Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

 

With her pretty bow

 

She's beginning to like sitting in our laps for a few minutes to look at a book!

Video

Here are some videos of Claire.  Enjoy!

Playing with Daddy:


Matt turned on her bath water and Claire crawled from her room to the bathtub!


And here's a video of her making her strange grunt/growl noise:

Standing!

Claire is loving her new found level of mobility.  She's pulling her self up to standing anywhere she can find.  She's also now making progress cruising along the furniture.  Here are a few pictures!

Visit with Santa

Last night we took Claire to Northpoint Mall to get her picture taken with Santa.  She was so well behaved for the hour that we had to wait.  She sat in her stroller and played with her toys and watched the other children in line.  Then we got to Santa, and here's what happened...

She was fine when Matt put her in Santa's lap, but then the photographer made a noise to get her to look toward the camera and she broke down.  Everyone was very nice and let us take her aside to calm her down while some other families took their turn, but by that point she associated Santa with scary noises and cried again when Matt handed her over.

She felt much better when safe in Daddy's arms.

 

And she learned an important lesson--chocolate makes everything better!

Eight Months

Claire has officially passed the eight month mark and has hit many milestones in this past month!  She is crawling with her tummy off the floor (as of Thanksgiving weekend), she easily goes from crawling to sitting up (as of the week before Thanksgiving), with a stationary object to help, she can pull herself up to standing (as of December 1), and she has her third tooth--the top right--coming in as of yesterday.  She has been exploring many vocal noises including "da-da," "ma-ma." "ga-ga," and buzzing her lips making racecar like sounds.

Claire doesn't like being put down for a nap, the process of getting in and out of her car seat, wearing a hat or hood over her head, being left to play 'alone', or green vegetables not mixed in with other food.  Claire loves seeing Brooks, crawling over to something she shouldn't (mainly electrical cords, of which there are many this time of year!), going to the grocery store, eating her puffed cereal by herself, and having someone's undivided attention during play time.

This past weekend, we went to the Candy Cane breakfast at our church.  This is an annual event for families with children.  Claire loved seeing the children and looked adorable in her Christmas dress.  Here are a few pictures.

And here is a picture of Claire "helping" Matt put up our Christmas lights outside.  I think she prefers warm weather and bare feet to having to be bundled up!

Thanksgiving

We were blessed to have Matt's parents, Dana, and Andrew come down for Thanksgiving this year.  Here are a few pictures!

Claire helped me make some Chex Mix before our company arrived!