"Tiss"

So I think Clara said Kiss this morning. Matt was on his way out to work and Clara and I were sitting at the breakfast table. Matt kissed me goodbye and Clara put up her arms and said "TISS!".

She picked up her face and let Matt give her a big kiss and then she smiled :)

Independant ME

Clara really seems to be exerting her independance these days. She is much more opinionated about what she does and how she wants things done. She complains quite loudly and gives that "pucker" face when she wants to do something and you tell her no. Heather was just telling me she does that face a lot when she is trying to get her to share with Preston.

I am sitting downstairs working and I hear her complaining quite loudly because Heather is probably trying her to make her share! Oh boy! I am in for a lot of trouble with that baby girl :)

Demands demands demands :)

Ever since everyone left for Christmas, Clara has been pretty demanding. I came up after working yesterday and I picked her up. She immediately asked for help and I got her the animal she wanted. She then asked for milk. It was actually pretty neat that she used sign language like that. I am going to figure out a few more signs to teach her.

She wants to be held ALL THE TIME by me right now. I think she missed me with all these other people around.

Help

Clara learned how to do the help sign on the 22nd. Very exciting! It is a useful one. Today Matt was holding her down giving her kisses and she started to do the help sign. Pretty funny!

Christmas

My parents were here for Christmas and Clara really warmed up to them. She really seemed to like my dad and would do the monkey smile for him on command EVERY single time. It is always funny too. It is really rather adorable.

My grandmother was also here yesteday and Clara really did not like her. Whenever my grandmother would want to hold her, Clara would turn away and she even swiped at her a couple of times. Naughty baby!

Clara got a lot of toys for Christmas and some clothes. I think she had a good time but did get overwhelmed with all the presents that we even stopped opening them and several of them are still sitting under the tree unopened! She is too young this year to know and every now and then I will pull out a present for her to open. She starts out getting excited about opening presents but then sort of slowly gets bored with it and has yet to really rip into anything. She was afraid of some toys though! We got her these cars that go when you bring them back and they move forward. For some reason, she is afraid of the orange one. I have not figured that one out yet!

Overall, I think Christmas was a success. Dinner was great. I made my first turkey dinner and I thought it came off rather well! It was fun to make it.

Come here kitty "titty"!

Clara has been doing this for a while and I don't think I have mentioned it yet but when she sees the cats and wants to call them over, she scratches on the carpet like Matt and I do. She does not do it very effectively because she does not do it very loudly but it is so cute that she picked that up. She loves her kitties.

As Matt says, somedays she walks up, rubs her eyes, and says "KITTY!".

Clara's Meals at 13 months

For breakfast, Clara pretty much eats a half a banana that I cut in half longwise and toast strips. She LOVES to drink her milk in the morning as well. I could give her the banana whole but I think she gets frustrated with it sometimes and seems much better when I cut it in half.

For lunch, I usually give her some cold cut strips, a cheese stick (which is her favorite), grapes and some sort of cracker or veggie booty or something.

For dinner, it is varying. I am trying to give her veggies at this meal but I am really not having much luck getting her to eat. Usually it is some sort of pasta (which she loves), chicken if I have it on hand, some veggie, and whatever Matt and I are eating. The other day, I gave her some spinach, mushroom and chicken and she did not like that too much. Last night I gave her a grilled cheese sandwich and she did not seem to like that either! I was surprised at that. Cheese and bread, what is there NOT to love!

Machine gun laugh, BREEEEEHHHH, and touch your nose to the ground

One evening, Clara started yelling at around 10:00 at night and Matt and I got her because we were not sure what happened. In order to calm her down, Matt usually takes her to his office because for whatever reason, it is THE room that works for her. He has a couple of X-Wings in his office and she noticed them. Matt started making one of them "fly" and he was making machine gun noises with it. Clara thought it was HYSTERICAL! After that, when she gets excited sometimes, she laughs like a machine gun. It is SO funny. I got it on tape!

Sometimes, when Clara pets the cats she makes this noise that I wish I could spell it properly. But it is something like. BRRRWEEEHHHHHHH. It is SO sweet. I was trying to get it on tape to remember it but I couldn't last time I tried.

At class on Saturday, the makeup class we did, Clara touched her nose to the ground for the first time! I was working with her to do it a few days ago and she remembered it and did it during class. I was so proud.

Coloring

About a week ago, I decided to start Clara on coloring to see if it would be an activity that she would enjoy. I think she is beginning to like it! I know she definitely likes the crayons. She likes to carry them around like she does with the forks and spoons from her play kitchen and when I take them away from her, she gets pretty made. I was on my computer and I saw Clara go over to her little table, pull off the crayons and the coloring book and start to pull all the crayons and start to color. She seemed to enjoy taking the crayons out and putting them back in the container more than the actual coloring, but I am sure she is eventually going to love it!

A little white lie? Or just a neat trick?

I am sitting here watching Clara eat breakfast and I think she just learned a new trick. To cross her fingers. She is doing with with her left hand (because her right is gripping a fork) and she keeps doing it over and over again. She was watching herself do it as she mastered this new trick!

Milk, Books, Utensils

Clara is really beginning to enjoy whole milk which is a comfort to me since we weaned about two weeks ago. She loves it. I love it when she goes, "AHHHHHHHHHH!" after she takes a big drink.

Her new favorite book right now is this Dora the Explorer book that the Clancy's bought her. It has these buttons on the right hand side that go along with the story but Clara just enjoys making all the fun noises. She says "Duck" when you make the little duckie quack!

For her birthday, my mom got her this huge kitchen set and she loves it. The kid has a thing for utensils. It is so funny. She likes to crawl around with them and use them at meals. I started giving her things on plates and giving her more utensils during meals.

Monkey Smile

Clara has this funny smile that we have dubbed the Monkey Smile. She smiles really big and squints her eyes and looks up. She does it so randomly and she just sort of started to do it when you say Monkey Smile. She does make it cheesier and bigger when you say Monkey Smile too. So cute.

It is a much more pleasant experience than the Monkey Family I had to endure in college...

Where's your nose Clara?

Clara touched her nose for the first time today when you ask here where her nose is! I have been asking her for about a week and she does touch her hair when you ask her where her hair is, but when I used to ask her where her nose is, she would touch her hair instead!

Nik was over and I was trying to show him that she touches her hair when you ask about her nose, but instead, she touched her nose!

Now when she touches her nose, she decides to stick her finger up her nose. Since it is already there, why not!?!?!?

All about the hugs

Clara LOVES to hug me. It is so sweet. She will come up and reach for the hug and puts her head on my right shoulder. Sometimes she pats my back.

Stinky daddy

Forgot to mention, the whole time I was gone, Matt did not shower once because he could not find the time. He was stinky!

Gone for a weekend

I left Clara with Matt so I could go to Mols wedding. She did well but I don't think she slept into the morning one night and was up with Matt at 4 AM. She also was a bit whiny, might be teething or missing mommy.

When they picked me up at the airport, I caught Matt outside of baggage claim and hopped into the backseat of the car. Bad move, Clara wanted me to hold her stat and of course I couldn't. We ended up stopping at McDonalds so we could get out and I could eat lunch. She was not too happy to get back in the car! Overall, I think she missed me because I was required to cuddle for most of the day yesterday with her. She is the sweetest.

Clara's fun new things are: slapping her skin, mostly her tummy and chest when she is naked. It is hilarious. She now also pats me on the back when I hold her with her head on my shoulder because I often do that to her. She asked for milk this morning when she woke up and drank a whole sippy cup worth. She loves her moo juice!

She is learning more every day. The day before I left, she started taking steps into the great wide open. She is becoming a big girl!

Walking like a crazy monkey

Clara is def getting more confident with walking. She has been taking more and more steps and it is so funny to watch because it is so exaggerated. Her arms flap out to the side sticking straight out and she sort of walks with her legs sticking out to the sides. It is pretty neat to watch. I am going to be gone for a couple of days starting tomorrow and I hope that I don't miss too much while I am gone! I will be sad to miss any of it.

Directions to Matt for Molly's Wedding - his first weekend alone with her - just him!

December 2005

How to take care of Clara Rose

Daddy’s first big weekend alone with his little girl!

In the morning

When Clara wakes up, don’t forget to give her water, change her diaper, turn of the heater and humidifier.

Breakfast

For breakfast, give Clara some milk, ½ banana, toast strips until she tells you she is all done.

After Breakfast

It is play time and time to change Clara’s clothes.

Naptime #1

When Clara is tired put her down with her lovey and kitty. If it is chilly in her room, turn on her heater. Clara likes to be read to before her nap.

Lunchtime

Clara eats around noon. If you are hungry she is too! Feed her grapes, cheese stick, ½ a turkey slice, and some starch like veggie puffs, cheerios, bread, etc. I give her the starch last. She drinks milk with lunch as well.

After Lunch

This is a good time to get whatever you need to get done outside of the house. Please make sure you bundle her up no matter what her complaints are. AND SHOES SHOES SHOES please.

Naptime #2

Whenever she is tired.

Play time again

Play until dinner. She is most cranky and clingy at this time so don’t expect to get ANYTHING done other than be her sounding board.

Dinner

Mac and cheese is always a popular move. Try and give her at least one fruit or veggie with this meal. There are canned peaches and canned veggies (which I have to go buy so if there aren’t any I forgot to buy them- overcook the ones in the freezer, follow directions). If you get take out, Clara likes pasta or pizza. Make sure she does not eat too much of that or you WILL see it again later.

Bedtime

You know how to do this well so have fun! Give the BBD lots of hugs and kisses from her mommy!

