www.ericandcolleen.com

Yay! The birth announcements and photo DVDs have been mailed out - a daunting task if I do say so myself. I had thought I was being super smart in working on them before her birth, but I underestimated the amount of work they would involve after the fact. Luckily, I have a husband who is super crafty and equally as nice who helped a ton. In the end, I absolutely love them and I hope all of you did as well. Here’s the electronic version (click to enlarge, as with most of our photos):

The photos used in the announcement were taken by Andrea of Andie Lane Photography. She came over to our place when Claire was just 11 days old for a newborn photo shoot. We absolutely love her pictures and she’s a joy to work with as well. Anybody who can make a crying, peeing and pooping newborn look that darn cute has our vote!

For those who received a DVD slideshow of the images and are having trouble viewing it, try to watch it on a DVD player connected to a TV, rather than the one on your computer. If you didn’t receive a DVD, no worries! You can see all the images from the shoot (including some that aren’t on the DVD) by visiting our site or clicking here.

Below is one of my favorites - Claire is such a ham, smiling real big at only 11 days old. Too bad it’s probably just gas and not a tell tale sign that she’ll model when older…

It’s the age old question - which parent does the child look like? From the minute I saw my sweet girl, I knew she was the spitting image of her daddy! For a while, I began to think I didn’t have a thing to do with her creation!

Now when I compare all three baby photos side by side, I see resemblance of both Eric and I in Claire. She definitely has his chin, but the eyes are all mine.

What do you think??

Last night, Claire got a double dose of daddy-time in the form of a bath and a story. She’s still too little to run off so she took both like a champ! First was the bath, which she has shown to enjoy but there’s a point in there somewhere where she decides “enough is enough” and starts screaming bloody murder. After we wrapped her in her bunny towel (obviously not one of daddy’s purchases), we proceeded to the nursery for a little story time. Momma read her “Peak-A-Baby” and daddy’s choice was “Walter The Farting Dog.” It’s a great story and everyone should look into buying it! I’ll bring our copy at Christmas so you can read it if you’d like

Anyways, it was a good evening followed up by getting baby Claire’s footprint and handprint in clay for a framed display (to be shown at a later date when it’s completely ready).

These 2 pics are of bathtime. The first one is “before” and the second one is “after”

And here’s a video of each experience

People weren’t joking when they say children grow fast! It feels like just yesterday that we were bringing Claire home from the hospital. Today is my sweet daughter’s one month birthday and she’s currently celebrating by sleeping in her swing.

This past week Claire had her first “real” bath - a much better experience for all! She loves the warm water and gazes at us with her big blue eyes. She also took a shopping trip with Mommy and Daddy and managed to poop out of her diaper not once, but TWICE. We quickly learned that cleaning a baby, car seat, and stroller all in a stinky family bathroom is an adventure to say the least!

Claire is going through a growth spurt this week and wants to eat 24/7! She is practically starving 2 hours after her last feeding and lets us know about it! Due to her constant eating, we’ve moved her back into the bassinet for a bit, but we’re hoping it won’t last long and the 3-4 hour sleep stretches will be back soon.

Below are two pictures taken this morning to mark her special day. The first is my favorite - I caught her right as she was spitting up, a talent she has perfected and seems to enjoy.

It’s Thursday evening and I’m cooking dinner and making a packing list for our beach trip this weekend while Claire snoozes peacefully - a rare occasion these days (more on that later). It’s amazing how someone so little requires SO much stuff! Of course, Claire won’t get her first real taste of the ocean or shore until next year (too afraid of sun on that fair skin!), but she’ll get the chance to hang out with the grandparents and other family members.

I’ve added a gallery of photos taken of Claire’s 3rd and 4th weeks - check it out!

Longer update to come, but I just had to share this short video clip I took today of Miss Wiggles and Daddy dancing their first dance (that I’ve witnessed anyways). Eric claims Claire is a huge fan of disco!

Today marked the first time that cousins Claire and Cash got to meet! Cash is considerably bigger than Claire since he’s 9 months old and is already crawling and babbling on (and on, and on!). I mentioned that I couldn’t imagine Claire being that big and Nan responded that she couldn’t imagine Cash being that small!

