It's Hard Not to Help

Clara has acquired some exciting new skills in recent days, particularly pertaining to her ability to self-feed.  When I put a puff in front of her, one at a time, she can reach out, pinch it up between thumb and forefinger, and by some means or another land it in her mouth with about 50% accuracy.  In other words, one for Clara, one for the floor, one for Clara, one for Clara's hair, one for Clara, one for the highchair crevices.  

However, the every-other-puff that makes it into her mouth has a painful journey to it's final destination.  It's hard to watch.  She reaches for it, knocking it to the side, she reaches again, awkwardly maneuvering her fingers to grip it.  She aims for her mouth but misses.  She aims again with better results.  Though not a perfect delivery, her wet lips are sticky enough to hold it for a moment.  Engage other hand.  She reaches up, attempting with two sets of fingers to push it the rest of the way in.  She can already taste a hint of banana-grain-goodness.  But no, she winds up chewing her finger with the tantalizing puff still dangling off her lip.  After another double-fisted effort, involving concentrated tongue and lip work, with her head straining forward, she finally succeeds and enjoys the fruit of her labor.

I know I could so easily put her out of her misery (and surely she's miserable, right?) by popping that puff directly into her mouth for her.  Instead I sit, perched on the edge of my chair, my eyes glued on her, willing her brain and muscles to do the needed work and feeling a great sense of relief on her behalf when she succeeds.  Meanwhile she's happily reaching for the next puff.

I would gladly do it for her, but I know that she needs to practice and learn.  Part of being a parent is allowing your child to gain needed independence along the way.  Nonetheless, it's hard not to help.

Clara at 8 Months

Height: 28.75"

Weight: 21 lbs. 4 oz.

What she can do: She can sit independently with increased stability, stand while bracing herself against something (with a spotter), roll around with the best of them, babble (ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-tha-tha-tha), eat efficiently, and give eye contact to anyone who says her name.  She can get up on all fours and rock back and fourth and try to crawl, which usually results in her face-planting into the ground since her arms haven't figured out what to do yet.  If she doesn't like something I'm doing to her (say, wiping her face), she's now figured out how to grab my hands and push them away.  Lovely.  And she got a new tooth yesterday, so we're up to six.

What she likes: She likes standing, the Skidamarink song (she will laugh if you sing it to her), banging on the computer keyboard, pulling my glasses off my face, trying to climb whoever's holding her, and the airplane (I lay on my back with knees bent while she lays on my shins and zooms around).  I've begun to notice that she thrives on being around people.  And she's always good in the church nursery no matter how grumpy she is for me.  It appears that mom gets boring after a while, but it's helpful when other friends or family members are introduced to the environment.  :)  Other babies make her laugh.  She really likes her foam bath pieces.  I usually throw three in her tub at once.  It's funny watching her because she's determined to have all three of them in her control.  This usually means that she puts one in her mouth and then grabs one with each free hand.  The main problem with this is that those other two hands want space in that mouth too.

Sleep: I wish!  Her new tooth may explain a few things.  She has been waking up every hour of the night for the past three nights.  This reminds me of "Baby Think-It-Over" from middle school.  Otherwise her sleep has been mediocre throughout the month.  She wakes up because she works her way sideways and down to one end of her crib where she gets stuck, has to be rescued, and becomes wide awake in the process.

Other information: I have to admit, Clara looks a bit goofy with her new top teeth.  They remind me of the silly pumpkin faces I used to carve for Halloween.  It's still super-cute though.  Yay! for awkward baby stages!

Clara's First Thanksgiving

Clara's first Thanksgiving was celebrated with both sides of our family.  The weekend before the big day we ventured to my parent's home for an early get-together with my family.  We all went to church together at FBC and then ate a big turkey dinner with my Aunt Myrtle and Uncle Jim, Grandpa and Grandma, and cousin Brian and family, brother, sister and husband, and parents.  My signature dish for these dinners has become the Diary Potato Bake.  Mitch isn't complaining about that at all.  Clara sat in her high chair with us and entertained us with her coos and smiles.