Don’t Forget

1) The baby doll must wear socks and preferably shoes at all times
2) Turn on her humidifier and heater at 77 degrees on oscillate at night

3) Try and keep her hair back so she is not a shaggy dog. A clip is fine, just don’t put her down with the clip to sleep.

NO MORE SUCKA SUCKA

Clara and I officially stopped nursing on Sunday (12/4/05). I was not planning on stopping it that soon but they day sort of got away with itself and it made itself into a good day to cut out the last feeding. I believe it was last Wednesday when I realized that I was going to have to take the pump with me if I did not have here weaned by tomorrow. So I slowly started, took one feeding out after a few days and then Sunday rolled around and I had one feeding left to go, and between staying at Ryan and Amanda's for Evelyn's party and the Switchfast Holiday Party, we did not have time to feed her.

I must admit that Clara really only seemed to mind once or twice when she was being put down for a nap or bed, but I had a hard time with the transition. I always appreciated that time with her as a nice quiet cuddly time where I could play with her hair or rub her cheek. I always found it worth while, that year of nursing when I started to feed her and she was content and rolled her eyes, or closed her eyes in happiness.

That I will surely miss.

Though I cannot believe that I did it for so long and now she is a toddler that is almost walking!

She is certainly getting close, taking a few tentative steps here and there. She has made more headway in talking which is pretty funny. She says dog, doll, duck, done, kitty, mama, and dada. She also repeats sounds too. Nothing like teaching your one year old to moo!

Whine much?

Clara is SO whiny right now. She got a cold when we were in Pittsford and she is particularly crabby about it right now.

Clara is getting better at taking a few steps, maybe a little bit more adventerous! She really thinks about if before she does it and it is pretty great when she does take those steps. Watch out!

She is also doing a bit more sign language. She is doing the scratching thing (which looks just like MILK so not sure what to do about that) for the kitties and does ALL DONE all the time. I think she started to do more when we were away but it looked like clapping so who knows! I am sure it is though because she certainly understands the concept. When you ask her for more and she sees the plate of toast strips, she will point at it or drop the toast in her hand in order to accept more.

Clara has been getting up earlier and earlier. It might have to do with being in a different time change while we traveled and the fact that someone was willing to get her at her first peep in the morning.

Clara's new favorite toy is Hokey Pokey Elmo. She likes to dance to him. Grandma even got her a Elmo Get Up and Go book and she dances to that too. Today is the day we go to the toy store for her Christmas gifts so I am excited about that! Thanks Grandmas for funding her toys!

BIG STEPS!

Clara has been taking a lot of big steps lately. Yesterday, she was even crouched and stood up and then walked away a few steps. She really will crawl for her new kitty.

Clara just was doing something funny. She was playing with Grandpa's pool triangle and was putting it around her waist. Though she got mad when she could not take it off!

First Steps!

Clara officially toke her first steps today. She was standing near the television and in order to get over to the fireplace, she took two steps to get over there. Later, she took a step or two towards me from the fireplace. She is also getting a lot braver when it comes to walking with me, she will do it with one hand! I am excited :) She did this one day short of her first birthday!

DONE DONE DONE

Clara's new thing is she says done over and over again. "Done, done, done, done". She just sort of says it whenever. It is so cute.

She does all done when she is eating pretty much all the time now. I love it, I really hope she picks up some more sign language.

Clara's first birthday party

Yesterday we had a little party for Clara's birthday. Ryan, Amanda, Evelyn and Kelly came over to celebrate! Clara had a great time and was SO crazy after the party. She got all of her presents from my mom, Cherie and us yesterday. I think the hit of the presents was the giant pegasus that we bought her and the Hokey Pokey Elmo that my parents got her. She also really loves the Wizard of Oz thing. She likes to put all the characters from one bucket to the other. I had never seen her play with one toy for so long.

She kept kissing and hugging the "StarButt" as I have named him and it made her laugh when Matt made it dance.

Clara and Evelyn had their first taste of chocolate cupcakes made by Bad Aunt Kelly. Evelyn LOVED it and Clara had more fun watching Evelyn make a chocolate mess of herself than actually eating the cupcake. It was pretty funny.

Evelyn is completely walking now. It is so funny to watch her do it, it looks so darn uncomfortable to watch a baby learn how to walk. She seems to prefer scooting and crawling though when she wants to get somewhere fast. Evelyn is SO SO much bigger than Clara. Clara looks darn small next to her.

The funniest part of the day was when I gave Evelyn the same present that Amanda gave Clara. Too funny, the cute little backpack from a little bit of this. Very sweet!

After the party, Clara was completely crazy after her nap. She played and played and laughed and laughed. I think she liked her new toys!

Almost one

I cannot believe that Clara is almost going to be one. That just boggles my mind. I was looking at pictures of Clara's older pictures from when she was a few weeks old and she has grown so much since then.

She is learning so much now and is so interactive. We have been trying to teach her more sign language. She is having a very hard time learning "More" since it usually involves food and she gets so desperate about food. She will do it if we show her, then show her how to move her hands. But then she defaults to pointing and screaming. She is a stubborn one. She did do all done on her own will, she does that one sporadically.

My sweetheart

Clara is so sweet. She kissed a kitty in her book today. She and Smithers are really getting along well these days. Smithers lets her "pet" him but sometimes she gets really excited and starts to pound on him. I have taught her "gentle" and she does it sometimes! It is pretty funny because she starts to pet instead of pound at makes this "ss sss ss" sound which is similar to kitty. Matt and Clara spent the weekend at the Morans while I went to ND to see the Tennessee game and she was pounding on Colin and Carrie told him to be gentle so she did the same thing. Started to pet him like a kitty!

YELLING!

Sometimes I feel like Clara yells all day long! AHHHH!

I think she is having a hard time with the fact that I am working sometimes when we are home together since we no longer have a nanny. She is ALL over me while I am at my computer and when I pick her up, she cannot decide if she wants to be up or down. She is a little nuts that baby!

Well, it's official

Clara ate cat food

Standing!

Clara has been standing mroe and more lately. It is so funny because she is standing but does not really seem to be acknowledging the fact that she is doing so. For the longest time, she would not walk with me like most babies do. She would walk with her walker (LOOK OUT!) but for the most part if you had her two hands her legs would buckle underneath her.

Anyway, so I just pulled Clara away from playing with the cord to the iPod speakers and put her down in front of the toy box and she stood! For a few seconds too. The longest I have seen her do it.

Carrie

So we let Carrie go. I feel really bad about it because I am all about guilt, though I know I should not feel that way. We really gave her many chances and sometimes I feel taken advantage of. But I do feel bad that Clara and her have created a relationship and now that is over because Carrie made some poor choices. But there is not much I can do about that. It got to the point where I felt I could no longer trust Clara with her and that is certainly something I had to end.

Duck Du Du Du

Clara said duck through out her whole bath today. Duck du dudududududu. She is so funny. She seems to be saying Kitty more and more. We were in her room and she said Kitty when she saw one of them in the hallway before I even saw him, so she told me a cat was there!

For some reason, she had a cry fest this afternoon. I think it was because I was telling her no to touching my laptop and she might have been hungry. She seemed much better after dinner. She had some leftover pizza and I made her some pasta with peas and threw some tomato sauce on there.

Clara's first Halloween

Clara had a very busy and exciting first Halloween celebration. It seemed to go on forever! It started on the Monday before where she wore her flower costume to her playgroup and to class the next day. We also brought it to NC but she did not get a chance to wear it there. Today is Halloween and we gave Clara some chocolate for the first time. She LOVED it. She liked to play with the big bowl of candy and I let her until I realiezd she was taking all the small candy and biting the outside of the package, squishing the candy inside. I had a few candies set aside for her and she continued to bite them and squish them until she finally got some chocolate out. I realized it later when she had chocolate all over her face and she was being a bit too quiet! When we took it away from her she was ANGRY! A lot of crying and a bit of a tantrum. We strapped her in her seat and gave her half of a kit kat. That is where she is right now eating away and being very happy about it. She likes her candy!

Hat and Shoe

Clara is quickly adding to her word repetoire and said Hat and Shoe today. I think she is just really into repeating what I am saying as you can see she said these things as we were getting dressed to go out :).

I was on the phone with Matt's mom and she was APPALLED at the fact that I am still nursing Clara. I really wish she would educate herself before she has such strong opinions on things because if she did even a minimal amount of research, she will find that it is recommended to nurse until they are at least a year old. I am just trying to do the best thing for Clara!

Toast strips

For breakfast, Clara has been eating a banana and toast strips. She LOVES them. I usually give her the banana first, make my coffee and thow in the toast. Needless to say by the time she is done with her bananas, she is ready for toast. She gets SO excited. Her arms shake in excitement as she reaches out for them.

The toast strips themselves are a funny story. When I started her on toast, I cut them up in cubes. I got tired of that and decided she was ready for strips. She sort of did not understand the whole put in mouth and pull thing. She finally gets it now!

Another funny thing she does is that I don't give her all her strips otherwise many of them would end up on the floor. But when she has something in either one of hands, even if it is toast, and I put more tooast on her tray, she drops whatever is in her hands and picks up the new toast.

One more funny story

I forgot to mention this. We were at Ryan and Amanda's on wednesday night (BTW, Evelyn is about to walk and still is super loud!) and Evelyn yelled at Clara the whole time we were there. At one point, Clara did ALL DONE. It was SO funny. I guess she was done wtih Evelyn yelling. I feel bad for her. She needs some playmates. Amanda and Ryan were saying how she has no one to play with! Clara has people to play with all week!

