12 Months = 1 Fast Year

What a difference a year makes - 1 month, 13 months

Well better way, way late then never right!

On July 26th, Clara turned a year old. It amazes Rob and myself how quickly this year went. Clara is still mainly crawling - at top speeds! She does stand up all on her own no problem and will stand for long periods of time, but as soon as walking is suggested she sits back down. She loves to play and laugh. She now has 8 teeth with another one coming in!

Sleeping: We are now only napping once a day in the afternoon.  Clara goes down around noon time for a nap and sleeps for anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours. Night time we are transition through some changes. We had always held Clara until she was asleep and then put her down, but we are now working on putting her down awake and letting her fall asleep. This usually involves a lot of tears and not just on Clara's part! We are getting more and more nights where Clara sleeps through the night!

Working on feeding herself!

Eating: Clara is still eating pretty well, although we definitely have times where she just doesn't eat. We can usually get her to eat some of her favorite standbys. Always looking for new ideas (so if you have any please send them our way)!

Firsts: First lake vacation, trip to StoryLand, first train ride (Hobo Railroad), first trip to library, first time blueberry picking and I am sure so many more I can't remember!

Weight: Clara was 18lbs 11oz at the doctors office.  She is actually now on the charts for several of her measurements which is very exciting.

Likes: loves Polar and all other dogs, tubbies, eating, playing outside, climbing - everything these days are climbable for her - keeps mom and dad busy!

Party pictures

Happy 4th of July and 11 month update!

Strawberry picking with Joan, Auntie Jen, Gracie,
Parker, Nana and Uncle Jothan

 Happy 4th of July all!  We are ready to party!

We are well into summer now and planning our first birthday party!  Can't believe it has been almost a year already.  So many exciting things to share this month.  Clara started crawling and now moves at top speeds. She is also pulling herself up on everything and exploring the world through her mouth. She also now has 6 teeth.

Sleeping: basically still the same.

Eating: Clara is trying more and more new foods. She has really gotten into pancakes and oatmeal, loves yogurt. She also enjoys hotdogs, rice-a-roni, blueberries, cottage cheese, mandarin oranges, and is constantly looking to try new things.

Clara enjoying some of Parker's first birthday cake!

Firsts: eating dog food, going strawberry picking, visiting Lost River and Clark's Trading Post, wagon ride, mystery trips, eating cake.

Clara and Parker at Clarks Trading Post

Weight: Our home scale is now saying that Clara weighs 18 pounds.  Good sign that she is continuing to do well growing!

Likes: so many things, interacting with other kids, playing, taking tubbies, swimming, eating.  It might be easier to go with what she doesn't like and that is pretty much narrowed down to having her face and hands cleaned after eating and being held still during diaper changes and getting dressed.

10 Months, already!

Holy heat, Batman! It is hot in New Hampshire this week!  It's crazy that Clara is 10 months already. It seems like time has flown by! We are now up to 4 teeth with more on the way.  Clara is moving like crazy these days, she is in the very beginning stages of starting to crawl. This morning I had to almost full body wrestle her to get her in a diaper!

Sleeping: Clara is sleeping through the night more and more, but still have plenty of nights where we are up at least once. I think the teething isn't helping with sleeping through the night! Napping is going great, we get a great morning nap and afternoon nap!

Eating: Is continuing to go well. Clara is almost always interested in eating. We are constantly trying new foods, including a pancake at Polly's Pancake Parlor!

Firsts: Clara climb to the top of her first 4,000 foot mountain this month, we climb Mt. Moosilauke. "da-da". Rob is says this is the most important first, I guess I will let him have that! She tried ice cream for the first time and loved it (no shocker there)

Weight: According to our scale at home, Clara weighs about 17 lbs. Not sure how accurate that is, but we know that she is gaining weight and growing big and strong!

Likes: Not many things that Clara doesn't like these days. She loves interacting with other kids, she loves to hear her voice and has started trying to blow raspberries. Putting everything in her mouth, She loves all electronics and taking selfies.

