Once Upon a Family Party

So I'm trying to get her to like this yellow CareBear. She'll take it, but will always go back to the pink one. I looked their names up online. This is FUNSHINE BEAR, a boy. The pink one is CHEERBEAR, a girl. I didn't know they had genders, and feel so enlightened. This whole time I was thinking that the Pink one with the rainbow may have been a gay pride bear. Who knows? Maybe it's even trans-gendered. What...should I be writing this on Claire's blog? Whatever...this is 2008 and 1/2.

Today we went to a "Once Upon a Family Party" which was really fun because Claire got to play with other babies, and I got to chat with other LLL moms, while getting some great scrapbooking ideas. It's basically like a Tupperware party. You are enticed to go to someone else's house with the promise of snacks and goodies and can't say no. Then you have to narrow it down to one or a few things even though you want to buy $456 worth of product. I got a neat "Growth Chart" for Claire where I can mark her height and attach pictures.

Since we were up in the Carmel area, we tried to spend one of her Bday gift cards at Old Navy but saw this store called Teeter Totter was having a huge store closeout sale, so we went in and scored some awesome dresses and sweaters in bigger sizes for the future. Everything was 80% off. It was AWESOME. Then we ran out of time. That just means we'll have to venture out again to Old Navy another day...I wanted to get back to Greenfield and hit the Farmers Market that's on Saturdays.

Library CareBear Crisis!

Claire likes to open and shut books. Then open and shut them some more. What a great pre-reading skill! If only all kids would open their books more!

Claire likes to look at books with babies in them. She ALSO likes to smack their faces really hard. I don't know what kind of pre-reading skill this is.

This is her Baby Strawberry book, which has a baby on every page. Notice her PINK BEAR. She carries it around all the time. ALL THE TIME. Takes it to bed, too.

She can even crawl with this thing. She is quite speedy, I must say. The poor bear is starting to show some wear, however, compared to her yellow counterpart, which she got at the same time.

Here she is again looking at a baby. If I need 10 minutes, I just give her a Parenting-type magazine, and she will flip through looking at all the ads with babies and go "BABY!" with every one. It's quite cute.

So late yesterday afternoon, we went to the library to get new books. I try to do this at least every week to week and a half. They have a big play area, so I let Claire play there for 15-30 minutes depending on how long I feel like watching her poke other kids in the eyes and try to pull their hair. I usually chat with some other moms and Claire enjoys crawling around and slobbering on some toys that aren't hers. Well, she usually brings her CareBear with her and apparently she left it somewhere and since there were other kids (as always) and other toys everywhere, I didn't notice it when we left to go get new books. Then on the way home I got gas. Still didn't notice missing Bear.



THEN when I got to the grocery store, which was my last stop by the way, I tried finding her bear on the car floor...that's when I got the sinking feeling in my stomach. NO BEAR. SO I thought about running in really fast to get the taco shells we needed. We were going to make fajitas from some extra steak from last night. That was all I stopped for. I thought about running in really fast but I didn't want to risk it. And besides, by the time it takes me to get her out of her carseat, I could already be back at the library. So we rush back to the library and the whole time I'm hoping it's still there and not stolen by some bigger, meaner kid. We go back to the play area and it is gone. There are no kids. The area is picked up. WHICH IT NEVER IS.



It is scary. I retrace our steps to the baby book area. No BEAR. My heart is pounding because I think Claire will really start to notice this bear is MIA at some point. I go to the reception desk, where one of her Story Time teachers is playing SCRABULOUS online and ask..."Um, you haven't seen a Pink Bear, have you?"



"You mean this one?" Miss Emily reaches under the desk into a wonderful treasure trove of lost goodies. Claire reaches out and grabs it from her. It was tooooooo cute.



Crisis averted. We must get a back up. I must ask my neighbor where she got it.

Cloth Diaper Contest

So I would love to switch to cloth diapers. However, I really feel like I have no idea WHERE to get them or HOW to clean them. I just found out about this contest, which is cool. I doubt I'll win because there are several much more creative entries. http://blog.thenatureschild.com/2008/06/beat-heat-summer-contest.html But it never hurts to try, right!

Sailor Suite Cutie

Claire enjoys playing with empty bottles or anything else that's not a toy that she can get her hands on!

12 month Doctor Visit

Claire is crawling around like a fast little mouse! Better watch out cause she sure can zip across the room!

Claire likes to play with this plastic play food piece of cheese. It looks pretty real, but I think that's because the cheese that looks like this is pretty plastic looking anyway!

Josh is playing with Claire at her play kitchen. I scored this Barbie Kitchen for $5 at a yard sale. That's right. FIVE BUCKS! I was pretty excited. At another garage sale, I got a big bin of plastic food toys for $3. What deals! She can pull up on her kitchen and likes to bang on it and open and shut the doors.

Claire is going to cook dinner. She is frying up her Raggedy Ann Doll and her Sun chew toy. Yum! This should be tasty! I love this outfit and particularly the hat! :)

Claire had her 12 month Dr. check-up. She is 31 1/2 inches which is in the 97th percentile, her head is 18 1/2 which is in the 92nd percentile, and her weight is 23.15, which is at the 90th percentile. So she is very proportionate, but the Doctor said it's normal to only gain a little since they are more mobile towards a year. (She only gained 5 ounces since her 9 month check-up). She said she's not too concerned about her weight yet, but we need to watch it because last time her height/weight were both above 100% and exactly the same. So she's gotten longer, but not much heavier. Whatever. She's perfect. What does the doctor say to people below the 90th percentile? Because that's pretty big! I don't want her to be a six foot giant like me, normal would be nice. :) And easier to find pants that are long enough...

Happy Birthday Little One!

On Monday, July 21, Claire turned one! We had a party to celebrate on Saturday. Lots of fun was had by all. She loved had fun laughing at the balloons and pointing at them.

Claire with Mommy and her little CareBear that she has adopted as her lovey that she takes everywhere, including to bed. I like her choice as it's easy to wash! :)

Claire enjoyed squishing her cake all over her hands, face, and even on her little party crown. I'm not sure that she ate more than about a teaspoon, but boy she had fun playing in it!

The second we set the cake in front of her, she dove right in with her whole hand, as you can see here.

On Monday, her actual Bday, Josh took the day off and my Mom, Arlene, was still here so we decided to go see the new BATMAN at the IMAX. We went during Claire's afternoon nap time, and she slept/nursed the whole time and was still completely passed out when it was over. Last summer, we went to see HARRY POTTER and it was sold out, so we made sure to order our tickets online this time ahead of time. We saw TRANSFORMERS as I was 9 months pregnant, we didn't make it to the movies the following weekend, because Claire was born! :) Josh and I realized we hadn't been to see a movie in the theatre for a whole year, so it was about time, considering we are huge movie buffs and love all the summer blockbusters.

Also, on Monday night, we went to the Castleton LLL where Claire loves to play with the other little kids, and some other girl bit her right on the forehead :( Poor Clairesey! I just nursed her, and she was fine, but it was too bad that happened on her Bday.

It's hard to believe that she has grown so much and changed so much in just one short year, but they say that every year keeps getting faster!

Claire is almost ONE!

Holly is a witch for moving to VA Beach. Now we RARELY get to see her. She needs to seriously move back to the midwest. Here is her with Claire and I with her on July 3. We had a Pampered Chef party on June 30. It rocked.

Claire can now climb up 4 stairs. This is bad. Very, very bad. This means I ALWAYS have to remember to put up the gate.