Stairs

Clara JUST realized that we had stairs. She could do stairs for a while because she has done the ones going to the second floor and in class before but we were in the basement (Matt and I were trying to watch the ND/BYU game and I went upstairs to get something and she followed me.) She LOVES IT. Matt watched Clara today while I worked on the kitchen table and she went up and down the stairs over and over again. Matt said that when she was about to head for the stairs, she would look back and him as if to ask him if he was coming! She likes to be chased up the stairs :). She had a hard time though when she was doing it with her lovey. Which by the way, I went to Chicago and bought her a duplicate one so there won't be issues in the future about it :)

Clara is getting more and more annoyed with getting her diaper changed. She is CRAZY! She really starts to kick and scream and fight it but what can you do, you need your diaper changed. It is actually rather frustrating.

Clara is really getting around and discovering new things. She loves buttons. She was in Matt's office turning the TV on and off. She is funny.

The weather has turned and it is officially cold. There was no nice fall. It was friggin hot for a while and then it got friggin cold. We put the insulator on the windows in her room. Hopefully that will help with keeping her room warm. Her room gets so much colder than ours at night.

Clara's first word -- KITTY

So I think we can officially say that Clara has said her first word. I think she has been saying Momma and Dada appropriately but who is to say because she has been saying those words forever and I am not sure if she is using them in context. She seems to be but it could also be a coincidence. So, since there is so much ambiquiety over that, we are saying her first word is KITTY! I was pointing to Monty (or Smithers, I can't remember) and she said Kitty. It comes out more like Titty or Sitty or Sissy or Ditty but she is def naming it. I went to Costco and bought her these cat hand puppets and she LOVES them. She calls that Kitty too! She is getting so big so fast!

She is so cute when she says it too. She sort of whispers it. It is really sweet.

Chipped tooth

Meghan and Mike were hear yesterday visiting as they were on their way to the ND/USC game. She really liked Mike and he made her giggle a lot which was funny because there are very few people that can do that. I had noticed a few days ago that Clara's tooth looked chipped (according to Meghan, it is letter E:)) and Meghan confirmed it. Who knows how she did it! Hopefully she willgrind it down on her own, it is not too bad.

All done

Clara definitely did all done the other day after dinner. She does it so thoughtfully. I think it is sort of funny. I need to start teaching her other things. I am working on "More".

Clara is finally feeling better. Her fever went down on Thursday and her rash showed up shortly after that. It was not too bad, it just was EVERYWHERE except on her face. It cleared up as of today! Yesterday, I took her back to the doctor and her platlet counts are back to normal (182) and got a clean bill of health. Though we have to wait another week before she can get her flu shot.

Clara seems to be standing a little bit more. She was standing near a crate and pretty much stood up and she did not realize that she was! Then all of a sudden, she crashed down on her butt. Thank goodness the diaper serves as a cushion as well.

Roseola

Yesterday I took Clara to the doctor because she had a fever for about three days. She was SO cranky and was having a hard time sleeping. I was so desperate one night to get her to go to sleep, at 1:30 in the morning, I drove her around Bartlett in my car to get her to go to sleep. It worked! She has been so cranky and the slightest thing would start her crying. I think she is feeling better today.

Anyway, the doctor said she has Roseola, which a viral disease that is characterized by a high fever for a few days and then a whole body rash that shows up after the fever goes down. Her fever went down this morning and now the rash has appeared! It is not too bad. At least not yet. Hopefully it does not itch her too bad. I sort of want my super happy baby back! I miss her.

Clara weighed in at 17.10 today.

My poor baby

I feel so bad. I hurt Clara today. She was in the bathroom and I usually put her in front of the big mirror so she can entertain herself while I go to the bathroom. She was playing with some measuring tape and I went to pick her up and pulled the tape out of her hand. She must have been holding onto it tight because she cut herself in between her thumb and pointer finger. I feel so bad because she was bleeding and started to cry so hard. My poor baby...

Two more teeth?

I just noticed that Clara has two more teeth coming in around her two front teeth. Possible reason why some meals are ending in complete hysterics? Maybe.

Blankets

She LOVES her blankets and cuddles with them. She thinks it is hysterical. I have this shelf in her room that has all these blankets, all the handmade ones she has. And they are out and she can reach them. Since her #1 favorite thing to do in the world is do de-shelf things, she loves to do it to those too. She takes them each down and rolls around on the floor with them. Sometimes the kid is just bizarre but it is so sweet to watch.

Yesterday after Carrie left, I got Clara up from her second nap and she cuddled with me for a good five minutes. She hugged me so hard and would not let go. I LOVE it when she does that. She has a good heart that little baby of mine.

Monty LOVES yogurt

Clara started feeding the cats her food. She is a little nuts about it. The other day I was feeding her yogurt the other day and she had some on the end of the spoon. Monty started eating off on the end of her spoon and she thought it was HILARIOUS. She would get so excited and start kicking her legs and geting very happy over it. Now whenever she has a spoon in her hand and the cats are near, she tries to feed them with her spoon. It was so funny.

Clara also points at almost everything now. Sometimes I wish I knew WHAT she was pointing at. Today, we went to a pumpkin farm and she was pointing at the flowers. I finally got a picture of it.

EXTREME peek a boo

Clara plays peekaboo and it is the funniest thing. She does it SO fast. It is a little ridiculous. She pulls whatever she has in her hands, be it a piece of paper or a blanket, up and down from her face and you have to say peek a boo so fast you are almost out of breathe by the time she is done. And she always has the biggest smile on her face. It is so darn cute.

Another thing that she does lately is when she is nursing and I kiss her fingers, she constantly puts her fingers in my mouth so I can kiss them over and over again. She is so sweet.

100% positive about sign language

So up until now, I was not sure if Clara was signing. It seemed like there were things that she was repetitive and assertive about signing but we had no idea what she was saying or what they meant. Today, for the first time, I am certain she signed to me. I did the eat sign and she did it back to me! It was very exciting! It sort of made up for the last couple of days. She has been rather cranky lately. At first I thought it was about a new tooth coming in but I think it is a new phase of wanting to do what she wants to do.

I think she also did her first tantrum tonight. It was pretty ugly. Something in the bathtub started her off. I think it was the fact that her little squeaky crab started floating away from her every time she dropped it and it started a bit of a freak out. She started crying so hard in the tub, that I ended up taking her out since we no longer use the ducky and I did not want her to fall over or anything. Her little tantrum continued for the next twenty minutes. It was ugly. At one point, I even ended up walking away to see what she would do. She crawled out of the room crying really hard and me picking her up only caused her to calm down for a minute or so. She ended up calming down when Matt came home while I was standing in his office (for whatever reason she calms down when you walk in there, if only I had thought of it sooner) and by the time Matt got to his office she was FINE. She even smiled at him. It was so ridiculous. She was a little touch and go for the rest of the night but for the most part you could not tell at all that she had completely lost it. She is definitely a strong willed little girl! Uh OH!!!!

Hard to keep up

I have been rather negligent in posting Clara's progress mostly because it is so darn hard to keep up. She is doing new things everyday and seems to me growing at a rapid fire pace. She points, and seems to talk in sentences. The other day, she was telling Matt a complete story that made no sense at all. It was pretty funny. The sounds coming out of her mouth seem to be more complex. For example (and this is a poor example because it is so hard to explain), she used to just say DA DA and now she says something like DEWEY. She most definetly is getting closer and closer to saying her first word.

Clara is so lovey. She really likes to cuddle and is just a wonderful baby. Tonight, she was nursing and decided she was done with that. She sat up and crawled up my body and rested her head on my shoulders until she fell asleep. I don't know if I am doing her a disservice by cuddling her to sleep every night but I enjoy it so much and I think she does to.

Today was a play group friend. We met at the mall and Clara had fun watching the older girls. Some of them were being a little rough near her and it made me nervous. She is so little still! Sometimes she looks so big and other times she seems so darn little.

Going back to my Jersey roots

Clara, Matt and I went to NJ for a visit, our last one since the baptism. We flew for the first time with the baby doll and it went rather well. It is quite a challenge getting around the airport with all the things for her and honestly I am not quite sure how I am going to do it with her when we go to NC but I will have to figure it out!

The trip went well, it was rather tiring though. Three crazy kids is a lot to handle! Clara had a lot of fun playing with Maddie and Nate. Nate was searching for a lot of attention though and got a little rough with Clara sometimes like pushing her or kissing her too aggressively. But it is to be expected, he is only 2 after all!

Clara seemed to learn a lot of things from them. We got a little bit more adventerous with the food that she eats as well which has been a bit nerve wracking but it is good for her. She had pizza for the first time too and she LOVED it. She hummed the whole time while she was eating it as she always does when she eats something she likes. She also started throwing things on the floor when she is done eating. That is sort of irritating. The other thing we have to do when she is eating is give her two spoons if we are feeding her something with a spoon to keep her occupied. She is a funny one.

Kazoo and Teeth

Clara figured out how to use the kazoo! She had it in her mouth and started to hum and now she is having a grand old time with it. It is pretty funny. She tried to kazoo the recorder but did not have much luck with it. Every now and then she will get the recorder down but she seems to have more fun with the kazoo.

On a scarier note, when Clara nurses now, I can really feel her top teeth and it is beginning to hurt. I hope that this passes or my body gets used to it but it is sure an uncomfortable feeling. When she pulls away with it in her mouth, it definately hurts A LOT!

The last two days she has been a little bit cranky. I think her teeth have been bothering her and her sleep schedule is a little off. She was going to sleep at 9 two night in a row but tonight she went to sleep at her normal 7. Most likely because she missed a nap this afternoon. I was running around like a maniac looking for my business debit card that I think I lost. And then I had to go into Bank One to get a new one. What a pain...

We are going to travel with Clara for the first time next weekend on a plane. I am very nervous about it! Hopefully it goes OK.

