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Wow! I am WAY behind on blogging. Lots going on this month with the Staffords, so I’ll just dive in with the updates…

I just noticed that my last post about Claire’s growth said she was taking a few steps. That is definitely old news now! It wasn’t long, maybe a week or so, after her first steps that she was walking all over the place. She’s very happy to be a bit more independent and mommy and daddy’s backs are thankful as well. She never crawls anymore, I guess she doesn’t see the need. If she falls, which still happens often, she just stands back up and she’s off again.

Building sandcastles with Daddy

Playing with Daddy at the beach - look how long her hair is getting!
Finally enough for a cute little ponytail!

A little before her 13 month birthday, she cut THREE molars. Yes, all three. At the same time. So much fun. She’s still trying to cut a fourth molar, and several incisors, so the teething nightmare continues. At least we now have our pediatrician’s approval to feed her something other than pureed foods (we obviously didn’t follow his advice on that one - thought it was a bit ridiculous).

Playing in the tub - you can see those new molars!

Going for a wagon ride with Callie

Speaking of food - Claire still loves to eat. Her current favorite dinner is chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and green beans. She’s also loves fresh fruit - blueberries, cantaloupe, strawberries, etc. She gets very excited about snacks, her favorite being those little fruit chews. I need to get a video of this child eating…you would think we don’t feed her the way she scarfs up every morsel. Her favorites don’t stand a chance, she double-fists!

“Jumping” in the blow-up bouncer outside a local pizza place

We are really enjoying Claire at this stage. She’s like a little monkey, happily showing off all her tricks when asked. She will pull on her shirt or pat her head when asked where her tummy or head is.  She loves to give high fives, wave “hi” and “bye”, blow on her food, and run her fingers across her mouth to make funny noises. Her most recent trick, which I find absolutely adorable, is to give kisses. To do this, she’ll either make smacking noises or stick a few fingers in her mouth and pull them out with a grand flourish. I’ve been meaning to get a good video of her in full “monkey mode”, but haven’t got around to it yet.

We aren’t really potty training, but since we can usually tell when she’s
“taking care of business”, we figured we’d go ahead and plop her on it (fully clothed, of course!)  

She’s not saying any new words, but is comprehending a lot more these days. If I say it’s bath time, she’ll eagerly lead me to the tub. While I change her diaper, she holds an extra one and chants “di-di-di-di” over…and over…and over. It’s very cute! She is obsessed with telephones, particularly mommy and daddy’s cells. She has several phones of her own, including one real cell phone, minus the SIM card so she doesn’t accidentally call 911. She loves to hold them (and anything else that even remotely resembles a phone) up to her ear when we say “Hello!”

Excited about her pink Barbie phone, a parting gift from
our neighbors right before they moved

July has been busy - trips to the beach, celebrating Grandma’s birthday, company in town, play dates…AND…we bought a house! Yep, after over 2 years of searching and 3 turned-down offers, we are under contract and set to close on a beautiful home in Cary on September 1st. We are buying it from the original owners, who had it custom built in 1986. It is in great shape (especially for its age), but is dying for some updates. Nothing some new light fixtures, cans of paint, and lots of hard work can’t fix! It’s double the size of our current place, with 3 bedrooms, a loft (my office) and a bonus room (Claire and daddy’s play room). It’s located in a wonderful neighborhood at the end of a cul-de-sac, so the little one(s?) will have a safe place to play outdoors (in addition to the back-yard).  It is within walking distance of the park and elementary school. We are very very excited and can’t wait to make this house a home!

 
Front of our first house - photo from the MLS listing

Under contract and finally our own mail box - yippie!

More photos from our busy month in the updated July 2009 photo gallery - enjoy!