March of Dimes - Walk for Babies

Yesterday, our team - Arey's Avengers - walked for babies in Merrimack, NH. We were the biggest family team with 21 walkers or riders!  It was such a nice event!

We raised over $1,000 dollars as a team! So proud of everyones hard work and so glad to be able to give back!  Here are just a few photos from the event!  I hope to be able to share more soon!

A big Thank You to everyone who donated to our team!

Nine Months

Happy Monday! So yesterday was nine months!  It has been a busy month, lots of new developments.  First we now have 3 teeth, which makes sticking your fingers in her mouth very dangerous.  It is pretty cool to watch them come in.  We had a bit of a tough time with the first one, but the rest of been relatively easy so far.  She has two on the bottom and 1 on the top! She is not crawling yet, but you can tell she wants to start moving!

Sleeping: We are still mostly getting up once a night.  We usually get one or two nights were she sleeps through the night sprinkled in each week.  Always a nice treat for mom!  Napping is continuing to go well most days, although as our days start to get more active we have been moving nap time around or napping on the go.  Clara likes to nap in the carrier while hiking!

Eating: Is going well.  We are working on getting into an eating routine with baby food and eating three times a day.  We have tried some of the baby foods with meat in them and they are well received. Clara is also getting good at picking up and feeding herself the little baby puff things.

Firsts: We started swim lessons.  The first lesson didn't go so well, and this past weekends lesson was cancelled.  We did spend some time in the pool this weekend at Steele Hill with her cousins Grace and Parker and it went better.  Hopefully next weekend swim lesson will go great! Clara hiked her first biggish mountain this month going up Rattlesnake in Rumney.  I guess I should say rode her first mountain, as my friend Kim carried her up and I had her on the way back down. We are looking to purchase a hiking backpack to carry Clara in if anyone has any suggestions.

Weight: Clara had a doctors appointment this morning and is now 15 lbs and 3 ounces.  She is doing really well.  Her head measurements and length are now on the chart for a baby her age and weight is just a little bit under.  The doctor said developmentally she is about 7.5 to 8 months, so we are definitely catching up!

Likes: Toys that have movable parts and play music, her dog Polar, anything she can put in her mouth, her daddy - he makes the craziest faces and really gets her giggling, bath time, seeing her cousins, chatting and screeching.

Maple Sugar Weekend

On Sunday, we really got into our maple syrup enjoyment in honor of Maple Sugar Weekend. We started the morning with waffles and some NH maple syrup.

Didn't get a picture of the waffles, but they were good!

Then in the early afternoon, we head over to the Grass Family sugar shack to enjoy some sugar on snow, donuts with maple syrup and maple popcorn.  Got to see some great friends and enjoy some good sugar.

Then for dinner, I made Maple Roasted Fall Vegetables with Chicken-Apple Sausage. My friend Carrie found the recipe and shared it with me. It originated from Aggie's Kitchen blog that she found on Pinterest. Here is link if you want to check out the recipe (super yummy and super easy) http://aggieskitchen.com/2012/11/29/maple-roasted-fall-vegetables-with-chicken-apple-sausage/

We made sure to brush our teeth well before heading to bed Sunday night.

Eight Months!

It's Spring (supposedly)! Thursday, Clara turned 8 months.  Lots of amazing things continuing to happen. Clara is working on sitting by herself, also she is getting a lot more mobile and active,  This was the first month I had to fight with her about not holding the month sticker and as you can see I lost.

Sleeping: We still have most nights where Clara is getting up once. We have started to get a few more nights where she is sleeping through the night, Also we are starting to get into a routine for nap time. We usually get a good hour to hour and a half nap in the morning. I use the time when Clara is napping to work. I am working for the Girl Scouts from home doing data entry.

Eating: We are continuing to try new foods while still mainly doing formula and breast feeding. We also have used the little mesh feeder thing and have tried banana and avocado.