Clap-a Clap-a Clap-a

Clara is doing some really neat things lately. She copies us a little bit more these days. The one that she has perfected is clapping. She probably has been doing it about a week now. She even does it if you just say Clap-a Clap-a Clap-a. It is pretty cute. She has been waving more. I caught her the other day waving at herself in the mirror in the car, looking at herself and then looking at her hand as she was waving.

I have been trying to teach her how to blow kisses. We will see if I make any progress!

Clara went to the doctor today for her 9 month appointment. She got her TB test done so hopefully that will come back negative. She weighed 17.8 when she only weighed 17.5 2 months ago! And she only grew 3/4 of an inch. The doctor said that was OK since she is still nursing and that it nothing to worry about.

Matt is away this weekend. This is the first night that I will be sleeping alone in this big house! I am nervous about it but looking forward to doing whatever I want tomorrow. I was sort of torn as to what to even do with myself after he left. But I can't wait for him to get back!

The DaDaDa dance and other fine inventions by Clara Owen

Clara has this funny dance that she does now. I call it the DaDaDa dance. She basically says Da Da Da over and over again while she swings her hips forward and back and her head as well. It makes me dizzy to imitate it. She does it when she is excited and is having a good time. It always makes me laugh.

She is really moving around now and can follow you lickity split. That girl can move and shake!

Yesterday we took her to the Arlington Race Track and then to the mall to wait for dinner at Todai, all in AA's tab! She did SO well. She just hung out and let us have a good time. She did not really complain at all and did so well that I officially declared her as the best baby ever :)!

Bbbbbbbbbbb

Clara's new sound is Bbbbbbb where she vibrates her lips and hummms. It is cute... but spit-y.

When did she get to be such a big girl?

Matt and I have noticed over the last few days that Clara is a big girl. She acts like one. She crawls like a big girl, acts like a big girl and IS a big girl.

Clara did something funny the other day in bed. She had her froggy (the bath one) and she was putting him to my lips and I was kissing him, then she put it to Matt's lip and he would kiss it. She did that a few times. Then she did it to Matt's nipple :). I thought it was really funny.

She has this new scream. Yesterday she was really cranky after Carrie left. I sat her down for dinner and fed her dinner and she cried and complained the whole time through bits. Her new favorite food is yogurt, she will eat so much of it, she will get sick later over it. She did it again at dinner tonight when Matt and I were eating (she was up past her bedtime because Matt had riled her up :)) she was sort of yelling over and over again. It was funny.

We love that baby :)!

The whirlwind is over

It has been a long time since I have posted mostly because there has been about a billion things going on!

First all the new things going on and then to random commentary:

1) I left Clara for the first time with Matt and his parents and all went well! I missed her so much but it was good to get away
2) Clara's two top teeth broke through today!
3) While I was gone, Clara learned to take a bottle and she now does less of the army crawling and now does big girl crawling!
4) Clara learned how to clap her hands in the last two days. They are silent claps, but claps nonetheless.
5) When Clara is upset now, she goes "Boom Boom". THAT is funny. She is definately talking more and saying new things everyday.

After I got back from the Ozarks, Matt's dad was here and helped Matt and I unpack some. That was very helpful! On Thursday, he came back with Evelyn and on Friday, Scott and Robert came for the weekend. Needless to say, it was crazy around here.

Evelyn and Clara are SO different. Evelyn is all go go go (just like her daddy!) and she is SO LOUD! Her new name is Everyell Owen. And I cannot believe the amount of food this child consumes. For dinner, she had about 1/2 jar of veggies, some cereal, 1/2 jar of veggie/meat mixture and then some fruit on top of it! It is amazing the amount of food she packs in. Clara eats about a 1/3 of what Evelyn eats in one day. No wonder Evelyn has surpassed Clara in weight. Though Clara is still chunkier than Evelyn. You play hard you gotta eat a lot to make up for it.

Evelyn certainly tired out her grandfather who watched her for the weekend while Amanda and Ryan were at Chris Guyer's wedding. It was fun to see the two girls interact. I saw a zerbet conversation this morning between the two of them. It was pretty funny. And they would follow each other around the room and sort of fight over the same thing. But they really did seem to enjoy each other's company. When Evelyn would yell, Clara would just sort of look at her in a dazed and confused look. And it happened often because Evelyn likes to give her tarzan yells pretty often!

More later, gotta post the pictures.

Clara's Life and Times

I wrote this for Matt's parents for when they would be watching Clara while I am at the Ozarks:

Clara’s Life and Times

Her basic schedule:
Below is Clara’s basic schedule. Rule #1 for her schedule, she does not really follow a schedule  but this is basically what happens everyday. Our days are rather fluid except on days when we have a class or something.

Around 5 AM: Clara wakes up once before she actually wakes up for the day. If you try and keep her up at this time, she gets very cranky so do your best not to actually wake her up very much or stimulate her enough where she cannot go back to bed. This includes talking or changing her diaper. Try giving her a bottle at this time, though I think a small one is all she needs because she just needs to be lulled back asleep again.

7-8 AM: Clara will wake up for the day. This is pretty much her happy time except if she wakes up on the wrong side of the crib. She LOVES to play. Matt knows ALL of her favorite toys.

About half an hour after waking up, changing her diaper, and playing in her pajamas, it is breakfast time!

Breakfast: Clara tends to not eat very much at breakfast. I usually make a small amount of cereal (see “Making Food” below) and some sort of fruit mixture. If it is a #1 container, I will make about half. If it is a #2 container, 1/3 will be fine. It is perfectly normal for you to make breakfast and she will refuse to eat ANY of it. Serve breakfast with water. Sometimes when she is eating, she gets thirsty and won’t eat until you give her some water. She prefers her water cold. While feeding her don’t let her get the spoon until the end of the meal or you will never get it back and it will cause a meltdown. Don’t forget to do the “EAT” symbol (see Matt for this) and “ALL DONE” when it is complete and before you take her out.

After Breakfast until first nap: Play, play, play (oh and change a poopy diaper, if it does not occur first thing, it usually hits between breakfast and her first nap).

Recently, Clara has not been taking her first nap ever since she has been sick. Not sure what that means for you guys! She has been going down for a nap at around 1 or so. And only take that one nap which means she is SUPER tired at bedtime and I have been moving everything up about half an hour because of it.

8:30 or 9 to 10 or 11 - First Nap: She takes her first nap EARLY. Signs of an impending nap are loud whining, clinginess, random outburst of crying, rubbing her eyes or scratching the hair around her ear. Give her a bottle before her nap in her room. The glider is perfect for it! If she is not too tired, I like to read her a book or two before feeding. If you are lucky, she will sleep for a while and you can clean up the mess she made at breakfast . (See “Putting Clara to Sleep”)

After her nap: Change her diaper and play play play! (See “Playing with Clara”)

Snack: Sometime after this nap and before her second one, if you want, go ahead and giver her a snack. This is a perfect finger food time. But not necessary. (Though is she is not taking a bottle well, it might not be a bad idea to get more nutrients in her)

1-3 – Second Nap: Her second nap is basically when she gets tired. It is all based on how well she slept for her first nap and activities that you guys did after her first one. For example, being outside totally wipes her out and she will sleep long and hard after that. This nap usually does not last very long. Feed her before you put her to bed.

After her nap: Change her diaper and play play play!

5:30- Dinner time! Clara eats more at dinner than she does at breakfast. We usually give her one or two veggies. I usually make more cereal and a little more veggies.

6-ish – Once she is done with dinner, we usually play a little in her room and then prepare her for bed. That takes a while because she LOVES her bath and one of her favorite things to do is play in her room. Matt very capable doing the bedtime routine so I won’t bother writing it down though some things Matt forgets:
1) Lotion her up after the bath
2) Vitamin her up – give her the TriViSol (the PolyViSol tastes HORRIBLE and she gags). .5 is OK. Keep a wash cloth handy to wipe her mouth!
3) Wipe well in all her fat crevices or else it will get irritated and bleed. Wipe under her chin (get in there good), behind her knees, in her folds near her private parts, and under her armpits. Those are notorious for holding water in there and getting irritated.
4) Brush her hair
5) Dump the tub water out of the duck so the toys don’t get mildewy and slimy
6) Brush her teeth with the toothbrush that has the little plastic bristles. It really does not do much but get her used to the idea of brushing her teeth.
After she is ready for bed, read her the Quack Quack book and any others. The Quack Quack one is her absolute favorite.
Oh, and lots of kisses and remind her how much her mommy misses her and is thinking about her every second of the day (with a margarita in her hand). Feed her before you put her down.

Bedtime is normally 7 PM. After that, you really should not hear from her. Sometimes she might cry in the middle of the night but we are trying to ignore her (as the doctor has stated would be best). If she gets SUPER upset, of course go in there and feed her before you put her down).

Lately, since Clara can stand in her crib now, we have actually had to keep her up a little later to calm her down and allow her to fall back asleep without getting too upset.






Putting Clara to Sleep
Oh this one is going to be a challenge! Here are some tips and pointers. Normally, I nurse Clara until she is at least calm from playing and then I put her down awake. This usually works out for me especially for her morning nap and going down for the evening. Sometimes she will cry when I put her down, but then after crying for about 5 minutes or less, she will just simply start to moan. Moaning usually leads to sleep, even if she moans for half an hour. It is important that she know how to put herself to sleep. So for example if she cries out at first when you put her down, that is OK. Give her time to calm herself down. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. I don’t like to leave her up there when she is crying so hard she is gasping for breath. If that occurs, we normally pick her up and walk her around to calm her down and then start the process all over again. Matt usually has some success walking her around on his shoulder until she is asleep. Clara likes to sleep with something in her crib, particularly the crocheted blanket I made her or the ducky cloth that you guys gave her. She likes to grab onto it when she is asleep and it comforts her. Since it can be warm, we usually leave the fan on the second option when we put her down and I check on her in the evening, I turn it down to the third option. Her room is the warmest one in the house.

