The bar is finally finished finished

Woo hoo! A project done that we have slowly finished over the last few months. After the cabinets were installed, there was just a couple things we needed to do to completely finish the bar (putting down tile on the floor, the molding on the bottom cabinets after the tile floor was done, and some wine racks we wanted to put on the walls).

We have been busy with the baby and getting out enjoying the summer on our weekends, so it was a much longer than usual process to get these done, but we finally put the wine racks up last weekend and now I think we are done for good!

6 months

6 Months, and we cannot believe half a year has gone by already. It is so cliche so say that time flies when you are having fun, but my this year is going by like none other.

Little Claire -

• All of a sudden one day you were sitting all by yourself! Grandma claims it was the day you stayed with her all day
• Just a week later after you learned to stay sitting up on your own, you also figured out how to get there from laying down all on your own. Now we find you in your crib sitting up when you wake up. 
• I went away on my first work trip without you. I missed you like crazy!! You had a great time with grandma though, and then had a Friday night date with your dad. He took you to the daycare BBQ, and then the two of you went on a walk and hung out all day Saturday until I got home (while I sadly waited in Newark all day with a delayed flight home...) 
• You are getting on your hands and knees now and starting to rock back and forth, you want to crawl already so badly and we think you will be moving very soon. I can't believe it! 
• Now that you are 6 months old there are more foods you can eat. You have had lots of veggies and fruits and loved them all (bananas mixed with zucchini, peas/pears/spinach, mangoes, blueberry, blackberry, and more). You have also had yogurt now and loved it!  
• So much energy, so so so much energy. You are not going to be a quiet, calm little girl.... at least based on your personality right now, you are so curious and excited to get into everything. We will have our hands full once you are on the move. 

5 months

5 Months (very belated... but wanted to post before 6 months gets here!)

Claire -

• We went on your first airplane flight to Spokane (to visit our BFF’s Darci & Ruby), and you are a great traveler… of course. The only part you didn’t like was when the plane would start going fast down the runway you would scream, but as soon as we got off the ground you were fine.

• You love animals… especially dogs. You met Ruby’s dog Moses in Spokane and would start cracking up laughing every time he came up to you, and you wanted to pet him so badly. You also love monkey’s…. since your dad got a monkey puppet that he plays with you and it makes you laugh every time.

• You are growing and eating a ton… but are still our little peanut. At 4 ½ months the doctor weighed you at 13 lbs (which was about 15th percentile), and you are about 80th percentile in height.

• Rolling over is old news now, with you going back to front and front to back pretty easily… so now when you sleep, you roll to your tummy and sleep with your knees under you and bum in the air.

• We planned to wait to give you “solid foods” until 6 months… but you have been super hungry lately and really acting like you want what we are eating. So far we have tried some pureed sweet potatoes, carrots, apples and pears which you loved, and bananas and peas which you hated (but I think we’ll try them again in a few weeks… maybe you’ll change your mind).

• You are still the happiest girl around and hanging out with you is the best part of my day every day.

4th of July

Happy 4th! We had a relaxing day bbq'ing with some friends in West Seattle, enjoying some sun and letting the kiddo's splash a bit in a little backyard plastic pool. It was great. Here is Claire in her red, white, and blue!

4 months

Little Miss Claire -

• You are 4 months old and have such a personality already. You giggle and laugh at everything (especially anything your daddy does), and have just started talking and babbling all the time. In addition to your gooo, gahhh, oohhh sounds... you now love to say haaa ahhh in a raspy sounding voice that sounds like a little monster (or we sometimes say our little darth vader). 
• After starting daycare, during your first week in fact, you rolled over.... and since then there was no looking back. You will roll from your back to your tummy 20 times in a row in about 30 minutes, and each time just look up at us like "yeah it's no big deal, I can roll now what of it?". The problem is when you realize you haven't figured out how to roll back onto your back yet and will freak out until we help you.... but then you roll right back on your tummy again, haha. 
• Your third week of daycare you got a little cold, the first time you have been sick, and it just broke my heart. I wished I could be sick for you and make you feel better. You are a little trooper though, and were still all smiles most of the time for the week you weren't feeling good. 
• You seem pretty anxious to try real food, every time we are eating dinner you lunge for our food. I had planned to wait until you were 6 months to try pureed veggies.... but we'll see if we last that long.
• We love you so darn much, and still can't believe you are our little girl. We are the luckiest parents! 

4 Month Pictures:

And some more pic's from the last few weeks: 

Your first time at a hotel when we went to the Washington coast

Hanging out in bed with us in the morning... you love to sleep with your hands behind your head. =) 

All ready for school! 

3 months

Dearest "Miss" Claire - You are 3 months old!!  Here are my top 10 things to remember about you this month.

1. Your hand chewing has evolved to just chewing on your index and middle fingers, sometimes you really get into it and accidentally gag yourself
2. You have been recently lifting your legs straight up in the air when you lay on your back and rolling to your sides. Not quite ready to roll all the way over yet but you are getting close (although I have a theory you could roll over if you wanted to, but you hate time on your tummy)
3. The fuzzy hair on top of your head is finally growing! It's almost 1/2 an inch now and is really looking like you will be blonde (at least for a little while).
4. Staring at the tv and computer screens is REALLY interesting... if you sit on my lap while I'm on the computer you will stare at the screen and sometimes just start laughing.
5. When I hold you in front of me facing outward, and then we walk down the stairs to our basement, you put both your hands up in the air and make a scared face like we are falling
6. Now that you can hold your head and upper body up really well, both your dad and I will hold you up above our heads like you are "super baby" flying... and you think this is hilarious. Even when you are crying sometimes we will try this and you will stop crying and smile.
7. After baths your skin gets really dry, and most lotions seem to irritate it. We heard to try coconut oil to moisturize and it makes you smell like a little coconut macaroon.
8. Your Uncle John was playing scrabble on his Tablet and you seemed to be in awe of it, you were reaching for the tablet and leaning forward trying swipe at it.
9. Last weekend we went to the Washington coast for 2 nights, it was our first true getaway as a family of 3. You loved it! We walked the beach (it was a bit to windy for you though and was not your favorite part), checked out the town, and did some mini-hikes to visit some local lighthouses. All the trees were especially interesting to you, there was so many new things to look at it was exhausting and you napped a ton.
10. We only have 1 more week at home before you start daycare... I will be so sad not to spend all day with you every day, but I hope you will love playing with the other babies!

3 Month Photos: 

And some extra pictures from the last couple weeks:

  Uh oh... checking out the TV.

 Sleeping with your hand over your face

I can't get enough of those tiny hands

 

Working on more Tummy Time

 First time in the Big Girl stroller



Tulips

Last Friday Matt took the day off work and we headed up to the Tulip festival. It was a beautiful sunny day, and not too crowded yet (compared to what I imagine it must have been over the weekend). I can't believe we haven't done this sooner, it was such a great day and some really fun pictures.

Here are a few pictures from our excursion.