Anna at ONE YEAR!

Holy cow, I think time starts going doubly fast when you have two kids! Here's a snapshot of our baby girl right now (I'll add her current weight and height after we go to her one-year doc appt Thursday):

Weight: 17.13 lbs (wearing mostly 12 month clothes)
Height: 27 1/4 inches
Percentile: Fifth for height and weight!! Yikes! She hasn't gained any weight in the past two months! BUT the doctor said not to worry about it, b/c she's developing fine in all other respects. I don't get it; the girl eats ALL THE TIME! But Claire dipped in her weight when I weaned her, so once Anna warms up to milk from a cup, we're hoping she starts fattening up a little.
Clothing size: 12 months
Shoe size: 3
Diaper size: 3 (guess we'll be in this one until potty-training--Claire was)
Sleeps: 12-13 hours at night, but I think she is cutting out her morning nap! Yikes! Afternoon nap is about 2hrs.
Eats: EVERYTHING! I'm weaning her, so she's nursing just two times in a 24-hour period. She loves any table food. Some plain ol' baby foods, she'll throw on the floor in protest, but give her anything that we're eating, and she will eat it up! (recently, we've tried beans and rice at a Mexican restaurant, chili and cornbread, baked beans, cinnamon rolls, turkey bacon, the list goes on!)
Mobility: favors walking, and has for the past month or so. She only crawls if she's super-frustrated with her shoes. LOVES to climb: stepstools, stairs, in the empty dishwasher, and on top of Claire's little chairs. When she gets up high, she stands and does her little knee-bouncing dance.
Talking: she mostly still just says "dada!" She also sort of says "dog," but it seems like she calls Claire and I both "da" and Jay "dada."
Other skills: clapping, washing her hands (rubs her hands together when I tell Claire to wash her hands or when we put on lotion or hand sanitizer), aforementioned knee-bouncy dance when she's excited or hears music
Likes: Seeing daddy come in the door, her bunny-lovey, watching Sister dance or run or act silly, taking baths with Sister, looking at lift-the-flap or touch-and-feel books, making MESSES!

Labor Day, Milestones

Okay, I know I'm a little behind, but here are some pics anyway of our Labor Day weekend! Some of my faithful readers might have already seen these on fb, as my photog-SIL posted a bunch of great ones there. We had a great time riding four-wheelers, wading in Blue River, and having a weenie roast at my Uncle Gary's beautiful ranch.

This pic below is hilarious I think; it's six people on a four-wheeler: Paul, Diane, Claire, Kerrigan, me, and Anna! We had 11 people on three four-wheelers, although four of the people were six and under. And I can now say that I have nursed a baby while on the back of a moving four-wheeler (not in this picture). As my BIL Kyle said, Anna was getting a milkshake!! Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.



Carson helps the girls get to the rock. The water was rushing pretty quickly in spots.


I'm smiling, but my bottom is in for a world of hurt in just a second!!


Anna loved it!! But she did wish she could get down and crawl around. She's getting to be quite the wiggleworm, making church tough at times! I must also mention that her hair is very reddish in sunlight, but more of a golden red inside. We get tons of comments on her being a redhead. We'll see!




Anna loves getting to gum on a whole piece of fruit!! This is Diane feeding her a peach. Right now, AJ will eat chunks of very soft fruit, puffs, rice rusks, and teething biscuits. She has yet to warm up to any veggies very much, although she'll occasionally take a few bites of sweet potato or carrots.



Also, in the milestone department, Anna is now cruising! Big Sis helped her on this one, I think, as Claire has been pushing her on her walker for a couple weeks now. Now, Anna moves right along on it, or along the couch or bathtub. She is thrilled with herself.

MAMA!

At seven and a half months, Anna is saying Mama! She makes the sound "mom" a lot while she's focusing on getting somewhere, but sometimes when she's actually trying to get to ME, she says "Mama!" It's so sweet.

