Bathtime with Claire

Claire is wild.  She may not be wild compared to other children but compared to our "bump on a log" Cason that even when he crawled would sit still and play... she is wild.  She's fast and doesn't sit still EVER.  Including in the bathtub where she thinks its totally appropriate to stand up and try to climb out.

And yes, Cason said "I toot".  He's so proud.

More Quotes from Cason

After a long day yesterday, Cason was "on fire" in the car at 8:15pm.  Claire was sound asleep but not Case-dog...  He was talking up a storm and singing some song with no words just random syllables.  Ryan and I were both exhausted and hoping for a moment of quiet (ha, yeah right) when this conversation happened:

Ryan: [I don't remember what he said, but the sentence ended in], Case-dog?
Case: Okay, Daddy-Dog.
Ryan and Me:  Laughing uncontrollably
Case: Daddy-Dog. Daddy-Dog.  Mommy-Dog.  Mommy-Dog.  Claire-Dog (looking at each of us with big smiles as he gave us our new names).

As much as he tests our patience, our willpower, our sanity... he keeps us smiling!

Claire - Spaghetti

Claire had her first taste of Davis spaghetti. She was a big fan and made quite the mess of herself.

Claire - (A little over) 10 Months Old

It's hard to believe that 10 months has come and gone and that 2012 is almost over.  It's been a wild, busy, emotional, challenging, joyful (and probably any other adjective you could come up with) year.  

But through it all, I find joy in the little things, like our monthly Owl picture.

Claire is so full of energy and keeps us BUSY.  We think back to Cason a lot, he was so chill, sat in one spot, even when he learned to crawl he wasn't as wild as Claire.  She crawls on/over anything she can and is fast, fast, fast.  Here are the highlights

• Says "mamamama", "dadadadada", "nanananana", "bababababa" and a lot
• Is LOUD... she lets you know with loud screams when she wants something or is mad at something (likely Cason taking her toys or not feeding her fast enough)
• Crawls all over the place and loves to climb on things
• Eating mostly table food -- shredded chicken, ground beef, beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, peaches, cheerios, crackers are the staples
• Starting to drink from a straw -- she wasnt a big fan of the true sippy cup so we just tried the straw cup instead.  She figured it out really fast and now is trying to figure out how to not get too much milk (she spits a lot out).
• Starting to drink a little whole milk in preparation for the formula and bottles exit from our kitchen on or before Feb 9th!!!!
• Loves her mamma .. I can't say I really mind this but she is for sure a Mamma's girl.  She will reach for me when most anyone is holding her.  She will go to other people and doesn't cry for me, but when she see's me, she wants me to hold her.  She stays right at my feet in the kitchen... I can't wait for her to get a little bigger and join in the fun!

I pulled out some of Cason's Christmas PJ's to see if they fit Claire.  She's a little bigger than he was at Christmas (8 months vs 10 months) but they still fit well enough!

And the rest of the photo shoot --  taken with my phone because I kept forgetting to take the big camera upstairs.  Thank God for the iPhone!!!

Of course, this is what most of the photo shoot looked like... always on the move.

Claire Says Hi!

This video was taken very early the morning of Claire's bronchoscopy (more on that later).

The little silent "talking" was her favorite thing to do for a few days.  Don't worry, she does this in a not so silent way too, ha.  She's a loud little girl.

Thanksgiving 2012 - Cason and Mo Running

Neanie and Grandpa have a long hallway in their house. It's was home to many days of bowling, running, sliding in our socks, Lego village building and who knows what else when James and I were growing up.  Cason and Mo found their own game.  This quick video represents many laps and lots of squeals the few days we were all together over Thanksgiving.

(hopefully I'll post Thanksgiving pictures one of these days)

Claire - Stair Master

I'm not sure I'm ready for what this means.  Claire can climb the stairs from her room to the game room and from the loft to the game room.  She has never tried the main stairs but I think she could do it.  She generally likes to climb on things.  Just this week Ryan sat her on the couch and in 3 seconds she was completely on the end table.  Little Monkey.

