Little Messpot!

My brother has jacked my camera battery, so this is an old picture that has no relation to this post, but I know my readers are not happy unless their visual sense is stimulated!

Claire is now a full-on messpot. If she's awake, she's crawling around and getting into stuff, mostly stuff she shouldn't get into. She's now put three pieces of dog food in her mouth, shut her fingers in drawers twice, and pulled every item out of my purse about 157 times. Hmmm...maybe this is just negligent parenting? When I get home from school, I have to just decompress on the couch for a while, and this is usually when she gets into most of her trouble. Also, I have to cook occasionally, and she's only happy in her high chair for so long, so she roams some then, too. Generally, I just leave everything she gets out on the floor until I've put her to bed, and then I (try to) put it all away before I go to bed, so it doesn't feel like we live in chaos. I feel like that enough at school.

In other news, the Burger Shoppe had a minor drama this morning. At their first scheduled large party breakfast (the Six Old Geezers, of which Pa Mauck is now a member!), they were fighting a small fire! Some rags that the cooks used to wipe a hot grill had been smoldering overnight in the trash can in the kitchen, causing the whole place to reek of smoke when the staff and the geezers arrived that morning. Jay and Preston battled the blaze while serving up some biscuits and gravy. What a talented man my husband is! The restaurant just started serving breakfast this month, and it's going pretty well so far. Jay and Preston just finished renovating it, too: two flat-screen TVs, a granite countertop where customers place orders, new lights over the tables, and all new paint jobs inside and out. Business is better than it's ever been at that little place, I'm proud to say!

We're supposed to get some freezing precip tonight, so I could get a surprise day off tomorrow!

She can stand!

I was messing around on the computer just now when Claire pushed herself up on my legs and let go, standing unassisted for a good five second! Wow!

Pat-a-Cake

According to Claire's admirers, she is already good at sharing! She's taken to offering us bites of slimy Zwiebacks and sucks of her paci. It's pretty cute. When we accept, she gives her little impish grin.

Today, I was reading her nursery rhymes and when I did "Pat-a-Cake," she started clapping! That must be a Maw-Maw trick, because I hardly ever sing that song. She loves to clap, as you can see in the previous post, but I've mostly just seen her do it when she's happy.

She's now eating baby food about three times a day, albeit tiny portions. She appears to enjoy the first five or six bites, and then she'll take a couple force-fed bites, and then she refuses. Her faves seem to be pears, sweet potatoes, and this baby yogurt with fruit and cereal mixed in. She also loves to feed herself, and has since we first gave puffs to her about a month ago. She eats Zwiebacks, these weird rice rusk things, fruity Cheerios, and Gerber puffs.

Jay returns tonight from yet another trip to explore hunting land in Kansas. Yes, it's true. We have so much money just laying around that we have to invest it in things like recreational land six hours away. Isn't life grand?

School was actually really good today. I had a rousing debate with my seniors on the double standard that men like to apply with their wives: when Macbeth kills Duncan, it's Lady Macbeth's fault, but when he has victory on the battlefield, that's all Macbeth's doing. Gotta love these guys trying to provoke me and the other girls into a hissy fit! Tomorrow, I'm taking the seniors to see Beowulf at our little theater in Caddo. Baby steps for my first field trip!

Happy Birthday to Jay!

Jay turned 30 last Thursday! Wow, we can't believe it. Look at Claire's fake smile in this pic! It looks like she knew she was supposed to make a certain face for the camera, but doesn't quite have it figured out. Since Jay had to work at the restaurant on his birthday and the next night, we ate at Bubba's last night with our families and constant companions, Seth and Kara. Since Claire can't say "Happy Birthday, Dad!" yet, I made her a shirt that said it!

Claire likes to stand at our back door and talk to the dogs.

And here she displays her new skill, clapping! She loves to clap! At both basketball games she's been to, she's clapped happily for the home team!