Rather than turkey or stuffing, she was fed carrot/squash medley.  At one point, mid baby food scoop, someone asked me a question.  I turned to answer them prior to delivering Clara's latest bite, with the spoon hovering just out of reach of her mouth.  Suddenly my mom started laughing.  We turned to look at her.  It was a moment or two before she could get out an explanation.  It turned out that while I was distracted, Clara had made several concentrated efforts to eat her bite, repeatedly opening her mouth and lunging toward the tantalizing spoonful of food, but to no avail.

So excited to be eating with the group! (Photo by Crystal)

Clara's handmade Thanksgiving dress from Grandma.  (Photo by Crystal)

We had a fun time visiting.

A few days later, after Mitch got off work for the holiday on Tuesday, we drove late into the evening to get to TX around 2am to spend Thanksgiving with Mitch's side of the family.  The following day Jan, Clara, and I headed into Dallas for a little makeover for me.  Jan had a connection with someone who was doing free haircuts to build their haircut portfolio, so I got signed up for that.  Then, for my Christmas present, and because she knew I was interested, Jan hired her close friend, a professional makeup artist, to teach me about makeup.  I came away from the day with a whole new (yet fairly subtle) look!

On Thanksgiving we got together with Mitch's Grandma and aunts, uncles, and cousins and the Alvey's house for a wonderful meal together.  Later several of his extended family members (32 additional people I believe) came to join us.  Lots of new faces for me!  Clara was funny.  The moment the door opened and 30+ people filed into a home that was already somewhat full with the current 20 some, she commenced to yelling.  For quite some time, she just yelled over and over again, "Ahhhhh!  Ahhhhh!  Ahhhhh!" as if to see how loud she needed to be to hear herself over the crowd.  Overstimulated?  I think so.  Nonetheless, she loved it all and did great.  The moment we laid her in her pack 'n play that night, she was OUT.

David and Carolyn, our hosts for Thanksgiving. (Photo by ...David?)

Clara, Jan, and I at Thanksgiving (Photo by ...Jan?)

Over the next two days we got to spend some good time with Jan, Brian, and Kevin before heading home.  Because we won't see them again until after Christmas, the gave us Christmas presents early.  Clara received a book with the recorded voices of her Nana and Papa.  As Jan turned through it and let it read itself to Clara, she kept laughed, with a good chuckle for each new page.  Jan narrated her thoughts saying, "Hilarious!  A talking book!"  I thought it was pretty funny.

Clara's talking book (Photo by Brian)

"Yay!  A donkey!"  It was part of the nativity set. (Photo by Brian)

Clara was also quite enthralled with her wooden tower of fun.  She got some other super sweet presents like a girly suitcase and a kids nativity set.

Group picture! (Photo by David)

Clara was a hit with her cousins (2nd cousins that is) and they were a hit with her! (Photo by David

She did fabulously on our return drive, sleeping all but 2 hours of our driving time.  We stopped along the way to give her some breaks.

Yay for family time!  We have so much to be thankful for this year as always!

A Flair for the Dramatic

I'm beginning to think Clara is a bit of a dramatic.  She definitely doesn't get that from Mitch.

I mainly have three reasons for this forming theory.

1) She recently had her first ear infection.  She had all the symptoms.  It started on a Friday night, of course, so after being reassured that this was no emergency (which, for this first-time parent, requires a phone call to the nurse hotline), we were forced wait it out over the weekend with Tylenol.  Had you been with us those few days, you'd have known, as we did, that Clara was in a bad way.  No one slept, no one relaxed.  Finally Monday came, and after our third rough night and tense day, I took her in to see her pediatrician first thing.  Here we learned that she had a mere "slight bit of redness" in one ear and was otherwise just fine.  I could tell from the doctor's reaction that she was more giving Clara an antibiotic and terming it an "ear infection" so I didn't feel like a complete idiot.  Jan pointed out that at least Clara is going to let me know when she has an ear infection whereas some babies barely let on.  Yes.  Yes she will.

2) She is quite vocal about whether or not a particular situation is to her liking in general.  I wouldn't call her a fusser per say... just opinionated...