We spent the 4th of July weekend with Eric’s family at the beach. Nan and I hit the Myrtle Beach outlets on Friday, hoping to score great deals on summer kids clothing for next year. We got a few good finds, but not quite the plethora of bargains we had hoped for. Eric and Shirl were kind enough to watch Cash and Claire while we had a mommy’s day out. When we returned (after being stuck in holiday beach traffic), we were greeted with big juicy steaks! I think I could get used to this…

After dinner, we loaded everyone up and drove down the island a bit to find a good spot to watch the city fireworks. Cash loved the show, but poor little Claire was SO tired. She didn’t seem to be scared of anything, just really wanted to go to sleep. After all, she had been chasing Cash all day!

We hit the beach on Saturday - the weather was perfect and the kiddos were ready to play! Claire looked super cute in her new tankini and hat from Aunt NaNa. Eric dug a huge hole in the sand, I guess in hopes that we could put Cash and Claire in there and they wouldn’t be able to get out! Didn’t really work out that way, but I love this pic of him and Claire (despite his boy band hair).

That evening, Nan and I made enchiladas with all the fixin’s and we enjoyed dinner out on the deck. The kiddos showed off their patriotic spirits with cute red, white and blue outfits. They had a blast just running around. Well, Cash ran….Claire followed behind, but was walking all over the place! Remember how I tried to get a good picture of the two of them in the kiddie pool on Claire’s birthday? Well, they apparently think it’s more fun to be in the pool when it’s empty and they are clothed. They kept climbing in and out of it all night long. 

We all had lunch at Max’s Pizza on Sunday before we headed back to Raleigh. I dressed Claire up in the super adorable skirt her Aunt NaNa bought her several months ago. We had finally found the matching tank top on Friday and I was eager to see how cute she looked! Also, I had tried to get all crafty and make a few hair clippies the day before. I glued my fingers together a few times, but managed to make a few little accessories for Miss Claire. Here’s one of my fave pics of her, sporting all her new duds!

I’ve got several videos coming in the next post….in the meantime, check out the new July 2009 photo gallery! BTW - we got our camera back from Cannon on Monday and it’s as good as new!

Happy 4th of July!

A quick rundown of what Miss Claire is up to at 12 1/2 months…

BIG NEWS! She’s taking steps all by herself now! She’s a bit shaky and hesitant, but definitely curious and eager for the attention that comes with walking to mommy or daddy alone! A couple of videos below -neither of which are great, but you get the idea.

Growth: 95% for height (30 1/2 in) and 60% for weight (22lbs, 8oz)

Development: Waving “hi” and “bye” and saying “uh oh” constantly (since about 11 1/2 months). Also attempting to feed unwanted food to mommy and daddy.

Play: Loves to climb on anything, slide, swing, make “music”, ride with Daddy on the bike, swim, play with her new kitchen, and play peek-a-boo.

Teeth: Still just the 8, but LOTS of puffiness and fussiness meaning more are on their way!

Eating: She’s a little pig! Will eat just about anything you put in front of her. Favorite breakfast is yogurt and a NutriGrain bar. Haven’t found a fruit she dislikes. She attacks mashed potatoes. If you have food, she wants it. End of story.

Temperament: When her teeth aren’t bugging her she’s a pretty happy girl. Otherwise she wants Mommy to hold her 24/7. She’s going through a bit of separation anxiety as well. She’s very curious and loves to be out and about. And riding around in the stroller doesn’t cut it for very long. Destructing the shopping stores is much more entertaining.

Note: You might notice a lack in photos posted over the next week or so. Our camera went dead about 2 days before Claire’s first birthday. Great. So it’s currently with the good folks at Cannon and we’re waiting to hear the verdict. In the meantime, we can use our old one to take non-flash photos, but it doesn’t take the best of pics indoors.

The birthday announcement I designed - click to view larger 

A week before her first birthday, we had Andrea of Andie Lane Photography take Claire’s picture. We went back to the same locations where we had maternity pictures taken a year ago and even tried to recreate some of the poses. It was very hot and bright outdoors, and although we tried to stay in the shade, Claire had a tough time showing her “true” smiles. We got a lot of photos with squinted eyes and a scrunched up face. Not the usual grins we’re used to seeing from our little booger! So I pleaded with Eric to let me take her over to Portrait Innovations for just ONE good photo (that was the deal - can’t purchase more than the $9.95 package). I think I got my money’s worth - she looks pretty darn cute, especially for a scanned-in version!