"Cason-isms"

I'm trying to be better at writing these things down.  Here are some things that have made us laugh (or maybe made us mad but then we laugh too)

1. Cason picks up on things he hears all around him. (Gotta be careful what you say.) He can spot a name he knows being said on the radio.  The two favorites were the morning DJ talking to Kevin Walter of the Houston Texans.  Cason was so excited that they were talking about his Uncle Kevin!  And, Mommy listens to CNN on the satellite radio a lot.  During "Superstorm Sandy" they were talking to an "Admiral" about the approaching storm and expected recovery.  Cason says "Lady said Admiral!".  We rewound and listened to it several times.  Later that week, he heard the same ladies voice and said "Lady talked about my Dog".  Love him.
2. We were I was listening to the Texans game on the radio while running errands.  They won in an way to close overtime battle.  When it was over, I said, excitedly, "Cason, the Texans Won!!!".  His response:  "Okay".  Sigh, I guess he wasn't impressed.
3. We keep a stuffed Tigger in the car for Cason to hold and play with.  We try not to let his beloved giraffe out of the house so we don't lose it.  We've obviously been talking about potty training a lot in our house.  Cason said "I want Tigger go tee-tee on my pants".  Yeah, we've got some work to do on this potty talk.
4. Keeping with the potty training them, the other night we could tell Claire was pooping and that it was bothering her.  Ryan and I were commenting on it and Cason says "Claire, tell us and go poo-poo on the potty".  With his encouragement, I'm guessing she'll be potty trained before he is. 
5. He's going to a Church based pre-school and they sing songs, read bible stories, learn bible verses and pray.  For a while, he kept asking me to sing "Father God".  I was pretty sure he wanted me to sing "God our Father" but he kept saying No when I would sing it.  Finally, last week, he just busted out at the dinner table with the whole song.  So cute and he was so proud of himself.  Then, he followed it up with a "prayer". Cason's prayer goes like this: "Dear God.  Amen." Then he closes his eyes.    
6. The most frustrating thing he says these days is "I want Claire lay down".  This is so frustrating because its his excuse for pushing her to the ground, either from sitting up or standing.  She's going to be one tough little girl. 
7. But, the most fun thing right now... "I want dance 'I Will Wait'".  Yup, he loves the new Mumford and Son's song and we all love dancing around the house and in the car to it.  

Riding bikes at the Skate Park

This was a HUGE hit today.  He's really come a long way on his little balance bike.

Luke and Hudson are in town for Thanksgiving so we met at the skate park in The Woodlands.  Since school is in session, we had it all to ourselves.  Luke and Hudson are master bike riders.  Cason's working his way up.  He's doing really good and finally realizes how fun bike riding is!

Like Brother Like Sister

Claire has found and loves one of Cason's favorite spots to play when he was her age...the bookshelves in the island.

Cason, Jan 2011

Claire, Nov 2012

And in other news, Claire is climbing all over everything, especially when it means being closer to Cason.  We keep being amazed at how fast she's developing.  I caught her doing "squats" on the couch.  I think she was trying to figure out how to get to Cason on the floor.

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Claire - 9 Months

Claire is 9 months old!  On the downside towards turning 1!

She was 19 lb, 4 oz (60%) and 28 3/4 inches tall (80%)

Her latest milestones:

• Crawling and crawling FAST.  
• Into everything and wants to be wherever Cason or Mommy is
• Pulling up on anything she can reach -- ottoman, couch, coffee table, chairs, play kitchen.
• Scaling the furniture but not quite what you'd call "cruising".  She pulls up on one end of the table and after a few minutes she will be at the other end.  It won't be long
• She's still in love with her brother and thinks anything he does is pretty awesome... even when he's stealing her toys (which is an all day/every day occurrence)
• She's eating all sort of veggies and a few fruits.  She's not a big fan of avocado anymore and that makes us sad since its our go-to food at Mexican restaurants to keep Cason happy while we wait.  She's also eating cheerios and crackers, both are good to keep her busy while I scarf down my food  
• She's very demanding when it comes to her food... if I don't feed her fast enough, she shreaks and lets me know to hurry up.
• She babbles all the time
• Kicks and bounces non-stop.  She's always in motion.  We think she'll be walking by Christmas.

Play doh

We got some play doh as a party favor at Emery's birthday party. Cason has had fun playing with it, he hasn't even tried to eat it which is big in this house since he still puts EVERYTHING in his mouth.

