Trick or Treat!

Claire has two cute sets of Halloween pajamas, so she woke up in one of them today, and she went to bed in the other tonight!


And she was a super cute pumpkin after church!

Claire says Happy Halloween!

History

This morning Claire began studying history.

She's starting with quite a serious event! (I'm sure I learned about Columbus before I learned about D-Day!)

And this evening we just wanted to record some history. - Grandma and Grandpa are in town!

Another historical event from today is that Claire started saying "ma-ma-ma-ma." I know - she's not saying my name, but she hasn't strung vowels and consonants together like that before. (And I don't mind that she's starting with "ma-ma!")

Army Crawl

Claire loves to army crawl! If she sees something she wants or if she knows where she wants to go, it doesn't take her long to get there. For example, yesterday I put Claire in her room, and I cleaned the bathroom next to her room. She was fussy for a while, but then she stopped fussing. When I checked on her, I found her in the hall watching me!

This is from tonight.

Fun Tastes

Today Claire and I were treated with a quick visit from my mom, Aunt Debbie, Aunt Carol, and my grandmom! They are on their way to Alabama for the weekend. We met them at Coffee Call, where we had some beignets. That's definitely a fun taste to me!!! (Jordan was in class and couldn't see them, but he had me eat a beignet for him. Thanks, Bando!) Then they stopped by our house to see it, and then they were on their way again. I'm very glad they stopped by. Claire and I enjoyed seeing them!

And tonight Claire had her first taste of green beans. I'm not so sure she thought it was fun, (as you can see!) but she did pretty well. Also, I think it's funny that she chews on her rice cereal/oatmeal cereal/green beans. I put a spoonful of food in her mouth, and she chews it up. Funny!

7 Months!

Claire is 7 months old today!

She loves to army crawl around, and she does it quite a bit. She gets up on all fours sometimes, but she usually just plops down and uses her left forearm and her legs to move her little body along.

I love it when I get her up from a nap and carry her out of her room. She looks around with such expectancy to see if anyone else is here. It's very cute.

She's eating solid foods twice a day at this point. I think she likes oatmeal cereal better than rice cereal.

She loves any new toy she can find. Her current favorites: Jordan's Pepcid bottle and the door stopper in her room. (It makes a great noise when she lets go of it!)

She can now open her dresser drawer, (as she did here!) I bet her next step will be emptying the drawer!


She has not been sleeping through the night lately. I'm not a fan of that, but it's reality. She eats and then goes back to sleep after a few minutes of talking in her bed.

She is usually pretty good about entertaining herself. I love it when she just lies and makes her sweet baby noises as she plays.

She shows her excitement by shaking her arms &/or kicking her legs. For example, I usually take her with me to check the mail, and we go out the garage to do that. When I push the button to open the garage, she kicks her legs and shakes her arms and looks on in excitement as the door goes up. She does the same thing when we come back in and close the garage door.

5 Questions

The rules of this game are that you answer the questions posed by the person who tags you, and then you leave 5 new questions for people to answer.

1. If you could live anywhere, where would you live and why?
I would like to live in Australia for a little while, (two years sounds good), and then I definitely want to move back to TEXAS!!! And everyone should come visit us in Australia while we're there! (For now, since we're not in Texas, I do feel more comfortable simply because we live close enough to Texas to see lots of Texas license plates every day!)

2. If you couldn't have the job you have now, what would you want to do for work?
I would want to be a travel guide and get paid to go to awesome places! I would love knowing the ins and outs of little towns, big cities, and everywhere in between. I would want to bring my family along, too. We'd have a blast! And I'd enjoy talking with people from various places and helping them discover the beauty of different places around the world.

3. What is the one blog you look forward to reading each day and why?
I love reading Mel's blog, and since she updates it just about every day, it's almost a guarantee that I can see something new there each day. It's fun to see what she and her family are up to. (It's also very fun seeing what other family members and friends are up to!)

4. Who had the biggest influence on you growing up and why?
I would say that my mom and dad did. They always encouraged me in my endeavors, they supported me in my desires, they taught me right from wrong, they were there to help me with math, music, and everything else, too!

5. Describe your perfect date!
Jordan and I would eat Mexican food, probably at Escalante's, but we wouldn't smell like Mexican food when we left. Then we'd go to a professional choir or symphony concert. Then we'd go to the Chocolate Bar for dessert on the way home. (I know this is not Jordan's perfect date, but he's a great sport, and he has always enjoyed the times when we have done something like this!)

I tag: Margie, Tasha, and Rebecca! - And anyone else who feels so inclined! :-)

Here are your 5 questions:

1. What is your favorite food to eat for breakfast?
2. What personal accomplishment are you most proud of and why?
3. What's the last book you read, and would you recommend it?
4. Describe the organization (or lack thereof) of your closet. Are your clothes arranged by type, color, season, something else? Is there something about it you'd like to change/add to make it better/easier to use?
5. What is one talent/skill you'd like to develop and why? Cooking? Decorating? Hairstyling?

