Claire Bear - 10 Months

Our little baby is growing into an actual child; I can't believe it! Earlier this week, Claire was cranky, getting into everything she wasn't supposed to, I was tired of telling her "don't touch", and she was throwing things as if to get back at me. I remember thinking, "I actually have a child now". My sweet baby that could do no wrong and was incapable of understanding the word "no", had disappeared before my eyes. To be honest, I am scared to death of the near future when my parenting skills really begin to have a huge affect on how Claire develops into an adult. I feel like I really have to be on my game now and be the best parent possible. It's a little sad to think that some of her innocence is gone, yet extremely intriguing to anticipate her life to come. Lately, our little child has:

• a total of 7 teeth - last week I looked under her top lip to see if anything was there and I about died! She has 4 teeth up there that we had no idea even existed. Claire went from having a total of 3 teeth, to 7! Another one has sprouted and is on its way up as well.
• been infatuated with opening and closing doors
• clapping for almost any reason....getting her toy, standing up, or no reason at all
• increased her vocabulary - she now says "dada", "da" (for dog...if she hears Khloe in another room she will stop what she's doing, look at you, pat her leg for the dog sign, and say "da"), "mama", "nana" (when she is cranky and wants me to hold her), and "baba"
• learned how to give kisses on command - I LOVE this! Sometimes they are really gross and slobbery but I cannot get enough of them.
• insisted on turning the pages in her books
• an increasing knowledge of body parts - if she is in a good mood, you can ask her to point to your head, hair, ear, eyes, nose, mouth, and teeth. She is also learning toes and elbow this week.
• discovered throwing the object in hand is the best reaction when confronted with the word "no"
• began to cruise around small tables, couches, her crib and anything else horizontal within reach
• a new found love for accessories - I noticed this one today. I picked her up out of the crib after her nap and she couldn't get enough of my earrings, fedora, and sparkly belt. A girl after my own heart. :)
• finally been crawling on her knees. This week she just started using her knees instead of her trusty army-crawl.
• loving her favorite toy, a yellow ball from Wendy's. She will dig through her toy box until she finds it. Then she crawls over to the coffee table, stands up, bangs it and smiles. So cute!

•  been getting into Khloe's food and water now that she can crawl into undiscovered territories

Here is Claire's official 10 month bear picture:

These "bear pictures" are really getting difficult to accomplish. Look at how she was all over the place during this photo shoot:

 

  

And here are her previous "bear pictures" which show her growth:

8 Months

6 Months

4 Months

2 Months

We love you so much Claire!

Wordless Wednesday



(Claire's official "9 Month Portrait")



Weekend Getaway

Earlier this month we spent a long weekend away with Erik's family in St. George. We didn't have very good weather and oddly enough, we didn't even do a single thing with the entire family due to children being on different sleep schedules, unexpected illnesses and various work schedules. But despite all of that, it was still a wonderful weekend.

It's funny how having a child changes your perspective on things. To begin, we had an amazing hotel room! It was actually more like our own little house. We had our own garage and a huge water feature in our backyard. But now that Claire is in our lives, I look at hotel rooms a little differently. The first things to enter my mind were: "will the pack 'n play fit in the bathroom?", "how are we going to block all of the light coming in from the skylight so she'll sleep longer?", and "do we have enough pillows to make a barrier around the fireplace?" It wasn't until afterwards that I thought of how cool the room actually was with the floor to ceiling windows, spacious backyard and fantastic automatic lighting. Wasn't our backyard amazing?!

After adjusting to the fact that Claire didn't sleep well the first night, we all had a blast. I always love getting to sleep in a huge king size bed and by the look on her face in the picture above, Claire had fun on it as well.

For Erik,  the weekend was nothing but golf. Not only did he golf a few times, but it was the weekend of the Masters Tournament so when he wasn't on the course himself, he was watching the pros on TV. Yeah....boring! :)

I am so grateful that the weather wasn't absolutely terrible although I'm a little confused honey. You were wearing shorts so was it warm? Or was it cold because you are wearing a beanie as well? I'm consufed. :) That's Erik's wardrobe for you. HA! It did rain a little bit, but he was still able to have fun golfing. From the pictures, the course looked beautiful!

While Erik was golfing, I tried to take a few pictures of Claire in our backyard, but with wet grass and it being very chilly, she wasn't having any of it. For this picture, she finally cracked a smile, but she refused to put her right leg on the ground. How funny is that?!