Making Food
To make Clara’s cereal, we either give her the rice or oatmeal. I end to give her the oatmeal one because the giving her rice too many times in a row causes her to become stopped up a little. I usually wet the cereal enough where it is the same consistency as the food in the jars. She does not like it when it is too pasty. For the veggies or fruits, I usually give her about a third of the 2 level food or a half of the 1 level food for breakfast and a little more than for dinner. To warm up her food, hit the power button until the power is at 40. I normally start with 10 seconds and then take out the oatmeal and continue warming up the other food at 40 power for 5 more seconds until it is complete. If it is in the fridge, it might take one or two more 5 second intervals. Mix it up in between so it does not get too hot! I usually taste it before I give it to her to make sure it is not too hot. Don’t forget to put a bib on her. Clara likes to feed herself sometimes. When she is like that, I use the little dipper to feed her instead. Or, you can put a piece of fruit (but not strawberries since they are high on the allergen list) in the little mesh bag. I mash up the fruit a little bit before I give it to her. Good luck taking it away though . While we feed her, give her water. Sometimes she gets too excited about the water and drinks to much so I usually take it away before she is actually done. For finger good, you can give her the veggie puffs or Cheerios. Because we are ultra paranoid, we still cut it up into little pieces. She is still trying to figure out the pincer grasp so give her some pieces so she does not get too frustrated.

I organized Clara’s pantry shelf for you guys. All the ones in the front are sort of random. The ones on the rotating shelf from top to bottom are breakfast, dinner and dinner/meat options. The meat ones are sort of touch and go at this point. You can give it to her but her poop schedule is a little questionable after that because her body is still trying to sort out the whole carnivorous aspect of her diet. Use at your own risk…

Don’t forget to put a bib on Clara. Normally I put a pile of them in the shelf in the family room because I am always forgetting to grab one upstairs.



Playing with Clara
Clara loves to play! She certainly has her favorite toys. They include Checkers, MoJo the Monkey, Forbin the Bear, the foam fish, turtle, ladybug, etc, her cups (or any cup or bottle for that matter), the Discovery ball, and her telephone. I am sure Matt can point out many more.

Tips on giving Clara a bottle
The nanny, Carrie, has been working on giving Clara a bottle for two weeks. She has had some success with the Dr. Browns bottles. They are different than the Avent bottles in that they do not allow a lot of air out and allows the baby to eat without getting too much gas. (FYI, burping Clara rarely works). There are many pieces to the Dr. Browns bottle (the bottle, the tube with a larger area, the beige piece that fits on the tub, the nipple and the cap to hold the nipple on). It will not work without all those pieces. I have a lot of milk stored in the freezer. They are in 3 oz bags. Warm the milk in warm water as you did for Evelyn way back when.
Carrie says that Clara takes her sweet time drinking from the bottle and she prefers it warm, which might mean that you need to warm it a few times before she finishes. If that does not work, Clara does drink from a sippy cup VERY well so if you need to feed her the milk that way, that should be OK. Though be warned, it will be ALL over her (and possibly you).

A note on the formula: I bought the premixed kind since I know about your fears of mixing formula. Just kidding, I know it can be a pain and much easier to have it all ready! Anyway, they suggest to make sure that she gets some breastmilk each day is a better approach at using all the breastmilk first and then moving to formula. So whatever works, at least try and give some breastmilk and then some formula. They say not to mix it either. (And P.S. by they, I mean the academy of pediatrics guide book (the purple and white one), I will leave it out for you guys as some good cereal reading). Since we have not really been giving her formula (she started on it a week ago, it was the first time she had it since she was a day old!) yet, I was not sure what kind to buy. Buying the one with iron in it made me nervous because it can make her backed up and a backed up baby is not always a happy baby. But the whole formula aisle was a little intimidating and I just got some random things but they did not have much of a choice of the premade kind. I did even know what brand to get! So I got the brand Evelyn drinks and sees to enjoy! In general, formula seems to confuse Clara a bit but hopefully she will get it. If anything comes out of this experience, it will be VERY nice if Clara learns to take a bottle because it would make life a little easier . It has been a little TOO long now, her being dependant on my body so much!











Going to the pool
Clara loves the pool so enjoy! Here is a list of things I normally pack to bring with us to the pool:
1. Sippy cup full of water and ice
2. Her swimming hat (make sure she wears it, it is hard to get it on sometimes so basically give her a distraction and put the cap on when she is busy with something else)
3. Extra suntan lotion (don’t forget to grease her up before you even head out!)
4. Towel
5. Extra swim diaper
6. Regular diaper
7. Lotion
8. A comfy outfit for after the pool
9. Swim shoes
Before you leave the pool, I normally change her diaper to a regular one and put on her clothes since she falls asleep in the car so it is much easier to get her down for a nap when you get home if you don’t have to change her clothes. Also, don’t forget to put lotion on her before you cloth her so her skin does not get too dry. Also make sure you bath her that evening.

Sign Language
Matt knows the words we are working on. We have had some success with it but she is still a bit young to be communicating back. They say it could take months for a sign to even come from her but she has done it in the past! We do: Eat, More, All Done, Kitty and Milk. See Diagram Matt for this 

Clara’s Closet
For the most part, her closet is pretty organized. All the clothes that she currently wears (she is in 6-9 comfortably and 12 months are a little large but she wears them anyway). In the middle are the two tiers. On the top of the two tiers are Clara’s sweaters and long sleeved tops to the left and to the right are all her fancy dresses. On the bottom are Clara’s clothes for everyday. Most of the outfits are paired together on a hanger. To the left of the tiers are Clara’s PJs. To the right are the clothes that are still tagged and either have not been washed yet or are too big for her.

Clara’s t-shirts, burp clothes, socks, bibs and shoes are all in the wardrobe. Blankets and towels (middle) are all in the dresser where the changing pad was. All extra sheets and covers for the boppy or changing pad are under the crib.











Random Important notes
1. Be sure if you go out, especially on a hot sunny day, even if you are just going to hope in and out of the car, that you put suntan lotion on her. And a lot of it. She tans through 50 SPF so I can’t even imagine how dark she would get without it!
2. Wherever you go, bring a sippy cup of water and ice with you since she gets thirsty, thirsty, thirsty.
3. Make sure you put a hat on her if it is really sunny out. Basically, if you are wearing sunglasses, she needs to wear a hat.
4. Please don’t over dress her. One of the easiest things that can happen is overheating in the summer.
5. Please change her diaper on the floor. We have stopped using the changing pad since she really tries to get away now when you are changing her diaper.
6. We have a bag of safety items we have been slowly installing. They are on the shelf in the family room. Feel free to go wild especially if you see her getting into something. We are still in the process of babyproofing the house so any help would be great.
7. There is an additional pack and play in our bedroom. So if you want to make a playpen somewhere else, that might be useful.
8. I bought a drying rack for the bottles but it has not been opened yet. It is in the cupboard with all the bottles. Enjoy.
9. Sanitizing bottles. Make sure you do so before you use them. There is a microwave thing you can use. It is circular and in the cabinet where the formula is. Add 6 oz of water and microwave for 4 minutes. Leave in microwave for 2 minutes and then they are sanitized.
10. Emergency numbers are
a. Clara’s doctor: Dr. David Schwartz 630.289.8800 and his emergency line 630.289.8801
b. The rest of the numbers are by my work phone in the basement.

Ma ma ma ma ma Rar rar rar rar rar

The baby doll is a little looney! Tonight she had a hard time going to sleep so I went in there to get her since she has been sick. We took her to the doctor today and she just has a cold. Anyway, when she got tired she just started going on and on and on. MA MA MA MA MA RAR RAR RAR RAR RAR. She is so funny. Since she has been sick, and she gets a little tired, she has taken to just putting her head on the ground and resting. So funny.

MOMS group

So we went to meet this MOMS group that Lisa (Lexi's mom) told us about. It was sort of nice that they have an organization like this for people but it was sort of like I was budging in on an already formed group. Lisa ended up not making it because Lexi slept in, so I met four other moms who all have older kids (all between 1-5) and they all either had two kids or was working on the second one. Anyway, we took a walk at the Spring Valley Nature Preserve (or whatever it is called). It is a nice place. There is a little farm area which was sort of fun (and smelly :)).

Anyway, I think I am going to join the club even though I felt like a bit of an outsider at times but Kelly, the section leader or whatever, said there were about 40 members or so and different people show up at each event. There seems to be about two events a week so it would be nice to have options like that whenever we do have free time. Especially during the winter when there is going to be less stuff to do!

Standing in her crib

Clara's latest thing is that putting her to bed has become QUITE an issue. She sits and stands in her crib now and does not know how to get down. It does not help that the weather has been quite warm lately so she is also sweating her ass off. Matt went in there once and he said that she was grabbing the top of the crib and just SCREAMING her head off because she was not ready to go to bed. We have taken to taking her out of her crib and hanging out with her until she is tired and then we put her down. So basically she has been going to be at like 9 o'clock! It makes for later evenings because I still need to get some stuff done after she goes to bed. Not sure what to do about that one!

My trip to the Ozarks is coming up closer and closer and I am getting pretty nervous and upset about leaving Clara. I am getting really sad about it and it makes me sort of upset just thinking about it. AHHH!!!!

Clara is really moving now. She is not crawling like a normal baby yet, she sort of pushes along with her left leg and her right one sort of flails about. She is moving to where she wants to now though and I think she feels better about that. She still makes quite a lot of noise when she does it though which is pretty funny. I was joking that she does it as a last resort and pretty much is not pleased when she HAS to crawl :).

