Spring Has Sprung

This has been a busy, although fun, month. Aside from this week, we've been having really great weather lately. Clara loves being outside. Unfortunately, we've also had a little bit of a challenging month because Brad spent most of the last month in Houston on a rotation. Clara and I really missed him and I know that it was hard for him to be away from Clara for so long, since she changes everyday. Luckily, he is back now. One of the upsides of Brad being in Houston was that Clara and I went to visit him during some of his days off and got to visit and stay with Scott, Amy, and Jackson. It was great to see them. Here are some pics from the last month.

We went to a park that had a little lake where you can feed the ducks.

Hanging out on the dock.

Jackson the Duck Whisperer.

Clara loving being outside.

She loves her sun hat.

Easter morning, next to her first Easter basket. I had to get a little creative since she can't have candy yet.

The tube that her new bath toys came in was her favorite present.

In her Easter dress, in a very ladylike pose.

A Typical Conversation

Clara at 7 & 8 Months

I've really dropped the ball on blogging lately. The Olympics were on last month, which is kind of a sad excuse. But if you know me, you know how much I love them. After taking care of Clara all day and catching up with the Games at night, there was no time.

Clara has really changed in the last two months. It sounds corny, but each stage really does get better. She is turning into such a funny and sweet little girl. Here are some developments.

*I'm not quite sure what she weighs, since she hasn't had a doctor's appointment since she was six months, but I think that she's at least 16 pounds, if not more. She's 27 inches.

*New sounds. She talks all of the time. Usually she is pretty loud (see previous posts' videos). But she has developed this really cute softer voice. She sounds more like she is actually trying to have a conversation with you. Her latest sound is W (as in wa wa wa wa wa). She also has started stressing certain sounds. She will raise the pitch of the final syllable of sounds that she makes, like she is emphasizing it. I'm trying to capture it on video but she tends to stop talking when she sees a camera.

*She loves standing up and can now pull herself up while holding my hands. It's one of her favorite things to do. She can also hold herself up while supporting herself on the coffee table.

*Still no crawling. She will lean on all fours but hasn't moved herself yet. She sometimes scoots by laying on her stomach, putting her butt up, and moving her legs.

*She's eating three little solid meals a day in between breast feeding. She has been doing oatmeal in the morning, a veggie or fruit in the afternoon, and a veggie or fruit (depending on what she ate in the afternoon) early in the evening. Her absolute favorite is roasted sweet potatoes with roasted bananas. It's a Tyler Florence recipe. She loves it so much that she dives into the spoon. She also loves apples, peas, carrots, and zucchini. She tried avocado last week and seemed to like it but I think the texture was still a little coarse for her. I'm going to try mixing more ingredients together and adding some seasoning soon. I also want to try chicken towards the end of the month.

*I have totally dropped taking her anywhere in her infant carrier. She's just too heavy for it. I take her floppy seat to the grocery store and restaurants so that she can sit in shopping carts and high chairs. She is two inches off from being too tall for her carrier, so we need to start shopping for a new car seat.

At the zoo with Daddy.

In her Valentine's outfit.

Playing.

Playing on her tummy.

My happy girl.

Clara at 6 months

Clara has changed so much over the last month. She now weighs a little over 14 pounds (20th percentile). She has gotten a lot more hair, although if you hadn't seen her before, you would never know that, because she is still pretty bald.

Also, her little personality is really starting to come out. She interacts a lot more than she did even a month ago. We have been going to a library story time for a few months now, and we have had play dates with some of the other kids that go. I think that it's been good for Clara to see and play with other babies. Some other things that Clara has been doing:

Talking. This isn't new, but she is making a lot more consonant sounds, like "ga," "ca," "da," "ta," etc. She has also developed a high pitched squeal that I liken to a dolphin. It's not my favorite but apparently it is a developmental milestone, so I guess it's good that she can do it?

Sitting on her own. She doesn't have it completely down, but she can sit on her own for maybe a minute at a time before she wobbles.

Kissing. At least I think that is what she is trying to do. She puts her mouth on my cheek and just freezes there for a minute.

She also has been really interested in my water that I drink while I feed her, so I let her try it one day. She enjoyed it, so I got her a couple of sippy cups and have been letting her practice. She doesn't have it completely down yet, but it's pretty funny to watch. She also does this really cute thing where whenever I am holding her and drinking water, she immediately puts her hand on the bottom of the glass like she is propping it up to help me drink. So helpful!

In not so great developmental news, she has really regressed in her sleeping patterns. Before, she was waking up once in the night to eat and went right back to sleep. It was great. Then out of nowhere she has started doing this thing where she either completely freaks out when we try to put her in her crib or she goes to sleep but then wakes up 30 minutes later and freaks out. It was really bad because when she first started doing it, Brad was on his month of nights. I was so exhausted that I ended up just letting her sleep in bed with me. Since Brad is here now, we have been better about making sure she is sleeping in her crib. I tried to let her cry it out one night. She kept it up for an hour and a half and I finally couldn't take it anymore.

She has been getting a little bit better, so hopefully she will come out of it soon and get back to her old self.

On another note, she loves playing in her exersaucer. Here is a video. The lighting is bad, but it gives you a good idea of what she does in it.

Solids as a Rock

Clara turned 6 months old on January 1. To celebrate, we started her on solid foods. She probably could have started them sooner, as she was exhibiting all of the signs that books and articles that I read said babies should be doing. However, I really didn't want to start too soon because it was so much easier to just nurse, especially since we were traveling at Christmas. But I have to say, I was really excited to see what she would do.