And Claire is saying all kinds of crazy stuff! Today, we were driving, and she said, "I saw one cow, Mom." (She has recently switched to calling Jay and me Dad and Mom instead of Daddy and Mommy.) I said, "Just one cow all by itself?" and she said, "Yes. I guess his other cows must have gone up to heaven!"

Anna's pulling up!

Wow, Anna's balance has gotten much better in the past few days! Watching our baby grow and change is a daily blessing. At six months and 12 days, she's pulling up to standing really confidently, and does it every chance she gets! The other day, she crawled from the living room to where I was standing at the kitchen sink doing dishes, and pulled herself up on my legs! In the past couple days, she's gotten really close to "cruising," moving her hands from one thing to another to keep balance, and maybe moving her feet a little, but not really taking a step.

She's still adamantly refusing food of any kind. For the past two weeks, I've been giving her cereal, applesauce, or bananas (progressively), and she does one of three things: 1) clamps her mouth shut when she sees the spoon coming, 2) allows a bite, but then shudders and gags and sticks out her tongue until the offending food is on her chin or bib, or 3) allows a bite, but immediately zerbets it back it out, spraying her and me both. Fun! She must take the bottle or food before I go back to school in a little over two weeks, b/c I'll be gone for about five hours at a time this semester. I'm trying to be positive and relaxed about her food experience, so she doesn't start to hate it, but I feel like I need to be diligent, too!

Hey, if you haven't already, go check out the brand-new site I've been writing for like crazy for the past few weeks, Katharos NOW. It's for Christian teen girls, run by a friend of mine, Lauren Bookout, and is funded by the church where her husband Travis is the preacher. Once again, my lack of paid writing assignments means that I have time to pursue my Christian writing pursuits. God is good.

Summer

Wow, six months has definitely brought mobility for our little Anne! She is army-crawling like crazy, sitting up on her own, and can even pull herself up to sitting and standing! She makes right for Claire's little chair usually, because she likes to try to pull herself up on it and grab the stuffed animal or doll that's sitting there. She has also started squawking to demand things or just express happiness or excitement. We've definitely reached the stage where we sometimes have to take her out of church just because she's wiggling like crazy to get down, or because she's making too much noise--not fussy noise, just noise! And she is way more of a mama's girl than I remember Claire being. If she can't see me or hear my voice, she can get frantic, unless she's intent on a toy. If someone else is holding her and she sees me, she often starts making this pathetic little whimper for me. We have yet to get her to take a bottle, but I haven't tried since the intense, unsuccessful, extremely frustrating sessions leading up to Wicked. Instead, I'm focusing on getting her to take cereal mixed with breast milk. We've done it for about the last week, and it's hit and miss: sometimes she spits most of it out and begins the "you're torturing me" back-arching and leg-kicking after just a few spoonfuls.

The top picture is of Claire and her friend Kadence at VBS at our church last week. It was a "Joseph journey in Egypt" theme, so the kids made jeweled collars and beaded headbands, and the adults wore those too, along with linen togas and belts. We also had a make-up booth every night, so the kids could get eyeliner and eyeshadow done (the boys got scratch marks or a play shave). Kadence and Claire are both wearing make-up in that pic. Claire is doing VBS again this week at 7th and Beech! It's the same church where she goes to Thursday School, so thankfully I can leave her there and come home and get a few things done!

Recent Claire quotes:
While playing with the cowboy and horse in her Lincoln Logs, in a deep voice I assume belongs to the horse: "Ow! You hurt me! I'm going to the hospital!"

"What kind of sno-cone do you want?" (She's making them out of Play-Doh) Me: "Silver fox." C: "We don't have that; we have raspberry yummy-goody cake."