The best part of these pictures is the ancient cookie cutters with their little "W" markings. These are my nana's cutters that are made for pie crust decorations. They are a little rusty (and pies aren't my specialty) so I've never used them. I'm glad they are getting some use now!

Claire - 8 months old

I know I keep saying this, but it just keeps happening.  These first 8 months have flown by and I think even faster than with Cason.  It's just not possible that Claire is 8 months old already.  And with the holidays starting, I'm quite certain she'll be turning a year old before I know it.

At 8 months, Claire is

• Crawling everywhere
• Very interactive with toys
• Sits up well, no real falls anymore
• Pulling up onto her knees a lot, and to standing some too (we lowered her crib this weekend after watching her get up to her feet!)
• Babbling a lot, lots of "da-da-da" sounds
• Such a happy baby

(I started typing this post on her 8month b-day but never finished it.  She's 9 months now and I have no clue what else needs to be on this list vs on the 9 month list, so this is the best I can do.  Poor second child)

Cason Riding his Bike

The last time I posted about Cason and his Balance Bike, he was still struggling to understand the concept and the fun.  We'd watch Luke and Hudson zoom around on theirs and wonder if Cason would ever "get it".

The weather has finally cooled off enough to not be miserable for a little evening play between work and dinner.  Last night, he hopped on his bike and I guess it just clicked... as he got to the slope in the driveway he picked up his feet and coasted.  He finally realized how fun this could be!

Claire Crawling Update

Claire had that first little crawl in the ATL airport, then I guess she figured out the army crawl was faster/easier.  So, the past two weeks she did lots of this:

And crawling helps you find cool "toys" like this:

She's FINALLY, as of today, started doing more real crawling.  Its not very graceful and she doesn't go far before she goes back to her belly, but she's getting there.  

Cason Video's

Just a couple of video's I've been meaning to post.

First up... I like to torture Cason sometimes. Any good Mom does this to their kids, right?  He has this fear of the FoodSaver. He can't stand it. Here's video of his reaction to me having just used it.

I should have taken the time to subtitle this.  But, I think he's saying "put it back in the cabinet" and "put it back right there" or something like that.  I was sick and had no voice... which is better since you can't hear how much I'm laughing!

Luke and Hudson were in town for a visit.  We met at Wonderwild.  Cason and Luke had a lot of fun tackling each other.

And we all went down the slide together, Claire included

Cason loves Claire, she loves him.  This night, he thought it was SOOO funny when Claire's high chair would move.  He didn't realize I was pushing it with my foot.  The laughter before I got the camera going was even better than this.

Claire - Tooth

We've been waiting on the first tooth for a while.  Lots of chewing, drooling and some unusual fussiness.  Saturday morning, I was making her bottle and Ryan tells me, very sternly, "put your finger in her mouth".  I must have given him "a look" then he said it again and I realized what he was telling me.  I ran over and sure enough, you can feel the sharp tooth.  She covers her gums with her tongue if you try to open her mouth so I still haven't seen it. Overall, she's been a champ with this tooth process, just like her brother. 

And just because it's so cute, my thumb(and index finger) sucking, giraffe loving baby #2.  My kids are so much alike. 

Claire Crawls

We just returned from a few days in North Carolina with a group of our college friends.  It was so great to be together again!   All weekend, we thought Claire would finally crawl and that we'd be able to share that milestone with our friends.  Of course, the little stinker waited until the Atlanta Airport.

Just like Cason, there were lots of yoga moves in the days leading up to it!

A video of the pre-crawling and her famous swimsuit model pose

And if we are keeping tabs, this is a month and a half sooner than Cason, who crawled right at 9 months. :)

Cason Playing in the Rain

Cason loves to put on his rain boots and splash in the puddles.  We had a good hard rain right after the yard was mowed and I needed to check the gates to make sure the yard crew had shut them.  Cason wanted to go with me so we got suited up and went outside.  Making it even more fun is that the downspout drain in the back has a crack in it so the water sprays out like a splash pad fountain.

This is a little boy having good old fashion fun!

Cason Dressing Himself

Cason has started dressing himself more and more.  He's been pretty good at getting his shirt on, sometimes its backwards but he normally can tell by where the graphic is on his t-shirts but gets confused on solid stuff sometimes.  Pants, he's still working on those.

Often, he ends up like this... Both legs in the same hole.