My Growing Girl

Sweet little Claire fell asleep in her jumper.  Sad....but cute.

 Developing her writing skills already.  :)

Comfy on dad's lap.  (What in the world is wrong with Jed's hands?!  He was priming all day...)

 Don't leave Claire alone with the mail.  Thankfully, none of this was bills....

(And just to clarify, she wasn't really alone.  We were all talking together right by her, and didn't really notice how big of a mess she was actually making.)

 Too funny.

 With her adoring big brother.

 Showing off....

And growing up, getting all ready to start seriously moving around....

Having Claire in our home has been such a blessing.  She is such a sweetheart and we all love her dearly.  It seems like the last 7 1/2 months have passed in double time.  I guess that is what happens when life is moving at a considerable speed with so many kids.  There are some things I want to record about Claire that I haven't yet, so here goes:

1-When she was a littler baby, she loved to be held vertically and right next to your chest.  If she was held in any other way, she would be fussy.  I loved it so much because her head was in the most perfect kissable range.  :)

2-During her cryie/colicky stage, I remember being totally exhausted one day.  I turned on the Motab 24th of July concert on the computer and she sat with me, in her favorite position, for the entire concert completely content.  It was just what I needed that day.  And I think I will remember that sweet precious moment forever....but just in case.....I'm writing it down.

3-We let her stay in her bassinet in our room for 6+ months.....crazy I know.  But, we were fearing her safety in the other room.  :)  Plus, I loved having her in there with us....minus waking up together several times a night.  It was really hard to move her into the other room.  I just wanted her to stay little a tad longer.  It was so fun to just spend time with just her at nighttime.  

4-She loves to suck on her bottom lip and it is adorable.

5-She just started saying "mamamama" this week and my heart melts to hear it.

6-Claire loves to give me gigantic slobbery kisses--which I love.  And we discovered that she only gives them to me and not Jed.  When she is with Jed she pinches his face.  So we thought it was so funny one night to put it to the test.  We put her up to my face--she gave me the slobbery kisses, then switched to Jed's face--she pinched his face.  We did it back and forth and just laughed!  So funny!

7-When she eats her baby food, she will put her fingers in her mouth following the baby food and then sucks on her fingers.  It works, but man oh man is it messy.  :)

8-Her bottom two teeth just broke through a couple weeks ago.  I was not expecting that at all, since the last three girls were way slow at getting their teeth...like 11 months old....

9-She has the most kissable cheeks that get kissed by me alone about 100 times daily, maybe more....

10-Everyone everywhere we go talks about her cute curly bangs.  I agree, they are cute.