3) I'm happy to say that I'm pretty good at determining when Clara is tired at this point in our journey together. Yet it seems that no matter how many signs she gives me (rubbing her eyes, yawning, fussing, etc.) and no matter how right I am in thinking that she needs a nap, she begins each one with a good, passionate cry the moment I situate her in her crib.  It lasts about 60 seconds, then fades away, and she's usually deeply asleep within 5 minutes.  It's as if she's saying, "Just so you know, I do not want to take a nap!" as she's simultaneous drifting off to sleep.  Duly noted Clara.  Goodnight.

Clara finally started sitting independently with stability this week!  

  

Yes, those are two new top teeth! (actually 3) I think this was taken the first day they'd popped through earlier this week.

 

I have to admit, I'm one of those moms who thinks her baby is just the cutest thing ever.  But I mean, come on, just look at that face... :)

First Foods

4.5 Months: Rice Cereal w/ milk
5.5 Months: Carrots
6 Months: Peas, then Squash, then Green Beans (...and a little bite of pumpkin ice cream and broccoli cheddar soup along the way).  At this point she ate solids once per day.
7 Months: Pears, Oatmeal, Fruit, Sweet Potato, Blueberry Puffs, a taste of whipped cream, and a pinch of turkey at Thanksgiving. She began eating solids twice per day at 7 months, although out of laziness I haven't been super consistent with that.
7.5 Months: I'm moving her up to eating solids three times per day in preparation for cutting out all night feedings soon!

She makes the funniest faces when you put something new in her mouth.  Her top lip raises awkwardly and she mushes it around with her mouth open for a while exploring and reacting to it.  She has yet to ever noticeably dislike anything though.

From what I can tell her favorite foods are Puffs, Green Beans, and possibly Squash.  And of course, she loves milk best of all!

Clara enjoying some puffs at her Nana and Papa's house.  Photo by Jan (Nana).

So Excited!

Because Mitch is "high energy" when he plays with Clara, throwing her around and such, she gets very excited when he comes anywhere near her.  For example, this week I carried her down our hallway to her room for a diaper change just after she and daddy had been playing.  We met Mitch coming down the hall, and she immediately started wiggling her body, kicking her legs, squealing, giggling almost uncontrollably, and turning to hide her face and then peeking out to grin at him.  She was so overcome with excitement she hardly knew what to do.  It was hilarious!  We both laughed quite a bit watching her.

Mitch is a really fun dad.

Last night we tried to recreate the scenario because I wanted it on video.  We attempted several takes where Clara and I went and stood in the hallway and Mitch came around the corner and 'surprised' us with camera in hand.  I think the enclosed space increases the effect.  The video below is a compilation of her reactions in each of these.  She wasn't quite as excited as she can be, but nonetheless, you get an idea of what I mean.

Clara at 7 Months

Weight: 20 lbs. 8 oz.

Height: 28.5"

What she can do: Clara can sit up on her own and manipulate and interact with objects.  She has two new bottom teeth and has a host of new expressions as a result.  She likes to feel them with her tongue and lips, which leads to lots of cute nose scrunching.  She sits up in the bathtub and so has graduated from her turtle sponge to a ducky tub.

7 month old cutie.

Showing off her new teeth

What she likes: She likes toys that make noises, sitting, books (they're tasty), attention, riding around on my hip, repeatedly slapping things, scratching things, putting things in her mouth, her bowl and spoon, sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, puffs, trying to drink water (she's not good at it since she doesn't do bottles, but she's very interested), mirrors, staring out the window, and swinging her legs in the highchair.

Drinking water.

Spending some time looking outside.

Sleep: Clara's sleep was NOT GOOD for the first part of the month as she was teething.  She woke up 5-6 times throughout each night.  After her teeth came through she began to wake up less and is now getting up twice to nurse at about 12am and 4am.

This month I put Clara on a nap schedule for the first time.  Previously she had simply adapted to whatever I was doing, taking her naps as she had the chance or sleeping in the car or stroller.  Just after turning six months we had a very rough week through which I realized that she was no longer able to fall asleep under just any conditions and was not volunteering to take naps while at home either.  I also realized that it is very difficult to deal with a tired and cranky baby!  So I watched her for a week to determine what her schedule should be and started her on the following:

7:00-wake up
8:30-10:00-nap.  I put her in her crib.  Our routine is to change her diaper, close her blinds, turn on her fan, and wind up her plush giraffe toy.  It plays a lullaby.
1:00-3:00-nap
5:30-if she's cranky, she goes back to her crib for another little nap.
7:00-bath time/bedtime!


