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 ;)...