Rolling along...

Claire has rolled over from her back to her tummy! She actually did this last week, but I've been trying to get a video of it. For now, she's doing it repeatedly when no camera is on her, and lying perfectly still when my camera is on.

She's also really improving her grip, yanking three or four hairs out of my head quite often.

Claire hits the green for the first time

We had a great time tonight at a friend's birthday party, where Claire experienced her first golf course! The family lives on Silverado golf course, so we went out to hit balls around after dinner. The weather was perfect, and Claire enjoyed the soft grass and nice breeze.

Happy birthday to my brother Tyler, who turned 8 today!

We had a great weekend, driving back and forth to Atoka, where our good friends Seth and Kara Fairchild were married. Jay was in the wedding. Seth made up his "personal words" (not vows) to Kara on the spot, and then sang a song at the reception he'd written for her only a few days before! Good times. I took zero pictures of Claire at her first wedding, but she looked so cute, wearing her white Mary Janes and lace headband! We loved seeing old friends we hadn't seen in a long time, including Josh and Tiffany Howe and their four-and-a-half month old daughter, Adelida. She's about twice as big as Claire!

Last week, we also got to visit with Aunt Neila and Allie, who turned 2 just a couple months ago, and is absolutely delightful. She had just woken up from a too-short nap in this picture, but her energy picked up shortly thereafter. She loved to "love Claire."

Claire enjoys her excer-saucer

The day after shots...

Claire and I had our most traumatic experience since birth Friday: her first set of shots. It was positively awful. As I'm sure my fellow mothers know, I had to hold my child's arms down while she screamed with pain and betrayal. I do not look forward to her 8wks appointment. When we got home, I gave her some baby Tylenol, and she was fussy until she conked out for two and a half hours, an unusually long nap for the morning.



But I did get to hear how healthy Claire is! She weighs in at 12lbs 4 oz, and is 23 inches long! That puts her in the 75th percentile for height and weight, which is normal for breastfed babies, her doctor said. She's gained 4lbs 10 oz and 3 inches since birth. Everything else, except for her blocked tear duct, looked great!



Jay actually had to deal with Claire's fussiness all alone for a good part of the day. As it was a rainy day, Jay didn't miss much work while he stayed home with Claire to let me go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! I need to think about it a little before I say it was the best film of the series, but it was certainly awesome!

Claire discovers her feet!

Another milestone! The last couple days, she looks like she's trying to do crunches to lift her upper body up and look down at her feet! It seems like by the time I get a video up of her doing something new, she's developed again, to doing it better or doing something else!

This is my last week of work, and then I'll have about a month at home with Claire to get my classroom and lesson plans ready and work on a couple Oklahoma Today assignments.

God bless America, and my double-chinned little girl!

Claire slept right through her first fireworks show, can you believe it? After a never-ending set of mud volleyball games at my mom's house, we finally started shooting them off at 10 p.m., putting us at home that night around midnight. Of course, when we got home, Claire was wide awake.

She speaks!

This clip is a bit long; it took Claire a minute to get tuned up. You'll hear me say that I've never heard her coo that long before, but since I filmed this on Sunday, she's started doing this everyday! It's amazing what changes and advances each day brings!

Hope everyone has a safe, fun Fourth of July! We'll probably have a soggy one down here. Lake Texoma is expected to go over the emergency spillway by Friday, the first time since 1990!

Other family news is that Ranger has miraculously recovered from what the vet said was a terminal case of mouth cancer! That's right, this dog just won't die. He's eaten a 2-lb bag of Halloween chocolate, been shot, and now been diagnosed with cancer, but he's as healthy a dad gum dog we've ever seen. When Jay first called the vet to ask about Ranger's condition--he was not eating because of a huge lump on the side of his mouth, beside his teeth--they said he probably had some sort of infection because of a bug bite. But then when Jay took him in, they immediately said it was cancer and there was nothing they could do. Because Ranger couldn't eat dry food, Jay bought him some gourmet last meals--canned dog food--and spoon-fed him for a few days, thinking each meal might be his last. However, after about four days of this treatment, Ranger bounced back, seemingly overnight. No sore, and his energy was back. Now we've got two dogs who are addicted to canned dog food. It's a miracle!