This kinda goes along with the last post. Claire found a cave! I'm laughing because she did this all on her own, and I recreated it for the photos...
"Hmm...looks like a fun tunnel"
"Lemme back up and see what we find..."
"No lions, tigers or bears here!"
"I found a sheepdog though! Yay!"
This is one of the best baby present we got! It would have made more sense to take a video haha, oops, just thought of that. I need to thank Amazon and post a customer pics. This is a Chicco Baby DJ Walker. Think of this if you have a friend having a baby, endless entertainment/excercize and gives my back a break.
Nooo, we don't have a backyard, or grass, or a driveway to ourselves...We may live walking distance to Sunshine Market and a Washateria... We also may live next to a Metro bus stop and a train that runs by us. We may be city livin' in townhouse land, but we can still create a community pool/pet oasis. Just what the summer heat ordered
Splish splash little Claire!
Who needs a fancy community pool with a slide?
Why yes, creature of the wild, quench your thirst here.
Scoot around us neighbor of our shared drive, if there's room, we're having a pool day!
At least the 3-story buildings hide us from the sun! Score.
I have been pondering a lot lately on our living situation, wondering what our next move will be, maybe next year. Isn' it such the dilemma? Stay in town where you love and all your friends are, OR move to the 'burbs, have a yard and sidewalks, good schools and call it a day.
Yes, there are plenty of houses in town, that cost plenty of money or are old, small and need work. Unfortunately, we're not growing a money tree and I don't like fixing up old things. I like things ready to be moved it.
So we're just kinda waiting it out, looking into different neighborhoods, some far, some closer, trying to decide what's best for Claire. The only thing I don't want is Josh spending over 2 hours a day communting everyday and missing out on her seeing her at night.
So, until we decide either way, driveway parties will be all the rage!
Claire woke up Saturday with this huge bite/burn/hickey thing on her arm...
At first I thought she had self-soothed herself to sleep and given herself a hickey. But it was SO rough, raised and hard! Then I thought spider bite maybe...because it was just so big.
Anyways, by 6pm it was still really bad and many mommy friends and my own mom said they'd get it checked, so we searched for an Urgent Care and found one out in Cypress for kids only.
The doctor said that it was just a bad allergic reaction to a mosquito bite and gave us a Rx for antibiotic cream and to get some 1% hydrocortisone. Luckily, this thing never even bothered Claire, we're just crazy first time parents!
What sort of things do y'all do to help prevent mosquito bites? We have a bug net for the stroller, that's it so far, they freaking attack her at night in her crib I think!!
and, in other news, LOOK who's just a sittin' fool these days...
No time for long blogs as of late, there's been too many firsts!...
First time to Daddy's work for family day
She danced her first Cupid Shuffle there...kinda. Mostly me laughing...
First time to sit up by herself for a long period of time! So exciting, still have a ways to go though before I'd stray too far...
"Is there junk in my trunk?"
First time in her walker
First time in her high chair
First time eating: Squash, peas, pears, prunes, sweet potatoes... And I got to use my Beaba Baby Food maker, so fun!
Papa and Claire (just a cute pic)
Her first honest opinion on the Texas Longhorns...
First days in her bathing suit and the pool!
Josh made me return a baby bikini that I bought... he said hellznah. LoL oh well.
She really loved it, just floated around and relaxed...didn't even make a peep for 30 mins!
Other random firsts:
Voting! haha We went to vote in the Republican primaries today and were interviewed by abc13, maybe they'll air it! ... and they did. Claire's first time on TV:
First weeks without breastmilk. I'm proud to say that I made it almost 6 months pumping for her! We nursed for the first two months, but I prefered pumping, and we supplemented with formula, first Emfamil, then Target Up and Up. Now to get these boobs to dry up...I think I need some cabbage leaves. I was an emotion wreck when I stopped! Good thing my friends said it's normal.
In a few weeks, Josh and I are going on a little vacation, and it'll be her first time to spend the night away from us...I'm not looking forward to that first, but we do need a getaway.
Finally, she had a great ortho visit today and Dr. Brock said that her hips are looking better and better. The right side is still having the issues, but each visit is improvement, and no braces still. Yay!
A little preview from our 6 month photo shoot! Can't wait for all the pics. Kelly Garvey is awesome!!
Your first Mother's day is weird. I still think of mom's as older, wiser women who help you do pretty much everything. The ones who cook Thanksgiving meals and always get you gifts for Easter and your dog's birthdays. How can I possibly be a 'mother' now??
Obvs I know I AM a mom, but it hasn't even sinked (sunk?) in. Everytime I call the pediatrician to make an appointment, they ask "Name?" and I say mine! Then they say nooo... your daughter's name. My daughter. That sounds insane to me. I have a daughter. Nope, still weird.
Muthy gave me this awesome necklace, I love it!
