Thanksgiving

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Busy Gal!

At 9 1/2 months, Miss Scout is on the go and learning new things every day! She is on the go so much that it is harder to catch good photos of her. Mommy & Daddy are on a quest to find a faster camera so we can get better photos of Clara.


We have encountered more problems putting her down to sleep since she has learned to pull herself up in the crib. She will often hollar out for us, just to show us what she has done! It is pretty darn cute, but we really have to curb our reactions as not to further reinforce this behavior! I guess this is the learning curve for first time parents!



Here she is playing with her UW dinosaur on Apple Cup day! We were all sad over the Husky loss, but are optimistic we'll get those Cougs next year!



Clara loves climbing and is experimenting with standing and walking behind a walker toy!





While we have installed an elaborate gate system in the family room, Clara found her way to the living room and was pretty proud of this exploration!


Such a sweetie!




Clara's play is starting to get a bit more sophisticated. She really loves to look at books and turn the pages, especially the ones that have flaps to flip over!! She likes blocks, her animal train and like most kids, loves random boxes, paper towel rolls or magazines to scrunch up!! At her play group, she is starting to interact more with the other children even if it is just to take a toy away from them!

We Survived a Tough Weekend!

This past weekend, Clara was again teething. Our normally happy and playful kid that sleeps through the night changed into a drooly, clingy, crabby baby who slept in 40 minute intervals. This combined with her new mobility made our parenting role far more challenging than it has been in quite a while.
On Sunday afternoon we distracted her (our best defense) with a trip to the park. She loved being pushed in the swing and "riding" the little trike. Daddy also took her down the slide on his lap although she was relatively unimpressed with that!

We also experienced a "poo incident" like no other - one that landed Miss Clara directly in the bathtub! Mommy & Daddy laughed hysterically and Clara thought it was pretty silly too!

A happy face...

...when most of the weekend was spent like this. It is the first time Clara has ever been too cuddly and displayed a preference for Mommy.

Clara also celebrated her first Friendsgiving and enjoyed much of the tasty dishes that everyone contributed. She's a turkey fan already!

The rest of the Friendsgiving group: Tyson, Brooke, Adam, Elaine, Scott and Kevin.

Clara Crawls!!!

And she's off...

Growing Up So Fast!

The baby stage is on its way out and the kid stage is arriving! Clara has already become independent with getting around, exploring her environment and feeding herself. She was completely weened a few weeks back after loosing interest in Mommy. This week she has just begun to crawl and absolutely loves riding on this little car around the house! At her nine month check up she weighed 18 lbs. 13 oz. and is 29 inches long. We are thankful for the blog, because sometimes it is hard to remember how little she was just a few months ago.

WHEEE!!

She loves standing and pulling herself up on things.

NEW SHOES! She loved them!

She has become a great little patty-cake player and frequently claps with delight!

Just learning to crawl. We have begun to get everything baby proofed and are waiting on a gate system that we ordered since our house is a nightmare for a baby on the go!


Clara attended Itai's first birthday party and had a lot of fun watching and interacting with other kids. This was a popular toy for the group and sharing is a developmental milestone they have yet to master! Too cute though!

Scout's first Halloween!

Clara's first Halloween was a fun day for us all! In preparation, we decorated the house and carved pumpkins for the front porch. Some of our good friends came over to celebrate with us. Clara liked sitting by the door when the trick-or-treaters arrived and would squeal, bounce and wave her arms with delight at seeing them all. She also LOVED having all her pals to play with at once, especially Ori & Itai.

Above, Wendy and Clara are practicing walky-walky!

Michele brought back this little outfit for Clara from Texas and it worked out great as her costume! Michele also gave Scout the adorable Halloween bib - she just spoils her rotten!


Clara and Daddy checking one another out in their cool hats!

COWGIRLS!

Our little family making fun memories!

Clara is now 9 months old and while she is not yet crawling she employs several different methods of getting around (rolling, scooting, pivoting, etc) quite effectively! She likes to stand up a lot and is now preferring holding on the the outside of the exersaucer instead of being in it. Miss Clara has grown a lot in the past month and growing out of some 9 month clothes ALREADY!! She also feeds herself small bites of foods, and this past week has quickly learned to LOVE Cheerios! She babbles a lot, but refuses to say "Mama". She has babbled it in the past and now when we try to get her to say it, she replies with "Dada"! We are pretty sure she thinks its a joke because we laughed when she first did it and now she laughs too!