The first time that we put them next to each other, Nan was holding Cash and I was burping Claire after she had been fed. Cash just stared at Claire with those big blue eyes as if to say, “who is this tiny person next to me?” He then reached out and grabbed her hand, which was the perfect time for a picture, but nobody had a camera close by.

We all had a good day out and about in Raleigh, with Colleen sharing the backseat with two babies We did a good bit of shopping, which required us to get the strollers out of the back of Nan’s car at several stops, and the two little ones did an excellent job with all of the transitioning! We used the “Mother Room” at Babies R’ Us to get them both fed and then were right back at it.

We snapped a few pictures at our last stop to document the first meeting between the cousins for everyone’s enjoyment. Of course, Claire and Cash spent most of the day asleep, but we’re guessing that they had a good time!

In addition, I thought that it would be a cool idea to have a “Stafford Calendar” on our website that showed what was going on in our daily lives. I built the whole thing by myself (and researched how to put some special features on it) as I was unable to find an available calendar that did what I was wanting it to do. It’s over on the right side of our website and you will need to disable your pop-up blocker (just for our website) so that you can see our scheduled events. Just mouse-over the highlighted days for a list of our travel plans, baby doctor’s visits, etc. We’re coming to Arkansas soon so check out the calendar for the dates!

Claire’s nursery is now complete! There is a beautiful baby sleeping in the crib, and the hand painted wall letters have been hung. I ordered these from an eBay seller about 8 weeks ago and am thrilled to have finally put the finishing touches to her room. If you’re interested in purchasing your own set of custom painted wall letters , just let me know and I’ll get you the seller’s information. I believe I paid $8 a letter, plus a shipping fee - cheaper than the plain ones you buy at Target or Pottery Barn Kids.

Another blessed week with Claire in our lives has brought much good. Most importantly, our little booger has finally reached her birth weight! She went to the pediatrician’s office twice this past week and on Thursday she weighed right back at 7 lbs, 8 oz. Mommy and Daddy were very excited and happy to continue fattening her up! Lord willing, she won’t be back to the doctor’s office until her one month check-up (which is closely approaching!)

An important milestone was reached this past week - Claire made the transition from the bassinet in our room to the crib in her nursery. Thanks to Pat for the extra bit of encouragement to move her sooner than later! Claire sleeps well in her crib and the move was much harder on her parents than it was on her. Of course, she’s not without watchful eyes. We have the video monitor hooked up to the television in our room and have spent the past few nights watching “Claire TV” before falling asleep. I must say - it’s actually quite entertaining. Watching your daughter work her way out of a tight swaddle just makes you proud…

In non-Claire, not-so-happy news - our Escape fell victim to one of four vehicle vandalisms in our apartment complex on Wednesday . Our GPS was stolen and the driver’s window was shattered. About 7 hours and $215 later the window was fixed. We’re still holding onto hopes that the GPS will be recovered and returned to us…fat chance, right? However, there was a bright spot in the day - Karen stopped by for a visit and brought lunch. Thanks, Karen!

Can’t end a post on a negative note, so I leave with a photo of my beautiful daughter, snoozing away peacefully. Happy 3 week birthday, Claire Baby!

Back to work…but just for a visit! Eric, Claire  and I took a trip downtown to visit my coworkers at the News & Observer on Tuesday. Claire slept peacefully throughout the visit, while her mommy made bold claims as to her web designer knowledge. It was good to see everyone, and even better to know that I didn’t have to stay and actually work!

It wasn’t until we were leaving that I realized we didn’t take a single picture, so Eric snapped a quick photo of Claire and I in front of the building.

Here’s a short video of Claire waking up from a nap. That doesn’t sound very interesting but oh, just you wait! The best part about it is that she wakes up just like her mom and dad do with what we call “Super Stretchies!!”

Also, I’m personally very proud of the “How Old Is Claire?” feature over on the right side of our website since I researched how to do it and manipulated the code to make it count up instead of down. You might not understand what I just wrote, but trust me, you should be proud Enjoy!