Claire's Thursday School graduation

This was actually a couple weeks ago, but better late than never! Claire had a great first year at Thursday School. It's held at the other church of Christ in town, and it's a great introductory school experience: it's three hours long, with a two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old class, with only six to eight kids and two teachers in each one. The whole day is divided into 15-minute blocks, with time for a Bible story, arts and crafts, library, snacks, and lunch. The teachers are awesome, and they're all volunteers! This year, she had her first field trip (to the fire station), her first school Christmas party, and first school program. They also had a Halloween carnival, Easter egg hunt, Valentine's card exchange, and Thanksgiving dinner and program.She also bought her first lunch box, as they eat box lunches everyday. Claire's usual lunch was ham and cheese rolls (a slice of ham wrapped around a cheese stick and cut into small pieces), carrots and Ranch (without me prodding her, she would usually only eat one or two of these), whatever fruit we have on hand, and some sort of treat, like marshmallows or mini cookies.

I usually ask Claire what Bible story she learned every time I pick her up, and at the beginning of the year, her answer was always "I don't know..." because I suspect, from what my cousin Kim told me, that she spent most of Bible story time sharing a mat with Kim's daughter Katelyn and being silly. Toward the middle of the year, a Bible story finally registered, and she started to answer, "About Jesus crossing on the river." I'm not sure if this was Jesus walking on water, or Moses crossing the Red Sea, because she would respond positively to details from both stories. She used this confusing answer for several weeks, and toward the end of the year, she finally started to respond with an actual Bible story! She would say "Daniel in the lions' den" or "Jesus making a man feel better." It's so exciting to see my daughter learning the Bible, both at home and in school with other kids.

At the program, all the kids sang a couple songs of course, and they also did a slide show of pictures from the year. Mom, Grant, and Ty got to be there, and they haven't ever seen where Claire goes to school, so it was really neat for them to see what a great program it is and how much Claire enjoys her friends and all the things they do.

Anyway, a tradition they have at the Thursday School graduation is to give each child a chance to say something into the microphone. They tell the kids and parents on the day of the graduation that they will all have a the chance to sing a song or say hi to their parents, or whatever. Some kids clam up, get red, and shake their heads no, some kids grab the mic, jump up and sing a song, and some kids say, "Hi Mommy and Daddy, I love you!" This is where the program gets very unpredictable and amusing, as you can imagine. Case in point with Claire. I had talked to her about what she would say into the microphone that afternoon, and I'd said, "You can sing a song, or say hi to mommy and daddy--what would you like to do?" The first time, she answered "Sing the ABC's," but then every other time I asked her, she said she would say hi to mommy and daddy. So I had her practice, Jay had her practice, and we practiced on the way over in the car. What does she do when Miss Amy hands her the microphone? Starts singing the ABCs, and turning slowly around so that by the time she's on G, she's got her back to the audience, but is still singing, at a level just above a whisper. She sang the whole thing, but I could barely hear her for trying to smother my laughter.

Getting close to summer!

I have two weeks of school left!! I will be so glad when I've got my grades turned in and can start chilling with my girls! Even though my mom won't have a pool until (maybe) later this summer, like we've been used to, I'm still so excited about summer. I'm going to start working out with a friend, write everyday, and play with my girls!

Anna is just starting to fill out and look like she has some physical capability besides lying there and looking adorable. She just started pushing herself up on her elbows really good today and she is still flipping over really fast and then fussing about it, as she's not a fan of tummy time (although she sleeps really good on her belly). She's also found her hands, and loves shoving them both in her mouth at once, as you can see in that second pic with Uncle Ty. We love living so close to both sets of grandparents; Mom and Ty usually drop by our house one weeknight every week, whenever they're in town.

Claire's croup is almost totally gone; she still has a couple nasty coughing fits a day. Once she starts, it's tough for her to stop, unless she sits still and drinks something. We go back for a re-check Monday, and her 3-year-old immunizations.

Claire is already transitioning to no naps at all, unless she feels bad or had a super late night. I've figured out that if we can get her in bed by 8:30, and she can sleep until 8 or so, she can do fine without a nap.

Excited for a chill Saturday tomorrow! (You know you're busy when you're excited to chill.)

Well-child checkups: 1 for 2!