The gym class is going well. The new session started and now there are 8 kids in the session. Our original teacher, Miss Elizabeth, had to leave for some reason, and there is a new lady now, Miss Terri, who is OK but a bit too crazy energetic. She made me tired. I liked how laid back Miss Elizabeth did the class. We signed up again for the next session, so we will see how that goes!

This Friday we are going to join the MOMS club and going for a stroller walk. Hopefully it will be fun and the weather will be good. It did not rain for most of July and June and in the last week, it has rained a lot so hopefully it will clear up! According to weather.com, it will.

Clara has been eating VEGGIE BOOTY, and loves it. They are sort of these corn/rice puffs covered in spinach and kale. I like them and the LOVES them. She gets really excited when you start feeding her (she pants like a little puppy) and gets annoyed when you do not feed her fast enough.

My TiVo is Republican

OK, this has nothing to do with the baby doll but I just wanted to say that I think my TiVo is Republican. Night after night it REFUSES to change the channel to record The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It works for almost every other channel and every other time slot it is supposed to be taping. But NOT for that... What is that all about?

Almost distant memories

I was thinking about how fast Clara changes and there were some memories I wanted to write down before they write themselves out of my brain. Which could very possibly happen at any moment so I better get my act in gear and start logging some of this stuff.

Paddle arms: That is what we used to call Clara when she would get angry because her arms would rhythmically (sp??) paddle: left, right, left right.

Peanut: Her first nickname because she was so darn small when she was born. She grew out of that fast! :)

Clara would always sleep with her arms above her head. Sometimes when you would put her down to sleep she would thump her arms above her head: Thump Thump, really fast. It was very very funny.

It is so hard to remember what she was like when she was an infant. It is really amazing how quickly you forget what they are like since they grow at absolute lightening speed. It makes me sad sometimes that it is SO hard to stop and smell the roses even if you want to!

I will be adding more of these as they come to me. Currently, I am listening to Clara moan herself to sleep. We lowered the crib ONE last time and it is hard to put her down without disturbing her. I am going to try and put a stool there for me to stand on and see if that helps.

Watch out world!

The baby doll is crawling! Well... sort of :). It is more of an army crawl and she can only go on a diagonal for now. I think she is pushing harder with her left foot than her right so she sort of angles to her right.

Anyway, she is on the move now so watch out! I am actually not ready for her to full out crawl so I better get my ass in gear :)

My babydoll

Clara is moving around a bit more these days. She is sort of army crawling and can turn 360 degrees easily. She gets a little frustrated at times and it is hard to not want to help her! She is such a wonderful little girl. Her smile can literally make my day. It is so nice that she loves me so much! There are definately times when she favors me. It is sort of nice!

I leave for Molly's bachelorette party/shower in about two and a half weeks. I am FULL of anxiety about it. I really know it is something that in the end would be good for her and I, but itis going to be a difficult task to get through.

Bye bye a-goo

I noticed recently that Clara no longer says A-Goo. It has been replaced by a scream. Not an always pleasant scream either. It can get quite loud at times especially when she wants something, like nursing for example! I am trying to get her to be comfortable to take a bottle but it really has not been happening yet. I don't think I am ready to wean her because I really enjoy our nursing times but I don't want it to be too hard on her when I go away in August. And that time is quickly approaching...

I felt that tooth

Last night when I was feeding Clara. It made me sweat.

Clara's Chompers

I can't believe that I forgot about this one! She has been doing so many new things it is hard to keep track! Clara's first tooth is coming in. It is on the bottom and I noticed it for the first time on Wednesday. It was just beginning to peek through. I felt bad that I did not notice it earlier! I think she is in a little bit of pain because last night she was awake from between 11 to about 2. Very cranky and very sad, not much would calm her down until I realized that Tylenol might help!

Our Pool

So today and yesterday Clara and I went to the Bartlett Pool. Yesterday we met some people from the Beginning Sounds class and I liked the pool so much, that Matt and I went this afternoon. It is a really nice pool. Pretty big and is zero depth, so it starts with a slope at zero depth to 5 feet. We think that we are going to get a season pass because it is pretty cheap for a family of two (C gets in for free), 79 dollars!

Clara seemed to enjoy the pool more today. We stayed a little deeper than we did yesterday and Matt bounced up and down with her. She seemed to love it and actually started to splash a little! She liked it until she got herself in the face. I have not gotten brave enough to dunk her head under water, I really do not think she would like that very much!

When Matt bounced up and down with her she would kick her legs, smile and laugh or stick her tongue out. She was having fun, she even yelled with happiness a few times. We had fun, though we really cannot stay very long because she gets tired and TAN! Her legs and arms are so tan even though I have been putting 50 SPF on her. She must have my coloring! Yesterday when we got back from the pool, she slept for 3 hours! She would have slept longer if I did not go in there and wake her up because we had to run an errand (get more bathing suits!).

Today she did not take as long a nap when she got back but she did go to sleep at 6:15. I went to go to Costco (and got completely distracted getting Amanda's bday present) and by the time I got back, I thought that I would have to give her a shower, but Matt had already done all that and she was in bed! I was a little sad that I did not get to put her down :(. But Matt did a wonderful job putting her to bed.

Her other new thing is pretty much attacking us when we lay on the floor with her. She crawls all over you and tries to pin you down. I am not sure what she is trying to accomplish but she gets so excited when we lay on the floor with her.

Another one of her new tricks is the sound "Pbbfft". It is short and sweet and really cute. THe first time she did it was when Matt was giving her a kiss on the cheek and air sort of escaped from her pursed lips. Now she does it all the time. It is so cute.

Shake shake shake, Shake shake shake, shake your rattle

Clara started to shake her maracas today for the first time (which Matt keeps calling Moroccos). Her music class is finally over, 5 weeks. I really did not like that teacher very much. But we learned some good songs and met some new people! Tomorrow we are meeting for our first play date at the pool. I am excited about it but not so excited about the fact that our first play date involves me getting into a bathing suit.

Clara also waves good bye... Sort of. When Evelyn does it, it is more clear cut. Clara sort of uses her whole arm. Very cute, can't wait to see what else this little girl can learn.

My latest thing is wanting another baby. Is it nuts?

OK for now

I think Clara is OK now. She made it through the night and had bright eyes in the morning. I still feel pretty awful over what happened but after much consideration, it is probably a common thing to occur with a first throw up like that.

Ugh

I am still sick to my stomach over what happened

Vomit vomit everywhere

We had a bit of a scare this evening for Clara and I. I was brushing her hair like I just started to do at night and she likes to get a hold of the brush that I am using. So I have been giving her a brush to play with and then I will use the other one to brush her hair. I noticed that she had a rubber band stuck in her mouth that fell off of the brush so I took that out of her mouth, took the rubber bands off of ALL of the brushes and gave it back to her. All of a sudden, she started to vomit. I think she stuck the brush too far in her mouth and gagged herself. The vomit was coming out of her nose and she started to gag and she could not catch her breath because there was vomit everywhere. It was SO scary. I was so terrified that she was going to chooke or gag to death. She was naked because she had just gotten out of her bath. I picked her up and started to pat her on her back but I don't know if I was helping or hurting the situation. After a while, she seemed to be able to breath OK. I called Matt and then the doctor and they told me to aspirate her with the bulb thing. That sort of made things worse because I had finally calmed her down and she HATES that. I was so scared. I started to cry after that. If anything EVER happens to that child, I seriously don't know what I would do with myself.

Anyway, she was so tired so I fed her and she fell asleep. I figured she was OK because if she can cry normally, then she can probably breath OK. I just hope that there is not a rubber band in there causing problems. I think that would pass if it is what she swallowed. Since she has fallen asleep, I think we have checked on her at least 5 times. I love her so much, I really really need her to be OK.

Fireworks

Clara saw her first fireworks tonight. I just put her down after they were done. She sort of woke up when they started in town so we decided to grab her and have her watch them! We could see them perfectly from our backyard. It was so nice. She sort of just watched them in a sleepy daze. I think she was rather confused! It was so convenient to be able to step out of our door and see them closely :)!

It was almost as cool as when we were leaving the cubs game last year and we could see all of the fireworks in all the towns going at the same time. Very cool memory I had tonight that I thought that I would try and remember...

A!

So we think that Clara named the cats. Whenever she sees them she says A!. I think it is SO funny. It is pretty consistent too. I can even tell she is talking to them when I am out of the room and I hear her talking to Monty or Smithers. Too funny!

On all three's

Clara is sort of getting the whole crawling thing. She will get on her hands and on one leg and move her butt back and forth. She is also starting this new thing where she will put her hands forward and pick up her butt. Play with a toy. And then do it again. It is sort of cute :).

We had our gym class today. Clara loves that class. Though she cried today when they hung her by her hands from the bar. Afterwards, I asked two of the other ladies to go to Starbucks. They accepted and we had a good time! It was fun.

Clara is talking and Evelyn is crawling

She is officially talking now! She says Dada, Daddy, Mama and various other itierations of those words. I do not know why she says Dada when she is happy and Mama when she is unhappy! Please explain that to me.

We saw Ryan and Amanda on Saturday and Evelyn is officially crawling. They really need to baby proof their place! It is pretty neat that she is moving though. Clara needs to take some lessons :). All kidding aside, Clara is moving rather well. Ever since the gym class that we started last week, she is sort of getting the idea that she can move around. She sort of gets on all three's and moves her butt back and forth. I sort of want her to crawl because it will be such a great new experience for her, but yet again, I am not ready for her too!

Matt's first father's day

Today was Matt's first Father's Day. Clara got him a few small presents (since we are on a BUDGET this month!) and he liked them all. There was a small album for his laptop bag, a weekly to do list mousepad, a to call to email to do list, and photo coasters for his desk!

