5 minutes in the life of a Munchie

"Hi mom, I'm on my way!"

Claire is soooo close to being able to walk across the room. She would much prefer to walk supported over crawling. She was figured out which furniture/walls/doors to hold on in each room to get around. 

 Don't worry she made it to meet and to cause trouble.  Claire is into EVERYTHING.  She found Jack's old reindeer antlers and I of course had to try them on her.

I still can't believe the outfit she is wearing in these pictures is 0-3 months. 

Clothes, Diapers and New Words

We met my friend Amber and her cute 2 year old for a Chick fil A lunch last week.  She is the Amber of Amber Elder Photography that always takes such cute pictures of Claire.  Well she is also very generous and shares her daughters old clothes with us (although there is nothing old about them, they are in great condition).

Claire and I had fun going through the loot and trying on some of the big girl hats.  Most of the clothes are size 18 months and up, considering Claire is wearing 3-6 month outfits we packed them all up in the attic.  Although I am pleased to report Claire has moved up to a size 2 diaper! 

Jack even tried to get in on the sorting action.  Claire and Jack are BEST FRIENDS and last night Claire said her best friends name "Jack." 

Sweet Tooth

 I've been baking a lot of cookies lately for our various playgroup functions.  Claire has learned how yummy cookies are and where mommy stores them.  I can't leave them out anymore because she will keep crawling in the kitchen and banging on the freezer and yelling in attempt to get the sweets she desires.  If you ask if Claire wants a cookie, she says yeah with a big smile and a sigh.

She was hoping that Jack could help her score some cookies!

She tried from every angle. 

Bye Bye bottle. . . well not yet

 Claire has not been the biggest fan of a sippee cup.  She refuses to hold her bottle and hates the idea of holding her own cup.  Luckily our pediatrician said she was okay if Claire kept using her bottles until 15 months.  In the past week or so Claire has gotten the hang of drinking water out of her sippee cup though.  I am so proud when she learns new skill!  She still has no desire to hold her bottle and don't even try putting milk in her sippee cup.  She will throw it and throw herself on the ground in disgust. 

Visiting the NICU

We had a wonderful opportunity last night  to speak at the nicu where Claire spent her first 61 days.  Everyone was amazed at how big and beautiful Claire has become.  It was very weird reliving my old daily routine of navigating through the parking garage and checking in at security with my little munchkin with me.  Claire was very well behaved and smiled at everyone. She also took 2 big girls steps completely unassisted!!! I am so glad we were given this opportunity. 

However, it was very sad to hear the current nicu parents stories and to see the hopeless looks on their faces.  I remember feeling like that.  I still wonder how I ever left my baby everyday for 2 months, it hurts my heart to just think about it. 

We don't want other parents to ever feel like we did and we don't want other fragile babies to spend their days getting picked and prodded instead of being hugged and kissed by their mommy and daddy.  Please make a small donation to Team Baby Girl Bowlby in Claire's honor for our March of Dimes Team. 

A big thank you to both of Claire's wonderful grandparents for donating this week!  Grandma and Granddad Rice and Nana and Pop Bowlby's generous donations made our total hit $500!  This means that next week we get to go pick up a sign with Claire's name on it to display in a special area at the walk.  We then get to customize it with pictures and make it sparkle. 

www.marchforbabies.org/babygirlb

This was Claire in beginning, I HATED when they made her wear the mask over her eyes. 

I much prefer to see her beautiful eyes like this!

Lots of park fun

We had a fun park play date with Finley and Kayla.

Kayla's 1st birthday party

At the beginning of March we went to Claire's friend Kayla's 1st birthday party.  Claire had to check out the card.

Kayla was a nice girl and shared her toys.  She even tried to help Claire ride. 

How cute are these girls!

Claire got to hang out with her friend Mccoy at the party.  His 1st birthday is today and we can't wait to go to his party next week.  Can you tell I was holding something up to get the kids to look, ha ha.

"Come on dad, take me to go get a cupcake!"

Don't worry, Claire ate almost an entire cupcake!

It was a ladybug party, Kayla's mommy worked really hard on all of the details!

The party included lots of playtime.  This is Claire with her buddy Eli. 

I'm so glad I've met this wonderful group of ladies and babies!

Fajita Friday RIP

A couple weeks ago, before enjoying yummy fajitas,  Claire and her friend Eli met at the park for a wagon ride.  Here they are looking because they just spotted their friend Kayla. 

 Unfortunately Claire was scared when the wagon moved.  She was fine just sitting in it, but once we moved, she didn't just cry, she started shaking.  Luckily she doesn't weigh much so I just carried her on our walk. 

 Kayla loved cruising in her red wagon!

After the park we moved the party to our favorite spot!

Finley joined us for lunch. 

Everything was good until we got the bill.  Apparently without notice Fajita Friday's prices had been raised and is now too expensive for our stay at home mommy budgets.  So sad.  But don't worry we will find other ways to get all the little ones together to play. 

St. Patrick's Day Green

Claire spent St. Patrick's day at her friend Ryleigh's birthday party, but Claire wore her St. Patrick's day jammies to bed the night before so she could wake up feeling festive.    She was too busy and into everything for me to get a good picture of her cute Irish outfit. 

Story time the happy week

Luckily this Wednesday's story time was all smiles and fun.  I let Claire take one of her alphabet letters in with her and she held it and sucked on it the entire time.  I think it made her feel more comfortable. 

Notice Claire is wearing shoes, I am so excited that her little feet are finally big enough for shoes and that she keeps them on.  They are size 1 (0-3 months) sandals and make her look like a big girl.  Now I want to find her a cute pair of summer sandals and figure out what size fits her best. 

Claire is chewing on her baby picture album in this picture.  The handle is a teething ring and we've filled the album with pictures of Baby Claire.  She loves looking at the pictures. 

After the library we went to Chick fil a where Claire proceeded to eat 2 chicken nuggets, fruit, a mum mum and spoons of ice cream. 

It was a very fun Wednesday!

Story time the cranky week

 Wednesday is definitely our favorite day of the week.  What could be more fun than story time and having lunch with friends.  Claire wanted to pose with her daddy before leaving for the fun. 

 This series of pictures was from last weeks story time and Claire was not a happy girl.  We rolled a ball on the parachute and Claire had a meltdown because she wanted to hold the ball.  Even after the game was over she kept crying and pointing at the ball on the counter. 

 I tried handing Claire everything out of her diaper bag to get her to calm down.  She finally decided this purple sock would work. 

 I also offered Cheerios to Claire, her friend Kayla crawled over and wanted in on the food action. 

Claire was much better behaved at lunch, but still no smiles. Look at Kayla's pretty smile though!