 

When Erik and his parents weren't golfing, we spent as much time together as possible. Claire hung out with her cousins, Soren and Emma, and had a blast with her Farmor and Farfar. One of Claire's favorite moments on our trip was when we went out to dinner and she got a balloon. We tied it on her wrist and she LOVED having it in constant reach.

         

Saturday morning I let Claire miss her morning nap so she could have her first swimming pool experience. She wasn't too happy about it at first, but after some cuddling and a switch to the hot tub, she warmed up to it. I guess maybe she's going to be a temperature snob just like her mother.

    

Before we knew it, it was time to leave. I anticipated a horrible drive home being that it was the middle of the day, but Claire was a trooper. I don't think she cried once! She slept, ate snacks, read books and played with her toys. Aww...our little angel! 



I hope we can take another vacation soon! Family time is the best!

 

Easter Celebrations

*Warning - Picture Overload*

Easter this year was a typical holiday in the Olafsson household. I started baking treats and desserts days before and got no sleep because I was putting the finishing touches on everything so Easter would be perfect. Like usual, not everything went as planned, which is always disappointing but overall, it still ended up being a fun-filled day.

It all started a few weeks before Easter when the hunt for the perfect Easter dress began. I couldn't find anything that fit my criteria so I settled on a cute (and cheap) dress at TJ Maxx....$12.99! Then the stresses of taking an adorable picture of Claire in her dress came upon me. I don't know why I do this to myself, but I hate falling short of perfection. My Mom and I ventured out to Wheeler Farm and after 30 minutes of terrible lighting, boring backgrounds and a slight meltdown by me, we finally got a cute shot. Thank heavens Claire cooperated with it being way past her bedtime. The picture turned out great.

Then it was off to see the Easter bunny. I thought for sure Claire was going to scream her head off but all she did was stare at it. The mall even let me take my own picture which I was very grateful for. Those pictures are so overpriced!

Easter morning we "opened" our Easter baskets. Erik and I got some candy, Claire got Dora bubbles and Khloe got some dog food and a new ball.

Khloe loves to play with balls that are small enough to fit in her mouth and for a few minutes, she was in heaven! I feel like since Claire was born, Khloe has gotten a little neglected so I wanted to share a picture of Khloe with her new toy so she wouldn't get her feelings hurt. :)

After church and a morning nap, Claire had her first Easter egg hunt. Because I don't give Claire any sweets, I filled the eggs with her spinach and apple air puff treats. Doesn't that sound yummy? :) 

Claire army-crawled around the living room grabbing eggs and somehow even managed to open them and eat her treats.

Then we tried to play with her new Dora bubbles. "Tried" being the operative word here. They were terrible! I seriously want my money back. You had to squeeze the bottle to get the bubble thing to pop up so you could blow through it, which was wierd to begin with. Then we couldn't make a single bubble!

After our unsuccessful bout with the bubbles, Claire and I decorated Easter eggs. Well, she sat there for about two seconds, long enough for Erik to take a couple of pictures. Who came up with this activity for children? You have to be so careful not to brake the eggs and get dye everywhere...it really should not be an activity for kids. What a mess! After about 15 minutes I lost my patience and desire to have bright, vibrant colored eggs and was finished. Oh well! 

Later that afternoon, we had a big family dinner with Erik's family and my parents. Claire gave her Farmor/Farfar and Mormor/Morfar adorable pictures of herself for their Easter present. I'm pretty sure they loved their present. Who wouldn't want to stare at our little Claire Bear? :) 

 

I love it when we all get together and Claire gets to interact with her cousins. The picture below is Claire with her two cousins on the Olafsson side; Soren (2 1/2) and Emma (2 months). The best is when Soren gives Claire "love". He either grabs her like this (see picture on the right), puts his hands on her cheeks or goes for the jugular. This one is hilarious! He puts his hands on her throat (and sometimes chest) and just holds them there. It really is such a cute thing to watch. The older Claire gets the less she puts up with it and she is quickly learning how to push him away. Adorable!
 

We had a delicious turkey and ham dinner with all of the yummy fixings. Claire ate peas for the first time and absolutely loved them. She must have had about five adult-size spoonfuls. After dinner, Soren and Claire had another Easter egg hunt. Soren was running all over the place and Claire's Farmor helped her gather some eggs of her own.

