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!