Lounging & Playing

The position in which I most often find Claire these days is this casual, lounging position. I love it! It says, "Hi, Mom, I'm relaxed here as I play with my butterfly."


This one says, "Of course I can handle eating my duck with one hand. - I'm a big girl!"

And if Claire's not lounging, then she's often under something. Whether it's her feet,

her head,

or her whole body - she likes being under something!!

A Kiss for Dad

This is how Claire welcomed Jordan when we got back home.



How sweet!

More of Dallas

Claire and I had a good time during the rest of our trip in Dallas. It was great spending time with family! We played 42 and quintuple solitare (which was loads of fun!!!), we ate plenty of good Mexican food, and lots of people got to spend some good time with Claire.


Peter took Claire from my mom, tossed her up a little bit, made her laugh a lot, and then passed her back to my mom. Matt then took her from my mom, and Claire spit up all over Matt. That's when Peter said, "You noticed what I did, right?" - Meaning that he shook Claire up and then gave her away so she wouldn't spit up on him!

Taylor fits perfectly across the stairs!

The boys spent some time outside. (Laura did, too, to take these pictures!)

After getting a black eye because the ball took a crazy bounce, Taylor was ready to go right back out for more. What a kid!



Some of the girls!


Saturday morning we went to Taylor's flag-football game. Here, he had just intercepted the ball and he ran quite a bit down the field.

It was a little cold that morning; I was glad Claire and I could keep each other warm.



During half time, Taylor's coach gave all the kids pink wrist bands and talked about breast cancer. He told them to play their best - for breast cancer.

Claire loved all the attention she got from all of our loving family members! She had so much fun, and so did I!


(See the pink wrist band?)

Change Effective Immediately

As I've mentioned before, Claire is now going to sleep by herself. She naps in the swing, and she sleeps in her crib at night. Her routine still includes a loose, half-swaddle and a brief song, and then I put her down. I have been aware of one time when Claire has tried to turn over in her swing, and she has scooted down toward the edge a couple of times. So I kind of keep an eye on her.

A few days ago, I put her in her swing for her morning nap, and I didn't hear her for a few minutes, so I got in the shower. While I was still in the shower, I heard her crying, so I knew that she hadn't fallen asleep yet. I had the thought to pray that she would stay in her swing, and that, if necessary, angels would hold her in the swing. I continued with my shower, but when I got out, I went to check on Claire. This is how I found her.



I was frightened and thankful all at the same time. I put pillows and blankets on the floor around her, and I checked on her quite frequently. I also said more prayers - of gratitude that she was still in her swing (possibly thanks to angels - it's not like I usually pray for angels!) and asking that she would continue to stay in her swing and that I could be aware of her and get her out before she fell out. I saw her move once, but she stayed asleep. Just a few minutes later she began moving some more, so I just got her up. I didn't want to risk it!

So now Claire takes her naps in her crib, too. That change was definitely effective immediately!!!

Trip Time!

Claire and I are visiting our family in Dallas this week. She was a fabulous baby on the plane ride yesterday; she ate and then slept! She woke up on our decent into Dallas, and then she was so happy and excited and looking around at everything. It was so cute to see her looking out the window!

Laura and Matt are here this week, too, since they have some time off from school. Aunt Laura wasted no time in getting to take care of Claire.


Claire and Taylor had a good time together.




Tonight Marcus was acting like his normal 3-year-old, full-of-energy self, and Claire absolutely LOVED it! I think she wants an older sibling because she recognizes that Mom and Dad don't act like this!

So we got some good pictures of Claire laughing and smiling, since Marcus was so agreeable to continue his jumping and standing on his head and doing other silly things! - Thanks, Marcus!



And the only way we got Marcus to smile for a picture with his mom was to make him do that before he could look at the pictures I was taking. - He wanted to see the pictures on my camera. He finally did it, and we got some good ones of him and Jennifer!

Beautiful Day

The weather here lately has been beautiful! It has actually been pleasant to be outside! (Up until now it has simply felt scorching outside). Yesterday, Claire and I took advantage of the beautiful weather by going on a walk at the park next to our home. Claire fell asleep and slept for another hour and a half once we got home. Yay!! When Jordan got home, we personalized our garage. I think it's fun now!

At some point Jordan commented that he should play golf because it was such a beautiful day. A bit later, his friend Brian asked him if he wanted to play golf! He was ecstatic! I love this outfit of Claire's. It has pants with it, so she actually got to wear it, since it's not so hot outside!


I love Jordan's face in this one. It shows the little kid that's inside him! :-)