Other information: She is so happy to see me when I come into her room in the morning.  It's the cutest thing!  Those are some enthusiastic smiles.  She has some crazy-looking hair.  It's fine enough to defy gravity, so we get lots of interesting looks.

Watching TV with dad on a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Enjoying having her picture taken.

Baby? Penguin? or Baby Penguin?

I'll let you be the judge.

Clara made the cutest little penguin I've seen.  Of course, I didn't personally get to see her cousin Ethan, who was also a penguin this year and is around the same age as Clara.  He stands a good chance of being a super-cute penguin too. :)

No, we didn't trick or treat.  As much as I would have liked the candy, I thought my motivation would be a little too obvious considering Clara is far from being able to eat any.  I did give candy to a parent with a baby lion in a little stroller.  She had quite a pillowcase load!

Clara got to wear her outfit to our neighbor's Halloween chili cook-off  though, so at least we got some good out of it!  And we got some pictures...

Thanks for letting us borrow your last-year's costume Will!

Clara Celebrates a World Series Victory

I'm happy to say that Clara celebrated her first Cardinals World Series victory this weekend. 

We couldn't get tickets for the actual "celebration" in Busch Stadium, so we opted to go downtown to the parade several hours before it began to take in the atmosphere and reserve our front row seats.  

Clara was a bit uncooperative with my best laid plans for the day.  She woke up after only 10 minutes of morning nap and wouldn't fall back asleep.  This lead her to be somewhat temperamental as the day's events unfolded.  

Of all the people in this photograph below, Mitch and I were the first ones to establish our position.  The rest of them came a few at a time until there was quite a pressing crowd. 

For quite a while, we were THOSE people.  The ones with the crying baby.  And we were all stuck there together if we wanted to keep our spots.  Over the course of time, as we waited for the parade, I changed a dirty diaper on the blanket-covered pavement, sat Indian-style on the ground (no curb) and nursed Clara, and rocked her to sleep in my arms three times before she was awakened by the noisy crowd.  Let's just say my back is still pretty sore.  

It was worth it though.  It was fun to be in the exciting atmosphere, to see the players, and to do something together as a family. 

All along the parade route there were temporary fences set up to establish boundaries between the parade and the onlookers.  Because we were actually standing in the middle of an adjoining street rather than on a sidewalk, we found ourselves in the middle of the only small segment of parade route that did not have barriers.  The parade officials (pictured in neon green) were policing us to make sure we stayed behind an imaginary line.  They had given detailed instructions to us, the crowd, about where we could stand and how far the stroller could stick out past the line, etc.  They said if we pushed the line they would have to form a barricade of people in front of us, which would make it hard to see.  Being the cooperative person that I am, I made it my mission to hold my ground.  Clara had spit up on the pavement right by my feet earlier in the afternoon, marking my spot.  I stayed right by that little splotch of baby puke, even as the crowd crowded up around me.  The stroller and I stayed fast!  You can see in the picture that Clara and I, who were formerly on the front lines, are slowly being swallowed.  Nonetheless, we still maintained a front row view when the parade arrived.    

It was fun to make more great memories of this 2011 Cardinals win.  Now Clara can say she was there, and we have the pictures to prove it!

Bragging

I put Clara in our church nursery each weekend for two services, once while I attend church, and once while I volunteer in the kids ministry.  In the nursery there are several adults and also some younger, pre-teen helpers.  The father of one of these young helpers stopped me in the church lobby several weeks ago to meet Clara, informing me that Clara is famous in their house because his young daughter talks about her through out the week "Clara, Clara, Clara" he quoted.

