New Blog Site

Tim has created a new and improved version of our blog so we will now be posting at blog.timandleia.com. I just posted some fun video clips so check it out!

Baby Bits - 6 Months

Claire - 6 Months - Week 1

That's right folks: Claire is SIX MONTHS OLD! Unbelievable! She turned six months last Wednesday and she just keeps getting more adorable by the day. She's been making a lot of raspberry noises, especially when we encourage her by making the noises ourselves. She's started looking at her hands. She's learning how to sit without support. She loves yogurt and drinking water from her sippy cup. She'll maneuver her body through rolling and pushing with her feet to get at a toy she wants. Claire also does something else that I've been aware of for a couple of months but until recently thought I was imagining it (and I didn't think anyone would believe me). Now that she's older, it is really obvious that Claire helps us dress her. I'll ask her to stretch her arm through her sleeve and she does it. She'll also stretch her leg out when she sees me rolling up her pants to put them on her. She's a really easy baby on the changing table and I'm thankful for that.

Here are some pictures:

Reaching for a toy

New Year's Eve

The onesie reads "This is my little black dress." I thought it was appropriate for New Year's Eve even if we didn't go to a party.

Claire trying to go to sleep.

In her new pjs that her Papa gave her.

Spending time with her Dad. Look at how big she is!

Growth Spurt - 6 Months

Please forgive my delay in blogging. I thought I might work on it today but Claire started her six month growth spurt yesterday and we're both exhausted. She was up until 11 both Saturday and Sunday nights and she was also up last night at 2 and 4. When I am less sleep deprived, I will post pictures and an update. Have a good Monday!

Claire's First Christmas

What a perfect Christmas! We were very fortunate that our parents were able to join us this week to celebrate Claire's first Christmas! We had such a good time and we are very thankful for all that they did for us while they were here. They helped us cook, clean and Tim and his Dad spent time in the shop building things. It was hard to see everyone leave. We'll get to see my folks very soon, though, because my brother Stephen, and his wife, Jessica are due to have a baby in a few weeks. I am just beside myself in anticipation!

Here are the Christmas photos:



PS My sweet husband gave me a beautiful gold bracelet to commemorate Claire's first Christmas! I'll post a picture later.

PPS I forgot to mention a couple of things in the previous post. Claire's eye-hand coordination has made great strides this month. She loves to play with her pacifier when she is sleepy and she can get it in her mouth without too much trouble. She is getting pretty good at using just her thumb and index finger, as well. Tim and I have also noticed her mimicking the way we play with her. We love to kiss on her neck because she loves it. She will now try to bite us in return. So much fun!

Claire - 5 Months - Weeks 3 & 4

What a difference a couple of weeks can make! Claire needs a lot more room to move around now that she is rolling over from her back to her tummy. She has also discovered her feet and spends a lot of time playing with them and trying to get them into her mouth. She has also become much more vocal and makes the most adorable sounds. In additions, she is a champion eater. We have been amazed at how quickly she has caught on. She now opens her mouth as soon as we sit her in her high chair. She has enjoyed rice cereal, bananas, avocado, butternut squash, and yogurt. I went to the store today and picked up pears, mangoes, and sweet potatoes for her to try.

Here are all the adorable photos:

What does our Christmas look like?

Christmas for me growing up included a lot of handcrafted decorations. I loved it and I love that I now have some of those items in my own home. I had mentioned to my mom that I wanted Claire to have a Christmas stocking much like the one someone made for me after I was born. My mom said that she would take care of it. Little did I know how much work was involved! Here is a picture:

Do you see all those sequins and beads? My mom hand sewed everyone one of those. Do you see all the lettering? Yep, she hand sewed all of that too! She also cut everything out and pieced all together. Unbelievable! I can't imagine how long that took her.

The two on the right are the ones I grew up with. My mom was so good at filling our stockings with fun goodies. I hope I am able to do that for Claire.

(PS Can you see that I'm in the holiday spirit with my holiday socks?!)

Here's what our house looks like for Christmas:

Oh, I wish you could see how the lights are sparkling on it! The tree has a lot of handmade ornaments on it from different family and friends. The skirt was quilted by my Aunt Mary Jane, as well. One day, Claire will get to add her special touch with macaroni and glitter art!

Tim did this for me. I had cleared the hutch off and managed to get a few things up but he completed it last weekend by adding the garland and lights and other decorative knick-knacks. I love looking at it. It is quite festive! It includes a number of pieces that my grandparents made.

Well, I better get back to work. Tim requested clean pants to wear to work!

Merry Christmas!

