claire - seven months old

Claire at seven months - July 24, 2012 

 Uh, I have a seven month old? How is that even possible? She was JUST born!

Weight/Height: I took Claire to the dr the day before her seven month birthday and she weighed in at 14 lbs, 8 oz! Little girl might FINALLY be catching up - I am so proud of her!

Clothes: We are definitley out of the 0-3 month clothes and mostly in 3-6, but some 3 months don't fit either. Claire graduated to 6 month jammies, but still fits in 3 month onesies and shorts.

Eating Habits: Same as last month as far as bottles go. Claire has now had rice cereal, squash, zucchini, carrots, peas, green beans, applesauce and peaches. She's a good little eater! Which might explain the weight gain. She has three "solid" meals a day now: rice cereal and applesauce for breakfast, 2 cubes of vegetables for lunch and 2 different vegetables or fruit for dinner. By far, Claire's favorites are zucchini and squash. She merely tolerates the rice cereal (with applesauce mixed in only) and peas.

Sleep: Claire is still a rockstar in the sleep department. 8:30p to about 6-7a most days. Some weekends, she sleeps longer. Her sleep has been interrupted a little bit lately due to a persistent cough, but she's such a good girl and goes back to sleep as soon as she gets those coughs out.

Eye Color: Mostly brown, but I still a see a hint of blue if she's wearing the right colors. It doesn't fit in this category, but I  have to record for posterity's sake that this poor child has a bald tiger stripe on the back of hear head. I can't even count how many people have commented on it! Here hair is coming in nicely on top and is long in the back...except this one area where she lays her head down! It's hilarious, but I also can't wait for it to grow in.

Biggest accomplishment:

• The aforementioned eating habits are a big step. 
• She's also trying harder to sit up - she sits up for about a minute before she topples over, and she is trying to pull herself to the sitting position now (but can't quite get there).
• Claire enjoys her time in the exersaucer now. It's so cute to watch her jump around and really play with the toys. We usually put her in it while we eat dinner, and she jams the buttons so they play her favorite songs over and over.
• Claire started rolling over very consistently at the beginning of the month and actually seems to enjoy being on her tummy now.
• We think we've heard Dada a few times - though never directly to Bob.

How We Spend Our Day: Pretty much the same as last month as far as weekdays go.

On the weekends, we continue to take little girl anywhere and everywhere, but if we're home she naps for long stretches in her crib.

This is what happens when we try to pose with Mr. Bear!

Likes:

• Sophie the Giraffe
• Rolling
• Laughing

Dislikes  

• Being interrupted while eating (notice a pattern here?)
• Not being the center of attention

Favorite Moments: This month we took Claire to the beach for the first time and really enjoyed seeing her interact with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Danielle and Uncle John. Unfortunately, we paid the price when we got home b/c she was s-p-o-i-l-e-d for a week! Other than that brief time, she's been so much fun this month - really growing and acting like a little person! In fact, Bob and I often comment that she's such a "little person" now and we can't believe it!

Doctor's Orders: I took Claire to the doctor for a persistent cough right around her 7 month birthday. Fortunately (or un, depending on how you look at it), her ears look clear and so does everything else so no medicines to clear it up. We're waiting it out a bit longer, but we're all tired of hearing little girl cough so hard - most of all Claire!

Comparison:

beach catchup

I have so many photos on my big camera to load including our trip to the beach and the 4th of July, but I never seem to get them loaded! Our computer at home is on hiatus and while I could use Bob's laptop, I just haven't. In the meantime, here's a quick peak at our beach vacation via the iPhone camera. Let's be honest...most of the pictures from the trip were taken by the iPhone!

Happy! (On the way down at least)

A trip to see Grandma and Grandpa!

First (little) boat ride!

Toes in the sand

1. Enjoying the ocean 2. How Claire really liked to enjoy the ocean 3. Post-enjoying the ocean

Windblown

Happy Independence Day!