Some new items that we have tried this month include:

Green Beans - not a huge fan of green vegetables
Garden Vegetable - still green, so not a huge fan
Sweet potato and Corn - are two favorites combined - definitely a hit
Yogurt - well received
Also tried a sippy cup, while she likes holding it and chewing on the straw, not much success yet!

Weight: Clara weighed in at 14 pounds. Not an official measurement. We go back to the doctor at the end of April, so it will be good to see how see is doing.

Clothes: We are officially in six months clothing now.  Also finding that we are needing 6-9 months or 9 months for pajamas, as she is quite long.  While she looks cute in her outfits, she is most happy when she is naked!  I love giving her raspberries on her tummy!

Firsts: First time dying eggs, first trip to the Mt, Washington Hotel, first tooth coming in, first swim

Likes: Eating and trying new foods - she is always grabbing at plates and cups, any toys with buttons that make sounds or plays music, reading books, chatting to herself.

Road Trip!

Two weeks ago, Clara and I took a road trip to Pennsylvania with my parents and my younger sister and her family.We left on Wednesday, had a 7 hour car ride along with two hours of sitting on a highway in New Jersey due to an accident. Clara did excellent in the car.

On Thursday, Jennifer, Jothan, Grace, Parker, Clara and I headed to the Crayola Experience in Easton, PA. We spent many hours there having a great time.  There were so many activities to participate in and Grace was the perfect age to really enjoy them all.  That night, Clara and I went out to dinner with several of my college roommates and friends. It was so nice to see them again, 10 years has been too long.

On Friday, we went to Lititz, PA to Julius Sturgis pretzels and learned how to make pretzels.  After that we headed to The Green Dragon, which is an Amish Farmers Market for lunch. In the afternoon, we went to do some outlet shopping and then went out to dinner.

It was a great trip, fun and action packed. Saturday we headed home.

Seven Months

A little late getting this posted, but it has been a crazy week.  More on that later!  It is amazing to see the changes a month has brought. Clara is definitely starting to get more independent and her little personality is coming out more and more. She loves nothing more than kicking her socks off and then pretending she doesn't know how it fell off her foot.

Sleeping: We have been having great success with the sleep sack.  She has room to wiggle her legs around but still feels secure enough to just fall right asleep.  We are still getting up once a night.  We don't really have a consistent nap schedule yet. Napping goes well, but we need to try to get a schedule in place.  Something to work on in March!

Eating: We have continued on in the adventure of trying different foods.  We still are mainly nursing and doing formula, but here is what we have tried:

Sweet Potato - a favorite
Sweet Corn Casserole - also a popular choice
Sweet Carrots - liked
Peas - eaten but not overwhelming liked
Chicken and Apples - not a favorite
Squash - hit or miss ... to be determined
Peaches and rice cereal - not liked at all

Weight: Clara is now 13 pounds and 5 ounces.  Doing very well with the eating!

Clothes: Everyday we are retiring a 3 month outfit and moving towards 6 months.  It is so exciting to pull out new clothes and see all the cute outfits we have for the next size.  We are currently working on finding a cute dress for Easter.

Firsts: first road trip to PA (She did excellent in the car), first Valentines, rolling over from belly to back, first Partylite party, first dinner party, first crafting afternoon with the girls!

Likes: the exersaucer, Polar, her musical dog, discovering her hands and feet, raspberries on her belly, her cousin Grace and her Nana and PopPop, and being naked.

Sleeping Arrangements

Every night when we put Clara to sleep, we are swaddling her. Rob and I have been talking about needing to transition out of using the swaddle blanket as we don't want to use it once she starts rolling over on a more regular basis.

Last Thursday night, I decided spur of the moment to stop swaddling Clara.  We did our usually night time routine, except that I didn't swaddle her.  She went down with a little crying, but feel asleep. She got up in the middle of the night as usual, but I was had no problems getting her back down.

Crying a little, but after a few minutes fell asleep.