I first started her on rice cereal that I mixed with breast milk. I know...yummy! But that's what her doctor told us to start her on and I think that the texture and familiar taste was probably a good starting point for her.

She's was so excited to be in her big girl high chair!


She's a little skeptical, but she's trying it.


Even though the above picture does not convey it very well, Clara does like rice cereal. Since she handled that well, I decided it was time to try some vegetables. Her doctor suggested trying some veggies before fruits just so she wouldn't get used to a lot of sweetness.

I have been eager to make baby food for awhile. I decided to start with sweet potatoes. I roasted one for about an hour and a half so that it would get really soft. Then I pureed it in the food processor and added a little water to smooth it out. I thought it was delicious, but was disappointed that our first feeding went like this:



But then I read that it sometimes takes babies up to ten tries to accept a new food, so I decided to keep trying. By the third try, Clara really liked it.

This week I tried carrots. I tried baking them because I really prefer veggies prepared this way and I was able to find a baby food recipe that did this. Unfortunately, they were disgusting. They were really dry. So instead I steamed them and again, pureed and added water. They were pretty good, but not as good as the sweet potatoes. I think Clara might feel the same way, because she tolerates them but doesn't eat as much as with the sweet potatoes.

I will introduce her to a new food each week, so that I can make sure that she doesn't have any allergies. My plan is to try peas, green beans, and squash. I want to try a green veggie next. Then I might break it up and do some fruit. I want to try apples, bananas, and pears first. I can't wait until we finish the single ingredients and can move on to combinations.

Christmas in Maine

Ok, so I'm finally getting back to blogging. I was working on this last week and our computer froze and I got so fed up with it that I gave up.

We went up to Maine during Christmas week to celebrate the holidays with Brad's family. It was great to see everyone. We hadn't been up there since we moved down here, about a year and a half ago.

Although the travel days were long, Clara did really well. And she had her first celebrity sighting at the airport. Bruce Bowen, a Spur who retired last year, was in the security line with us and Clara kept staring at him (maybe because she has never seen anyone that tall before). He looked down at her at one point and smiled.

Clara had her own seat, which helped out a lot. Not only did she have her own space, but we had a row to ourselves, which made things like feeding her so much easier. And luckily we missed all of the excitement of blizzards and terror threats that were occurring during this time.

On Wednesday, Brad's parents had the family over for a great meal in which Brad's Dad made a fantastic roast (22 pounds if I remember correctly).

The ladies had fun visiting with each other.


The men had some bonding time as well.


Clara got to meet her first cousin once removed, Adney. Adney is Brad's Uncle Rob's baby. She is two months younger than Clara. Brad's sister, Kate, got this picture of an initial meeting. They were somewhat curious about each other. I don't remember Adney being bigger than Clara. Maybe it is just the camera angle? She certainly has Clara beat in the hair department.


For Christmas Eve, we went to Brad's Grammy's house. We opened presents from everyone except Brad's immediate family.

Clara loved her Aunt Kate.


She also thinks that gift wrap tastes great.


On Christmas morning, we opened presents at Brad's parents' house.

Here is Clara with her new stocking that Kate, Tim, Annika, and Gunnar got for her.


Annika, our niece, really took to her new cousin. She was giving me helpful advice on what Clara wanted and needed. Very Mother Hen.


Clara also enjoyed spending time with her Mimi.


Here she is enjoying a present with Dad.


Christmas morning is tiring!


We had a fantastic visit with everyone. It was great for Clara to get to see her Maine relatives and for them to be able to meet her. Things got a little difficult at the end of the trip because Clara was completely off her schedule and was not sleeping well. Still, it was sad to say goodbye to everyone. Brad and I are lucky to have such great families.

Birthdays

I had a great first birthday as a Mom yesterday. It's crazy to think that around my last birthday, I was beginning to tell people that I was pregnant. What a difference a year makes.

Brad had to work during the evening, but he made me a delicious breakfast. And my parents came over for dinner and cake. Brad is going to take me out to dinner on another night. We were going to go tomorrow night but have to wait and see if the snow in the forecast actually happens.

Clara of course did not know it was my birthday, but I felt like I was getting extra affection from her all day. I was actually thinking this to myself when she had her worst diaper accident to date that got all over my jeans, her clothes (new, of course) and the chair that we were sitting in. Happy Birthday to me! I don't even know how it got some of the places it got. Thank goodness for OxiClean.

In addition to my birthday, Clara turned 5 months old on Monday. She is growing up so fast! Highlights from the past month include:

Rolling over. This isn't really new, but she now does it all the time. It won't be too long before she's mobile, which is both exciting and scary for me. I know that it's going to be so much more tiring when she can move and get into things. It's nice to be able to put her down and know that she will be there when I get back. We still need to baby-proof parts of our house.

Laughing. She doesn't do it a whole lot, but it is definitely happening more often than last month. The thing that never fails to make her laugh is this clapping song that I sing to her. I move her hands in a clapping motion while I do it.

Loving songs and stories. She has always enjoyed these, but now she really gets into them. For about the last month, I have been taking her to a Baby Story Time at our library. It's only about 30 minutes and they do songs and short interactive books. Clara absolutely loves it. She smiles and focuses on the librarian the entire time. She also loves watching the other babies, especially the ones that can crawl.

I love watching her little personality develop! She is the best gift that I've ever received.