God Bless Little Claire

Here's a preview of our beautiful little Claire before her baptism on July 31 in Virginia. We cannot wait to travel up to MD and VA this week and stay for a few weeks visiting family and friends. Her baptism will be so special, shared with her cousin Davis! She looks precious in this gown, which my dad, Evan and I were all baptized in.

Claire is eating solids

 

Mom, why have you been holding out the good stuff from me for so long?

  

mmmmmm...this is much tastier than that white muck stuff you've been giving me all week...

  

"Thanks for all this fun stuff mom!"

After meeting with Claire's pediatrician and getting the go-ahead on feeding her solids, we began feeding her cereal. Much to my surprise she loved it and knew exactly how to eat it.  Evan really had no interest in real food until he was 5+ months old. After feeding her rice cereal for a week, we've moved onto carrots. She loves them much more than the cereal and cried today when I gave her the cereal without the carrots in them. Hopefully she continues to love veggies over carbs for a long, long time :)!!

Bathing together

As hard as it is for some to believe, our not so petite little Claire is rapidly outgrowing her baby bathtub. The problem is that she definitely cannot sit up, at least not well enough to bathe. Thankfully, our friend Jennifer lent us this super cool bath seat for Claire to use. We've only used it once, but Evan was very excited to take a bath with his sister. I am sure that we will get a lot of use out of this until Claire is a strong sitter!

Claire is rolling over!

Last Sunday, Claire rolled over from her back to her belly, something she'd been trying to do for months. She loves to roll over so much, that's pretty much all she wants to do these days. You set her down on the ground for one second and, boom, she's on her belly. However, she only likes being on her belly for a few minutes, then she does get tired of it. She cannot roll back over to her back, so she screams and we roll her back over. It's definitely the loudest she's ever been so far and now we surely know she has a voice of her own!! She looks so cute on her belly and how different she looks holding her head up so well!

Claire is 4 months old!

Well, this post is a tad bit delayed because of our trip and my laziness, but she is still 4 months old, so technically it's accurate!

On June 26 (Joe and my 6th wedding anniversary), Claire turned 6 months.
Some stats on Claire this month:
18lbs, 4oz
26 inches
size 2-3 diapers
size 12 month clothes
Eats about 32 ounces a day (8oz first feeding, 6 oz 4 other feedings)
Sleeps from about 6:30/7:00pm-6:30/7:00am
Naps between each feeding anywhere from 15 mins-2 hours
No teeth and no swollen gums, but she drools a lot and it always putting her hand in her mouth

Yes, she has a tan! I put SPF 50 on her and keep her out of the sun completely. 

She just has my skin I guess...(good thing Joe never reads this, he would argue it's his skin)

And yes she is just 4 months old! She is gigantic in a cuddly sort of babyish way. She is off the charts in height, weight and head circumference. Well, at least she's proportionate. And if anyone remembers how big Evan was as a baby, she now weighs 2lbs more than he did at the same age. She is growing through her clothes so quickly, that she has not worn many outfits that she owns. I feel bad that she hasn't gotten to wear so many of the adorable outfits she has; it's a little easier because so many of her clothes are hand me downs (but the sweetest, most adorable, barely worn hand-me downs). The painful part is pulling out all new clothes each month and packing the old stuff away. She can't keep growing like this, can she? At least she's healthy, that's all that really matters!!

Babies are just too cute in stripes

She is still really happy and adapts pretty well to everything. She went on her first plane trip right around her 4 month birthday and did great, no ear problems at all. She loved everyone she met and slept like a champ on the trip.

She has gotten the go ahead to begin eating food and we tried it for the first time today, July 7. She really seemed into it and ate about half the food I prepared. We started with rice cereal. I'll post pictures of that soon. Hopefully she keeps liking it.

Happy 4 month birthday little girl. We love you!

New Skills

Claire is getting so good at holding her head up. Just in the last few weeks, there has been drastic improvement. Which means, she can play with new toys now!

 

Chillin' in the bumbo

 

Playing in her exersaucer

Happy 4th of July (belated)

 

Me: "Evan, make sure Claire doesn't fall over" Evan: "do you think the claw will work?"

 

The twins, side by side :)

 

4th of July outfit #2

 

The neighborhood kids (well girls, as you see Evan is the only boy). He'll be happy about that one day!

Wearing Long Sleeves

Claire is growing so fast that she is going to outgrow a lot of her fall/winter clothes before it ever gets cold enough to wear them. Since it's definitely cooler in Southern California this time of the year, she did get to sport some jeans and long sleeve onsies. Here she is in some long sleeved onsies, sadly she may only wear them once!

California

The Neville clan headed out to San Diego and Orange County, CA on June 22 and arrived home on July 1. We went out there because my cousin, Megan, asked Joe to be her escort for her National Charity League Presents. Joe and I were so honored that Megan asked him to be her escort. I've been so close with my aunt Debbie (since birth) and her girls (since their births) and it means so much to me that they love Joe and have welcomed him so fully into their family as well. The Presents was such a beautiful, elegant event and was plenty of fun as well.

We were so happy that Megan gave us an excuse to come out to Southern California. Not like we ever need an excuse, but I'm sure we would have not gone out there this summer if it hadn't been for her Presents. It was such a great trip, so relaxing and fun. We love going out there to visit family and friends, enjoy the fantastic weather and eat as many carne asada burritos as possible! Only we can gain weight in California. I think most people eat healthier there, definitely not us!

Claire did really well on her first flight, but definitely did not sleep as much as I would have hoped. But the key was that she slept like a champ while in CA and adjusted to the time change like a pro. Evan is a champion flier and was wonderful on the flight and most of the trip (he is a 3 1/2 year old after all, so perfect behavior does not exist). We did so many fun things while we were out there. We were very sad to come home, we miss everyone already. But since this definitely seems like an annual trip, I'm sure we'll be out there again very soon.

So, what did we do in Southern California? Well we......

Went to the Del Mar Fair!

We went to the Children's Pool in La Jolla to see the seals, where for the first time since I lived there 10 years ago, people are actually allowed on the beach!

 Spent time with our cousins Eryka & Alex who are just about the same age as Evan and Claire. They are so adorable. Evan loves Eryka and I know that Claire & Alex will be buds soon!

Frosted cakes and then got to eat the frosting right out of the container-Aunt Debbie is so much fun :)

Hit Home Runs

Megan's Presents, where she looked ABSOLUTELY stunning!! It was such a beautiful event and a lot of fun. We were so happy to be there to be a part of Megan's special day. We are so proud of her, she's headed to UCLA in the fall!

Went to the beach where we very much enjoyed being chilly!

 

 We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary!

 Claire turned 4 months old!