Kaffee Stunde

Claire at Christmas last year

Claire at 3 and 4 Weeks old

Here is a video of Claire only about 3 weeks old. Holly stayed with us from the time Claire was 3-4 weeks old for 2 weeks. I wasn't taking very many pictures at the time, so I'm glad that my mom and Holly were there to take them! :) Claire had very very bad infant acne peaking right about the time of this video. It went away as fast as it popped up.

Claire with her Great-Grandma

These pictures are from my Dad's mom's funeral when Claire was less than a month old. I'm sad to know that she won't remember her Great-Grandmas from either side, but at least she got to get to know her one for 15 months a little and get lots of pictures with her.

I am enjoying doing nothing today at my parents house. I didn't even have to get Claire dressed today! Thanks Mom! At the moment I am enjoying jacking pictures off of my sister's laptop. Yay!

Holly rides Claire's Rocking Rocking Horse in Valpo

Lake Delton

Goofy Gross and Mitmoen Families!

These are from the WI dells/waterpark/funeral weekend. Erich got funky teeth from winning tickets in the arcade. He got $20 in arcade tokens since his room wasn't ready yet!

Answers in Fours

Here is a fun and quick way to stay in touch. Let's see how many I get back... four, four, four, four

A) Four places that I go to over and over: library, grocery store, parents house, LLL meetings

B) Four people who e-mail me (regularly): Mom, Holly, Stephanie, Josh!

C) Four of my favorite places to eat: Rathskeller, Palamino, St. Elmo's, Buccas

D) Four places I would rather be right now: Sleeping, On a tropical beach, Arizona, CA

E) Four people I think will respond: Nobody!

F) Four TV shows I watch: Desperate Housewives, Greys, 2 1/2 Men, Jon & Kate

Here's what you are supposed to do...and please don't spoil the fun...Copy and paste and delete my answers, type in your answers and send it to a bunch of people, including me. It's just SIX questions.

Water Park Time!

Why I'm glad Claire still wakes up at night..

and perhaps the ONLY reason why... http://phdinparenting.com/2008/11/25/the-calories-and-breastfeeding-rollercoaster/ Hehe!

Cutest Blog on the Block!

http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ Free backgrounds and more there! Don't copy my X-mas choice! I had to start early. This is one Xmas thing Claire can't get into...don't know what we are going to do about our tree this year! It's as easy as embedding a video!

We have Miss Fishy-face!

Well, Claire has added a few new signs to her vocab. In the past month she's started to do cookie and butterfly as well as again and tree. She has started to say "neigh" for a horse. And she has discerned the fishy lips from kissing! I'd like to take the credit for this by reading her http://www.amazon.com/Alligator-Alphabet-Stella-Blackstone/dp/1841484946/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227725234&sr=1-1 at least 42 times on the way to and from WI recently. It may have been more than 42. I decided not to count. If I started to read something else, she'd get mad! I now have this book memorized. Ask me to recite it if you would like a performance. It has a page that says "T is for Trout...etc" SO I think by this book as well as seeing them at the library and doctors offices recently somewhere it clicked. But what's cool is that I actually got her doing it in the highchair where she INITIATED it, and we hadn't read any fish books that morning! So she gets it and isn't just imitating this one anymore like I thought she had been doing the past couple weeks.

She can also say "cheese" as you see below. She also has started to say pretty, kitty, tree, and door. She will sometimes say "thank you" when you hand her something.

She really liked the tuna noodle dish! Maybe that's because I tried to eat tuna once a week while preggers?

Vernon's 82nd

As I was going through old pictures and videos last night, I found this video with my Grandma on it. I think it's the last footage we have with her on it. It was in mid-Feb. My birthday is on my Grandpa's birthday. Pretty amazing that my mom had me on that exact day without being induced or anything!!! Josh's birthday is the day after mine (same year even!). He likes like his older women. ;) In the video we were getting ready to take some shots of Claire for her 6 month picture. In case you didn't know, my dad is a photographer. We didn't just randomly find a cool background in the room.

16 months already!

Here's a quick look back to last year at this time! Claire was at her chubby stage!!! She was 19 lbs. by 4 months. No wonder she fell off the chart at her 15 month appt!!!