Someone needed her Daddy to ride in the backseat with her on the way home, so Tanner got promoted to the passenger seat!

if bob plants it, it will grow

I'll be the first to admit that I did not have high hopes when Bob told me he wanted to have a garden in our backyard.

Last year, he started with seeds in a few pots. This little monster took care of anything that tried to grow.

This year, Bob wanted to build a raised bed garden to keep the little monster out. Hmmm. Ok. We looked at them pre-made. Can we say, expensive? So in true Bob form, he decided he would just build one. Let me stop right here and say that this was still more expensive than I think it should be. But I can tell it will last and my dear husband assures me that he made it in such a way that it can be expanded and move with us when the time comes. Okay, okay.

My brother came to visit, and he and Bob tackled the bed together on a Sunday afternoon. It was built.

We ventured to Lowe's one day and remembered to buy seeds and potting soil. The bed was filled with soil.

The little seeds started out in a small container in our house. I should have took a picture, but my hopes still weren't high. Bob planted squash, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, green onions, bell peppers and cucumbers. A little ambitious, yes.

But what to my wondering eyes...they started to sprout!

The little seedlings were slowly transplanted to the outside garden bed.

They eventually started to get bigger...and bigger...until we had this! 

The squash took off first.

Somebody, and I won't name names (but it starts with a b and ends with a b!) planted more squash than he was supposed to and suddenly we had more squash than we could ever need!

Then, our lone zucchini plant bloomed. Although not as fruitful as the squash, we've seen quite a few zucchinis come out of Bob's garden. 

We used the fresh squash and zucchini to make my version of Ravioli Primavera...which is basically throw a bunch of vegetables in to saute in a pan full of butter and garlic and toss with pasta. Voila.

Since we had so much squash, and a few too many zucchinis, I decided to give the homemade baby food a try.

Steam. Puree with my nifty-difty hand blender, spoon into ice cube trays and freeze. Easy!

And Claire loved it all!

Yesterday, our first cucumber came into the house. We're still waiting on a few green tomatoes to turn red, bell peppers to grow some more and aren't sure if we'll ever know when our onions are ready or not!

So, here it comes. One time and one time only. I was wrong. Bob's garden was a success. I'm sure it will be even more successful in years to come. Especially when we figure out how to plan so that all of the plants don't bloom at once!

yum yum

In the past few weeks, we've introduced Claire to solid foods. Solid is a little misleading as they're really a nasty, gooey mess, but I digress.

Starting with the ever popular rice cereal mixed with formula, we received a confused reaction at first....

Mom, what is this? And what am I eating off of? Where is my bottle?

 ...followed by delight...

...later followed by disinterest (this really doesn't taste that good).

We've since mixed the rice cereal with a little sugar free applesauce to make it more appealing.

Soon after, we started fresh squash, then zucchini and now carrots.

A lot of squash made it into her belly, but a lot made it ON her belly too!

So far squash has been a hit, zucchini is definitely Claire's favorite, and carrots are not on our top foods list. Although they're not too bad when mixed with a little of the delicious zucchini. 

Mmmm...zucchini!

We have found that what works for Claire is feeding her the food in between bottles. If she is too hungry or too full, she won't eat it. Makes sense, but it took us trying a few things to figure it out. Claire now gets three meals a day in addition to her bottles. Rice cereal with applesauce for breakfast (though I am going to switch to oatmeal after this box is finished) and vegetables for lunch and dinner.

Next up...green beans!

claire - six months old!

Claire at six months - June 24, 2012 
(Please ignore the dog hair on my furniture. Ugh.)

This month's pictures were by far the hardest to snap. Claire's into everything she can reach now and is constantly putting her hands in her mouth. She is also the Queen of Drool, which explains the shine on her face. After a few minutes of photos, we were both over it. 

Weight/Height: 13 lbs, 1 oz and 24 1/2 inches long. Which puts her in the 5th percentiles. I'm still having trouble with how small she is, but Dr. B is happy, and I keep trying to remind myself that she's healthy - just small.

