Happy Birthday Grandma Caca!

We celebrated Grandma Caca’s birthday here on March 13 (she was turning 29 if you wanted to know), and while the party we were originally planning to surprise her with got rained out, we had a great little party. Linda and Sandy joined us for the weekend and Claire hammed it up as usual.

 

  See the balloons below? Caca graciously left one behind for Claire and it is STILL happily floating around the house. Claire grabs a hold of the string and jumps along shouting, “yook, I’m froating like the balloon!”

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Afternoon

The “January Thaw” appears to be upon us and we’ve been spending a lot of time at local parks with friends. The temperature rose to 40 degrees today and it was wonderful to meet up with friends at the park for some time in the sun. Isabella asked her Mom if she could push her baby in her pram this morning and all the girls (and their parents) agreed that it would be a great idea. Baby John (Isabella’s new baby brother) slept most of the playdate - apparently the sheer number of girls around him was too much to handle. His billy-goat bleets for milk amazed Claire and every noise he made called for her investigation.

Claire couldn’t decide if John, or the girl’s pretend babies were more interesting. She was especially taken with the realistic ‘piggy toes’ on Katie’s doll.Of course there were a few examples of some negligent doll parenting:

Exhibit A: Enthusiastic toddler dumps out “Huggy-Baby” in a rush to join the stroller parade.

Exhibit B: Isabella demonstrates some, errr, ‘interesting’ doll sitting techniques.

The three girls had a blast playing on the playground and walking a slow quarter mile pushing their babies. There was lots of stopping for a stroller version of bumper cars and much mud puddle squashing led by Claire. We enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch as a group and once it was Baby John’s naptime Claire and I strode off into the woods to check out the local wildlife scene.

Claire was just awestruck with this one tree’s yawning trunk. Look at the size of that hole! I’ll be she was planning a way to hole up in there for the winter much like the main character in “My Side of the Mountain.”

Claire found lots of soft moss to pet and some very cool lichen and mushrooms growing on the side of some dead trunks. The going was a bit muddy so I abandoned the stroller and let Claire walk a bit (Huggy-baby riding tandem with Claire in her own stroller at this point). I can say that having Claire traipse through the woods for a few hours is a great way to tire her out, what a sound nap Claire is having at the moment!

Fresh air and friends, a good afternoon indeed. The full album is below, lots of great picture of fellow friends Isabella and Katie so Mommies be sure to check them out and let me know if you want a full resolution version.

Above: The neat fungus we discovered (I am dubbing it tree-oyster until I identify, heehee) Below: The “still water” as Claire describes the icing river. We watched a group of ducks sliding their way across the ice…maybe they were avoiding the cold water! Brrr!!! Claire cracked up at their tail shaking, “rook Mommy, dey shake-a their butt!”

Click HERE for a link to the full album or the collage below to view the slideshow.

Mouths Too Full To Smile

Here are some photos from Cornfest this past weekend where the girls gobbled up tons of freshly boiled corn, hopped in the bounce house and got friendly with the farm critters. As you can imagine, Claire slept really well that night. And she dreamt of corn - lots and lots of local, fresh-picked, very delicious corn.

Birthday Party!

Claire's New Friend!

Auntie Laurie stopped by this weekend with her boyfriend Matt and Claire made a new friend! Here are some pictures of him bonding with the baby. I won't make any smart or embarrassing comments to tease my sister about her beau - but you know I'm thinking them! All kidding aside, Matt's a really nice guy and Claire seems to dig him so he scores some brownie points in my house. Just look at them making faces at each other above.

I wish I had a photo of their friend Danny who also made the trip. We were all kind of tired so I forgot to drag out the camera. The five of us went to Cracker Barrel for a delicious brunch and Claire slept the entire time we were at the restaurant. My hands were then free to mooch off EVERYONE's plate. Yum.

Twins' Birthday

Justin & Ryan's Birthday Bash

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

Is that a TOOTH?