During a great family conversation, Claire's Farmor and Mormor helped her practice crawling by picking up her dress so it wouldn't get stuck on her knees. Oddly enough, it worked! She did her very first "real" crawl. It lasted about three seconds but was very exciting (for me anyway).

  

We always enjoy spending time with our family and Easter was no exception. The tickle monster (Erik) even introduced himself to Soren and chased him around the house for a little bit. Looks like Soren had fun!

All in all, Easter was wonderful. Even though it wasn't a perfect holiday like I always hope they are, we were together, healthy and happy, and that's all that counts. 

Another Happy Easter

My previous post had a darling picture of Claire dressed (actually totally naked) as a bunny.

Despite the adorable bunny ears, tail and carrot, her father didn't like the fact that our naked child was on the internet for all the world to see. I suppose I understand. :)

So, here is a cute picture of our little bunny in her lovely easter dress.

We had a wonderful time celebrating Claire's first Easter yesterday.

(More pictures to come.) 

Happy Easter!

*Content was removed by the author*

Claire Bear - 9 Months

Yep, our little Claire Bear is another month older. It amazes me how fast she is growing both physically and mentally. She is now in size 3 diapers and every time she goes up a size it sorta breaks my heart. It's almost like that phase of life is over and we start a new one. I know it's kind of weird to think of it in terms of diaper size. :) We have been so blessed to have such a well behaved child. She has become a little whiner at times but for the most part, she's my little angel. Lately she has been:

• Growing at a steady pace - she weighs 18.2 lbs (38%) and is 27" long (30%)
• Army crawling around the house - she hasn't quite figured out how to use her knees (this video was taken 2 weeks ago and she's gotten a lot faster since then)

• Saying "da da da" constantly
• Pointing to your eyes, nose, and mouth when asked where they are - most of the time
• Sleeping like a champ - she goes to bed around 7:30am and I get her in the morning at 9am (when Erik's alarm doesn't go off on weekends I usually wake up in a panic around 10am and feel bad that Claire's been lying in her bed waiting for me to get her - she never even makes a peep)
• Eating chunks of "real" food - this has made eating out a lot easier because I can give her table scraps to keep her occupied
• Playing with Khloe's toys - she will scoot herself across the room to get Khloe's toys and bones
• Arching her back to try and prevent going in her car seat and grocery carts - after two seconds of whining she's over it and enjoys going for a ride
• Getting excited when you get to "3" after counting "1, 2, 3"
• Sprouting more teeth - one on the top and a third one on the bottom have all recently appeared
• Reaching for Daddy when he comes home
• Loving story time - she likes to knock on the pages with her fist
• Scowling when she's frustrated - it's so funny to watch her learn facial expressions
• Pulling herself up to kneeling position while in her crib - I just lowered her mattress and can now get over the fear of her tumbling out of the crib
• Sitting up while drinking her bottle

We love you so much Claire and look forward to many exciting months to come!

9 Month Bear Picture

 

  7 Months



5 Months

  

3 Months



1 Month



Wordless Wednesday



Photo Taken March 22nd (Claire was 1 week shy of 9 months)



Storytime

One thing we are trying to instill in Claire is the love of reading. We read to her three times a day for 10-15 minutes at a time and she enjoys every minute of it. I really think this has become one of her favorite activities.She loves to point at all the pictures but her favorite thing to do is make a fist with her thumb curled in between her first two fingers and make a knocking noise on each page.  Her favorite books have lots of different textures to feel and objects to touch and lately we have been working on object recognition. Slowly but surely, if you ask her where something is, she just might point to it.

I absolutely love watching her process the pictures on each page; she seems so intrigued by the colors and shapes. Our book collection continues to grow (because I get tired of reading the same stories over and over) and I look forward to Mommy/Daddy storytime everyday.

       

 

One of my favorite times of day is when Erik comes home from work and Claire sees her Daddy. She's just gotten to the stage where she will reach for him to hold her; it's so cute! After they play together for a few minutes he takes her upstairs and reads her a story before putting her to bed. My heart melts everytime I see the two of them reading together. I know Claire benefits greatly from having different people read to her because I constantly notice Erik finding new things to teach her that I didn't think of. Listening to him read a story to her is music to my ears! Claire loves her Daddy so much and I know we all will cherish these moments forever! I hope as she continues to grow, reading will be a fun and exciting activity for her to enjoy by herself and with her family.