Too Cool For School

Evan looks so good in shirts with collars, but he prefers to wear his t-shirts. So, on Sundays for Church and Wednesdays for Chapel at School, he has to wear a collared shirt. It's nice to have it all planned out this way for him, because he doesn't even fight it. He just immediately changes his clothes when he comes home. But he looks so cool in this shirt, it's a shame it's wasted being worn only at school!!

Claire's new chair

Claire got her 1st birthday present, her own chair from Grandma and Baba! Thanks you Grandma & Baba!!! Looks like both Claire and Evan love it already!

Stairmaster

 What's up with this gate? I want to go up those stairs!

Here is Claire engaging in her favorite activity-climbing the stairs. Notice very protective Big Brother Evan, trying to keep her from going up. Which is actually rare that he was stopping her, typically he tells me "Mom, she's okay, just let her go up", "She knows what she's doing".

Claire-no don't go up them!

See ya!

She made it up to the landing, so proud of herself!!

Claire is 11 months

My baby girl is one month shy of a year. What a wonderful 11 months it has been. She is still so sweet and happy. She is just such an easy going, mild tempered little girl. She is getting more attached to Joe and I, but we can still leave the room and she does not freak out.

That being said, she is making up for all the time she slept in that swing as a newborn (until about 6 months) and had Joe and I asking "when is she going to wake up?". She has woken up!! Claire is into EVERYTHING. She prefers to dig in closets, empty cabinets, play in toilets and sprint up stairs. Of course, laughing all the way. We "baby proofed" when we moved here and Evan was 12 months old, but he never got into anything. I would purposely open cabinets to let him know, they were "his" and he could go to town. He could have cared less. So, 3 years later, here we are, frantically baby-proofing. Cabinets are being locked, tutorials on shutting toilet seats and closets are ongoing and we are on high alert.

Some updates on Claire:
Weight: 24.5 pounds
Height & Head Circ: we go to the doctor again after her 1st birthday, so I don't know
Favorite book: Touch and Feel Wild Animals, any book with faces of other babies
Songs: She and Evan are LOVING their Best of Laurie Berkener CD Claire got for Christmas; "If you are happy and you know it"
TV: Thankfully still doesn't pay attention to the TV that is sometimes constantly playing educational television Scooby Doo, Star Wars or some Wii game
Clothes: 18 mo pants, 18 mo dresses, 24 month shirts and one pieces
Shoes: size 5
Diapers: size 4
Teeth: 7 (3 up top, 4 on the bottom)

Movement: Crawls everywhere, expert at climbing up the stairs, learning how to descend the stairs, pulls up to stand everywhere she can, cruising
Loves: Evan, Joe, going outside in her stroller, car or walker, and loves being "tackled by Evan", climbing the stairs, pulling toys out of baskets
Words: No new words, still "mama, dada, baba, Evaaaa, hi"
Skills: Waves hello and goodbye, sometimes accompanied by the word "hi", loves to clap, likes to "dance to music"
Food: Eats 3 meals a day and 4 6-ounce bottles a day (know I need to cut one out, but it's so easy.......).
Favorite Breakfast: Oatmeal with syrup, bananas and blueberries
Favorite Lunch: lunch meat (ham or chicken) and cheese and yogurt
Favorite Dinner: veggies, tofu, chicken, pasta
Snacks: applesauce, cereal bars
What!!, who feeds this to a baby? (but she loves it): ice cream, milk shakes
Sippy cup: She likes to drink out of it, sadly, she doesn't love it in place of her bottle. But we are getting there. This is all Joe's territory, he's good at the sippy cup transition!
Favorite toys: Fisher Price House, all bath toys, leap frog table, stairs, random things on the ground like crumbs, dirt and leaves, the stairs

Snow Much Fun in Philly

 Dancing to KidBopz

 Cutest twins ever! Mackenzie & Charlotte

 Claire

 Avery & Claire

 Evan showing the twins Angry Birds on his iTouch

Really the title could not be more cheesy, but just had to go with it! We had so much fun on our last second trip to Philly to visit the Garrs! The kids all loved playing with each other so much and Kelly, I and the Joes had a great time catching up. Why don't we live next door to one another??? Life would be way more fun. It was a tad bit chilly up there, but just what we were looking for. Evan got to go sledding and he was thrilled! It was nice to feel the chill again and see some snow. It was also nice to remember how much I love not getting all bundled up before leaving the house especially with kids! We had so much fun and were so sad to leave.

 Looking adorable in his UVA hat!

 Even I went on one run!!

This is so much fun!!

Just because

I like this outfit and she's never worn it before. And I cannot get enough of how much they love each other. So, I thought I'd take some pictures and post them. Why not?

Water Table

Evan got a water table for Christmas from Uncle Kevin & Aunt Kate and the kids had so much fun playing with it the other day when it actually warmed up!

Evan completely soaked!

