Rough day

It's been a rough Monday here at the Bowlby house.  We got up early for the air conditioning man and of course he was 3 hours late so that messed up Claire's nap schedule.  Then Claire pooped all over her clothes.  So I did a load of laundry.   The second the washer buzzed to tell me it was done, Jack decided to puke all over the carpet, which meant more laundry.  Well the day can only get better from here.  Claire is finally taking a nice nap in her bouncy seat and it's Moe's Monday ($5 burrito, chips and a drink special, we started going when I was pregnant and it was Claire's favorite food!). 

  These 2 pictures are from April and May, look how big the red dress was on Claire. 

This is Claire in August, what a difference a few months makes!  It's a newborn dress and I am now having to pack it up along with the rest of her newborn clothes.  I remember when newborn clothes looked soooo big, and now they look sooo small.  I can't believe my baby will be 6 months old in less than 2 weeks!

Picture day

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Claire's 3 month old today (adjusted age), so we went to Sears for a free portrait session. 

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Last Saturday night we went to have a family picture taken.  Yes, this is our fun Saturday night entertainment.  The session is free and since we spent $10 to join the portrait club we get a free 8x10 each visit.  I figure you can never have too many pictures of a cute baby!

Go team Go

Claire heard the football lockout is over ,and she's ready to root for the home team, the Carolina Panthers!

  Luckily she has a hairbow in the team color.

  Claire's favorite thing to do is put her hands in her mouth.  They must taste yummy.

  Claire getting sad. . .

 Claire's pitiful face.  She uses it when she is crying for no reason. 

 hairbow malfunction :(

Now what Claire and her daddy are really excited about is the start of Notre Dame football.  Although she doesn't have any Notre Dame gear yet :(

Claire and Claire

We had a fabulous playdate yesterday with Michelle, my sorority sister from college.  We think her and her husband have great taste in names.  Their almost 3 year old is named Claire.  Big Claire and little Claire had a great time together and I had a great time catching up with Michelle.

 Look how chunky little Claire is getting!

 Someone had just spit up all over her shirt, nice wet spot, huh. 

Too many pictures for little Claire, we never got a good one of mommy and baby :(

We can't wait to have another playdate with Claire's new friend!

Visiting daddy

Claire got to visit daddy at work today.  I wasn't able to take many pictures; it was enough to carry Claire, her diaper bag and a bottle of hand sanitizer around. 

 Alison was our tour guide since daddy had to go and shoot a story. Poor daddy, his story was on the over 100 degree temperatures. 

 I am starting to realize how much little Miss. Claire needs to see her mommy to be happy.  She loves to go out with me and look at different people and places.  The second I'm not holding her though, she starts to look around for me,  if she sees me she'll give someone else about 2 minutes to hold her until her little eyes well up with tears.  It is very pathetic looking. 

 She did get a chance to pose with Kristen.  Claire plans to go back soon to get pictures with all the rest of the wonderful people she met. 

 Claire did enjoy hearing how cute she is and how much she looks like a baby doll. 

 These are some pictures left over from yesterday.  I thought they were just too cute not to post.  I'm very proud of Claire for holding her baby keys.  She actually tried to shake them herself for the 1st time.

More friends and fun

We were very lucky to have lots of fun visitors during the month of July.  The first was my bff from college, Katie.  It's scary to think we've known each other for 15 years!

 She brought Claire lots of fun presents.  These  included a kick and play piano and pink blocks with different sounds and textures that her little girl Jordan picked for Claire.  The most useful present. .  .diapers, you can never have too many of those!

 Visitors mean LOTS of pictures!

This is my favorite!  You can tell Katie is a mom and knows how to multi task.  Claire was being quite squirmy. 

 We ended our visit with a trip to Cracker Barrel to meet another college friend Susan and her little boy.  Although I don't think Claire noticed.  She drank her bottle when we first got there and then took a nice long nap during lunch.  We had an extra surprise by running into one of Claire's nicu nurses.  Troy and I still laugh because one of Claire's probes popped off  her chest and this nurse wanted me to stick it back on.  This was before we had ever even held Claire, I froze, what, she wanted me to touch my baby, crazy!  The nurse finally had to do it, at that point Claire was only a 1lb 9oz.  I can't believe how far my tiny baby has come.  To see the rolls of fat on her now you'd never believe how teeny tiny she started out. 

It was such a wonderful visit and we can't wait to see Katie again and get to meet her almost 4 year old Jordan.  Oh and on a side note, I think it's cool that Jordan and Claire were the names we had picked out for our little girls back in college and the names we actually used. 

Social butterfly

 Claire has become a very popular little girl.  She has 3 playdates scheduled this week and her first trip to daddy's office tomorrow.  We are very careful that all her friends are healthy and Claire gets all sanitized up when people leave to prevent her from getting sick.  Today's playdate was with Finley and her mom Kristina.  Finley is only 3 weeks old but already weighs more than Claire. 

 Claire is becoming very aware of her surroundings.  She spent most of the visit staring at Finley and her mom. 

 They took turns trying to hit each other with their hands. 

 We are VERY proud of Claire because she is starting to hold onto things.  This was one thing she was behind on at her last check up.  She was behind for her actual age, but not for her adjusted age (calculated from her due date of May 6), but we are really happy she is starting to catch up.  She thought it was a lot of fun to play with her princess skirt today. 

 She wouldn't let go!

 Claire played until she couldn't play anymore.  This is my new favorite picture.  She looks so sweet  to me sleeping with her teddy bear with her rosy little cheeks.  For those of you who haven't seen her in person.  She has great coloring!

It's rough being a 5 month old baby. 

This is a picture from when Claire and Finley met for the 1st time 2 weeks ago.  Finley's mom made the girls their hairbows.