11 months!

Claire turns one tomorrow!  Here's a look back at her 11 month old self.

Feeding: Nursing in the morning and 3 bottles during the day (6 oz).  3 meals a day.  She eats a lot of things including olives and pickles.  Pasta and peas are still favorites!  She makes a cute mmm noise when she's eating something yummy. 

Sleeping: She sleeps about 11-11.5 hours a night.  Most nights she sleeps through, but there are still plenty of late night wake-ups that are no fun.  Bedtime is between 7:30 and 8.  Wake-up is usually between 7 and 8.  She has just recently started transition to one nap.  When it was two naps, she'd go down around 11 and again around 3 or 4 and sleep 1 to 1.5 hours at a time.  We're still figuring out the one nap thing.  She seems ready to go down between 12:30 and 2:00.  On a good day she'll sleep 2 hours but usually it's more like 1-1.5, which doesn't seem to be enough.  We're dealing with a good bit of crankiness.

Development:

Motor - We are up to 5-6 steps at at time!  She prefers crawling to get around and is very speedy.  She also loves to climb up the stairs, but is no good at coming down!  

Communication - Definitely an increase in vocalizations.  She finally said ma ma!  It doesn't mean me yet, but at least she can say it.  Da da is old hat, but she doesn't seem to associate it with Jeff just yet.  She babbles with increasing inflection.  She has a lot of "sh" sounds in her vocabulary.  "She she" or "shish shish" are frequent sounds.  She can imitate the sign for "more" and is getting closer to using it appropriately.  Right now she is over using it but at least she'll make it independently.  She can also imitate the sign for milk, but not "all done" just yet.  She has mastered waving and clapping.  We tried working on blowing kisses. She doesn't do any motions, just make the mmwha kissing noise, which is totally adorable.  Especially when tucking her into bed at night.  She knows her name and understands the word no (not that she always listens to it!).  She loves peek a boo and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  She'll even try to the hand motion for the spider.

Play - Her interests and skills are much the same.  She still loves to pull stuff apart - the ring stacker, a bin of toys, the tupperware in the cabinet - it all needs to become a jumbled mess.  Occasionally I'll call her Captain Destructo.  She loves her Fisher Price Learning Home and playing peek a boo with Mommy in the little window that goes up and down.  Or getting mail in the mailbox.  She is no longer afraid of the busy ball popper that her aunt and uncle got her for Christmas.  However, she'd rather just grab the balls instead of letting them cycle through the popper.  She likes balls of all sorts and will sit for a minute or two to roll a ball back and forth.  She will even attempt to roll it back a few times before she gets impatient and just comes at you to get it.  Something that is rather recent is an interest in books.  She loves to flip the pages.  Touch and feel books are a big hit.  Those actually allow us to get through a story, rather than just flipping through the pages quickly.

Playing "bongos" at the park

At the zoo with Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma Schulze

I like to climb in the toy basket

Help!  I'm stuck in this one!

Hanging with Uncle John and Auntie Jess

Mmm, Super Bowl snacks!

Go Patriots!

Who needs the sides on this thing?

Stole Mommy's ice cream cone!!

"Reading"

Happy Vaentine's Day!

I'm a big, standing girl!!

Honey, I'm home!

10 months

Claire turned 10 months on Christmas Eve.  We celebrated by opening presents! 

She is making great strides (pun intended!) in her move toward walking. She received a Radio Flyer walker wagon for Christmas.  She was able to take maybe a step or two with it.  Two weeks later she was able to push it from one end of house to the other.  In early January she began standing on her own, unsupported.  Shortly thereafter she was able to push herself to a standing position without holding on to anything.

In late December we worked once again on sleeping through the night.  We had a few fits and starts with teething and a cold.  We had 3 good nights in a row and then New Year's Eve came.  We had a lot of crying around 2 or 3 that night/morning, just when my parent's happened to be staying over.  But finally from the 5th to the 12th we had a whole week of sleeping through the night!  Fingers crossed that this is the new normal!!

Eating wise, Claire is starting to exercise her right of refusal!  She is pushing away foods she once liked - bananas, avocados, fish, cottage cheese.  Sometimes she just seems to get tired of a food for a little while.  Guess she doesn't like too many days of leftovers.  She loves peas and pasta. 

January 20-22nd we took a trip down to Savannah.  It was Claire's second visit.  We were there before on Mother's day.  Grammi and Aunt Jamie babysat Saturday so Jeff and I could go to Jekyll Island. We had a nice day out.

Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island

Sunday we helped Jamie load up some things to come back to my parent's house in preparation for moving out of her apartment at the end of February.  Fortunately, Claire and I had to go with my mom to buy some tarps, missing out on the hauling of stuff down 3 stories.  Claire has her 3rd and worst cold of her short little life.  So it probably wasn't her favorite trip ever.

And finally, here are some photos.  They are from my phone since I've finally figured out a good way to get them on here.  The ones on the real camera will sit there til Jeff gets around to them.

HI!

What do you mean I'm supposed to push it, not sit in it?

Ready to go out with the recycling

Got my car seat strap to play with, all is good

Jammie time

WARNING: Baby nudity!