I've had Claire and Anna's three-year and two-month well-child checkups scheduled for today for over a month now, and I was so glad that I did after Claire's terrible night coughing last night! I might have stayed at home and saw how she was doing today, but I'm glad I had to go to the doctor, because turns out, Claire was not a well child at all! She's had a drainage-type cough on and off for the past couple weeks , but it took a turn for the worse this weekend. The doc gave her a breathing treatment, an oral steroid, prescription cough syrup, and an antibiotic! Now the challenge is to keep her away from Anna for the next day or so! On the way home from the doctor, Claire said her frequent refrain, "Anna likes it when I hold her hand." Aaaaggghhhh!!! Although my instinct was to snap, "Drop that hand right now, little missy!!", I tried to calmly explain to her that she does not need to touch Anna much for the next couple days, since we just found out she's sick, and we don't want Anna to get sick, too.

Poor Anna also had to get three shots and an oral immunization!! She screamed for about one minute until her face was a violent shade of magenta, and then calmed down pretty quickly. She was otherwise calm for the entire hour-and-a-half visit, thank goodness. Claire has to go back in a week, and she'll have her immunization, then.

Here are the girls' stats:

Claire, 3 years:
Height: Hit the three feet mark! She's 36 1/2" tall.
Weight: 29.6 lbs

Anna, 3 months:
Height: 23.4"
Weight: 12.2 lbs (that's almost 4 1/2 lbs gained since she was born--small, but healthy!)

Potty trained girl!

Well, we're pretty much there! After three days of mostly staying home and changing a bunch of panties, our little girl is going potty like a big girl! Yesterday, she just had two little dribbling accidents, and one was my fault b/c she told me she needed to go, but I didn't believe her, b/c she'd just been like 30 minutes before! The other time, she told me she needed to go, but she tried to put on her flip-flops before running in there! This morning, we were both "working" on the computer--me on the laptop and her on her Baby Einstein computer, and she told me she needed to go, but said, "I need to work on 'puter," so she ran in to the bathroom with it, and then continued to punch buttons while she pee-peed!

We've had several triumphs of potty-training, and several majorly frustrating moments--she told me she needed to go while riding in the car Thursday, and waited until we stopped, got her and her potty out and then went on the potty, her panties staying dry the whole time! But then this morning when she got out of bed, she totally wet down her pajama pants as she was walking to our bedroom. Last night in the middle of the night though, she woke up and said, "I need to go pee-pee" and went in the potty and then went back to bed. So we're definitely still working on it, but I'm very proud of her!

Transitions

Claire's had a little cold this week. You can see she doesn't mind taking care of the snot. This was not a staged photo shoot; she just does this if she sees her "medcine" within reach. She'll also get the Vicks Baby Rub I've been putting on her a lot this week and put it on her chest.

I saw Audrey's post on Kerrigan giving up the bottle, and I thought I would post about Claire's progress on giving up her baby stuff. She was having a nighttime and morning bottle up until a couple weeks ago, and now she has neither. Sometimes when she's in bed at night, she'll say, "Meelk?" (She says it kinda funny) But she hardly ever had a bottle in bed; it's just one of her stalling tactics.

Plus, I'm very proud to say that she has slept in her own bed every night for the past week! The only catch is, her bed is on the floor beside our bed! That's right, many of you know that we have been a "co-sleeping family" or "bed-sharing" or however you want to say it. I thought it was fine while I was nursing and working, because I wanted that extra cuddle time with my baby and the extra sleep! So we kept her in our bed. And then from about 15-18 months, after she quit nursing, she was very clingy to me. So we waited. And then, I don't really have an excuse for the past few months. Basically, it wasn't a big deal. But for the past couple months, she's been getting more and more uncomfortable to sleep with, and more difficult to get to go to sleep. One night, after it took me an hour to get her to go to sleep, with her holding onto my neck and waking up every time I shifted to try to leave, I said "Enough!" And I moved her crib mattress into our room. The first night or two, I laid with her until she fell asleep, and then ever since, I've just read her two books like always, and then got up, turned down the lights, turned on her music, and kissed her good night. We had a couple rough nights where she would wake up and want to get in bed with us (and of course those fell during Jay's fishing tournament, when he had to get up super-early the next day), but for the past four or five nights, she's gone to sleep on her own. Jay is the big softie; we had to trade sides of the bed so I could sleep beside Claire. Otherwise, she'd make a peep and he would pull her up into bed. I'm probably going to move her mattress into her room in the next week or so.

