Claireisms.

One thing Claire loves to do is spit up. All the time. On me. I'm sure it's nothing personal...

One day, I took her on my shoulders over to my neighbor, Natalie's house. This is how I arrived:Yep, that's spitup. It was in my hair TOO.

Next:

This morning, Claire found a wrapped dum dum sucker on the floor. She proceeded to carry it around. I thought nothing of it...it's not like she could OPEN it or anything!!

...well, she did. And pretty much sucked it to the core!! Yum yum! (sorry pictures aren't that great...I did my best...) It was pretty crazy that she got it open, I thought, and seeing her crawling around with it was funny. And as the GREAT mom that I am, I totally let her eat it. Sticky and happy!

And finally:

One pretty constant thing going on right now is the fact that Claire has become SUCH a MAMA'S GIRL!!! I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts? Jordan is anxiously awaiting the "DADDY'S GIRL" phase, I'm sure. But right now, she's definitely my number one fan. Might be the milk supply she's into most though?

Family Pictures!

Halloween Fiesta at the Ward

So we went to the Halloween partaaaayyy.... always fun! Claire is a NURSE for Halloween. I found these awesome little pink scrubs for $3.99 at Kid to Kid! I should really do an "Ode to Kid-to-Kid" because seriously that store is the BEST!

FINALLY. Claire's Bedroom is DONE!!

Yeah, it only took til now. She's almost 10 months old. But, better late than never! But FIRST, I did a QUILT! My first one!! I basically picked out the fabric, pieced the strips together, added some cotton lace trim on some of the rows, got the black minky for the back, and then took it to a quilter who added the batting inside and quilted it on her machine. It totally has mistakes, but I think it turned out great, if I do say so myself :)

Up close:

And then this is the back: ( I absolutely LOVE the flower pattern that the quilter did for me!!)

Claire loves it, of course :) (Yeah, her PJ's aren't buttoned up yet...we have power struggles when it comes to getting dressed!)

And then here's her room!!! Remember from a post a million years ago, how I needed her nursery to match this painting?? (click here if you don't remember) (Hence the french toile and the strange baby nursery colors?) Well, now it does!

This is the south wall. I painted her room a cream color, added the red stripe there in the corner, and then freehand painted a flourish up the wall.

Then, on the opposite wall, I painted another stripe kitty corner to the first one, and painted a flourish to match, but this time going down the wall. Jordan recovered this "DI special" glider and painted it (a million years ago...before Claire was born). We then put up the pictures and the fabric flowers.

In the middle of the pictures is a framed mirror in which I etched her name. It turned out fabulous! (Jordan's idea :)

And, struggling to figure out what to put above and below that framed mirror, I finally decided to make some fabric flowers after seeing some at Material Girls. They were really easy, and it helps the quilt and bedskirt all tie together!

Here's another view of that corner of the room. I also did curtains--basically added fabric and trim to some cream colored curtains I got. And you can see the amazingly perfect-for-this-room rug I found!

And of course, all of Claire's hair accessories (or should I say head accessories?? She doesn't have much hair yet :) But it's growing!!) I have to say, I screwed these flower hanger things into the wall myself! *usually Jordan does that kind of stuff :)

And this is on the wall to your right when you come through the door. Cute magnets but don't really have any pictures yet! (just Claire's sonograms!)

Anyway, that's the room!!!! I've been DYING to do this post for SO LONG!! Anyway, humor me with a comment :) What do you think??? Was it worth the wait???

This Is Not My Halloween "Do"

BUT, it SHOULD BE!!

In this picture, Natalie had just put a gold filler in my hair before putting a neutral brown in it (so the blonde highlights will darken for the all-over color) and it looks pretty SUH-WEEEET!!

The 9-Monther!

I can't believe how time has flown. Claire had her SUPER awful 9-month doctors' appointment today! I was really excited to know that there were NO VACCINES this time (except for the voluntary flu shot I had her get)...but they did want to get some blood. That is WORSE!!! First there's this bearhug type hold you have to do, and then they call someone else over to help hold her still, and then the nurse had a hard time finding her vein, of course!! Claire was screaming bloody murder and there were huge tears streaming down her cheeks. I was dying :( It was so sad. But she got through it and is fine now...

Here are the stats!

Head: 17.3 inches (52nd percentile)

Height: 28.2 inches (75th percentile)

Weight: 16.1 lbs. (9th percentile)

So, my doctor said her heigh-weight ratio shouldn't be cause for concern (since she keeps going down the charts in weight) because breastfed children generally dip in weight around this time since the breastmilk calories go down by 50% around this time and their appetites don't make up the difference when it comes to "table food." But, at about a year, she should go up in weight a little as she eats a lot more food!

And here is what she's doing right now:

*Claire is looking more and more like a little puppy as she crawls around. I constantly find her crawling around ,minding her own business, with a sales tag, piece of paper, sock (in fact, socks are her favorite), basically anything she can get in her mouth. She looks like a little puppy:

*Honestly, I don't know how she breathes while she sleeps sometimes. She'll lay on her tummy, bury her entire face into the mattress, and put her hands up to either side of her head. And she's STILL breathing! (I've checked...multiple times)

*Claire laughs when I roll my tongue at her. She also thinks it's funny when Jordan or I imitate her little dinosaur noises.

*She loves the swings at the park, and is actually becoming a lot more used to "strolling" around. She used to HATE being put in the stroller. Maybe because we got a new stroller?

*Claire now has bottom AND top teeth! She's bit me a couple of times, but I think I'll be OK...I'm determined to nurse her until she's a year old dangit!

*She also started smacking her lips. The first time was when I nursed her, she unlatched, looked right at me, and started doing it. It was hilarious!

*The little monkey is climbing on EVERYTHING. Pulls herself up, walks with help, etc. etc. I don't know if I can handle ANY more mobility!!!

*It is a NIGHTMARE trying to change her diaper and dress her. She wiggles around like CRAZY!! We have big fights when I want to put her clothes on. It's bad. Does this phase pass any time soon??

Too Cute to Not Post

Yeah, I'm obsessed. This hat...a wonderful hand-me-down from cousin Ava, is so hilarious! I can't believe I hadn't put it on her before! It went perfectly with the random fuzzy pants with feet I got at the Gap outlet a long time ago for like $2. It was COLD yesterday. And she totally smiles every time I take a picture of her. So funny. What a cutie.