Claire: 16 months

 Weight: 23 lbs (73%)
Height: 31.1 inches (52%)

Claire has grown so much since I last posted (at 13 months). I've been working a lot more and we've just been busy with life that I've gotten behind. Then, when I think about updating, I get overwhelmed with how much I've missed and keep putting it off. So instead of trying to catch up and losing out on more updates, I'll just have to skip those two months. It's sad because I don't want to forget her at 14 or 15 months. She's done so many new and funny things. But on to 16 months (before she turns 17 months in a week!).

She's very active and loves to climb, run in circles, and jump. She will press the buttons on all the toys that play music then start running and dancing all around the living room.

I really didn't want her to watch TV, especially so young, but sometime mama needs a break! She only really likes the parts of shows that have songs. Immediately after the theme song ends on Curious George, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood or Signing Time, she says and signs "more! more!" Then she loses interests and starts playing with toys. She does enjoy Winnie the Pooh though. Her Aunt Jamie gave that to her. :)

Food preferences change daily. Anyone who has a toddler would probably understand. She loved meat last time I posted and now she hardly eats it.  Every morning when she wakes up, she goes to the pantry and asks for "bar".  They're basically a healthy, non GMO, kosher, diary free version of a fig newton. And she's obsessed with them.  We used to eat eggs every morning until about 2 weeks ago. Her eczema has gotten out of control. You wouldn't believe how horrible, red, itchy, and wide spread it was. Nothing topically was helping so I concluded it was an internal thing like allergies. We went to the pediatrician where we were (of course) prescribed a steroid. For one, I'm not a fan of slathering my baby with steroids to treat the symptoms instead of treating the root cause. Secondly, when I went to pick it up, the generic one was $275. No thank you!  That's when I started eliminating things from the diet. Eggs, dairy, and citrus fruit seem to be triggers for her. I also think seasonal allergies get it flared up too.  Poor girl. 
But back to food - the girl never gets tired of "O's" (toasted O cereal).  When all else fails, give her O's. 

She talks all the time! Lots of babbling with inflections and emotion behind it. She has a lot to say. I did count about 30 + words that she actually says and we comprehend. She's starting to parrot phrases too, not just single words. The other night we were going to bed and I said "see you in the morning!" and she repeated it. Not perfectly, but certainly trying. 

She's into babies now. Real ones and baby dolls too. She's fascinated with her baby cousin, Olivia.  Hunter and Jamie sent out the picture card style birth announcement of her and Claire carries it around with her often.  Almost anytime she sees a baby she puts her finger to her lip and says "shhhh" since babies are always sleeping. She's starting to share her O's and water with her dolls and animals. She swings with them and reads books to them too. Lots of pretend playing going on. I love seeing her imagination grow. 

Claire also spent the night out for the first time at 16 months!! She's been to Nanny's (my mom's) house twice now. Of course, I couldn't sleep past 7 either morning! She does great there though. I'm so glad she moved closer so this could happen more often ;) 

Claire's favorite songs are "Ring Around the Rosie", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and "Row Row Row Your Boat".  She will says "atches, atches" for me to sing 'Ring Around the Rosie'.  And then she always chimes in and exuberantly shouts "down!".   

Nix is still her favorite. She loves to play dress up with her, give her empty water bottles to chew on, and climb all over her. Before we leave the house or go to bed, she always wants to "kiss" Nix good-bye or good-night.  And by "kiss" I mean, she walks up to her, leans in towards her , opens her mouth and lets Nix lick her. If I'm having trouble getting her motivated to leave the house or go to bed, all I have to do is tell her "go tell Nix bye"  and she enthusiastically goes running to find Nix. 

We're often looking for people or things ("Where's daddy?" etc.) And now Claire says "[object/person's name] areeee youuuuu? m'eeerree!"  Translated to 'Where are you? Come here!'

Now I've listed all the lovely things about her but it isn't all rainbows and sunshine all the time. I'll tell you, this girl has an attitude on her! I've been having to put her in time out for doing this awful angry yell at me when she doesn't get her way. I pray for her heart often, that God would help us both get through these months/years of toddler frustration and both become better and happier people in the end. If you want to add that to your prayer list too, we'd love it!

Since Claire is a Texan, we had to do the obligatory bluebonnet pictures... which I love. She's not always the most cooperative model though :)

Hopefully, I'll be better at keeping up with the updates. We've got lots more fun things to share.

Claire: 13 months

Weight: 22 pounds 4oz
(about the 75th percentil)
Height: 30 in
(just above the 50th percentile)

Claire is 13.5 months now and growing so fast. Some physically but mostly developmentally. She surprises Matt and I almost daily with what she's learning. 

She's walking and climbing on EVERYTHING these days. She loves to climb. She's also fascinated with standing on things. She loves to pull the pizza pan or cookie cooling racks out and stand on them.

She's obsessed with shoes. Getting dressed and changing her diaper really tick her off, but she begs to wear shoes. When we went to the mall, she was able to spot every pair of shoes. She'd reach for them and start saying "shhhs!!""

Claire is talking a lot! Here's some of the words she says:
dog, duck, quack quack, oo ah (monkey sounds), hat, uh oh, mama, dada, Nix, bye bye, night night, fish, no no...

I'm fascinated with how much she comprehends also. She will point to things when we ask her where's her [eyes, head, hair, nose, ears, etc]. She'll also bring me certain toys when I ask, like 'bring me your baby/monkey/fish/hat/horse, etc."

She does some really adorable things too like 'make sweet eyes' where she smiles and squints her eyes at you.  Also, when saying bye bye she'll blow kisses. Lately, it seems like she blows kisses at other things too. Like this morning there were animals on TV and shes started blowing kisses at them. She loves animals!