Claire - 5 Months - Week 2

"Turning over a new leaf" is this week's theme. Claire's sleep troubles came to a head this week. It was horrible. The poor baby would try and try to fall asleep for naps and night time and it just wouldn't come easily. I would have to stand at her crib after laying her down asleep and wait for upwards of ten minutes or more to make sure she would stay awake. She would jolt every time her feet hit the mattress. She managed to sleep through the night on Monday and Tuesday night but Thursday and Friday nights we were up 'til midnight trying to go to sleep. I could tell she was just miserable. Well, she got up on Saturday and it was like we had a different baby. She is falling asleep much easier. She isn't sleeping through the night but she is going to sleep so much more easily. I think she was just going through some developmental spurt that didn't seem like it was ever going to end. As a result, though, Tim and I have noticed some fun changes the past couple of days. She has become even more vocal making the funniest squealing noises. I've seen her start to grab her feet today and I also noticed today that she now seems to be rolling over intentionally. She is even fussing now to let us know that she wants to get down and play.

Oh! We also let her eat some rice cereal yesterday. She was rather nonchalant about the whole thing. She ate it but expressed nothing regarding whether she liked it or hated it. I think I'll buy her a banana.

Here are this week's pictures:

Tim put some rattles on her ankles. I think she kinda liked it.

Yeah, this is alright but I think you could do better, Mom.

Claire - 5 Months - Week 1

Claire had a really good first week as a five month old. No huge developments to report. She is getting close to being able to sit on her own but I think it'll be another month or so before she is completely there. I think she has been going through some developmental changes or something that is causing her to not be able to sleep well during the day. I think, however, we might be getting close to sleeping through the night on a more consistent basis. This week was pretty tough and exhausting with her needing so much help sleeping but I think we're getting close to getting through it.

Here are some pictures:

She's wearing BabyLegs Not Sox. I ordered them off of babysteals.com for Christmas but I couldn't wait to try them on her. Aren't they adorable?!

Tim's mom brought Claire this musical gym the last time she came to visit. All of her grandkids have played with it and Claire loves it!

Hugging her Daddy!

Ready to go out into the cold. She is wearing a scarf that her Mimi knitted her. So cute!

She rolled over in her crib. Look, she's wearing the NotSox again!

She is using the big girl side of her bathtub now.

Claire - 4 Months - Weeks 3 & 4

I apologize for the delay in my blogging. We have been quite busy since we returned from Augusta on Saturday. I had to go to the doctor on Tuesday since I broke out in in head-to-toe hives for no apparent reason the day before Thanksgiving. I had to go see the oral surgeon on Wednesday to make sure I was all better and I am. Claire has had a hard time falling asleep this week. This afternoon she is sleeping very well and I think that is due to sheer exhaustion.

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving in Augusta. We had a great time visiting with Tim's family and Claire enjoyed playing with her cousins. We ate lots of food and had a good time catching up. On our way back on Saturday, we stopped in Atlanta to visit with my Aunt Mary Jane, cousin Rick and his daughter, Lilly.

Here is an update on Claire

• She has really started reaching for toys and people. She loves to bat at the toys hanging over her in her tunnel and she loves to play with people's faces when she is laying in their arms. She even reached out for me once when Tim tried to pick her up while she was trying to go to sleep.
• She is showing signs of affection. I think she is hugging us now. It is quite adorable and very much enjoyed.
• She has become more verbal. She had stopped talking a lot when she started teething and chewing on her fingers. Now she is making a lot of new sounds and squeals.
• She started making raspberry noises.
• She really loves to watch us eat and drink. I think she'll be ready for her first meal at the end of the month.
• On Tuesday, while I was at the doctor's, Tim stayed home with her. She cried for an entire hour until I came home. I think we have some separation issues.
• She really loves it when we sing to her. Nothing gets her laughing better than "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Day-O."
• She loves to be wrapped up in a blanket or towel. When I wrap her up to walk her to her bath, she gets so excited.
• She has started grabbing us with her feet which is totally adorable but it is making diaper changing a bit more of a challenge.
  

Claire turned 5 months old this week. The time goes by so fast! I'll post on her first week as a five month old in a few days. In the meantime, here are the pictures from the past couple of weeks. For some reason, the slideshow feature isn't cooperating so just click on it and select slideshow at the top left.

Thanksgiving 2009

In Sickness and in Health...