Clothes: 0-3 months; however, I'm happy to say that I think she is growing out of some of them. Finally. Dresses are still roomy, but rompers and sleepers and some onesies are starting to get too short. I feel confident that we'll be moving up (at least in the sleepers) in the next couple of weeks. Some 3-6 month outfits are fitting now, especially the little bubble outfits. And Claire is still in Size 1 diapers. Thankfully, since we were lucky enough to be gifted a couple of packages, and I want to use those up!

Eating Habits: Bottles are pretty much the same as last month: 7ish am (4 oz.), 9:30 am (6 oz), 1 pm (6 oz), 4 pm (6 oz), 6:30 pm (6 oz) and 3-4 oz right before bed (usually around 8:30 pm).

The big news is that we've introduced solids this month. Rice cereal first, to mixed reaction and this week we've added squash to the mix. At first, she really liked the rice cereal - even leaning forward and saying what sounds like "Mmm" to us. But she tired of it. We started mixing applesauce in it and that helped. So far the squash is a big hit. Must be b/c Bob grew it in our garden, and I steamed and pureed it. :) Not going to lie...it's a big mess when she eats, but a pretty cute mess!

We have learned, though, that it's best to feed her solids when she's not hungry for a bottle. If we give her the solids before the bottle, we have a ticked off little girl on our hands - especially if she sees the bottle. We're trying to time her meals in between bottles to help with that a little.

Sleep: Claire is still a rockstar in the sleep department. 8:30p to about 6-7a most days. Some weekends, she sleeps longer. Her sleep has been interrupted a little bit lately due to a persistent cough, but she's such a good girl and goes back to sleep as soon as she gets those coughs out.

Eye Color: Blue some days, blue-brown others.

Biggest accomplishment: The aforementioned eating habits are a big step. She's also trying harder to sit up and enjoys her time in the exersaucer now. It's so cute to watch her jump around and really play with the toys.

How We Spend Our Day: Pretty much the same as last month: Momma wakes up at 5:30 and gets ready for work. I wake Claire up around 6:30, she eats and then we head out the door around 7:15. After dropping her at school, I head to work. Depending on the day, Bob or I pick her up around 5:15ish. She usually takes a bottle soon after getting home, before Bob and I eat dinner. She hangs out with us while we eat dinner and then plays or snoozes afterwards. Then it's time for bath, jammies, bedtime snack and bed. Then Momma and Daddy straighten up the house, fix bottles for the next day and pack our lunches. Our time together passes very quickly during the week, but we make up for it on the weekend!

On the weekends - she sometimes sleeps a little later. We run errands, play, and if we're home, she takes a long (3 hours) nap over lunchtime. I think the weekdays wear her out b/c it's hard to sleep with all those babies, so she makes up for it on the weekends.We take Claire anywhere and everywhere and as a result, she's able to nap anywhere.

Likes:

• Playing with Molly Dolly
• Being told she's beautiful
• Laughing at Mommy and Daddy's silly faces
• Putting anything and everything in her mouth

Dislikes  (funny that these all revolve around eating)

• Eating solids when she's hungry
• When the milk doesn't come out fast enough
• Being interrupted while eating

Favorite Moments: Claire's little personality has really come through this month. Both Bob and I really enjoy the times that we can just lay around and make her laugh. It is the sweetest sound. Everyone tells me that they just get more fun as they get older, but I sure love this stage. We also enjoyed Claire's first trips to the lake and to the pool.

Doctor's Orders: Momma had the stomach flu this month and while it kept me down, it only hit Claire a little bit and she was a real trooper. I was so proud of her for being such a good girl while I was sick and Bob was out of town. She's still having a little trouble with her eye, but Dr. B wants us to keep up the drops and says that it's a clogged duct that will clear up as she gets older. We are also to add a third meal of solids each day in the coming weeks and work with Claire on sitting up more.

Comparison: