I've got a big head and little muscles...

Someone didn't think this one through.









Peek-a-boo

Why is the fish moaning?

Claire's fish have begun to talk... mostly they share Claire's moods with me. Today they were moaning. And one was flying and the green one likes to hide.

Boxes

I know there has been very little about me lately, but I am well. And there isn't anything really exciting going on right now except raising Claire. SO, you will be subjected to more 'Claire Updates' today.
Her newest phase makes me smile ever so often. She has abandoned the toys of her childhood to pursue advertising and market research. She prefers to play with boxes... Blue boxes are her favorite but if you offer another she will take it. She loves the Rice Krispy box the best of all and stares at it on the table when she can't have it. She even cries if I take it away. It's kind of cute. And WAY cheaper than Dora this and Princess that. :) Everyone Wins!

Another First

Claire's first (real) snow came today! We are very excited and hope to go out again for a couple minuets later on. Here are some pictures...

Food in Solid Form

Claire ventured beyond her current horizon to tackle solid food today. Yesterday we cleared it with her Dr. and we couldn't wait to try some mighty tasty rice cereal. (pappi talks it up so much)






Bibs were a fun new accessory, we like them


Our first Bite!






A Success!

Cross it Off Baby

you will be glad to know that I have achieved some of my New Year's resolutions already! It kinda beats the feeling that I don't do anything all day.
So far I have :
Taken the wallpaper off the wall in our bedroom (the walls are now a vibrant blue from the 70's)
Gone to TWO restaurants with my husband that don't have paper napkins (by ourselves once(thank you mandi)!)

I have also discovered that I can not take a bath at my house, because my tub doesn't hold water, so I have to figure out what to do about that.

In general, it makes me feel good, I wish I could cross things out online, so I could get that satisfaction. Maybe I'll write them down and cross them off. Mailing them to myself and smashing them with a hammer is also appealing.

How are your New Year's resolutions coming?

Motherhood

Some days all you get done is changing diapers and you get to the end of the day and wonder where the other 10 hrs went.
And as an update: I made rice yesterday and nobody died or choked and it was good! Yeah for mastering rice.

Love to Laugh

Love to Laugh

I love to laugh
Loud and long and clear
I love to laugh
It's getting worse ev'ry year

The more I laugh
The more I fill with glee
And the more the glee
The more I'm a merrier me
It's embarrassing!
The more I'm a merrier me!

Some people laugh through their noses
Sounding something like this "Mmm..."
Some people laugh through their teeth goodness sake
Hissing and fizzing like snakes

Some laugh too fast
Some only blast - ha!
Others, they twitter like birds
Then there's the kind
What can't make up their mind

When things strike me as funny
I can't hide it inside
And squeak - as the squeakelers do
I've got to let go with a ho-ho-ho...
And a ha-ha-ha...too!

We love to laugh
Loud and long and clear
We love to laugh
So ev'rybody can hear
The more you laugh
The more you fill with glee
And the more the glee
The more we're a merrier we!

Don't forget to laugh and smile and laugh some more. Maybe you could host a tea party on the ceiling. What ever you do today, Do it with a smile on your face.

(we also love Mary Poppins)

My Crazy Daughter

My crazy daughter would rather play with a blanket than with the gym I bought her. It lights up and plays animal or Mozart music and it has a chime that chimes when you hit it with your feet or hands and is a VERY pleasant noise for a child's toy... but my daughter would rather cuddle and snuggle with her favorite blanket and play peek-a-boo with mommy than play with the gym. Go figure, I wish she could talk to tell me this so I didn't buy the gym :( But she can't talk so we will continue to guess.
Think she'll like a bath today?

Sick

Today I am sick. Chills and fever and nausea and weak and tired sick. This stinks.
On a lighter note; yesterday I ordered my groceries online. ALL of them. It was kinda strange but worked really well. And to think I thought my mom was strange for ordering produce offline...

Killer Rice

Not only can I not boil and egg. Which btw, the correct answer is to boil it for about 10-15 min. not any of the cleaver choices I came up with. (sad :( ) I also am incapable of rice. You know the chineese food staple and over all simple thing to make and eat. Well I can't make it or put it in anything apparently. I tried to make rice the first time and it was an oooy gooey mess. Then I tried to make it another time and it came out 'ok' but the lemon juice I put in with the wild rice bleached some of the color and made all the rice a weird pinky color (and it tasted like acid). Then last night I made stuffed peppers! They would have been sooo good if the rice inside wasn't hard as a rock. I'll tell you how bad it was, Jimmy tried to eat his and he choked trying to swallow. (again sad :( ) So rice and I don't get along but soon I will master it and then watch out! (I'm not sure what you should watch out for when I master it but right now you should watch out for my rice, next time it might kill someone.)

Hard Boiled

This is how an egg should NOT look when you are 'hard boiling' it. I have tried to call both sisters to discover if an egg is hard boiled when either:
A. It floats
B. It turns over
C. It changes color
D. It explodes

Obviously I chose D, because it was the most exciting choice.

I needed to know this because I'm making dinner. (yes it's kind of an event) I'm making potato ham salad stuff It tastes good, I had to try it so I knew weather to make a meatloaf in case it wasn't good enough to serve my husband.

What would you choose if you were hard boiling an egg?

Yeah for Omeletts

I never thought that omelettes could make a day so WONDERFUL! but they do. You should try it. Jimmy and I went 'out' for the first time since we got married yesterday. We took Claire, who slept through it (because it was the FIRST time I'm sure). It was sooo wonderful. I forget what else happened yesterday but it was good.

Stuffing Her Face

Claire has discovered her 'teeth'. She doesn't have any real ones but she chooses to chew on EVERYTHING! We really do need to baby-proof the house now.

A New Year

Things I plan to do in this new year:
1. Take the wallpaper off the wall in my bedroom (I started yesterday and this might indeed take me all year to achieve)
2. Take a bubble bath (sometime)
3. Go OUT to dinner with my husband (to somewhere that doesn't have paper napkins) (my husband and I don't go OUT, and he has never taken me anywhere that has paper napkins, except my mom's house) (he made me write that)
4. Travel to see my oldest, dearest sister before she leaves the country (I hope I have to do this soon)
5. Travel to see my younger, lovelyer (is that a word) sister (I hope I have some time to do this one)
6. Fly
7. Ride a pony at my Grandmother's house
8. Lose 20 lbs

Mobile (and not my phone)

I'm amused lately by the smallest things, probably because I never leave the house. But today I got a good look at Claire's newest form of movement. She can turn herself while lying on her back. I wasn't sure how she did it before but today I watched her do it. She kicks her feet up in the air so she's a 90 degree angle then she falls over to her side. Then she straightens her legs out.. don't ask me how it works but it does. It's slow going but it's just enough to make her 'mobile' for the first time... scary.

Naked in the Bathtub

You know those pictures your mom took of you 'naked in the bathtub'? and you said to yourself, 'why would she do something like that?' and 'isn't she supposed to be watching me so I don't drown, when does she have time to take pictures?' Well today I realized why my mom took those pictures. There is something about naked babies that makes you want to take their picture. I took Claire's first 'naked in the bathtub' pictures today. I  thought about posting them but I am close enough to those of you who ask all those questions that I will spare her the embarrassment of having naked pictures of herself posted on the internet. So smile, no one is taking 'naked in the bathtub pictures of you anymore!

In Awe

This Christmas was Claire's first. She really enjoyed it, more than I thought she would.
She also changed the 'Christmas experiance' for me. I was at the candle light service and the pastor said something about Mary knowing from the beginning that Jesus was purposed to die. It made me think back to something Alex said 'Claire really has no purpose yet but she sure is cute'. I can't imagine what Mary might have felt when she woke up on his first birthday and realized that he was going to die a horriable death for the freedom and salvation of the human race. Everyone dies, I know that one day Claire will die (unless Christ comes before that day) But I don't think about it constantly, Mary might have. I can't imagine what she felt. It made Christmas and the Christmas story so much more 'real' having had Claire this year.
I am in awe of my Savior and his sacrifices for me this Christams season.

Yawn

btw Claire went to her first Holiday party yesterday! she liked and it was one of her first 'firsts' she didn't sleep through.

She was happy about it

A Tree and Some Shots

We got a tree and five shots, the tree was mostly good, as were the shots actually. Let me tell you about them:

The Tree

Jimmy and I left Claire for the first time since we moved here and we got a tree (Oh, we left her with someone, someone reliable)(That was for GB who was wondering why we left her alone and was putting on her coat or calling her lawyer, or maybe both)Anyway, we got a tree, we picked it out all by ourselves (with the help of a nice boy scout)(that made me miss Greg). Then we tied it to Jimmy's car (OOOO I drove to the tree place, all by myself)(This is mainly the reason that Claire didn't come with us). And once it was on Jimmy's car, he drove us home and we brought our tree in and we lit it up (after stringing the lights ourselves, I don't understand the pre-strung ones) and we placed all my ornaments on it (even the new one from Miss Brenda)(Thank you!  :))(He he, he looks like he has a double chin) ANYWAY, it looks great and when my camera comes back to me (it's on vacation on LI) I will take pictures and post them. The mantle also got done up and it is my favorite part of the house.

The Shots

Claire went to the doctor today, he is Jewish, this is only important if you are waiting in the waiting room and you see a 'rag' on the floor and if you had known that the doctor and most of his cliental are Jewish you would have been able to identify the 'rag' as a jamica (Which I'm sure isn't spelled correctly b/c Steve (my computer) is telling me so)(but he speaks as much Hebrew as me so we aren't a great pair for fixing that problem). So we was the doctor who was very nice and Claire got FIVE shots. Well one was an oral vaccine so there were really only four shots but that's a lot when you are only 2 1/2 months and not even 13lbs yet. She did very well, I held her and she screamed but after the first two shots (during intermission) she calmed down and after the last two shots she fell asleep, in fact she is still asleep. (I should be doing something useful actually, like cleaning the bathroom or doing the dishes from the dinner we never ate last night)(but I'm not). 

So overall, our house is pretty and our baby is a good shot taker. Life is good here and we can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.