Busy Baby = Exhausted Parents

Claire is on the loose and wild! She does not sit still for more than a few minutes at a time. She is crawling, pulling herself up, standing, crawling up stairs...getting into EVERYTHING!! It is crazy how many things we are having to move out of her reach. While it is amazing to watch her explore and discover everything around her, it is also exhausting!! :) Both Art & I took a nap yesterday to recover from chasing her around the house!! She is turning more and more into a little person everyday. Where did my little baby go?!?! Here are a few shots of her from this weekend:

her favorite toy to stand up next to

a few shots at the window - she LOVES to look outside

lounging in the grass

Cabin Fever!

We headed up to my sister and brother-in-law's cabin in Hackensack, MN this past weekend. My parents also made the journey, so it was a family-filled weekend. The weekend was filled with boat rides, lawn games, campfires, and plenty of grilled food. It was great to relax and enjoy the wilderness. It was also entertaining to watch the little cousins in action.

Mommy's Little Helper

Little People Party

On Sunday, Claire put on her party dress and headed out for a shower in honor of her good friend Whitney.

She was greeted by Whitney when she walked in the door. She was awake and ready to celebrate her big day (sorry - Art failed to get a picture of the guest of honor...nice work, dear.)

She then went outside where she saw little Will showing his love for Anna by giving her a hug.
On her way back inside, she ran into Sam who was telling a very funny joke.
Once inside she ran into the other Sam, who was smiling away, happy to see another little person.
Thanks for hosting Sean and Michelle! Congratulations again to Pete & Emily - Whitney is a doll!

Friday Night Golf

We toughed the heat and humidity on Friday night and headed out for a night of golf with Kate & Jeremy. We were able to get in 9 holes before the storms rolled in...probably a good thing for me as I am used to playing at a little smaller courses. My arms can only handle so many swings of the club!! We finished the night off with a post-golf beer in the clubhouse and dinner afterward. A great way to spend a Friday evening!

What's in a Name?

Claire Abigail. We debated for months over that particular name. I did most of the initial work, making list after list of potential girl names we could name our unborn child. Art quickly shortened each and every list I made until we were left with two names…Claire and Abigail. I preferred Claire, Art preferred Abigail. We decided to use both.

The funny thing is that while her name is Claire, we have about a hundred other names that we call her. Honestly, I am not kidding. We seem to come up with a new name for her every day. Because I am trying to remember each and every moment (impossible, I know), I feel the need to document them all somewhere. Lucky for you (or not), this is the chosen place. Here goes…

These three names started while Claire was in the womb and have stuck every since.
1. Buggle
2. Bugger
3. Buggies

This next set of three simply rhymes with Claire. My niece Ella is responsible for #5.
4. Claire Bear
5. Claire Beary
6. Baby Bear

No real explanation for the rest of these…they just kind of happened.
7. Peanut
8. Loveys
9. Lovey Lou
10. Bean
11. Boo
12. Boo Boo
13. Buggie Boo
14. Sweet Pea

I am sure there are some additional names that I am not remembering, but these are the main ones. It will be funny to see how many of them stick into her childhood years. In the meantime, I am trying to make an effort to call her Claire more often. While all of her nicknames are adorable, I love her real name and I want her to as well. As a reward for the super long post about names, here are a few more pictures from today…

Seven Months Old

Claire hit the seven month mark today. Another month has slipped by before our very eyes...she is now over half way to the one year mark. Crazy! She continues to thrive, develop and amaze us every day!At seven months Claire:

• has become quite the little crawler. She loves to crawl from the living room to the kitchen and from her bedroom to the bathroom. When she is after something, she is FAST!


• can go from a crawling position to a sitting position.


• has just started to pull herself up (see video below). After finding her standing up in her crib twice today, we had to lower her crib to the lowest level.
  
  


• has 4-5 bottles/day and 2 servings of solid food.


• sleeps like a champ overnight and her naps are starting to get better. She had a 2.5-3 hour nap each of the the last three days. We are crossing our fingers that she might be changing her napping patterns!


• has started to "talk". Her vocabulary basically consists of 'da, da'. Art will tell you that she actually says it referring to him, but lets be honest...she is only 7 months old.


• still has no teeth.


• really enjoys swimming, as evidenced by the photos below. We thought it would be a great way to celebrate both her seven month birthday and the beautiful summer weather...Claire apparently disagreed. She loves bathtime, so I am still confused by today's pool episode. I think the inflatable frog pool may have been the problem...

• loves big people toys just as much as little people toys. In particular, she LOVES cell phones, cameras and TV remotes. And today she spent a good 10 minutes with this Target bag.

Independence Day

We decided to hang around this weekend and celebrate the Fourth of July in town. We headed over to my grandparent's house for a BBQ. The weather was beautiful and it proved to be a very relaxing day.

Healthy Again

Claire came down with a nasty little virus this week and had to stay home from daycare most of the week. It was quite the challenge trying to coordinate our work schedules and figure out who was going to watch her each day. We had a ton of help from both of our moms, which helped tremendously (thank you). We are happy to report that our smiling and laughing daughter was back in full force on Thursday!