Other than that, we went to breakfast yesterday (to beat the crowd) and lunch today. Clara made a HUGE ruckus at the Nest Cafe on Saturday. They seated us near the front and anyone who walked by commented on how cute and beautiful she is. She makes that sort of scene wherever she goes! It really is amazing. I don't like it when old ladies touch her face though, they always seem to.

Today we did some small projects around the house. Matt installed a new thermostat which is so cool. Clara did a good job of playing by herself as we did some stuff around the house. She got a little bored towards the end though!

OH, I can't believe that I almost forgot, we think she did her first sign today! It was sort of a repetitive motion with both hands to her mouth sort of like the EAT symbol that I have been doing. She did it right around dinner time! I really think that she did it because when Matt did it to her, she repeated the same motion. The book that I have said that when they do repeat the motions, it is often similar but a little different than what the parents do due to their less refined motor skills. Very neat though!

We also gave her a few pieces of finger food. Though she did not really understand the pickup and eat thing so we put it in her mouth for her. She liked it and kept on opening her mouth and sticking her tongue out for more. It was pretty funny. She might not be quite ready for it yet, I need to talk to my sister and see what she did and read some more. Definitely a question for the pediatrician next week.

Pool time!

Clara went in her elephant pool for the first time today! She LOVED it. At first the water was too cold and I had to lug some warm water out with a bucket, but after that we put her in and she had a good time sitting in the pool playing with her toys. She did not want to come out but I decided to take her out when she got a little prunny. She loves the water! Who knew, she still hates having the water on her head, if I did that she sort of breathed in and freaked out a little. Sort of funny actually.

Mommy should never touch scissors again

So I messed up. I tried to cut Clara's bangs and for lack of a better term.... I F***ED them up. They are a total wreck. Not even close to straight and every time I try to remedy it, I mess it up even more. This one is just going to take some time to fix...

Cribs suck

OK it is official. Cribs suck. Clara is contantly getting her legs and arms stuck in the crib slates. It is so aggravating because when she is really stuck, she wakes herself up and even hurts herself every now and then. Last night for example, she got up at 2, 5, and 7. Each time she was stuck in the crib with a whole appendage sticking out!

It is really frustrating and Matt got really pissed off the other night when Clara hurt herself so bad she was crying really hard.

Anyway, I am not sure what the proper solution to this one is. If we put the bumper back, she sort of sleeps with it against her face sometimes. Though the alternative to that is she now sleeps with her face against the slates of the crib! Not sure if that is better or worse.

MySpace and friendster

So the last couple of weeks I have been checking out MySpace and friendster. Interesting places. I sort of am old enough to have been out of that loop a little bit but I can see why it would be a useful tool. I wish more people my age were into it but not much you can do about that.

Clara had a cranky day today. My parents left (a the peace and quiet) and after that she was sort of cranky. I think it is sort of normal for a baby to act out of sorts after visitors. Hopefully tomorrow when Carrie comes it won't be too bad. I don't think I could stand a day of her crying :(

Off to take a shower.

Are we talking yet?

My parents came to Chicago for their first visit to the new house and to see Clara. They claim that they think Clara is beginning to talk. Which she may be! I am not sure. Sometimes I think she is repeating her version of what we are saying, but sometimes I think that I might be making it up too. Wishful thinking or reality? Not sure on that one!

Lolo and Lola seem to be having fun with Clara. My mom bought her a TON of stuff, clothes and toys and even decorations for her bathroom. Very generous of her. They go home tomorrow. I will be glad that they are going because I am tired :). But it was good to see them, and it makes me sad that they won't see Clara for a few months. She is going to be even bigger the next time!

She has been SO good. (Well except for her mini tantrum tonight during and after dinner). We went to Colin's graduation party (COLLEGE! I still cannot believe he is old enough to go!) and she was passed around to all sorts of pepole and she did not seem to mind at all. She did seem to get a little tired of it and she would look at me like HELP ME PLEASE! But other than that, she did OK.

She is such a good baby. A few people were asking if she was always that good and the answer is YES YES YES! Maybe the next one will be a handful because she was so easy! Who knows.

My baby doll :)

Class Nazi

Clara and I had our first class at the Bartlett Community Center. It is the Beginning Sounds class and it is run by the Class Nazi. What a weirdo that lady is. She needs to allow the class to be a little bit more organic since there are babies involved. She did not even have any time for the people in the class to introduce one another! She really needs to take a chill pill or something.

Anyway, there seem to be some nice people in the class though. Maybe we will make some friends!!!

We got some fun instruments in the class. She got a pair of marachas (sp), a drum, a kazoo, and other fun toys. If it were not in the middle of her naptime, I think she would have enjoyed it more!

Clara's first rain storm

Clara was SUCH a good girl yesterday. We went to the Kane County Fairgrounds for the flea market they have there to find some furniture. It was a HUMID day and we were there for quite a while, maybe 3 and a half hours. And Clara was SO good. In the middle of our trip there, you could see the sky was getting dark and ominous. You could not even see individual dark clouds coming, it was just a sea of black coming towards us. We heard that it was going to be really windy, rain for a little and then blow over so we decided to sort of hang out inside one of the areas to see what would happen.

It seemed to take forever to rain. But when it did, MAN, did it rain! Maybe it was the fact we were under a metal awning or the fact that it just downpoured a ridiculous amount in a ten minute period but it was SO loud and SO scary. I was definately frightened and I am surprised the Clara did not react out that much! Most likely because I was holding her tight to me the whole time and I covered her ears when the sound got too loud. We were in the middle of this giant metal awning, and the rain was blowing in from the sides. It was SO scary. Luckily, it was over rather quickly and eventually the sun and warmth came back for us to enjoy!

Clara's new phase and too much hovering

Clara is going through this new phase where she gets VERY upset and has a hard time recovering from it. I think the first time she did it was when Carl and Megan were over last week and she started to get really upset, crying very hard, and not being able to calm down enough to even eat. I was with her for quite a while before she calmed down enough to even fall asleep in my arms.

Tonight for example, we went for a walk and she started to cry while we were walking for no reason at all! Yesterday when Carrie was here, she pretty much cried all day. She is really having a hard time when I am not around and Carrie is taking care of her. It is really heart wrenching. Carrie will come down the stairs and Clara is all white, with red eyes, and big fat tears running down her face.

It breaks my heart :(

My poor sweetheart. I really wish that I could fix it but I think it is going to just take some time and some tough love. It feels good when I hold her and she calms down but I hate how upset she gets right before that happens. And it happens on a DIME. All of a sudden, she just starts crying. Sometimes it can be a small complaint OR it just gets worse until there is no turning back.

On another note, Matt is pretty much getting on my nerves. He hovers a lot and it makes me feel like he is second guessing all the decisions that I am making for her and about her. It is SO frustrating. This job is frustrating enough without someone else hovering over every decision that I make. It is just ANOTHER stress I just do not need right now in my life and it is so frustrating. I am trying to express to him how bad it makes me feel when he does that but I am not getting through because he is so darn stubborn. UGH!

Peaches? No Thanks!

So after a couple of days of seemingly enjoying butternut squash, we decided to change it up and give her a fruit. We tried peaches and she did NOT like them. It was so funny. She tasted it the first time and the look on her face was not looking good. I gave it to her a second time and she actually puckered up her mouth! After that, she would not even open her mouth for the food. Even if it was just rice cereal. She HATED peaches. Back to the veggies I guess! Tonight... Sweet Potatoes.

Photo shoot and lots of shots

Clara and Evelyn had a photo shoot today at JC Penneys. They did well. Clara had SUCH a serious face on her the whole time she was getting pictures taken with Evelyn. When it was her turn to shine alone, she was smiley though. We did some pictures in coordinating outfits with Clara and Evelyn. Clara wore her baptism dress (the party one) for her pictures and it was really cute with her hat on!

Clara also had her 6 month doctor appointment today. She is 26 1/4 inches long and 17 lbs. Her head is still tiny though! She did OK. She was sort of cranky because she did not take her 3rd nap. She got pretty angry when they were taking her measurements and really started crying when they weighed her. Then when they stuck the thing in her ears and mouth and then gave her some shots, it was all over. Matt came with us for the first time and he was pretty sad about how upset the doctor made Clara. I felt so bad for her :(

DOC Band

Oh yeah, Evelyn got her DOC band today to fix her head.

Let's go to the movies! Let's go see the stars!

Today I took Clara to her first movie at the theatres. They offer these "Reel Mom" movies where you can go and take your kids with you. We went to check it out today and saw "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith". Clara did SO well, she is such a wonderful baby. At first I was not sure how it was going to go because she was so confused and a little scared during the previews. I think the screen might have been a little much for her in the beginning. I held her to me with her face towards me. When she gathered enough courage she turned her head and arm around (I will never forget how that looks, so sweet and innocent) and when she had enough or something on the screen scared her, she turned back into me and hid her head in my chest. And after a few moments or if a sound that she thought was interesting enough to turn around, she would turn and check it out again. It was so nice to know that I was able to comfort her though this new experience but she was brave enough to power through it enough to be comfortable through the whole movie.

She watched the movie for a while in my lap, watching the movie a bit and then decided to turn around and watched all the people watching the movie. Some kids were going up and down the stairs so she had to check them out too. After a while, she got a little bored and she played with her book until it made her angry. I fed her for a little while and eventually got up and rocked her to sleep. She might have slept for half an hour in her carseat until some noise from the movie woke her up. She then watched the rest of the movie in my lap. She was SO good, better than I had expected. The funniest part is she started humming while she was playing with her book again and when the movie was silent, you could hear her :).