As for other baby stuff, she still has her paci, but only for naptime and bedtime.

And we've tried potty-training a little bit, but it's been a no-go. I've put her in panties several times, but she just wets herself, and doesn't have much reaction to it. Everyone told me, "They feel it when they wet in their panties/undies, and they don't want to do it again." Claire just says, "Pee-pee?" like, "What's happening?" And then I try putting her on the potty, and she just smiles at me, like, "This is silly, mama." So now, I've just started saying, "Do you want to wear your panties?" if we're going to be home for a few hours, and she'll say, "No! Diaper!" Seriously, how could wearing your waste be more comfortable than some dry, cotton panties? *Sigh*

Fancy Nancy!

It's official; Claire needs to stay this age forever! Or for a long time anyway! She's so much fun. She's started putting two words together, as in, "Horse, grass," when we see a horse eating grass, or "Hucky. Shadow," when she's guessing the reason Huck, our cat, is not in the garage, or "Papaw. Dada. Boat," when she's wishing she could be fishing! For some reason, I talked to her the other day about fishing with Daddy and Papaw in the summer, and she kept repeating this.

We checked the first Fancy Nancy book out of the library the other day, and she has been reading it repeatedly every day! The way she reads is just precious: she likes to be under the covers with a pile of books next to her--I taught her well! She just turns the pages and points out a couple things on each page, like in Fancy Nancy: "Ancy-ancy. Necklace." "Ancy-ancy. room." "Ancy-ancy. Eat. Pizza." And she likes her privacy when she's reading, too! The other day, I tried to sit down next to her while she was reading another fave, Cordoroy, and she said, "Back!" over and over until I stood up, and then waved and said, "Bye-bye." As Stephanie Tanner would say, how rude! I tried to wait until I left the room to laugh. Her other favorite books are Where the Wild Things Are, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and If You Give a Moose a Muffin. She also likes Ladybug Girl. I think for her b-day, we're going to request books only! That's her favorite thing to play with, especially if she's having to entertain herself.

My camera is broken, so these pics are kind of old. Here's an example of Claire reading. You can tell she's looking at me like, "Would you please leave me alone?"

Halfway to the terrible twos!

Claire was 18 months old last Friday, and it kind of passed me by until Audrey commented on it on here! I've been telling people she's 18 months old for a couple weeks now, so it was kind of anti-climactic when it actually came!



Here's an 18-month snapshot of our little girl:

Appearance
Weight: 22lbs
Length/Height: ? (Haven't been to the doc or measured in a while, will try to post this later)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: light to sandy blonde mullet

Favorites:
Word: NO!
Veggie: Green beans
Foods: Tomato-ranch chips, grilled cheese bread, almost any kind of meat, noodles (spaghetti), almost any fruit, esp. strawberries, blueberries, apples and oranges.
Toys: her new toy kitchen and her "baby," any number of baby dolls she has just started showing an interest in; and a Cadoo game I picked up at Goodwill called Caribou (find the balls under doors you have to open with a simple key--she points and says "ball" until I say "your ball game?" and then she nods.)
Books: New faves are the "tactor" book, which is just an informational kid book on milk cows with some tractor pics; this Goodwill book about Tilly and her tutu; the bear book, an illustrated "Hush Little Baby" book with bears acting out Papa's elaborate gifts. Old faves are Yes Yes, No No! (which she can read half of by herself), Big and Little, Curious George lift-the-flap book
TV/Movies: Harold and the Purple Crayon, Elmo's World, Backyardigans, Dancing with the Stars (well she does dance to the Latin numbers!), and High School Musical (seriously, she is transfixed during all the songs!)
Activities: Our daily afternoon walk with Shadow (she has her snack, "counts" rocks that I put on her tray, names everything around her she can, and then watches Shadow take a dip in the neighbor's pond.); riding the four-wheeler or tractor with Dada or Papaw; just being outside doing whatever; reading her books; wearing mama or dada's shoes.