This weekend I was walking out of church when another young girl was laughing with her mom.  They happened to notice me behind them and said, "Well here's Clara now!"  Apparently they had just been talking about her.  This young girl also really enjoys having Clara in the nursery.  Her mom went on to tell me that her daughter had been disappointed at the onset of the evening because she thought Clara wouldn't be the nursery.  They were serving at a different service than normal.  I happened to switch as well, so it worked out for her to be there after all.

I think it's cute that these young girls are enamored with Clara.  After all, our nursery is loaded with babies.  I don't think there are many girls though, which gives her an advantage with young female nursery workers.  But still, Clara IS super cute AND extra smiley.  And she has a pretty good nursery track record.

At Clara's 6 month doctor's visit, the nurse made several comments about how good-looking Clara is as she was weighed and checked in.  When she came back to give her shots, she said, "I just can't stop looking at her.  She is just beautiful, isn't she?"  I figure that holds some weight because a pediatric nurse sees a lot of babies. :)

People frequently comment on Clara's blond hair and beautiful blue eyes.  She smiles at almost anyone new who pays attention to her, which is very charming.

Here We Go A-Visiting

Mitch had gone out of town for a three day work-related conference last week.  So Clara and I decided to have some fun of our own.  We planned a short visit-loop, spending one night in Columbia visiting Uncle Ryan and Aunt Crystal and Amanda, Rachel, and Erica, and then continuing on to spend one night in Eldon visiting Grandpa and Grandma.

Unfortunately, Clara had her 6 month shots immediately prior to embarking upon this journey.  That proved to be something of a disaster for our trip.

Miss Cranky and I arrived in Columbia a few hours early.  We had opted to travel during Clara's afternoon nap.  Rather than trying to entertain her at Ryan and Crystal's all afternoon, we went to beautiful Stephen's Lake Park.  The only smiles I got out of her were when we tried a big-kid swing for the first time.  It was a hit!  

We did a variety of things at the park, strolling, swinging, carrying baby around, etc. in an attempt to keep this fusser distracted.  This also included Clara's first opportunity to play in the leaves.  It turned into more of a game where Clara's objective was to find a leaf eat it, and I mine was to prevent this.  I won. ...I think...

Eventually we moved on to Ryan and Crystal's for the evening.  I was so stressed out by the time Ryan and Crystal got home, that Crystal took Clara and Ryan took me for a bike ride.  That was actually perfect.  Thanks Ryan. :)

The next day we ventured over to Erica's for the majority of the day.  It was fun passing a leisurely day with my close friend.  We went for a walk in the morning.  Lucas is getting so big!  He "pushed" Zane, the boy Erica babysits, in his stroller.

Clara and Erica, stopping for a picture.  Clara borrowed Lucas's stroller.  Ours got all wet in the bed of our  truck.

The kiddos playing together.  It was nice to have some distraction for Clara. 

We then proceeded to Kaldi's to spend coffee house time with Amanda and Rachel T. (and Zoe of course).  It's funny how things change (Clara cried and fussed the majority of the time & I was very stressed out by her again at this point), but it's so wonderful to relive such special college memories as Kaldi's+Amanda+Rachel.  I'm sad that I forgot to take a picture. :(  Guess we'll just have to do it again soon!  We even got to add Crystal to the mix before the coffee date was over.

Afterwards Clara and I continued on to Eldon for some great time with my parents.  Again, I forgot to document.  Sad.

 At this point, Mitch and I talked over the phone, and made a snap decision to meet back in Columbia the next day for Mizzou's Homecoming.  We were taking a chance because we didn't have tickets for this sold out game.

It was SO NICE to be back together.  You know what they say about distance and the heart.  :)

We stayed with Ryan and Crystal again and joined them for the Homecoming Parade the next morning.  Clara looked so cute in her little cheerleader outfit (thanks Jessica!), that Crystal and I quickly lost interest in the parade in favor of taking pictures with Clara.  These were my favorites.  I love her expressions.

However, my favorite picture was taken by Mitch.  Me with two of my favorite people.

We also snapped a quick family photo.  Go Mizzou!

Grandpa and Grandma gracious agreed to give up their day to drive up and babysit Clara during the game.  This was greatly appreciated!  She would not have been easy to entertain.  This also included driving Clara up to the stadium in the middle of the game, picking me up outside the gates, driving to a parking lot so I could nurse her, and then dropping me back off.  Oh the challenges of a no-bottles-accepted baby!

