All Smiles

Somewhere in between all of the rain we've gotten this year, there managed to be a little sun and time for Claire's first ride on Mormor's swing set. She LOVED it and I am so glad. Kids are often scared of the most random things (Claire does not like going down the slide...I guess that could be a little scary) and I was hoping the swing wouldn't be one of them. Once we gave her a little padding with her blanket so she wouldn't fall out, she was all smiles. I think she could have gone back and forth all day. Both of us are looking forward to many more rides on Mormor's swing set this summer.

   

Lady in Waiting

I took this picture of Claire today while she was watching Khloe walk around beneath her after her morning nap. As soon as I looked at the image I started laughing. This has to be what Claire looks like every morning when she is waiting for me to come get her out of bed. I've said many times before that I don't get her up until 9am and that most weekends, it approaches 10am.

I can just picture her standing in her crib, staring at the door, waiting for it to open and be greeted by her smiling Mommy. Maybe I am a bad mother for getting her up later than usual and for relishing every minute of my sleep, but I like to think I am teaching her patience, and providing her with the ability to be perfectly comfortable in a room filled of silence.

My adorable "lady in waiting".

May Day Festival

This past weekend our family spent the morning at the Wheeler Farm May Day Festival. I love going to events like this and it is even more enjoyable now that Claire is older.

The first thing we did was a pony ride. Claire had so much fun; her arms were waving in the air the entire time. Surprisingly, the ride lasted quite a long time. The smile on her face was priceless. I'll pay $3 anytime to see her that happy.

We were so delighted to see that Claire wasn't scared of any of the animals. Big or small, she touched them all. Not even the giant horse scared her.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how intrigued Claire was with all of the animals. She pointed at everything and it seemed as though she kept calling them dogs ("da"). While we were walking through the farm, we came across a small pet goat. The owner even let Claire sit on it for a second and it quickly started to run away. It was quite funny! Who buys a goat for a pet?! :)

The May Day Festival was a hit and I am even more excited to take Claire to the zoo this summer so she can see many more animals. If it was up to Claire, we would have stayed there all day.

And of course, Khloe had a blast too!

What Could Be Better?

friday afternoon

82 degrees and sunny

beautiful day on the golf course

claire's first putting lesson  

together as a family

an evening playing in the grass

sharing cafe rio tacos with claire and khloe

a new fedora from old navy for $5

and a redbox movie in hand



perfect day in my book!

Before I was a Mom...

Photo Taken Today On My 1st Mother's Day

"I slept as late as I wanted and never worried about how late I got into bed. I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.

I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn't worry whether or not plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations.

I had never been puked on, pooped on, spit on, chewed on, or peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night.

I never held down a screaming child so that doctors could do tests...or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. 

I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important.

I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom."    --- anonymous

Today on my very first Mother's Day, I am filled with joy. I could not be happier with my life at this moment. Being Claire's mother is such an honor and I feel so grateful to have her on loan to me from our Heavenly Father.

This afternoon I made a short video for Claire telling her how much she means to me so that when she is older, she can see my emotions and really understand my feelings for her. I was a total cry baby, staring at the camera, not knowing what to say, but I guess it's the thought that counts.

Claire, I love you more than words can say and I look forward to spending the rest of our lives together.

....And I love you too Khloe, my four-legged daughter! :)

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.