Breaking news - I think I finally have a tooth spotting to report. Claire's got something sharp poking out of her bottom gums, you can see a hole and feel a sharp edge, I'm just waiting for "visual confirmation" before making the big announcement. It seems Claire WILL have a set chompers (go ahead, breathe a sigh of relief if you were worried).

I get hate emails from the aunties if I post an entry without photos, so here are some that have not made their way to the blog yet, they might be a few weeks old and have nothing to do with teething - but enjoy anyway.

Here's Claire chumming it up with Cat and James (she loved Cat's tupperware) and here's Aunt Laurie with Claire in Elmont. I'll try for some new photos today (ideas on how to keep Claire's mouth open for teeth shots welcome).

On a side note, I usually love Babycenter's ideas for playtime. I wanted to share these two which seemed pretty far out, but they would make for some priceless photos. If one of you loyal readers volunteered to clean up the mess, I'd be happy to play "flour power" or "high chair art."

Enjoy the chuckle - I know I laughed.

Flour Power Link
Highchair Art Link

Matt & Baby, First Cheerios!

The quote went something like this "I don't feel compelled to hold other people's children." That was about 8 months ago when Claire was a newborn. Now look at Matt and his new friend :-) These are from Memorial Day weekend, I can't believe I forgot to post them!

And from the same day, here's Claire wearing Daddy's hat. What a silly baby. Yesterday I babysat for the twins next door so Kim could spend the day with Nicholas on a field trip. Claire sampled her first cheerio there from the floor and seemed delighted. She crawled around under the twins' highchair searching them out. Our little scavenger! Of course on his way home I made Dan stop for some of those Gerber cereal puffs. Finally, something she's interested in eating!

I'll try to get a video of our little munchkin snacking sometime today. Hopefully she eat in her high chair and not from the floor, I'm hoping it was the independence that inspired her to chew rather than the novelty of floor scavenging!

Hen Party at Kim's House

Hooray! Today was Claire's first playdate! Kim organized a playgroup and Claire had a blast playing with the 9 month old twins next door. Also in attendance were some "big kids" - Lily, Nicholas and Giovannah (comment spelling corrections if you have 'em).

The twins and Claire have played together before, but today was the first time they really took notice of one another.

When I arrived, I put Claire in the play yard with Ryan and he just giggled and giggled. They cooed and smiled at each other...and then that fresh little boy stuck his hand in Claire's diaper. She promptly chomped on his ear to defend her virtue. We're keeping an eye on that kid ;-)


Three year old Giovannah loved the babies. She kept hugging the boys and Claire in her sweet three-year old way which meant lots of adult intervention was needed, but it was really cute how motherly she was with them. Nicholas (3) is a great big brother and super patient with Claire and thttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifhe twins. He didn't seem to mind Lily dismantling and chewing his train set much either. Lily is the one in the photos showing off her belly button, she's turning 2 this October. Unfortunately missing from my photos are the kids all in the bathtub together. Claire and Nicholas seized this opportunity to monopolize the living room toys while the twins splashed away oblivious. Next to be dunked were Nicholas and Giovannah - hopefully Kim took some pictures and will and post a link to them (hint, hint Kim!).

Here's a link to all the photos - with all the kids I didn't take too many, but there are some really cute ones!

Happy Fall!

With the unseasonably warm weather we took the baby out for her first walk in the neighborhood for some "leaf peeping." Dan had to defend her little head from all the falling acorns, good thing she was in the bjorn!





James and Cat came up Sunday for a visit and we took the baby to a nearby state park for a BBQ and a quick hike. Quote of the weekend? "I'll pass the baby back to Mommy," says James as he hands Claire to Cat. Hahaha.


Oh...and there's also Cat's quote, "is this a changing station thing?" while looking at the electric griddle on the kitchen counter. I know Cat, I HAVE to mention it was in the dark, but it was still pretty hilarious.

The Grealis' Meet Claire!

Uh-oh do we have a case of Granny lust in the making? Look out Sky & Saran! Joan and Gary Grealis ("back door" neighbors from Dan's childhood) were so excited to meet baby Claire. Here's some great shots of them getting acquainted!