Meanwhile, Mitch and I attempted to scalp tickets.  Ryan made us a sign and it worked!  We got great tickets for about half of their face value from a older man who wanted to help out a young couple.

It was a fun experience.  Clara improved a lot by the weekend.  And I gained a lot of empathy for single moms and moms of fussy babies!

Clara At 6 Months

Weight: 19 lbs. 1 oz. (94th percentile)

Length: 27.5" (96th percentile)  This is the height of an average one year old.  Upon telling me this, Clara's pediatrician said, "Now, I forget, how tall is Clara's father again?" That's a loaded question, because not only is Mitch six and a half feet tall, he's from an all-around tall family.  ...looks like Clara's inherited the Bennett height!  Although this likely means she'll be "runway model" material, I'm hoping to steer her in another direction. ;)  Mitch is thinking golf.  He believes being tall will give her a better drive.  I'm pretty sure this is an excuse for him to go golfing more...

Perhaps you can tell which two of us married into the family?  This picture is a bit outdated.  There are now two more baby Bennetts than there were a year and a half ago.

What she can do:  Clara can sit with support, eat baby food, stand for short periods of time with help, do impressive baby crunches, get herself out of lots of positions she doesn't like by arching her back, babble (her first and only babble sound is ga-ga-ga-ga-ga), and grab and hold things with increasing proficiency, laugh, be funny, play.

What she likes: Playing peek-a-boo, being upright, the pony ride song, my cell phone, cups, pulling my hair, grabbing Mitch's glasses, going for walks, looking at books (especially the book about monsters with noses that actually squeak), putting everything in her mouth, swinging on our porch swing, being OUTSIDE in general (this is huge for her... she instantly calms down when taken outside), her bath, children's music CD's played in the car, and being carried around on a hip.

She doesn't tolerate being ignored very well, and is disenchanted with her swing, play mat, and jumperoo (all of which don't involve direct socialization), which makes it much more difficult for me to get anything accomplished throughout the day besides taking care of this baby.  It's alright though, we have fun.

Sleep: Inconsistent.  She is growing? teething? congested? who knows for sure, but she's still sleeping a span of 12 hours during which she wakes up 2 to 4 times demanding attention.

Other information: She finds it funny when another baby cries.  Even hearing a home video of herself crying really entertains her.  She is only able to consistently roll one direction, onto her stomach.  From there she gets stuck and gets really mad until someone comes and "rescues" her.  This is regrettable because it produces additional waking up at night and untimely endings to naps.

Clara celebrating her 1/2 birthday.

"Whoa mom, you look so tall from down here."

Excited to be jumping.  That doesn't last long these days.

This face means "I'm done with this eating thing.  Get me out of here!"

Future gymnast?

Animated Baby

Clara got to spend some time with her Nana (Mitch's mom, Jan) last week, who flew in from Texas for a visit.  It was fun to spend time together and to watch Jan's reactions to Clara.  Everything Clara does seems "standard baby" to me because I'm not used to any other babies.  Jan, however, has other young grandchildren, so she had a better eye to notice Clara's unique attributes.

Enjoying dessert at P.F. Chang's

She was amazed be Clara's ability to do a 'baby crunch' for extended periods of time.  Clara does not like to lay flat! Apparently she would do great in Pilates.

Clara has some crazy-looking hair days with a big curl right in front (see video below).  This is similar to her Nana as a baby.

She really enjoys her spit and lips.  She's hung on to these behaviors for a relatively long period of time.  

Clara's smile is an excited smile.  Her eyes widen and she wiggles her body while grinning enthusiastically and making eye contact.  Her cousin Ethan, for example, has more of a delighted smile, explains Jan.

Clara has a surprising (& funny) ability to switch quickly from crying to laughing, from happiness to crankiness.

Clara frequently laughs a "fake" laugh.  She likes to get a reaction from her audience, so she laughs, whether it's a true belly-laugh or a let's-get-the-silliness-started laugh.  It's pretty much hilarious though, so it's working for her.