It's hard to believe that Claire and Chloe are now both walking...running and saying words when last year at this time, tummy time was an issue for them! :)

Claire also had her first swim last year in the pool!

First trip to the beach...etc...you can always go back to clairejoystarr.com for more fun review pictures!

And now we have some never before seen footage!!! I actually have a lot of footage I have never posted!

So last year at this time, we were in Florida at Glama Lynn's and Grandpa Jason's famous Christmas House for Thanksgiving. The warmth and swimming pool were glorious!

At least tomorrow is supposed to get up to 50 here in Indy....not too bad!

Melamine in US Formula Now!

Trace amounts of Melamine were found in US formulas...it's not just China!
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AO9FZ20081125?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews Yikes. They said it's too little to be harmful, but I don't buy that if it's enough to be detected and that's all a newborn is getting...it can't be a good thing!

Christmas Quiz

Christmas Questions
Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends.
Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!!
Just copy & paste into a new e-mail that you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you......Tis the Season to be NICE! OR Just post it to your BLOG :)



1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? whatever I have handy

2. Real tree or Artificial? artificial. i am not a tree killer

3. When do you put up the tree? after Thanksgiving and before Xmas...how is that for specific

4 . When do you take the tree down? sometime after Jan. 6 or 3 King's Day/Epiphany

5. Do you like eggnog? egg snot makes me throw up a little in my mouth sometimes

6. Favorite gift received as a child? my Big Wheel!

7. Hardest person to buy for? my dad beotches about us spending money on him

8. Easiest person to buy for? Holly and my Mom since they like everything

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. My mom got it for me ;)

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail !

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? something that had been clearly regifted

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A CHRISTMAS CAROL

13. When do you start shopping? all year

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? no. see 11

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? anything my mom makes!

16. Lights on the tree? YES! what else...candles?

17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night (esp in German!) and Oh Holy Night



18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? depends

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? nope

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? we have a red pointy thingy

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Xmas eve per the German tradition

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? busy stores

23. Favorite ornament theme or color ? silver

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? everything that gets in me belly

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? a maid, a chef, a personal shopper, trainer, a driver, a gardener, oh wait, too much?

26. Who is most likely to respond to this? whomever is bored/productively procrastinating

27. Who is least likely to respond to this? whomever is busiest

Why, dear, why?

Are you ever annoyed when you think there is something of something left, but there really isn't? Example in point:
That's right, not even Claire would be satisfied by this crumb of a cracker that was left. Next time just throw it away if it looks like this:

It's ok, I still love you. ;) Does anyone else's spouse do this? (Is this passive-aggressive? No, it's just agressive...hehe.)

The JOYS of a Messy Baby

I thought I would entertain you, dear blog readers:

Claire is getting good at eating with a spoon when she is interested in eating!

Claire loves ice cream! Seriously, though...who doesn't...I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't...

Claire's first Pacers Game

This video was shot before the game started:

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!

Claire is getting really good at identifying her body parts! Here is a cute video. Sadly, the lighting is a little strange, but it still turned out semi-ok:



And Claire is great at "helping" me in the kitchen!

Daddy's Favorite Picture

Claire likes to wear hats...even if they aren't hers! She stole Daddy's favorite hat from Tante Anja! :)

We need some dental work.

Krissy has her work cut out for her!!!

New Videos

And here I thought nobody looked at my blog...we've had a demand for some videos that are new so here you go! Here she is bouncing in her baby seat which she still LOVES!




Here she is saying Baa for her toy sheep:



I used to think Kate from Jon and Kate was crazy for mopping 3 times a day. I no longer think so. Are your kids this messy or just mine? A dog would be a good suggestion if I weren't allergic. But I don't like dogs anyway...I know...blasphemy...I think any creature that licks itself is too grubby to be living in my house. ;)




And my new favorite baby video of Claire...IT'S DANCING CLAIRE!!! Now does she look skinny to you? I don't think so...we converted her car back into the walker since all she did was push it around and get mad at it, like she knew it should be her walker that she could run over toys much more effectively while running!

Cousins