From Andie’s pics, most of my favorite shots are the artistic ones where she wasn’t looking directly at the camera. I’ve included some faves below, and a few of the “matching” ones from the maternity session to show the difference a year makes! For more, visit her online gallery at www.andielane.com/claire3. If you’d like a print of any of these, please let me know and I’ll make sure you get one.

Miss Claire celebrated her 1st birthday with a pink elephant themed party, in honor of her long-time best buddy, Mr. Elephant. While she napped, mommy and daddy decorated the party area with pastel balloons and pink streamers. Daddy even got the wise idea to use an extra white tablecloth as a “splat mat” underneath Claire’s highchair. We laid out elephant plates & napkins, polka-dotted candy & nut dishes, flowers, pink lemonade and a strawberry cake decorated with - you guessed it - a pink elephant! The cake later proved to be just as yummy as it was cute!

After Claire woke up from her nap, her Auntie Bonnie changed her into the cutest birthday get-up I’ve ever seen. I custom ordered an embroidered pink and green dress, bloomers, bow and party hat from Robella Children’s Boutique on eBay. I got a fantastic deal and was extremely pleased with the finished product. Doesn’t Miss Claire look absolutely adorable??

First up on the party activities list was opening presents and I must say that Claire was a pro! She tore through cards and packages, showing little excitement over the actual gifts, instead ripping the paper to shreds. Such a shame because she received some really cute things! Swimsuits, dresses, pajamas - even a tutu (from Aunt NaNa) and a personalized beach towel (from Auntie Bonnie)!

Just when she thought the present opening was over, Grandma and Grandpa brought up a big red wagon! Claire was so excited! It has two seats - just perfect for sharing a ride with Cousin Cash. Daddy took them for a small spin on the deck, but didn’t stay out too long because it was HOT out there. Plus, it was cake time!

Let me preface the following words and pictures with this: We usually do not give Claire sweets or sugar of any kind and that includes juice (she likes water, so we don’t see the point). However, it was her birthday and that means all (well, most) rules get thrown out the window. Bring on the sugar overload!

All it took was one little taste of icing from mama’s finger and it was all over. The huge piece of cake on her plate didn’t stand a chance. She devoured it - using both hands to work as quickly as possible. Giving mommy or daddy a bite, usually something she enjoys, was NOT going to happen this time. “No sharing baked goods,” she says!  She topped off the sugar fest with some vanilla ice cream and pink lemonade. Yes, we know we were asking for it.

We figured the kiddos could clean-up and run off steam (ie: sugar) outdoors, so we stripped them down and plopped them in the kiddie pool on the deck. That lasted all of 2 minutes. Cash had other ideas (like running around the house) and Claire likes to do whatever he’s doing. So we all changed into swimsuits and headed over to the shore. Notice Claire’s belly full of cake sticking out of her new swimsuit from Auntie Bonnie below! We must have worn Claire plumb out because she was out for the night at 8:00 pm. Cash stayed up with the grown-ups and we feasted on burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, etc. - all the good cook-out stuff!

It was a fabulous day. Eric and I had fun watching our little wiggle worm enjoy all the special things that were just for her! I believe her favorite were the balloons…

A HUGE thank you to Les & Shirl for offering up their home as party central and hosting my family for the weekend. Also, thanks to everyone for all the sweet gifts. Claire is a very blessed little girl!

Grandpa and Uncle Jay were kind enough to stand in as videographers for the event. We’ve got about 35 minutes of tape that I’ll try to edit down and post the good snips. In the meantime, there are TONS (pun intended!) more photos in the 1st Birthday Weekend photo gallery. Enjoy!