these things, but I'm still having fun as we figure it out. I mean come on, how can you not have fun with these little cuties.

Claire enjoyed getting to hang out with her little cousins. Look at that hair. These three definitely look related.

Claire also spent some time trying out future professions. Here she trying doctoring.

Here she tries bestowing her divine blessing. I'm assuming she's practicing being a pastor or something, not god.

Last she tried being a socialite who's too busy texting, yet everyone still wants to be her friend.

 She also learned that no matter how much the boys love you

you got to be your own person and do your own thing.

Hope everyone else had a good Mother's Day either being made to feel special or showing their own moms how special they are! 

Flower Child

OK Jennifer, I know you probably have some young girls in your family who would love to be your flower girl, but are they as skilled or dedicated as our Little Miss Claire? It's still over a year a way and she's already practicing! 

What actually happened was I was out front watering the sod and turned my back on Claire for just a second. During that time she managed to pluck every single flower from one of the plants in our front bed. At first I was a little frustrated at her naughtiness,  but then she proceeded to pick up all the flowers and fill her shoes up with them. Come on, that's adorable. In fact, it was so cute that those dang shoes are still sitting on my counter filled with flowers because I couldn't bring myself to throw them out. I might actually get this picture printed and hang it on my wall. I'm smitten.

The New E Ticket Ride

Thank God for the simple pleasures in life. A leaky hose connection is Claire's water park, empty pain cans make the perfect new drum set and the carts at Home Depot beat anything this fabled Disneyland has to offer her. The longer we can keep this illusion going the happier, and less poor, we shall be.

Coping

Earlier this week Claire had a really rough day. She was teething and was sick with a fever that topped out at 102.3. Not the end of the world, but she sure thought it was. I think she cried more tears that day than all the other tears she's shed combined. I finally went to the store after Jeff got home and bought every teething remedy I could find. The tooth still hasn't broken the skin, but whatever bug she had has passed and she's back to being a happy baby.

I just had to share the like mother like daughter moment this picture captured. We both cope through the trials of life with a little woe is me and A LOT of cuddles with Jeffry. Even the roughest day doesn't seem so bad when he's around.

Easter 2013

We had a wonderful Easter this year filled with food, family and an egg hunt that Claire actually got to participate in!! Honestly, I didn't really think this year would be that different than last year since Claire still isn't running around, but I was pleasantly surprised when she was able to collect a few eggs. OK, so we helped a little bit by leading her to where the eggs were. It was all her doing however, to decide what she was suppose to be picking up and putting in her basket. OK, so we practiced at home a little bit before the big day, but still, she did awesome. The biggest distraction for her were the eggs she'd already collected. She kept wanting to pull them out and inspect them instead of looking for more.

We didn't let her dye eggs, but she had fun trying to put stickers on them.

Easter baskets for everyone!

I love how her little skirt poofed out when she'd squat.

Claire can't decide which egg she likes best.

The rest of the day was spent eating tasty food and hanging out with our family and friends. We ate a delicious ham lunch, played Ticket to Ride and drank more wine than one should on a religious holiday! I can't wait for next year when Claire can be running around the yard carrying her own little basket, but this Easter still proved to be a lot of fun and pretty darn cute to watch.

14 Months

In keeping with the randomness of my updates one Claire, here is one for her very important 14th month.

Stats:
Claire is 28.7 inches tall and weights about 21 pounds. She still only has three teeth all of which are on the

bottom but her fourth is working at coming in now.

Speech:
Claire has a real word! Jeff and I differ on what her first word was, but this is my blog so I'm claiming it as kitty. Whenever she sees Blanket and gets excited she sounds just like Boo from Monster's Inc. That is the only word she regularly uses in its proper context right now, but she understands a decent number of basic instructions. Of these the most important is that she reliably understands and responds to being told no.

Sleep:
I think we are now officially sleeping through the night folks. Hallelujah thank you Jesus. Whew. I mean, you really do just get used to being tired, and that truth isn't as depressing as I thought it was before I had a kid. I do seem to have amnesia about Claire's first summer though and keep getting excited thinking that this coming summer will be her first. Then of course I remember that we already had a summer with her in which we did all the fun water and outdoorsy things that I'm looking forward to doing again. My only explanation for this amnesia is that I was even more tired than I realized!

Personality:
Claire can be a little bit of a stinker these days and can throw a tantrum when she gets frustrated,  but as long as I'm not asking her to wait for food she is a pretty happy girl. She enjoys having people over to the house and showing off her new skills as she walks from one person to the next. Of course she still is pretty attached to Jeff and I but as long as we're near by she likes to visit with new folks too.

Movin' & a Groovin':

Claire doesn't appreciate people who don't share.

Claire is getting more and more confident in her walking abilities these days. She's still most comfortable crawling, but she is now choosing to walk to get somewhere close instead of crawling. Her limit of unassisted walking is somewhere around 10-12 steps but she gets a little farther every day, and she's picking up speed. She still likes to use her walkers to go long distances, and if she can't find a real walker she'll make one out of anything that's handy. So far boxes, desk chairs, TV trays and high chairs have all been turned into improvised walkers.