Yay, KEYS!!

Who doesn't love a baby in overalls??

Claire meets Santa

Jeff and I took Claire to see Santa the week after Thanksgiving.  We just went to the local mall, which has a pretty nice set up.  One definite plus of Jeff's job is that he has random week days off, so we didn't have brave weekend crowds.  There was no one in line when we arrived.  But we had to change Claire into her dress first and a few people showed up in those couple of minutes.  But still pretty painless!



The first shot we got was the best.  Nice big grin at Daddy.  It went a little downhill after that.  It picked back up at the end when a female worker came over and started making faces, but those pictures didn't seem to make it online.  So here's what we got.

The winner!

See how the savvy Santa quickly grabbed her hand to prevent the glasses or beard grab.

Daddy? I see you over there.  Come get me!

Why am I still sitting here?  *sigh*

9 months

Claire shared her 9 month birthday with Thanksgiving and my parents anniversary.  Big day!

Much is the same as last month with her sleeping.

Eating is much the same except we introduced some formula.  November 29th was the big day for Claire's first 2 ounces of formula.  So we made it to 9 months and 5 days old with exclusive breastfeeding.  Now it's nice to be able to give her a bottle when we are out and about and to not worry about my supply.

We are moving along multiple areas of development.
-She is waving at everyone!  She's definitely mastered that skill.  Sometimes she makes a noise that sounds like hi or hey.  First word potential?? 
 -By the end of the month she started clapping.  She also seemed to make the sign for "more" a few times, which I've been showing her at meal time.  But then she started confusing the sign and clapping, as they are similar.  So who knows if she really gets it.
-The big news was in gross motor development.  She started standing up holding on with one hand.  Then she started cruising a little bit along the couch.  And eventually she was transitioning between pieces of furniture.
-She's making a wider variety of sounds and putting more sounds together.  Jeff is convinced she'll be quite the talker.
-She learned how to shake her head no.  This may have coincided with our Christmas tree going up and being told no, not to touch it.  Or when she discovered the electronics cabinet and lots of fun cords!  She heard/saw no quite a few times with that one.  It's hilarious to try to sternly tell her no and have her shake her head at you while grinning about her skill.  Pretty impossible to keep a straight face!

And squeaking in at the very end: TEETH!  After 4 months of no tooth activity, Claire's top two teeth decided to come in at the same time.  Once again they were discovered by my mom, on December 20th or 21st.  Four months after her first one was discovered.  So we can say Claire got her two front teeth for Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Jeff got a few days off for Thanksgiving this year.  We took advantage of that and went to stay up in the North Georgia mountains.  My dad's female cousin Danie owns a lovely cabin up there.  Some of her siblings come from all around for Thanksgiving. So a nice big group for dinner. This was our first time meeting most of them.

There was a little excitement when the sweet potato casserole boiled over and started a small fire in the over.  And the filter in the septic system was backing up and causing a small mess in the yard.  But all was resolved without incident.  We had a great meal thanks to multiple talented cooks and turkey fryers.

Claire rocked her super cute Thanksgiving dress, which wasn't very conducive to crawling.

Halloween

Pumpkin Patch!

Pumpkin picking with the Schulzes and Grammi Simpson - October 2011

Little punkin on a big pumpkin

Claire's cousins

Look, one my size!

I wanna eat this one!

Aunt LeeAnn

Peek a boo!

Cute cousins!

8 Months!

Claire hit 8 months on October 24th.  Here's a review of our little pumpkin at 8 months old.

Development -  Crawling? Yeah, she's got that!  Getting stronger and braver with how long and how far she will crawl.  She also gets better and better at pulling up on things too.  She also started waving hi intermittently.

Play - She can entertain herself for a good few minutes if she is in the mood.  She still loves chewing on things - socks, strings, straps and the like. She starting to get the hang of cause and effect.  Knowing if you push something a noise will come out.  Getting movements coordinated enough to do it is another matter, but she's getting there.  If you stack something up, she'll rip it down.  Those ring stackers?  Yep, she wants those rings off immediately! She's is becoming less a fan of the doorway jumper and exersaucer.  She wants to be mobile!

Eating - She's eating lots of stuff. Most veggies, fruits, beans, cheese, chicken, and on and on. She definitely prefers finger foods!  You can get in a few bites of something with a spoon if she's really hungry. 

Sleep - In bed by 7:45/8:00, up between 7:30 and 8:30.  Usually 8 to 8.  Two naps most days unless we screw her up by dragging her around with us on errands. (Still the same from last month)

7 months!

Claire at 7 months:

Development -  We've got sitting mastered.  There's been rapid development from sitting up to being able to lean over and reach, to getting on all fours and rocking back and forth, to crawling movements.  She's still in the experimental stage with crawling.  So we see a little army crawling, some rocking on all fours, and even a few "crawls" before she collapses. At the same time she also really wants to pull up on things.  We don't have a lot of things that are a good height for her to do so.  So has used the Fisher Price sing along stage to pull to standing on.  Yikes! She can now move her arms in an up and down swinging motion good for ringing a bell or whacking objects on the floor or table.