Overall Jan declared that Clara is an animated baby.  I would have to agree with that statement.  We spent the majority of the week laughing.  Babies are so entertaining!  And we both happen to be particular fans of this one. :)

And this video illustrates it all:

Simple Delight

Amanda and I have been friends for 17 years now.  We met on the playground in 2nd grade, and later learned that we'd actually "met" in the hospital nursery many years prior.  You may recall this story from a previous blog post.  We were born one day apart at St. Mary's Hospiral.  Our mothers were roommates during their hospital stay.  We grew to be best friends during elementary school and again in high school.  We went to the same college, became roommates, grew a lot in our walks with God together, were involved in the same campus ministry and church, had many of the same friends, spent hours together in coffee houses or the Plex, and were in each others' weddings. 

Most recently, we had baby girls within six weeks of one another.  It is SUCH a pleasure to walk through all these life experiences with her.

We have maintained our relationship over the years, even as we've moved to different places, and we still make time to visit each other frequently.

On a sidenote, Clayton, Amanda's husband, recently built our website for us.  Check it out at www.mitchellbennettphotography.com.  If anyone is looking for a web designer, keep him in mind.  Here is his website.

Amanda, Clayton, and Zoe visited us this weekend.  We spent part of this beautiful, fall Saturday walking around Historic Downtown Webster Groves. 

I can think of few things more delightful than nursing babies alongside my longtime friend on possibly the most gorgeous day of the year.

This is Clara's new face.  It gets her a lot of attention.  She adds a fishy-type motion to her pucker.  It takes all her concentration.  Her limbs sort of twitch while she's doing it.

I love good friends.  And fall.

Stranger Anxiety

Object permanence.  That's when a baby realizes that just because something isn't visible doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  This awareness typically develops around six months.  Or in Clara's case, five and a half.  It is often accompanied by varying degrees of stranger anxiety.  Babies realize that there are options for upon whom they must rely.

I've been thinking about this a lot after seeing Clara FREAK OUT last night when I briefly left the room two different times.  She was so upset!  After the first incident, I wasn't convinced it was due to my leaving, as it had never happened before.  The second time it was clear.  Poor Crystal and Ryan!  They tried to warn me.


Here are my reactions:
1. Stranger anxiety is ...anxiety.  I don't like the idea of my five month old baby feeling intense anxiety like this.
2. This could actually be a good thing in the unlikely case that a stranger with bad intentions ever tried to approach her.  It's a baby alarm.
3. This is going to make it much more difficult to utilize childcare.
4. I think being overly tired contributed to her "episode."
5. I feel really sad for putting her in a situation where she felt that unsafe.  She was sobbing and shaking after my first exit.  I picked her up to comfort her, and because this was during bath time and she was diaper-less, after calming down and relaxing... let's just say I got a little extra wet.  This was the cause of my second (misjudged) exit of the evening.
6. I hope this doesn't hurt anyone's feelings in the future.  Ryan and Crystal don't mind, but it is kind of awkward as a general rule.
7. I'm a bit humbled.  As with most things in parenting, I thought I could take steps to ensure this would never be an issue.  I now realize, again, that I really can't control this baby.
8. It's slightly cool that she is displaying signs of attachment to me.

Mitch points out that this is not a trend until it happens on three occasions, so saying, "Clara has stranger anxiety" is not a sufficiently evidence-based claim.
I agree that's true, and hopefully it will be an isolated event.  I want Clara to feel safe and secure and happy and nothing less!

15 Things that Change When You Have a Baby

These are from a Baby-Center article. I "edited" the list down to the ones that most resonated with me.  I thought some of them were pretty true.

1. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
2. You realize more that true joy doesn't come from material wealth.
3. You'd rather buy a plastic tricycle than those shoes that you've been dying to have.
4. You no longer rely on a clock — your baby now sets your schedule.
5. You learn that taking a shower is a luxury.
6. You just plain love life more
7. You become a morning person.
8. You can have the most wonderful conversation using only vowel sounds like "ahhh" and "oooo."
9. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.
10. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.
11. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.
12. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
13. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive.
14. You discover how much there is to say about one tooth
15. Your heart expands to hold a lot more love, a superhuman [God-given] power.

