Grancee, Claire and Mr. Banana

Here's a few more cute photos from Easter. Claire and Grancee snuggled plenty this weekend, she definitely LOVES her grandparents.

Congrats to Aunt Annie and Danny G.

I feel like such a slacker, I noticed the voting had ended and forgot to congratulate you on your winning captions:

"Say Hello to My Lil' Toe"

"I don't know which piggy went to the market and which stayed home - but one of you went wee wee in my pants again"

A mini masterpiece is heading your way tomorrow. I'll post pictures to make everyone else jealous.

Easter Bunny Comes to Town

No time for clever commentary, I'm on my way back to LI. These pictures speak for themselves anyway. More photos of the Easter Bunny's visit to Cedar Brook Drive located here: link to album.







And here's the obligatory embedded slideshow. How I love google's picasaweb...

Blah, blah, bub, bub, bog... BOB! BOB!

Claire was a big hit at the Easter vigil this year. Her favorite part? Grandbob's stories of course.

Bob was lecturing and she took the opportunity to express her affection for her "bob bob bob." Her sweet little outburst was the cue for Mommy & Daddy to hang out with her in the kids' room. Once Claire fell asleep (stripped down to nothing but her onsie) we reentered the church.

She dozed for a while, but then all the people around her were singing...and she wanted to sing too! Since things weren't quite as solemn at this point in the service we kept Claire in the pew, much to the delight of the older women in front of us. One of the ladies happened to attend grammar school with Grancee's Dad...what a small world!


Enjoy these photos of Claire with her Grandbob. Can you believe she's in a dress?! Dan kept saying to her, "poor baby - this is worse than Halloween!" Ceil seems to think Claire is going to turn out to be a girly-girl and assures her granddaughter there will be lots of pedicures and manicures in her future. Note Claire's new trick - sitting up unassisted (albeit for short periods of time). As always, click for full size images.

The Amazing Rolling Baby

Our happy baby has returned. Phew.

No Smiles Today

There are no smiling pictures of Claire to post today because there is not a smiling baby to be found in this house. Poor kiddo, she's definitely in the throes of teething and there is nothing that is making her happy. I actually took her to the doctor yesterday to rule out an ear infection. I get them pretty bad myself so I was hoping that wasn't causing her discomfort.

Saturday night around 3:30 she work up SCREAMING and could not be soothed. I strapped her into the Ergo and did the "mommy jiggle" and eventually she just passed out. This is actually the first time this has ever happened so don't feel too badly for us.

Dan and I looked at each other on Sunday morning and said "is this what people go through for months at a time?" We have been blessed with such a happy baby, she would wake up (even as a newborn) with a few squeals or coos and then nod back off to sleep once she nursed.

After a repeat performance of the 3AM howls on Sunday night, I marched her off to the doctor (ugh...the dreaded "sick child" waiting room) and he recommended trying a carrot to gnaw on. Oh, did I forget to mention she no longer wants anything in her mouth, including me? If you've nursed a child before - you know it's a mutual need to nurse. Eeek...I was about ready to explode.

The carrot seemed to provide some comfort (or distraction), so I snapped a few photos of her. Maybe I'll put these teary-eyed pictures in an Easter card and ship them off to family.

Claire slept well last night (quite the sigh of relief from the Daddy who did not want to sleep in the guest room again) and we're hoping tonight goes well too. We've stocked up on baby orajel and threatened the baby deportation via gypsy (haha, remember when we used to tell you that Laurie?). I'm sure we'll all sleep well tonight.

One Ring to Rule Them All

I posted not too long ago about Claire “gathering.” Over the past week though, she’s been reaching out with one hand – a big milestone according to our pediatrician. It’s fun to watch her as she grabs the links (a new favorite toy) and chomps away.

In other news, Claire has a new fur cousin named “Dulche.” Amanda’s little pooch delighted Claire as you can clearly see in the following picture. Heehee, it was early so I was only allotted one shot, but the night before Claire giggled at the puppy. It was rather momentous – her first chuckle at visual, usually we have to tickle her.

Back from the Doctor...

Grow baby grow!

Here are Claire's 5 months stats:

Current weight: 15.75 lbs
Length: 27.5"
Noggin' 16.75"

She has grown so much since her birth:

8 lbs and 2.5 oz
21 inches long
14 inch head circumference

The doctor wanted to know how tall Dan was since she is sooooo long and jumped a few percentiles in height. No wonder all her pants are "high waters." Most importantly, we have a happy and healthy daughter who delighted everyone in the office with her babbling "rah rah rah, bleeeeh." Claire didn't mind her shots today either, just gave an "uhn" sound and proceeded to chew on her toes.

 

Claire's love affair with her toes continues. She's finally able to get them into her mouth and has been sucking on her piggies for the better part of an hour as type this. She rolled over back to front yesterday and has done it tons of times since then (good thing because I missed the first time it happened).

 Claire gets pretty frustrated with this rolling though, once she's on her tummy her beloved toes are out of reach (she has yet to discover the cirque du solei move where you put your toes behind your ears while on your belly).

Here are a few photos of Claire with her Mommy. She's sporting a mohawk with what little hair she has left. Daddy put up with the papparazzi long enough for me to get a few sweet photos of him and Claire hanging out together. These are from about two weeks ago and I think she's looking bigger already.

 
 

When it rains...it pours

After a long hiatus, we're back. Claire's great-grandmother passed away on the 13th so we spent some time on the island helping out Pop. I was very close to my grandmother, and although I'm sad at her passing I can rejoice in the fact that she got to meet Claire. At the wake, Claire babbled at Nanny - I think she would have liked that :-)

To add to all the drama, Grandma Ca Ca took ill as well. She's still in the CCU but it looks like she'll pull through. Today she's getting a trach which should make it easier for her to be weaned off the ventilator. She is conscious though, and has been madly scribbling notes requesting books and that I not trip over anything in her room. Apparently my ninja speed makes her nervous.

Life has definitely been crazy these days. Today it's finally going to be warm enough to walk and I am going for a looooong one.

Unfortunately, we missed posting on Valentine's day, but here are the photos of Claire celebrating (you might recognize some from the "Eat your heart out" banner). I also wanted update the blog with some photos of Aunt Annie hanging out with Claire.







You can view all *60* of the photos from our Valentine's day shoot in the slideshow below, or snag 'em individually from my picasa web gallery here:

Valentine's Photos