When you ask her where something is, she turns her hands up, looks around, and starts saying "ehhh?!!?"

Her favorite toy right now is her pink car that she got for her birthday. We do many many laps around the house in that thing every day.

She loves to hold my hand (really it's just my finger). She will walk up to me or whoever she wants to play with, grab their finger, then drag them to where she wants to go. Makes my heart happy to walk around with my little girl clinging to my finger.

She's really a lot of fun! 

We went to Dallas for Christmas and Claire loved playing with her cousins. I wish she could play with them more often.

 These girls loved eating O's together

 Claire shared her smocked dresses and polka dot shoes with her sweet cousin.

 Pa and Cookie got the girls matching chairs!

 Christmas eve pj's

 

Christmas eve service with Matt's whole family

 

 

 Happy girl walking in to church

Played so hard they passed out

We also met up with some friends at Bass Pro Shop to take a picture with Santa.

Claire wasn't a fan of Santa. She preferred coloring with friends and walking around much more.



I'm trying to use my camera more this year so that I have good printable pictures rather than just small iphone snap shots.  Claire always loves to play outside, no matter what the weather. One of those days, I figured I'd snap some pictures. 

Claire: 12 months

Age: 12 months

Height: 30 inches (50-75th percentile)

Weight: About 21 lbs ( 50-75th percentile)

Board updates:
She loves to play outside, play patty cake, dance, and play with Nix
Favorite foods are meat and broccoli
She has 5 teeth
She's mastered walking
Her favorite toys are her push walker and books
Her favorite song has always been "itsy bitsy spider"
Her first word (and sign) was "dog"

My baby turned ONE!

We had planned to have her birthday at the park which is a gamble in late November. It ended up being rainy and cold so we just had it at our house.  The theme was pinwheels and polka dots (and pennants).  This is probably the most crafting I've gotten to do since she's been born and I probably bit off more than I could chew. But I got it all done and loved how everything turned out! Claire had a great time with family and friends. Matt's parent's came in town and brought our niece and nephew too. Claire had a blast playing with them. 

cousin Hannah and Claire

We also went to get 1 year/family/Christmas pictures taken. Claire slept on the way there and we must have woken her up at a bad time because she was not in the greatest mood. But our wonderful photographer was able to capture some good ones in between the tears.

Claire: 11 months

  Age: 11 months

Height: 29 inches (50-75th percentile)

Weight: About 21 lbs ( 50-75th percentile)

Milestones: She has been a busy girl. Claire said her first words and we we knew it would be "dog". She's obsessed with Nix. She's more recently started saying "Nix" but it sounds more like "iithhss!" And she says "mama" too.
Claire took her first steps on October 30th and I almost missed it. I turned around to see her take about 2.5 steps then dive into the dog bed. In the past 4 days she's really made progress. She's taken up to 5-6 steps now.  She's also learned how to stand up on her own and no longer needs to pull up on anything. She climbs stairs amazingly fast too. This girl is moving!
She also sprouted some more teeth! The top two side ones (lateral incisors to be specific). She's still missing her two front teeth but maybe she'll get those for Christmas ;)

a few steps for the camera

Sleep:  I suppose with the new teeth and developing her walking skills, sleep hasn't been her strong suit. But who are we kidding, it has never been. I'm hoping to see some big changes in that here soon. Mama wants some uninterrupted sleep!! 
As for naps, she usually takes two a day - morning and afternoon.

picnic in San Marcos

Best Moment:  We had a great time going to the pumpkin patch for the first time! There lots of fun activities for kids and I enjoyed them too. I'm sure she'll have a blast there next year.
I LOVE the fall! We have been enjoying this beautiful weather on the weekends in San Marcos. We head there at nap time, picnic by the river and spend some time outside, then eventually end up at the Texas State football game. She's been a great little cheerleader!

 at the pumpkin patch

 pumpkin patch cow train

Worst Moment: She had maybe 2 more puking episodes about a week or so after the last one and that's never fun. She never acts sick and has no other symptoms.  I'm narrowing it down to either motion sickness or somehow related to seasonal allergies.

at the river in San Marcos

Health:  Healthy, growing girl aside from the puking mentioned above. Her eczema has recently gotten worse but I can't think of what has triggered it. Matt and I both had it bad as kids. Poor girl had no chance.

Eating: This girl has discovered meat! She can eat her weight in chicken and ground beef. She still loves peas, broccoli, and cauliflower.  She loves guacamole too!  Hummus is another favorite but she has a skin reaction to it after she eats it so I've avoided that with her for now.

out for a walk

Likes: She LOVES, loves, loves books and being outside. With all the nice weather, I've been leaving the back door open. She's figured out how to crawl over the threshold and will do that over and over. Then she'll head out to crawl around in the grass. She enjoys swinging at the park and watching the big kids run around and play.  She loves to take her push walker out onto the driveway and sidewalks and just go cruising. She kept stubbing her toes so I finally had to buy her some shoes. And of course, she is still obsessed with our dog, Nix. That's the first thing she wants to see in the morning. As soon as she opens her eyes, she signs dog (taps her leg) and says "iithss" (translation: "Nix").

she has a lot to say these days

Dislikes: This one still hasn't changed: putting on shirts, getting buckled into the car seat, and getting wiped off after meal time.  She's also starting to show her disappointment when I tell her no or remove her from playing with something she should be.

Other Happenings:Claire's first Halloween was fun. Our play group had a little party and all the kids wore their costumes. Claire was a peacock. We didn't trick-or-treat but we went outside to check out the other costumes.

I've been planning her first birthday party. I needed a picture for her invitations so I snapped a few. I love the picture of my growing girl! Can't believe she's almost ONE!