Baby

I've noticed that when I'm talking to Clara, I tend to address her as Baby instead of by her name or another endearment.  And when I say 'baby,' I say it with great relish.  I've reflected on this, and discovered that I love saying it because I love that she is a ...baby.  That word means "little, scoop-up-able, hugable, cuddly, ticklish, smiley, wonderful, sweet, soft-templed, and good-smelling."  Baby is a great word!  I enjoy her baby-ness so much.

A baby is a warm little human person, comprised of a beating heart, little fingers, toes, sneezes, yawns, laughter, hiccups, and wiggles.  A baby is CUTE.  And despite her lack of fully developed coordination and language... she has so much personality.  And what's more, I only have six more months before my baby's not really a baby anymore, so I may as well soak it in as much as I possibly can.  Baby is a great word.

My 'baby' and I took advantage of the first cool day to wear our matching leggings.

I Love My Lips

This is Clara's newest thing.  She loves making noises with her spit and lips.  It gets Mitch every time.  We both think this is extremely funny.  Just imagine, you're driving down the road trying to have a conversation, and this is what you hear randomly coming from the back seat.  You'd be laughing too.  And then you'd take some videos.

This little collection took no time at all to accumulate considering Clara does this ALL THE TIME.

Click here to see them.

My favorites are at the end.

Clara At 5 Months

Weight: 18.5 lbs (unofficially)

Length:  26.5" (unofficially)

What she can do: She can sit up by herself (in a momentary, wobbly kind of way, not for real), roll both directions, sit in a high chair, hold toys and rattle them around or chew on them, eat from a spoon (I'm assuming a certain percentage of her food must get down her throat...right?), turn in the direction of a sound, and track her eyes side-to-side and up-and-down (supposedly the latter is an advanced skill.  Go Clara! :).  She is exploring everything more all the time.  Today I held her in my lap as a ate an omelet.  She watched me scoop up a bite, then craned her neck to follow its path all the way up and behind her to my mouth.  She was riveted, watching bite after bite, perhaps making connections about eating or at least the spacial concept that moving objects don't just disappear, they go somewhere.

What she likes:  Laughing, smiling, being talked to, socializing.  She likes to laugh at my antics: silly faces, invading her person space, funny voices, saying "you're beautiful" twenty times per day.  She laughs the hardest when I lay my head on her stomach/diaphragm area.  She also likes laughing at her dad's antics: singing silly songs "jump, jump, jump around", holding her upside down, zooming her through the air, flinging her over his head (typical dad stuff), saying "Burp it out," "Stop being a bear, Clara Bear," "It's OK" (there's a certain intonation that goes with this one), and "Are you just going to cry like a baby?" She likes holding her toes, especially during diaper changes, which isn't as helpful as it sounds.  She likes Veggie Tales songs, rattles, the cheesy, electronic-sounding music that comes pre-recorded in baby stuff, kicking around in her bath water and getting me all wet, kicking stuff in general, making slobber noises with her lips and tongue, taking loud breaths of air, and sitting in her big-girl stroller.


This is Clara making her spit noises. This morning I was holding her, smiling down at her and admiring how sweet she is when she gave me a beautiful smile in return, stuck her tongue out, and blew as hard as she could, spraying me in the face with slobber.

Sleep:  Inconsistent.  One night she sleeps no more than three hours in a row.  The next night, she sleeps 9 hours straight.  The next night six hours, then two smaller chunks of sleep.  After turning four months she made a huge digression in her sleeping, and we're still not quite back to our former glory.

Other information: We've abandoned headbands in favor of clip-in bows.  Clara's mobility allows her to get herself into too much trouble with headbands, specifically by pulling them down over her eyes or mouth.  She doesn't like it one bit, and doesn't yet know how to escape this particular predicament.  Also, she won't take a bottle, so she and I haven't been apart for more than three hours since she was six weeks old.  She has super-kissable cheeks.  I take advantage of my opportunities to kiss them every time I pick her up.  She thinks it's funny.  So cute.

Five Month Photos (by Mom)