A Blog Entry by Claire

                               

Look at me! Mommy is trying to nap because I woke her up at 5:30 this morning (teehee) so now I can get some time in surfing the Internet. Aren't I cute updating the blog? I had to stand on my tiptoes to reach the keyboard.

Here are photos of my Mommy and Daddy. They're always posting MY picture, so now I'll post theirs. Of course I'm showing my sweet mug off too. Au reviour my fans! Leave a comment, Mommy always reads 'em to me. I'm sure she'll be just tickled that I've been banging away on her keyboard.

          

          

First Steps!

Claire took her first steps yesterday (Sunday, July 27) - hooray! I was in the living room with Claire and after spending SIX hours in the car she was so happy to get some floor time in. She pulled herself up on a dining room chair and then did a little two-step in place and then ventured forward with the other foot. I scrambled to find Dan so he could see, but the show was over. Fast forward to this afternoon when I was sitting on the ground and Claire WALKED from my ankles, three steps and then fell into my arms with a huge smile on her face (total distance traveled was maybe 2 feet).

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture Claire's first steps (contrary to popular belief, I don't always have the camera trained on her) but here are a few new snaps of her standing outside last night. In the first picture where she's showing off her crouching skills, I think she was after a bug In the second picture I gave her a nasturtium to hold...which she promptly ate. I guess the spiciness doesn't bother her! So much for my prop though <sigh>.

Who Needs Toys?

It seems that Claire (and babies in general) appreciates most the "impromptu" toys we find around the house. She loves to play with tupperware and banging on pots and pans with a spoon keeps her busy forever! When visiting McManda this weekend, Claire really got into playing with this plastic cup we gave her. When it finally got too cracked (and slobbery) to play with it, all hell broke loose. It seems that our little angel is developing quite the temper. Good thing McManda (and her cute puppy) were around to provide a diversion.

Playdate with Claire

         

Our time with Claire playing games is no longer one sided! This past week I've noticed Claire crouching behind the toy chest in the living room. She pops into a stand with a smile on her face, but I couldn't say for sure whether this was a game, or just another attempt at standing. Breaking news - she's definitely playing Peek-A-Boo! Claire is now hiding her face behind her dress and waiting for the magic words and then out pops a giggling baby to surprise and delight her Mommy & Daddy. Here's some photos so you can play too!

                        

Milestones

I forgot to post that our little munchkin is finally saying "Mom" and "Dad." It sounds like a "muhmuhmamama" when she wants me and Dan is known as "duh-dy (spoken quickly and repeated at least three times). Claire looks right at us when she says our names (oh God, we're Mommy & Daddy to someone).

Here are the upright pictures I promised earlier today. What a big girl!

Our hydrangeas are in full bloom so of course I had to use one as a prop. I just wish I could get Claire to smile while examining the flowers. After trying all kinds of noises and frantic arm waving motions (which I'm sure cracked up my neighbors), I gave up and settled on a serious faced portrait instead. Oh well. I did manage to get ONE outside where she smiling. As always, I took waaay more photos than can fit in one blog entry. You can find the others here in my online album, or watch the slide show below.

Long Awaited Updates!

I know, what a slacker Mom I am...almost 2 weeks have gone by without updates. I was expecting riots and got them -

"CLAIRE BEAR JUNKIES OF THE WORLD, UNITE! WE NEED MORE PHOTOS ASAP!" - Aunt Annie
"Update your blog!" - McManda
"Austin says that he won't come out to play until there are new pics of his cousin, Claire." - Aunt Annie

Especially from Aunt Aunnie...but can you blame her baby fever? Her first grandchild is due TODAY, boy oh boy!

In my defense, my hands have been busy helping Claire toddle about. Claire is so enamored with walking right now. When we were on LI last week she happily pushed her stroller around the hospital dining room for hours at a time, and did she ever sleep well those nights! Back home, Claire is walking behind her little car or attached to our fingers waddling around the living room (screeching half the time).

I felt badly that she didn't have much maneuvering room in the living room so I had to rearrange the furniture a bit, which led to more child-proofing...you get the picture.

Claire is standing for long periods of time, waving her arms around and shaking toys while standing too. She'll be taking those first steps any day now. I'll get outside and take some photos of her standing today - and post them tonight, I promise.

Claire's Giggle

I've written many times about Claire's sweet giggling. Hear it for yourself in the video below. I'm not sure which she found more amusing - the plush dog tickling her or chewing on her spoon.

Twins' Birthday

Justin & Ryan's Birthday Bash

Pics and entry to come later - for now enjoy photos of the festivities via the link above. :-)

Resemblance?

A snippet from an email Dan sent me regarding Claire's 9 Month Photos:

Yay! The mamarazzi has struck again!
The pics at the end look like this poster:

What do you think? Should we rename Claire after Rosie the Riveter? Of course after reading the Wikipedia article I've learned that this poster is not actually Rosie, but you get the idea. Read this article for details.

Nine Months Old

It's the ninth of the month and time again to celebrate Claire's "birthday." I find it hard to believe that nine months have passed since Claire joined our family, sometimes it seems as if she was just born and other days it's hard to imagine what life was like without her. 9 months of pregnancy seemed to take forever, how quickly time moves once a baby is born.

Here are some photos from today's early morning shoot. I'm trying out a white backdrop for easy editing in Photoshop at a later time - these were quickly edited in Picasa (lots of fun and free if you don't already have it).

Here's a link to all the photos and a slideshow is below. It's not quite as fancy as the 8 month slideshow but I'm sure you will all enjoy seeing Claire dressed up as a girly-girl in her sundress.

The wicker chair has some special significance in my family. It's from the wicker store my cousins Joanne & Antoinette owned and it's been a fixture at my grandparents house for as long as I can remember. The previous resident was "Wrinkles," the talking puppet who lived in it for about 20 years. My grandfather recently passed the chair along to Claire, who is thrilled to have another toy to pull up on.

My Papoose

Oh how we love our Ergo! I'm thinking a trip to the washing machine is needed for this week, but I'm petrified it will lose some of it's "magic."Claire spends hours each day happily "up up Mommy's back" which is great since I have my hands free to do other things (like blog, wink wink). On the other hand, she's been cutting her teeth on the straps and now they seem to be discoloring a bit. Ewww...here we come washing machine.

Baby's First Brew?

Here are the previously mentioned photos from the company picnic. Did Claire enjoy her first brew? You'll have to ask Daddy and the photographer, Mommy wasn't around for this one.

Claire's Teeth!

Tooth number one is out and through the gum. I managed to snap a few pictures to show it off. The tooth's partner seems to be near poking through too, I can see a gap in her gum where it's starting to come up. How exciting! Aside from Claire's teeth, not much else is

new. Claire's still enjoying new foods (mangoes, blueberries...and an accidental sampling of refried beans) and we've been spending a lot of time swimming.

I'm hoping to have some pictures to share this week from Dan's company picnic. There are some funny ones of Claire sucking on a beer bottle - I was NOT present for this one ;-)In the meantime, here's Claire learning to eat spaghetti. Doesn't it look like she's slurping it up?