No strings attached!

Look at me!

I am becoming more expressive and independent everyday. Yesterday, Mommy recorded me sitting up all by myself for one minute and 30 seconds, miraculously distracting her from Dancing with the Stars for that long! (She tried to post the video without success.)

I've also started reaching out for people when I want them to hold me. It's so nice to be able to tell people who I want! Today when Mommy came and got me from Great-Aunt Clara's house, I practically leaped to Mommy!

This weekend, my great-uncle Matt and second cousin Mattie rocked me to sleep at Nana and Grandad's house. It was very nice.

Also, my uncle Kyle has a new website. His voice always gets my attention. Every time he talks, I either stare wide-eyed or start crying. He's a little frightening.

Little scooter

I bought a huge quilt over the weekend; Claire's baby blankets won't contain this scooter. She ends up with a mouthful of carpet, my hair, and hopefully not cricket guts when she scoots off her blanket.

Fall Break has been wonderful: I've spent a good 12 hours grading 9 weeks tests and papers, but I've also gotten to do a little antique shopping, had my hair cut and colored, clean house, and spend an afternoon at Nana and Grandad's watching OU pull out a too-narrow victory.

If I had four-day weekends every week, I think I would be able to strike a pretty good balance between work, sleep, family, and housework!

One month until Thanksgiving Break! In between now and then, it's The Canterbury Tales with my seniors, memoir writing with my juniors, short story reading and poetry writing with my sophomores, and who knows what with my freshmen (I've got some planning to do).

Long, tall Claire!

Well, we went for Claire's four-month check-up today (even though she's five months old--I missed her four-month appointment and had to reschedule. Bad mother of the week, folks!). She took her shots fairly well. About two minutes of outraged, hurting crying, which hurts me, too, but then she calmed down pretty quickly. This evening, I've had to give her Tylenol again, as she's started fussing again, and it's her "I'm hurting" fuss. It's so neat to be able to tell what she's feeling by the way she cries. In the beginning, I felt like I was just trying different things until something worked, but now I feel like I know what's wrong and have an arsenal of remedies to choose from.

Claire's becoming more and more social. Today she grinned at anybody who talked to her: the doctor, the nurses (before they stabbed her), the receptionist. Everyone was delighted with her. One of my favorite moves is when someone talks to her and she gets so delighted that she kicks her legs and buries her head in my neck for second. Prelude to peek-a-boo?

She's in the 50th percentile for weight, and the 90th for height! So she's a long baby. Jay is convinced this means she's inherited some of our recessive height genes. I don't think we can rush to any conclusions just yet.

This pic is Claire in her toy basket. She loves to pick through and choose things to stick in her mouth.

She's about to take off!

The reason this pic is a little blurry is that Claire is in motion. She sits up like this for about two wobbly seconds, and then tumps over softly. She's about to be able to do it on her own.

The remote is one of her favorite toys; it's one we've never used, and doesn't work, but it still lights up when she presses a button.

In nutrition news, she's still a completely breastfed baby. I've tried rice cereal two or three times in the past couple weeks, and she never seems very interested. I've read that babies don't need anything but milk until six months, but some babies are ready to eat before then. She's always mesmerized when she sits in someone's lap who's eating, and she'd doubled her birth weight, two signs the baby could be ready for eating. But the most she really does is try to chew on the spoon.

Fun times with the fam!

Wow, this weekend already seems like it was a week ago! Anyway, Claire and I went with my fam to do a little eating and shopping this weekend. Claire looks a little uncomfortable in this picture, but she was smiling and laughing!

When we got in the restaurant, she got a little fussy, so I got her little pink fleece doll, paci, and blanket, and she went to sleep in like five minutes! That doll is amazing. Give it and her paci to her when she's sleepy, and she's out in no time! She buries her face in the doll.