Friday night, we went without the swaddle again.  It took a little longer to get her down and she was up shortly again, but then went down and slept through the night.

I had originally written this post on Saturday and thought I saved it to come back and finish it, but guess I didn't.

Snoozing Friday night (not swaddled) Arms splayed out

Well it turns out that by writing the original post, I think I jinxed us, as we had a horrible night Saturday and after 3 hours of trying to get Clara down and crying (both myself and Clara), I gave up and swaddle her.  The minute she was swaddled, she was out cold.

Rob and I chatted about it and decided that we would try a half swaddle, just her arms.  That seemed to work and we have had no issues getting her down the next couple of nights.  After doing a little online research, we found a few places that suggested trying a sleep sack as a transitioning mechanism.  On Tuesday, we bought a sleep sack and we tried it for the first time last night.  Seemed to work well.  Fingers crossed, we will see how that goes!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from the Clara bug.  We are all having a wonderful snowy day and hope you are as well.  Notice my beautiful flowers that I got from the best husband ever!

Six Months

We delayed this post a few days as Clara had a doctors appointment yesterday and we wanted to have the official measurements to share with you!  We got our second set of vaccinations today.  Clara did as well as expected, lots of crying and turning shades of red and purple.  She did pretty well towards the end of the night though.

It's crazy to think that she is six months now, a half of year with Clara in our lives.

Sleeping: Clara continues to sleep pretty well.  We got a one night sleeping through the whole night again this month, then we had a few nights were we were up two times during the night, but most nights it is just once a night.  Clara eats and then right back to bed.  While I look forward to her sleeping through the night, I am enjoying this schedule as well.  We are currently swaddling Clara but as she gets closer and closer to rolling over we will no longer be able to swaddle, so are dreading that and also looking for techniques and tips to help with that transition.  Napping is going okay, this week has been an off week, but most days we get a 2-3 hour nap in the crib.

Eating: We are still breastfeeding mostly, with Rob doing two bottles a day.  We did try some baby food - bananas this month.  She has no problem with the spoon.  Some tries we got more in then others, we will continue trying different things and seeing how they go! She also got some Mum-mums from her Nana and she really enjoys those!  We look forward to trying more new things but will continue with breast feeding and formula as her main source of nutrition,  She has also started grabbing for out plates and cups when we are eating, so something we are gonna have to start being really careful about!

Weight: Clara now weighs 12 pounds and 6.5 ounces. Her weight gain is continuing to go well.  We are no longer doing the high calorie formula.  Just a regular formula and I think we will just continue to have success.  We took the newborn insert out of the car seat now that she is over 12 lbs.

Clothes: We are slowly moving out of 3 months into 3-6 or 6 months.  I find it interesting how different brands and just different clothes fit differently.  I love clothes shopping for Clara, although
thanks to many hand me downs and gifts, I don't have to do too much!

Firsts: Tried first year of baby food, first passport photo, first Tyler Road performance, and first night with a babysitter that wasn't a family member. Also Rob got the first Clara giggle.

Likes: Taking tubbies, playing - especially with toys that make noise, anything she can put in her mouth, chatting, being naked, kicking off her socks.

Passport to Nowhere!

Last week we went to the Enfield Post Office to apply for a passport for Clara.  I had called ahead and made an appointment. We completed the application ahead of time as well.  When we got to the Post Office, the women who does passports didn't work that day.  Not sure why they scheduled our appointment then.

The post employee that was there was able to take Clara's picture, but then there was much drama with getting into the system.  Also didn't realize that we couldn't use a credit card and didn't have a check book with us, so we had to purchase a money order to pay.

I think it took about 45 minutes and we didn't even complete the whole process since the non-passport employee got locked out of the passport system and then helped everyone else who came in while trying to figure out how to help us.

In the end, the passport has been applied for and now we are probably not traveling anywhere this year that will require a passport.  Oh well.  She will be ready when the occasion arises!