Favorite Things:

Claire is still madly in love with her puppy dog. Her new favorite thing to do is to sit on top of him while he's laying down. Prince is pretty understanding with her but one of these days he's going to decide to get up while she's on top of him. That is going to be remembered as either the day she learned how to ride a dog or the day she got a giant goose egg on her head. It will most likely be the latter.

The new thing Claire seems most fond of doing is hanging out in the front yard. Since we put in the new sod the weather has been really nice, so I've been taking her out with me when I go to water the yard. She plays in the puddle created by a leak in the hose while I get my chores done. We've stained a few pants this way, but she couldn't be happier so it's a sacrifice I can live with. I'm really looking forward to more water related activities this summer and getting one of those water splash tables for her to play with.

Claire has expanded her TV palate and now also gets excited to watch Sesame Street. I am very happy with this new development since I can probably recite most of the first two seasons of Yo Gabba Gabba by heart. Also, Sesame Street is sooooo much quieter to have on. This mama is pleased. In preparation for our Disneyland trip in September we've started showing her some Disney movies as well. She's enjoyed Lilo and Stitch, Tarzan, Pocahontas and WALL-E so far.

Gardening With Grandma

Ever since I was a little girl, gardens have been a constant in my life. I remember my mom's giant raised beds from the perspective of a little girl up in Grass Valley. In my memory her garden stretched on forever and the green of the plants towered over me. In Indiana she had rows of corn growing in the ground, and we lived in hate of the beetles that liked to devour those delicious kernels as much as we did. She had raised beds filled with potatoes that were like little hidden treasures. When it was time to harvest them we'd pull buckets of spuds out of the ground and spread them out on the back porch. Also in her raised beds were wax beans, but well, lets just say I had one enemy in her garden. When we moved to Sacramento half the back yard was set up with raised beds, and in that space my mother grew the biggest tomato plants I have ever seen. We stuffed ourselves with BLT's all summer and enjoyed chili with canned tomatoes in the winter.

Now we have a new generation to pass the gardening bug onto, and this last week my mom did her best to do just that. While I was working on a new flower bed my mom and Claire planted potatoes together. I kept getting distracted from my project by the cuteness of the two of them playing in the dirt. It seemed only right that Claire got her first gardening lesson from the same person who gave me mine. 

 You will note the amount of mud around Claire's pacifier in the video. That happened in the picture right above it. I was going to take a photo of Claire inspecting a handful of dirt and just as I was snapping the photo she shoved the handful of dirt into her mouth. I just tell myself that she is learning how to test soil quality. Also note her pants from the knees down. That's not a shadow, that's mud. Le sigh. 

Baby Wrestling

For the last few days I have been waiting for Claire to look up at me and say, "Mama, cocaine's a helluva drug." She has been going 90 miles an hour and just having a grand old time. Earlier today, while she was wearing my dirty shirt and destroying a pile of laundry, she decided it was time to try wrestling. I've been wrestling with her for a while now, but she hasn't really wrestled back until today. Even though I am now covered in baby drool and she has a red mark on her forehead, it was totally worth it.

Towards the end of the video you can't see it, but Prince decided to get in on the action and attack me from behind.

While we were wrestling she kept trying to dive into my lap. I caught her before she smashed into the floor. Well, I caught her every time but once.

Luckily my little girl is a trooper and after a few hugs came back at me with determination, and a small red battle scar.

A Wakin', A Wavin' and A Clappin'

In the last week Claire has made walking, waving, and clapping a part of her routine. The last two she's been doing for a while, but now they seem to have taken on real meaning in her communication. She claps when she's proud of something she's done or excited about something, and its not uncommon now for her to wave goodbye. Her wave before was actually more of a grabbing gesture because she wanted something, but now she's developed a gentler version to say goodbye with. Of course for the video she made me repeat myself several time even though she'd been waving every time I said good bye all morning, but that seems to be the nature of trying to capture anything cute she does on my camera. Though she did do it right before she took off so it was actually a goodbye.

The walking really just started yesterday, and at first she was only interested in doing it for Papa, and only if you caught her firmly standing of her own free will and called her over. Now she is happy to do it for both of us and will do it over and over again when we stand her next to something she can hold onto. I thought she'd be encouraged to walk because she'd eventually learn it's a better way to get around, but she's too good of a crawler for that. What seems to be getting her to do it is that it's become a game full of praises and giggles.

While I am super excited about the new possibilities Claire walking opens up in terms of activities she can participate in, I'm also aware of the fact that this is a new big step in taking care of her. Keeping up with a fast crawler is work enough, but it won't be long now before she's running from one bit of mischief to the next.

Claire's First Year Video

I just realized I forgot to post this on here for any of the folks who weren't able to make it Claire's party, or who just need a little cuteness pick me up during their day. The first song is actually a David Bowie cover of his song Kooks. I don't know that I've ever loved a Bowie song outside of his little drummer boy duet with Bing Crosby, but the line "but if you stay with us you're gonna be pretty kooky too" just made it the perfect fit. Poor Claire,you are doomed to being a bit of a kook with parents like us, but don't worry, it's more fun to be a kook.

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.

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!

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.