I've been reflecting a lot on our wedding vows this week as we approach our 9 year anniversary tomorrow. Yes, 9 years! My dear husband has really lived his vows and I still feel very honored that he chose me. This week we got to live the "In Sickness" part as I had to have a cyst removed from my gums that was also embedded in the bone. It had been there for two years but the surgeon didn't feel the need to remove it when I saw him a year and a half ago but he saw where it was embedded in the bone at my last visit and determined that it needed to be removed. In times like this, Tim is exactly what I need him to be without any special instructions from me. He took great care of me and our sweet little daughter. It was almost worth it to go through the procedure to watch him and Claire enjoy each other yesterday. I am doing well but the surgeon did say that my worst day will be tomorrow, on our anniversary. I hope it isn't too bad as Claire has her first play date tomorrow and I would hate to cancel it. I also have a lot of baking that I would like to do. Well, I better get back to the laundry. Take care!

Poor Baby!

The Teething Monster can be quite vicious! Claire woke up last night at around 11:30 screaming like I've never heard her scream. I have always prided myself on how I deal with tough situations. My brothers were always getting into scrapes that would send us to the emergency room and I think that was good training for some of the tough situations I have faced but there is something about listening to your daughter scream herself hoarse that will just undo you. I fell apart! Thankfully, Tim heard us and got up and brought me back down. During times like this, I am so thankful that I have been able to nurse and that Tim talked me out of quitting in those hard early days. I coaxed her into nursing since that always seems to calm her down and she fell asleep after about ten minutes.

She had a pretty good morning but then the pain returned a couple of hours ago but not with the same intensity as last night. She is sleeping in her swing now and has been for over an hour which means that she is definitely not feeling well. Being a baby is hard business!

She did it!

Tonight, Claire rolled over from her back to her tummy! Our girl just keeps getting stronger!

Claire - 4 Months - Week 2

As you may know from previous posts, we have been working on our naps. This has been an incredibly frustrating process. At the end of this week, I decided to just give in to it. If sleeping in her swing makes her happy and less miserable, so be it because it'll make us all happy and less miserable so for some of her naps she'll be in her swing. Claire has missed a lot of play opportunities chasing these naps around and I just don't think that is fair. Here is a synopsis of her nap "issues:" They only last through one sleep cycle so 40 minutes. She may or may not be able to start the second half of her nap right after the first. Sometimes we have a 30-60 minute nap intermission where we change her diaper and play. Sometimes that second half of the nap is very hard to get no matter how much she wants it. She opens her eyes if I scratch my head or she hears any minor noises. In this situation, laying her down in her crib is next to impossible because she immediately wakes up and I can not get her back to sleep unless I rock her. I may make three or four attempts to lay her down in her crib before we just give up. At that point, we have spent probably an hour or more to get settled. Laying her in her swing is easier during these times because the swing will soothe her back to sleep. I am too much of a marshmallow to let her cry it out. Besides, this to me is just a developmental issue and I think it'll work itself out over time.

Enough about naps! Here are some more fun developments:

• Claire has developed some very cute mannerisms while eating. If she is eating and her left hand is free, she likes to rub or scratch her head. I have to hold it down, though, because she has cradle cap and the scratching makes her head bleed. If her right hand is loose, she tries to suck her thumb while eating. What a talent!

• Claire has also gotten very adept at taking her pacifier out of her mouth and she's been able to get it back in on a few occasions.

• We have always sung silly songs with her but lately I've been trying to have song time several times a day. I sing songs while moving her arms and legs around and she loves it and starts to laugh. Too much fun!

• She really loves her jumperoo now. She'll stay in it for 20 minutes or more.

• Tim and I read that we should start letting her smell different things so I decided to let her smell my banana the other day. This was one hour before she was due to eat. After letting her smell the banana, she got fussy and demanded to be fed. I guess she'll enjoy bananas when it is time for solids!

On the teething front, Claire stopped experiencing teething problems after we got back from our trip to Fairhope. She had been less clingy and happier but the teething monster came back this weekend. Poor baby!

Here are some pictures from this week:

Ready to go get her picture taken!

Worn out!

Loving the jumperoo!

She played so hard so kicked her leg out of her pj's.

Tim and I actually got to eat a meal at the same time and at the table this week while Claire slept in her swing. On another day, we also got to watch an entire movie uninterrupted since she went to bed early.

More pictures

We picked out a total of 5 different pictures from our photo session last weekend. Only one family photo made the cut (who wants to see Leia and I more than once anyway), but there were more shots of Claire that we had to keep. I finally got around to scanning them this morning.

This first one is similar to the one we posted last week, but it is a wider shot that shows how big Claire has gotten and that she is sitting up by herself like a big girl.


I love this one of her lying on the floor on the quilt that her Great Aunt Mary Jane made. They took several of these, but in most of them she is eating her hands. In this shot it looks like she is resting her chin on her fist, but believe me, half a second after this picture was taken that hand was crammed in her mouth. Her favorite food right now is by far the knuckle sandwich.