It's crazy to think that my mom (Muthy) was the same age when she had me. It's so hard to think of my mom as younger; running around while I screamed in the car seat? Wait, that's me, now, too. I'm just like my mom now! We even have the same crazy baby hair to figure out what to do with. Maybe one day it will sink in that I'm a mom. I still can't believe it! I hope I can be half the mom that Muthy is, she's the best!
Baby Bear and Grammie
Claire looks like my dad a lot now!
Auntie Emily scaring the baby lol
Great-grandpa Pom! Poor Claire cried when he tried to talk to her, such a weirdo baby.
Sitting at the big table on a Bumbo
Rian got in to law school! Funny story, it says "Goot job Rain" - H.E.B. bakers decorate the best =/ I laughed so hard I cried when we saw it, and it was too funny to go back and fix.I did go back and request an exclamation point, which of course they did in purple, not red.
Muthy loves her granddogs. Happy, Shelby and the newest addition, Barkley.
On our way back we stopped in Katy for Josh's mom's mother's day dinner! Claire is looking crazy because the mariachi band is SOOOO loud.
Nana and Claire's first balloon.
Great weekend! My little baby bear, I love you!
Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends, friends who will soon be mommies, doggy mommies, and those who are still on their journey to motherhood.
Claire turned 5 months on Cinco de Mayo! We went out to Nana's house for a fun day filled with food. We celebrated Uncle Ryan and Uncle Cody graduating from the University of Houston. There were lots of family and friends there. We're so proud of them! All 3 brothers are UH Cougars ( Josh went there for his MBA). Claire was festive... in an outfit Auntie Emily brought her from Hawaii!
Her Hawaiian Outfit
Little Miss isn't so little! Her stats are 18.5 lbs and 26 inches long. All well over 90th%. I really can't keep up on the clothes front. I'm just going to start grabbing 12-18mo clothes and hope they last and that she slows down! I even had to go to a whole different 'big girl' section in Carters for footed sleepers...too sad!
As you can see, her hair is growing in nicely, we have the HAIR-DRY it!
She's eating oatmeal and carrots so far. But she's spitting it out and sucking it off the bib, I can't get her to stop... some mommy friends suggested no bib. NEKID baby feeding lol!
She's grabbing all sorts of things and finally using her legs to bounce! Plus rolling every which way and sleeping on her stomach a lot of the times. Though, when she wakes up and she's on her tummy, she cries and is stuck!
So, since she's a growing baby, I have to snap many pics in clothes she won't be able to wear soon... I really thought these Aggie dresses might have made it to football season, stupid me!
I love this little cheerleader outfit!!
Here, she's dreaming of College Station.
I do realize that there's a good possibility that she won't share my love for Aggieland, but it worked on me, so maybe it'll work on her! We're a family O Aggies! Maybe they will have girl cheerleaders by her time there. Class of '34 and all. Eeesh
Do y'all like the first Aggie outfit or this one better?
Oh, and no Aggie girl is complete with out her KKG sorority letters onesie... Claire is sporting her "GO KAPPA" shirt! My friends pass this shirt around to our little Kappa legacies. We also have a blue one for the gentlemen. Natalie gets it next, little Grace will be here any day now!
Feeling so blessed with our little Claire and excited to spend my first Mother's Day in San Antonio with Grammy, Papa, Auntie Em and (maybe some day) Uncle Rian!
Watch "Bounce!" on YouTube
This video makes me happy on so many levels. Watching her use her legs brings a little tear to my eye after seeing her not even able to kick for 9 weeks in a harness. I hope her hips continue to improve and are 100%!
Claire is so HIP! She also is wearing neon. Also hip.
Oh and I can't tell you how excited I am to meet Chelsea's baby Logan soon! That's what I'm talking about in video. In just a couple weeks, she's going to drive or fly...undecided still, but I'm so happy!!
Claire is discovering mush on a spoon. My first mistake was rice cereal mixed with water (LOL)...she spit that out, apparently it tastes like cardboard. Then I really read the directions and said mixed with formula. That was better, but she got really constipated! ROCK HARD POO! (yup, poo discussions, I swore I'd never show pics though.)
Tried some green beans to help, she hated!! So, my bible book "Baby 411" said that oatmeal...got some of that, Auntie Emily helped out...Oatmeal was a hit! She's been getting about an ounce of that mush once a day. Nom Nom (ew).
In other news, you have kids and live in the same city as your mom, you're SOOOOO lucky... that is, if you like your mom. So, I LOVEEEE my mom and she doesn't live in Houston, she's in San Antonio. BOO. So, we discovered we can meet half way sometimes. She had Friday off, so Claire got all fancied up...
And we met my mom and Aunt in Columbus,Tx at Nancy's Steakhouse. It was surprisingly really good! An hour each way for me, and Claire slept on both drives. Whatta good little baby.
We'll have to do that more often...but I just remembered gas costs an arm and a leg. FOILED AGAIN. Move to HOUSTON MUTHY!!!
That iz all. Oh and I got a hair cut, with a baby in my lap! Win.
