Pretty in Blue & Green

We made a trip to Lake Harriet this afternoon for a walk, picnic and stroll through the Rose Gardens. It was a great way to enjoy the beautiful sunshine.

During our outing we were stopped not once, but twice, by strangers who wanted to coo over our darling little boy. Yes, that is correct...BOY. Why is it that unless I have Claire dressed from head to toe in pink that she is mistaken for a he instead of a she. I mean, come on, I know that she wasn't looking totally girly today, but the shirt was pastel and was gathered at the collar and sleeves. And most importantly, unless you are 100% sure of the gender of someone's child, don't take a wild guess. Poor Art has had to listen to my rants all day, so this will be the end of it. I just might have to retire the cute blue and green pastel shirt until her hair is long enough for bows. :)

Little Ones

We made a stop by Pete & Emily's on Saturday afternoon to see how little Whitney was doing. She is a month old now and is as cute as ever. She is such a good baby and was awake the whole time that we were there. Sean, Michelle and Will stopped by while we were there as well. Never a dull moment when there are three little ones around! I am sure our kids will become great playmates in the upcoming years!

Summer Days

Morning playtime with Mom & Dad.

A walk to Starbucks for coffee.

Enjoying the warm sunshine in the backyard.

Several visitors...Jenny, Grandma, Grandpa.

Happy Summer!

Good Eats

In the last month Claire has been introduced to so many new foods and is LOVING it. She kicks her legs with delight and opens her mouth wide for each and every bite. It is hilarious! So far she has had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, banana, apples and pears. She hasn't met a food she doesn't like! I have been making her food and it is always fun to think of the next food I'll make. Next up...peas.

Backyard BBQ

We rang in summer with a barbecue at Sean & Michelle's Saturday night. The weather was beautiful, the food was delicious, and the company was great. It was such a delight to see little Will in action...he was cruising around all over the place. There is no doubt that he has transitioned from baby to kid. It is hard to imagine that Claire will be his age in only 7 more months! Both the kids were well behaved and in bed by 7pm. Art & I took the risk of putting Claire down at their place and then transporting her home asleep. It actually worked out great. She woke up briefly when we got home, but fell right back asleep once she was in her crib. All in all, a great way to spend a sunny summer day!

We got some great shots of Will (I'll send them your way, Michelle). He is such a photogenic kid. Enjoy the pictures below!

First Dad's Day

Art celebrated his first Father's Day on Sunday. I think the biggest treat he received was sleeping in until 8:30 as my parents had Claire overnight on Saturday! :) We also celebrated with an evening walk and BBQ. Claire truly loves her daddy, always giving him LOTS of smiles. Thanks Art, for being such a fabulous dad to Claire!

Happy Birthday Ella

We celebrated Ella's birthday on Sunday! It is hard to believe that she is already 4! She is such a great cousin to Claire, always playing with her and giving her lots of attention. And while Claire has numerous nicknames (so many a future post may be in order), the one Ella has for her might be the cutest...Claire Beary.

Still Waiting for Summer...

"Hi, This is Claire."

Should we be concerned that our daughter's favorite toy is a phone?!?! I hope this isn't any indication of what her teenage years will be like. She is seriously obsessed with this phone. She holds on to it for dear life, even crawling around with it in her hand. Forget all those fancy toys that sing, dance and move...my daughter prefers an old school phone rattle.

Dear Nap Fairy...

...please visit my daughter Claire and teach her how to nap. She was getting SO much better at napping until this week. She now refuses to sleep any longer than one hour at a time. This is not ideal for mom or baby, so please visit us as soon as possible. Got to run. Claire is now waking from a 40 minute nap - the second one of the day and it is only noon!

Six Months

I am still in disbelief that my little baby girl is already 6 months old. It seems like just yesterday that we were bundling her up in her carseat and heading home from the hospital. I have been amazed each and every month of her life so far. She is so interested in the world around her and it has been wonderful to watch her take everything in. I know that Art & I weren't sure what parenthood had in store for us, but we both agree that it has far exceeded any expectations that we had. We look forward to the next 6 months as Claire continues to grow, discover and learn! At 6 months old, Claire:

• is officially crawling. She does a couple of actual 'crawls' and then reverts to scooting.
• does not like to sit still. The monthly brown chair picture gets more and more difficult to take. I took about 100 shots this month, and still didn't get a great picture.
• sits up all by herself.
• has started solid foods. Right now she has only tried rice cereal, but we plan to start some new foods this upcoming week.
• loves to go swinging at the park. She squeals with delight every time we go.
• continues to sleep through the night (thank you, baby girl). While her wake up time could be a little later (she usually wakes around 5:45am), we will take what we can get.
• still has no teeth. We have debated for months (3 to be exact) on whether or not she is teething...nope, just a big drooler.
• is growing more and more hair.
• continues to explore her voice, making all sorts of strange noises. She is also getting quite good at giving us big, belly laughs!!
• weighs 15 lbs even and is 25.25 inches long.



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On the Move

Stormy Night

We were hit with a nasty hail storm last night. Sunny skies quickly turned dark and it was soon windy, rainy and hailing. Luckily it only last 15-20 minutes and the sun was out again.