Play -She can "play independently" for a few minutes now.  Also known as "entertain herself with an activity for more than 2 seconds."  We recently got a big rug for our sun room to make it a nice playroom, so now she's got a room all to herself and her toys.  She's becoming more vocal.  We went through a fake coughing spell and we're getting lots of babbling.  She also likes to make some really loud noises, kind of like she's yelling.  She thinks it's really funny if we "yell" back at her.

Eating - She had her first yogurt and that went down well.  We introduced a few finger foods just to see how she did.  Now she prefers those to purees.  I am afraid all this baby food in the cabinet and the homemade stuff I whipped up and froze may not get eaten!  But I've learned a few tricks.  I can sneak some in when she's feeding herself and opens her mouth to put something.  And someone suggested using the purees as a "sauce" for pasta so we'll try that.  But I've also discovered that the hungrier she is, the more likely she is to eat the purees.  I've recently started giving her bottles more often rather than nursing as she is less distracted that way and I can see how much she's actually eating. 

Sleep - In bed by 7:45/8:00, up between 7:30 and 8:30.  Usually 8 to 8.  Two naps most days unless we screw her up by dragging her around with us on errands. 

And we did have a week or two where she was fussy in the mornings so we reintroduced the swing to help calm and quiet her.  Turns out it may have been that she was hungry.  A few bottles of milk during the day helps make sure she is getting enough so she can be our happy little clam.  

6 months!

Well the 7 month mark has come and gone.  Oops!  Let's see if I can think back and capture a 6 month old Claire.

She celebrated her half year mark on our family vacation in Blowing Rock.  We put in her in a swing for the first time.  She loved it!  Litlle thrill seeker.

Personality wise she is staying consistent: very curious and active.  I think she has her dad's tendency to be easily bored but also engrossed in the simplest of things.  :)  Teething has made her a little more whiny, which is no fun for her or us.  On the whole, she is still a happy girl.

Development - She's sitting on her own for longer periods of time.  She stills fall backward frequently, which is no good on our hardwood floors.  If I put blankets behind her, she just pulls them around to eat them!  She also started rolling like crazy.  All over the living room and beyond.  But she gets frustrated at things that get in her way.  She got pissed at the basement door for not getting the heck out of her way!

Play - She loves the doorway jumper and the exersaucer.  Sitting on the floor and playing is also pretty cool.  Her ever increasing coordination allows her to reach out and grab what she wants.   Jeff's sister passed down their Fisher Price Sing Along Stage, which makes lots of noise and has a mirror and flashy lights.  Claire really likes sitting at and batting at the buttons.  She likes music, musical instruments, and watching mommy jump or dance.  She still enjoys her play mat, with sitting offering a whole new perspective.  But she's getting a little too strong and can yank on the toys pretty hard!

Eating - Finally spacing out the nursing sessions!  Yay!  She's loving pretty much all solids we've given her.  Lots of fruits and veggies.  The only thing she balks at are really tart things, like some homemade plums.  We're up to twice a day with the solids.

Sleep - Ha!  All the traveling we did in August combined with teething turned her sleep to crap.  We had a few blissful weeks in early August and then that was that.  Back to waking up.  Some nights multiple times, sometimes just once to eat.  She's usually in bed by 8 and up between 7:30 and 8:30.  She alternates between 2 and 3 naps, depending on when she wakes up, how long each one is, etc.

August 2011

Wow, way behind on the blogging!  Time to catch up.

August was a pretty busy month.  We had Rishi and Nirali's wedding up in Chicago August 12th-14th.  It was like a college reunion with so many of our friends there.  Oh, and the wedding stuff too.  It was cool to be at a full blown Indian wedding.  Since I don't speak Sanskrit, much of it was lost on me but it was awesome to think about how much tradition and history and meaning was behind everything.  And their families put a lot of effort into making things great for the couple and pretty entertaining for the guests.  Complete with a "flash mob" dance that we participated in.  Well, actually Jeff used Claire as an excuse to bow out, but the rest of us had fun.  And Jeff and I got a few hours off while Claire hung out with my friend Lindsey during the day Saturday.

Then on the 21st, Claire was baptized!  We had a nice little ceremony at our church, St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church.  Then back to our house for some refreshments.

The next day we took our first family vacation to Blowing Rock, N.C.   We had a fabulous room at the Ridgeway Inn complete with kitchen, sitting area and bedrooms for us and Claire.  We did some hiking and some strolling around little towns.  Claire did well, except for some crappy sleeping at night.  During the day she was (usually) content to nap in the car and even in the carrier we used to strap her on to us.  We enjoyed exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway and being in the cooler mountain air!

As we were heading back home, I got a call that my grandfather was in the hospital.  He had come down from Maine from Claire's baptism and was hanging around for a while.  My parents and brother and sister-in-law were actually out of town for a Nascar race.  My mom flew back to town to be with her dad.  Claire and I headed down to keep them company.  After a few frustrating days of slow progress, we finally were assured that it was most likely just a case of severe vertigo.  I know a little something about all day nausea, so I'm sure it was a pretty awful time for my grandfather.