Daddy reads to Claire

At the very beginning of this clip, you'll hear Jay reading aloud to Claire. I had ro sneak up on him to catch him being sweet.

Claire's new toy

Claire has recently discovered her hands. Today at work I put this ring in her hand. At this point, she'd already looked at it for a while, and wasn't quite as into it as she was at first. (Isn't that how it always happens? By the time you grab the camera, the moment's gone.) That big red spot on the side of her head is a bug bite, I think. It showed up this morning. I will be going after anything that crawls or flies in our house with a vengeance this afternoon!

Sleepy Claire

Isn't she sweet? Kyle says she always cries when he holds her, but she seems perfectly content here! She sleeps with her hands over her face a lot, especially when she's laying on her side like this.

Growth spurt!

Claire is now six weeks old, and according to Dr. Sears' The Baby Book, this is a time when many babies go through a growth spurt, signaled by more frequent feedings and a general higher need. Good to know she's growing! She's eating every hour and a half to two hours during the day, and every two to three hours at night. Just before this spurt started, I was bragging about how she normally only wakes up once at night, sleeping four hours on either side of that feeding, and then this hit! Here's a pic of one of her brief morning naps at work.

Claire enjoys her floor mat

Mommy and Daddy's Quality Time

Here are a couple pics of how Mommy and Daddy spend our quality time with Claire: Jay is doing her exercises with her, and I'm reading a book to her.

She is getting really good at holding her head up and kicking her legs. Sometimes it really does seem like she's supporting herself for a second or two, and we're just helping her balance.

Her new favorite thing to do is to lay on an activity mat. Paula at my work brought one her grandsons used to use for Claire to lay on in my office, and she was so enthralled with it that I remembered I had one of those at home, too! We set it up last night, and she gazes up and kicks her legs and coos away at the little toys hanging down. I've got a great video of this, but Google is not wanting to accept it!!

Non-Claire news!

In my excitement that the Claire pics finally went through, I forgot to mention a couple other family milestones that actually happened on the same day! On June 12, Claire got a new cousin and her mommy and daddy celebrated three years of marriage! (Whoops, it turned into Claire news!) Go read Kerrigan Reese Mauck's exciting birth story, which spans two continents and is a great example of God's faithfulness to His faithful.

Claire at work

I'm so sorry for the lag in posting. I've tried to post pics several times in the past week, and Blogger has not been letting me! Anyway, the first pic is of Claire in her Boppy on the floor of my office. She stays pretty happy, being passed from mother to grandmother to aunt, eating while I do things on the computer one-handed, and sleeping on her blanket or Boppy. The second pic is of my niece Abby holding Claire yesterday at Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's house after church. The is the only picture I've managed to get of Claire smiling. It seems like she smiles a lot, but it's so difficult to tear yourself away from her, grab the camera, and then catch a smile! Plus, as soon as I put the camera in front of her face, she stares open-mouthed at it, and smiles are gone.

In the past week, she's started cooing quite often--that's got to be the sweetest sound known to man! Everyday, she seems more alert and aware of what is going on around her. It seems like her smiles are becoming more social, that is, in response to what we're doing, rather than what's going on inside her little body. She's also trying to hold her head up for longer periods of time. Jay loves to "work out" with her, holding her up to his shoulder to see how long she'll hold her head up, and holding her upright with her legs in his lap to see if she'll kick off a little. He likes to think she's waaay ahead of other babies in terms of her development...and the competition begins!

The first month is officially over!

Well we're by no means experienced parents yet, but at least we're getting used to it. I'm back at work today, so I'll probably be crashing after lunch. Thank goodness my boss is letting me work from home part of the day; I might have to sneak in a quick nap!

Nights are going pretty good though, really. Last night, I fed Claire at about 10:30, she went to sleep around 11, and then she woke up at 2:45 and ate, and then again at 6:15. She has one four-hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep most nights. Then during the day she eats about every 2-3 hours, and takes catnaps in between. Another reason for my lag in posting last week was that Claire went through a bit of a "high-need" phase, which happens whenever they go through a growth spurt, I read in one of my books. These usually occur at 3wks, 6wks, 3 months, and on and off in between. It seemed like I fed her all day long for a couple days! She's also been spitting up a lot more lately; I can see why, as she's getting to where she gulps her meals down so fast. She doesn't really do many exciting things, except look like an angel, and make lots of funny faces when she's waking up and when she's doing her business. Despite her sweetness, she is the new boss of our house, without a doubt! I told Jay last night, "You don't know busy until you have a kid, huh?" It's like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done! Even simple things, like the week's laundry, take two days instead of one afternoon, or cooking even the fastest dinner seems like way too much trouble. Those tasks really seem pretty unimportant now, though.

Flailing helplessly in Daddy's arms: prelude to doggy-paddling?

Claire's first swim

Sorry for the lag; our Internet was down at our house. But now I'm back at work, so blogging free-for-all! Don't worry, my boss is letting me bring Claire in until I'm comfortable leaving her for a few hours. So I'm just coming in in the mornings with her and then working from home in the afternoons. I'll be back here at GEAR UP for six weeks, and then will have three weeks off before school starts!! Yes, Aunt Neila I will be teaching high school at your alma mater! I went to the school yesterday to get my books, and whoa do I have a lot of reading to do this summer! That's how it goes when you teach four grade levels.

Claire got a new swimsuit (not her first, actually) at Pops' house last night (my dad's in Pottsboro), so we decided to let her test the water. She wasn't such a fan of the pool, but she really liked the hot tub (which had been turned off for a few days, so it felt like her bathwater). She had a real peaceful look on her face, except when Uncle Tyler would make too many waves, or when we put her adorable sunglasses on her, and then she would scowl for a second before returning to her Zen-like state.