And this is just a great closeup of her wonderful smile. I usually get one of these when I come home from work and it makes the whole day worth it.


A couple of days ago we got a birth announcement in the mail for Claire's cousin in California, Amelie Paige Burke. She is about 2 and 1/2 months old now. Leia and I were both struck by how much she and Claire resemble each other. Lots of people have said that Claire looks like me, but I also thought she looked very much like a Burke (Leia's mom's family). I think this picture of Amelie proves that to be true.



Speaking of family resemblance, check out these two pictures. The first is of Leia and her father, the second is of me and my dad. How many similarities can you spot between them?



Photo comparison checklist:
-- Awesome moustache ... Check
-- Blue jeans ... Check
-- T-shirt ... Check
-- Hands on baby's sides with elbows splayed out ... Check
-- Hideous furniture ... Check
-- Wood paneling ... Check
-- Skinny Dad who could benefit from a sandwich ... Check

It's almost scary...

Shhhhh....Claire is napping

Why am I sharing this? Because for weeks Claire has only been taking 45 minute naps. She has now been asleep for over an hour. I don't care that it is too early for a nap or that the reason she may be sleeping so well is the torrential down pour we are experiencing. This gives me hope. It has been a difficult few weeks trying to get her to take longer naps and a lot of rocking when she wakes up and needs more sleep but can't get it. We have spent countless hours chasing naps and I am hoping we are nearing the end of this phase because not only has it been difficult on me (and Tim when he gets home and we are all grumpy) but it has been hard on Claire as well. Wish us well!

Picture Day

We finally bit the bullet and took Claire to have her picture made. They turned out pretty good. Here's a sampling:

She is wearing a dress my mom gave her and is sitting on the quilt our Aunt Mary Jane made for her. Isn't that a great smile?!

We were lucky to get this picture. Claire was growing quite tired. She is wearing a jumper that our friends, Rick and Courtney, had made for her with her initials embroidered on it.

Four Month Check-up

Claire had her check-up on Wednesday and she did very well. She is now 14lb and 5.5oz and 25.25 inches long. She is in the 70th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for height. This explains why she is growing out of her clothes so fast: she is just long! The doctor was impressed with how strong she is and how she is progressing developmentally so we were happy parents in the end. She took her shots like a champ, too. We talked to the doctor about starting her on solids and he didn't seem to think she needed it and recommended we wait until she is six months old. He said that however I've been feeding her seems to be working and that I didn't need to change anything so I was relieved.

Claire - 4 Months - Week 1

This was a week of milestones: Claire turned four months old last Friday, her first trip to Mimi and Grandaddy's in Fairhope, her first Halloween, and Monday was the one year anniversary of finding out that Claire was on her way. On Friday, we set out for Fairhope and Claire did pretty well in the car. After we arrived, I handed Claire off to her Grandaddy while Tim and I unpacked the car. When we got in the house, Claire was smiling but that quickly turned into a wail. I had noticed that Claire was becoming more sensitive. I should have done a better job at introducing her to the new surroundings. She has become much more aware of her environment recently and knows when something is different. Between that and the teething, she was out of sorts all weekend but we had a great time. We got to go see where Mimi works and got to meet her co-worker Molly. I forgot to take the camera so we didn't get a picture of her with Molly. Saturday, we went to visit Aunt Jessica where she works, Tuskers Furniture in Mobile. The store was really nice and Tim and I wanted to shop for some furniture but Claire had a bad episode with her teething while we were there so once again, no picture and no furniture. We laid low the rest of Saturday and spent our time at Mimi's and Grandaddy's. They had a lot of trick-or-treaters so it was fun to see them all parade in and out in their costumes. Sunday, we dropped in to see Mimi at the end of church so Claire could meet Mimi's choir-mates but we got there a bit late and Clarie was once again having problems with her teething. We had a really nice dinner that evening with Stephen and Jessica and Patrick. Chase was in Houston training for his new job. Monday we came home and today we are going to see the doctor for her four month check-up. Here are the pictures from her week:

Hanging out with Uncle Pat

War eagle!

Being silly with Mimi!

Visiting with Uncle Stephen

Our neighbors, Debbie and Jessica

Thank you Carrie and Ellen for the adorable clown costume!

Waiting for trick-or-treaters

Claire is wearing the dress Mimi bought her the day we found out we were expecting a girl.

Spending time with Aunt Jessica while sitting on Noah's head! I imagine that will be a common occurence once he arrives.

Uncle Beau was so concerned about her crying this weekend. He was also a bit upset that he was no longer the baby and the center of attention. Poor puppy!

Back at home on a Tuesday night, reading a story with Dad.