TEN MONTHS!

     How has it already been 10 months?!? That means in two months I'll have a one year old?!? What? I just cannot believe how fast my baby girl is growing up! Right in front of my eyes that precious little mush pot we welcomed into our lives last October has become a fiesty, intelligent, funny little person with a big personality! Claire keeps me busy and on my toes with her adventurous and determined attitude. This little one does not sit still...not for a second! She loves exploring the house, chasing the dogs, climbing the stairs, pushing her toys around, and pulling up on anything and everything. I didn't know babies could crawl that fast! I'm afraid we will have a walking baby on our hands any day!
     I am blown away by how Claire takes everything in and learns new things so quickly! This has been the most fun, most amazing, ten months of my life!

Yawn!
I rushed outside right after Claire's morning bottle to get pics before it got too hot!
Sweet baby was still a little sleepy!

It is getting harder and harder to get pics of my very busy little girl!

Taking off into the unknown! Fearless!

The neighbors were outside with their dog...Claire couldn't keep her eyes off that puppy!

Love Love Love!

At TEN months...

-Takes a bottle at 8:00 am (when she wakes up). 12:30 pm. 5:00 pm. 8:00 pm (when she goes to sleep). Eats meals/snacks at 9:00ish am. 2:00ish pm. 6:30 pm.

-Naps at 10:00 am and 3:00 pm for about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs (we have very recently had days when Claire has taken only one nap!...I'm hoping we can stay with two naps a day for awhile longer, baby girl might have other plans!)

-Still loves her books! I think this is the only time Claire sits still!

-I have gotten into a horrible habit of turning on a cartoon when Claire takes her bottle...Mickey's Clubhouse or Jungle Junction on demand...seriously the only way I can keep her still! When these shows come on, Claire is in a trance, long enough to take a bottle anyway! 

-Really loving on the dogs, pats them, chases them, giggles and laughs at them, sticks her face out with her eyes closed and waits for kisses from them

-Favorite game is when we stack her blocks and she gets to knock them over, hilarious for her!

-TEETH! 2 on the bottom, 2 (almost 4) on the top

-Obsessed with trying to climb the stairs (having permanent baby gates installed next week)

-Really liking Ella's Kitchen baby food pouches, bagels, blueberries, fresh bananas and raspberries mixed in her oatmeal, animal cookies, guacamole, Cheerios, puffs, YoBaby yogurt, goldfish, and wants to try anything we're eating (won't eat meat or vegetables unless they're mixed with something else)

-Claire had her first pancakes, but wanted nothing to do with them once she discovered bacon!

-Flaps/waves her arms when she is excited or wants our attention!

-Walks with the walker, cannot believe her speed!

-We had to take bunny away for awhile as she learned to throw him out of the crib, SCREAM, get me to come in and put him back in the crib, and then repeat. He was replaced by two lovies and a BlaBla doll.

-Seeing the beginnings of temper tantrums...I have to laugh at how stubborn and determined she is!

-A pro with the sippie cup, loves ice water

-Doesn't like to be fed with a spoon, Miss Independent prefers to scoop up a handful of food off her tray and stuff it in her mouth...messy yes, but totally adorable!
-Claire is also very generous with her food and loves to share it with me, offering me bites she has picked up with her sweet little fingers, love this!

AQUARIUM!

      Stacy and I took our girls to the aquarium and had quite the adventure! We will for sure be going back, but next time we will go on a school day (instead of the last day of summer, oops!) and I won't insist that we need the huge double stroller (that the girls were in for about a minute before they wanted to get out and be carried!)
     What an amazing experience watching Claire stare in awe at the tanks of sea creatures, wave to the penguins, and try to reach for the huge Cheetah behind plexi glass! Being a mom is incredible for so many reasons and seeing my daughter take in the world around her is definitely one of them!

I'm glad Stacy got a pic of this because it literally lasted a minute!

Claire was solo in the stroller for about 5 seconds before I got her out too!

A quick glimpse of the otters from the stroller before she was ready to get out!

Watching the otters...so cute!

Into the baby carrier! So much more fun!

Claire and Blake loved the Cheetah (or Leopard? Should have read the signs!) and Blake even yelled at her to "wake up!" so we could get a better look!

"WAKE UP!"

Love these sweet girls!

Flamingos directly next to the huge shark tank!
Claire is trying to turn back around so she can see the animals!



Blake's Birthday at Little Gym...

We. Love. Little. Gym. What an absolute blast we had at Blake's 2nd Birthday at Little Gym! I've never seen Claire have so much fun! She was determined to keep up with the big kids, climbing ALL OVER the mats, pulling up on the bars, crawling after all the kids who were running around like crazy! Fearless as always, Claire practically dove into the mix of bouncing toddlers on the blow up jump. Needless to say my sweet baby was exhausted after all the fun!

Claire trying to push me away...I got it Mom!

Chasing Annabelle!

Nope, not reaching for me!
Claire was watching the boys wrestle on the mat next to us and wanted to get over there!
I'm keeping a very close eye on this wild one!

Having so much fun!

Love!

Pool Party!

We had Grammy and Papa over for some fun in the sun and Claire got to show off in the pool! She is such a little fish! This baby loves to swim! I would have never imagined a 9 month old baby enjoying going under water and trying to swim, but Claire LOVES it! I stand her on the step (with a huge smile on her face and arms waving), say "Ready Go!" and she dives at me UNDER the water, kicking her little legs as hard as she can until she grabs me! Hilarious! We've gone up to 5 seconds under the water with this little routine. Claire's swim instructer told me we can increase this up to 10 seconds, not so sure I want to try, but she would probably love it!

Kick Kick Kick!!!

Almost there...

Whew! Made it!

She also loves standing on the top step and walking from one side to the other!

Mozart in the Making...

Over the summer Claire took a music class for babies (0-8 months old) at TCU. We had SO much fun meeting with other moms and their babies every Wednesday for eight weeks! Claire would light up with a huge smile in class when we sang songs and loved to bang around on all the instruments. About half way through the eight weeks Claire really got into it and loved to sing (yell) along to the music!

A little Cha Cha Cha with her teacher Miss Mandy and friend Evelyn! 

Get it girl!

Helping Miss Janis with the Good Bye song! So fun!

Nine Months!

Baby You're a Firework!!!

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!

Eight Months

How is my sweet baby girl EIGHT months!?! To say this has been the most rewarding, most fulfilling, most precious months of my life is an understatement. I am so proud and so privileged to be baby Claire's mother!

At 8 months...
-trying to stand up
-following me from room to room crawling
-talking...dadadadada...mmmmmm (high and low) with her mouth closed
-swimming, holding her breathe under water for a couple seconds
-likes to take it all in
-kissing and patting everything and everyone (such a lover!)
-squirming every where all the time
-rolls over and starts crawling before I can get her diaper changed
-loves her bunny
-obsessed with Dog and Hide and Seek Under the Sea books
-turns the pages when you're reading to her
-loves baths
-refused baby food from 6 to 7 months so at the advice of our pedi started grown up foods...loves bites of avocado, asparagus, yogurt, cottage cheese, string cheese, pita chips, hummus, cheerios, melons, strawberries, rice and oatmeal cereal
-takes 2 naps a day, dropped the middle of the day at 7 months
-takes music class and swimming lessons
-loves the dogs
-fascinated by cartoons, especially when there is music involved

Here is our beautiful EIGHT month old enjoying a little snack...