Pets: Da-woh (Shadow the black lab mutt) and our new cat, which we all only call "cat" for now. Will do an intro post with pics on this cute little orange, half-tailed tabby later.

Originals

• The Mamaw-Papaw song: In the sweetest little falsetto, "Mamaw...Papaw...Juice" and repeat.
• Any fat book is a "Bible," including hymnals at church, which she can usually leaf through for a good ten minutes of each service.
  

New skills
Naughty face: sticks out her tongue; surprised face: opens her mouth really wide; in addition to old happy face/smile pretty trick of squinching up her eyes and showing her teeth. (We have a book called Funny Face that tells the boy's face with each change of feeling.)

Counting: I've been counting to five on lots of stuff recently, and she will often try to guess the next number, which is usually "two" or "dive". Sometimes I'll hear her "counting" things to herself, usually saying "two, two, two, dive" or mixing them up a little bit more.

Colors: She can consistently identify red, yellow, blue, black, and orange, b/c these are the crayon colors we have left of her bathtub set, which is where we've practiced the most.

Cleaning: Anytime she sees me wiping down a table or sponging off the countertops, she says something like "kee" because she wants to clean, so I give her a dry sponge or a paper towel and she wipes various things down. She also uses this excuse when she gets into her diaper bag wet wipes or antibacterial wipes.

New words
Down, up, "wa-wa" for water, eat, candy, cookie, sucker (whoa that's a lot of sweet words!), movie, milk (where she used to just say bah-bah, but now she's having milk in a cup more often), meat, bread, apple (for all biggish round fruits), orsh (orange), poo-poo (one step closer to potty training!), elmo, abby, sticker (when we enter Wal-Mart, she starts saying this, I'm not kidding!), color (for crayons or other writing utensils), paper (when we get the mail at the end of our walk, she usually requests the paper--a news junkie already!), heh-woh (hello, when playing on the phone), amen (at the end of a prayer, when we've told her we're praying), sun, moon, stars, lots of animal names: horse, cat, dog, cow, duck, bird, mouse, and sounds for elephant, alligator, giraffe, and snake that really only Jay and I can understand.

Even though I'm with her most of her waking (and a lot of her sleeping!) hours, she still surprises and delights me each day. Life is so much more meaningful and fun with her in it!

She's walking!

Claire took her first steps about three weeks ago, which I neglected to mention on here for some reason! Anyway, it's been amazing to see her gain confidence and enjoy her newfound skill. She's thrilled with herself, and we're thrilled to see our little drunken sailor become more independent!

Here, you see her getting into my purse to get out one of her favorite things, a pack of gum. She'll actually unwrap a piece and chew off a little bit if I let her. But you can tell that she's been told no with this before by her response when I ask her what she has: first a michevious grin, then a naughty giggle, then pants of excitement.

Claire: Grow in Love!

Welcome to Claire's party! Strawberry cake + family + friends + one adorable baby + one wild toddler + lots of presents = A fabulous first birthday party! I tried to do a daisy/garden theme, but who really cares, right? Claire got to eat cake, so that's all she needed to know. (the last pic is actually at Dad's Thursday) Plus she got to hang out with baby cousin Katelyn Mauck, who she LOVES, and cruise around in a new Radio Flyer coupe!

She can walk--sort of!

Claire took her first steps! We've been trying to coax her, sitting or squatting just out of her reach when she's standing, and she's been lunging to our outstretched hands, but today she did it! With a big grin, in bare feet, she took two very shaky steps. I caught her and threw her up in the air. She loves that! First steps: 10 months, 9 days old. Thank You, Lord!

New skill!

Claire can now push herself up on her elbows when she's on her tummy! My brother Tyler said, "She looks like a human!"

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 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.