I am glad she liked the movies and we will go again next week. Can't wait!

Oh, I forgot to mention that I am a freak and I had to bring the Wet Wipes with me and I wiped down the seat around me before I sat down. I know, I know, but hey, she touched it and I did not freak out because I had wiped it down!

BIG GIRL!

All of a sudden, I noticed that Clara is a big girl! She no longer drools all over herself like a mad baby. She sort of has that under control now. When I went in to pick her up from a nap today, she was sort of sleeping on her side, with her head into the bumper and she was holding the top of the rail with one arm! I could not believe it. Needless to say, the next thing we did was move her crib down to the next level. I was afraid of what she might be able to do next in that thing at the highest level. So that means, no more little girl bed and the bumper goes bye-bye! It made me a little sad :(

She has been eating cereal every night for just about a week now. Sometimes she likes it and sometimes she doesn't. I think it depends on how tired she is. I usually start to feed her at 6, then give her a bath at 6:30 and then beddy-bye by 7 or 7:15. I usually read her some stories before she goes to bed. But sometimes that does not work out. She is usually in a better mood when Matt is there but he can't be there every night!

The Nanny's first day

Well that was interesting. At first, I was really nervous. Matt was too because he was having a hard time stepping out the door for the first time of leaving Clara with the Nanny, Carrie. Well, in actuality we did not leave Clara with Carrie since I was around the whole time! But still it was a big deal for Matt and I and even Clara had a hard time adjusting.

I was actually surprised by Clara's reaction to it all. She was not really comfortable with it and was sort of sour faced and sad about the whole thing. She started to cry when she was alone with Carrie and I heard it but I did not want to butt in right away because I know that Carrie and Clara need to start building confidence in each other. Anyway, so Clara was crying and eventually Carrie came down to me. She was so upset. And by she, I mean both of them now that I think about it. Clara had boogers running down her face and tears streaming down. As soon as I held her, she was whimpering still but eventually calmed down and was the normal baby doll after 5 minutes or so. It is just going to take some adjustment for her to get used to another person being with her. She got upset a couple of more times, and normally she does not do that at all. I did not realize that she cared that I was the one there for her so much! And she is only 6 months old. Needless to say, I was really touched.

After Carrie left, Clara and I sat on the couch together for a little while and she kissed me the whole time. She was hugging and kissing my face. It was so nice. I kept laughing and my heart was just singing. I love that baby and it was so nice to see how much she loves me as well and actually appreciates that it is me that takes care of her.

I think it worked out OK. I think it will be good for me and the baby doll. I don't want her to be too attached to me and have social problems because of it and for me, I need to start getting a handle back on work so we can make some money. It was nice to have a day like that. I think it will be better when Carrie is more comfortable with Clara and I am more comfortable with it too for that matter! It will just take some time.

I really just love that baby. She just makes me so happy and I really love having her in my life. She is my sweetie pie!

Happy Arm

When Clara gets excited the last couple of days, she has the happy arm. It is usually her left one and she just swings it up and down and bangs it on something. It is SO funny. Today we started the cereal thing and we are going to do it everyday now that she is almost 6 months. She had a good time and the happy arm was very present. She kept trying to grab the spoon away from me. Each time I gave it to her, she almost stuck it in too far and she gagged once. She is funny.

Another funny thing that Clara does, which I did not even note until Amanda pointed it out to me is that she complains sometimes and does not even open her mouth. She just sort of complains through her closed mouth and mumbles her complaint.

Baby doll is funny!

Finding a Nanny

Yesteday and today, we did some interviewing to find a "Mother's Helper" for me so I can work more. We hired a girl named Carrie, who is 22 and is going to school for social work, and is a Phish head! She is a little inexperienced but cheap and since I will be home with them, I am not too worried.

Though I am having a hard time thinking about having someone else care for Clara. As I was saying to Matt last night. She is MY baby! MY BABY MY BABY! This kid is never going to be allowed to go to college ;)...

Not a good thing

So I had a scare today. I was going up the stairs with Clara and I tripped and fell with her. She hit the back of her head on the stairs. I sort of secured her in my arms as I was falling and I hope that prevented her from getting hurt. She started to cry really hard but in the end she was smiling after 10 minutes or so. I felt SO bad. I was crying really hard when I called Matt and I think I scared him. My poor baby. Got hurt because her mommy is a freaking spazz.

It was so scary. If anything ever happened to her, that would NOT be good.

Pick me up Mommy!

When Clara wants to be picked up now, she holds up her arms as if to say "PICK ME UP MOMMY!". It is so cute, though now that I know how much she wants to be picked up, I realize she wants to be held ALL THE TIME! Though right now, I really don't mind because I know there will be a point someday soon where that will no longer be the case. She also can communicate WHO she wants to hold her. Very cute.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Clara rolled over for the first time this morning AND I MISSED IT! I put her on her tummy and walked away to put something away and when I came back, she was on her back with a hanger in her mouth! I MISSED IT!

She did it again over and over again, to both sides equally depending on what she wants on either side. The funny thing is that most babies turn from back to front first not front to back.

Poop Stinks

Clara pooped on her outfit today THREE times and once on me! That is three different outfits, three fits of not wanting the tee shirt pulled over her head (actually four) and three times of me putting my hand in poop accidentally. Not cool.

Sick-y Poo

UGH! I am sick again, BOOOOO!

Kisses confirmed and I want Mommy!

It is official, Clara is giving kisses. She even kissed Matt yesterday. She also can communicate who she wants to have hold her and when she wants to be picked up. It is amazing how fast she is learning things! She sort of throws herself in the direction of the other person if someone else is holding her and she also sort of holds her hands up when she wants to be picked up. It is more of a temperment change when someone is acting like they are picking her up right now.

Kisses?

I think Clara might have kissed me today. I picked her up from a nap and she grabbed my face and planted a wet yicky one on my face. She did it a couple of times and it seemed rather intentional. I really think she gave me a kiss today.

She has this new thing where she does not like to be left alone anymore. One of the first times she did it was when I put her in her highchair and I went upstairs to talk to Matt about something very briefly. When I got back downstairs, she started wimpering a little. She was making it pretty clear that she was very unhappy about being left alone. She did it again a few times this afternoon after her third nap. I put her in the Exersaucer to put some things away and I was out of her site. She started whimpering again. She did it again when I went to the bathroom. She is so funny, it looks like I am going to have to be available now that she is getting some anxiety about being alone! It is nice to be needed and I really like how she is expressing her love for me in some different ways. I like being Clara's mommy!

Fun with baby doll

I made Clara laugh really loud and hard today. She was in the jumperoo and I hid my head below her eye sit and jumped up and said "A-GOO!". I did it over and over again and she laughed pretty hard at it. So cute.

Being a mattress

Sometimes Clara suckers me in and I end up being her mattress. Today for her third nap, I tried to put her down twice and she would have NONE of it. I ended up feeding her on the couch and she fell asleep in my arms. I ended up holding her for her whole nap. She is so sweet when she sleeps. Her eyelashes are so long and she is so beautiful and peaceful. It is so hard not to kiss her or touch her when she is asleep. Today when she was napping, I cut her hair because it was getting too long (her second haircut). She almost woke up for that.

Sometimes she sleeps for a long time when she is with me or for a very short time. Today it was a long time. I like to nap with her, cuddle her in arm and lay down on the couch. Though sometimes she wakes crying very loudly when we do that, maybe she is uncomfortable. Who knows! Though she had a hard time going to bed tonight because she napped for so long. I tried to nurse her to make her sleepy and she started whimpering. She is funny.

Sitting myself up

Lately, Clara's new trick is to sit herself up when she is laying down. Not all the way though, say she is leaning on a pillow or something. She throws her body up and over shoots so someone has to play catch. But she is getting strong that little one. She goes to her 5 month old checkup today.

Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead

I read Clara a lot of books today. It took a lot of time to unpack her books and I was feeling bad that I have not read her a book in a long time. One of the books that I read Clara tonight was Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead that her grandparents gave her for Christmas. She was getting a little antsy through that one because I would not let her touch the pretty pages! The board books seem to be quite a hit. I think I will buy more of those for her.

Clara has been OK going to bed. We have been trying to make serious efforts to put her down awake so she knows how to fall asleep herself. Before we started doing this, we would rarely put her down in her crib unless she was completely out because she would pretty much cry in her crib once she realized that she was alone. I would say for the last month or so, we have been trying to get her to fall asleep on her own. She does really well in the mornings. That first nap always goes really well. But as the day goes on, she fights it a little more and more. This evening, I put her down at around 7:15. I pretty much know how it is going to go by her reaction when she hits the mattress. If she goes down and is OK, but then starts to complain after a second or two, she can pretty much calm herself down. But if I put her down and she is either already crying or starts crying hard as soon as I place her down, it pretty much is NOT going to work. That is what happened tonight. I wanted to see how she was going to do, so I listened to her for a while. She was unable to calm herself down. I went up there after a while and picked her up and sat with her in the glider. I fed her, but after she started BITING (my least favorite occurence), I held her and rocked her for a while. She seemed to enjoy looking around and at me. After I calmed her down, I placed her back in her crib and she finally fell asleep after 20 minutes or so.

Her latest crib toy is the aquarium. It took her about a day to figure out how to turn it on. It has lights, sounds and makes bubbles. It is sort of like a little TV in her crib. She seems to love it. It is pretty funny when she is sort of crying and when you put her down and turn on the crib, she turns her head towards it and you can see the crying pass from her face. It seems to be working! I should have tried it sooner but it did not occur to me where to put it in her crib until we went to NJ and I saw where Cherie had placed hers. I guess I never sat and thought about where it should go. At least now I know.