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!