Claire pretty soaked

Playing together

Spidey arrived after he changed into a bathing suit

Claire is 10 months old

I'm a little behind, because Claire actually turned ten months the day after Christmas. I didn't want to let this month go by without recording it for many reasons, but one is that I have barely touched her baby book. So, I need some good records to go back to when I finally get around to it! This past month has been huge for Claire. Not only is she crawling, she is now pulling up and cruising. At 9 months, she army crawled, now she crawls for real, or does some kind of crab walk, like she's trying to stand up and take off. EASY girl! Evan did not walk until 15 months and I am pretty sure I am completely unprepared for her to start walking! I like crawling, it's cute, it's babyish. If she starts walking, there goes my baby. And I am most definitely not ready for that!

She also got another tooth, with two more right on their trail. The official count is 4, bottom two first, then top two. The two teeth on either side of her top teeth are poking through. She looks so different with these teeth. The top two are pretty far apart from one another, but I am confident the gap will close as it did with Evan. If not, she'll rock the Madonna look! She will still eat anything you give her, which is awesome. I've been trying to experiment, giving her some different things to eat and she actually likes the avocado & tofu mash I've been giving her. I just need to find some more tofu recipes because she seems to dig it and I love the protein it provides. She prefers real food to baby food, but will eat the baby food if it is offered, which is nice for when we are out and about. Her new favorite food seems to be grilled cheese and tomato soup.

She is really growing into her personality and if I could pick one word to describe her, it's FIESTY! She is full of energy and personality. And she is mischevious already. She knows that she's not allowed to pull the curtains, but she crawls right to them, makes sure you are watching, smiles and then waves them all around, laughing like crazy as she does it. She is getting into everything-she loves to pull every diaper out of her caddy and spread them around the house. She can open the shelf under the stove and has been pulling out all the baking sheets. She got into the pantry the other day and wreaked some serious havoc. Evan never did any of this, whether it was his personality or my ability to actually hover over him all the time. I unfortunately no longer have that luxury. She is still so happy and as our friend Paul pointed out, he's yet to hear her cry. She does cry, but it is pretty rare. However, just because she does not cry does not mean she is quiet. Quite the opposite in fact, she is the loudest baby I have ever heard. She is so talkative and loves to scream when she is hungry. Now that she can get around where she wants, she screams a little less. She talks so much, says "mama", "dada", "evan" and "baba" still. She can wave hello and loves to attract attention doing this. She loves to clap and is so proud of herself when she does. She knows "all done" in sign language and when she gets excited rolls her wrists and ankles in glee.

She is very smitten with Evan, but boy does her heart belong to Daddy. She will freak out if he walks into the room and does not acknowledge her. The second she sees him, she screams for him and if he walks into another room, she is hot on his trail. She is rapidly wrapping daddy securely around her finger!

 Claire, let me take this bow out for you, I know you don't like them!

She and Evan play so well together now. Although she can only do so much, Evan's idea of playing with her consists of tackling her and wrestling her. She thinks it is hilarious, glad she's so tough. But he is so incredibly protective of her. If she approaches anything remotely unsafe for her, he is on high alert and takes it away before she can reach it. He blocks her about a mile away from the stairs and can be found randomly hugging her on a regular basis. The other day she bit me (I love teething!) pretty hard on my arm and I said "no, Claire, we don't bite. Bad girl". You would have though I disowned her, Evan threw himself on the ground and cried hysterically saying that "she's only a baby, you cannot tell her she's a bad girl, she's not bad, she's just a baby". Of course he was right, I made a mistake-should not have said that, but wow that's some brotherly love!!

Other random facts:
Clothes: 18-24 months, although can still wear 18 mo dresses & pants
Shoes: 5
Diaper: 4
Sleep: Naps from 8:30am/9:00am to 10:30am, naps from 1pm-2:30/3:00pm, goes to bed at 6:30, sleeps until about 6am.
Food: Still takes about 4-5 bottles (I know I have to cut it down) and 3 full meals, along with 2 snacks. Girl can eat!
Teeth: 4
Favorite song: If you're happy and you know it
Favorite book: Wish I had an answer, I try to read to her and she just squirms away. She's not digging books right now. That's okay, we have plenty of time
Favorite music: She got the Best of Laurie Berkner CD for Christmas and she seems to really enjoy it. By that I mean, she no longer cries the whole time we are in the car when it is on
New this month: crying in the car, she used to be an ANGEL in the car. I'm sure it all relates to her being able to move now, she does not want to be confined. Hopefully when she turns around in the car, she'll be happier. 2 months to go, although we exceeded the weight limit months ago

 Mom's never breaking me of this thing!

 Being supported by Daddy

She and I are going to start Gymboree pretty soon, which I am really excited about! I can't wait to just have that one on one time with her and I think she will love all the activities there, as she is so active!

GIG Christmas Party

 Joe & Claire

 Meegan, Claire, Me, Evan, Kelly & Katie

 Evan

Robert & Joe

 Full sit down dinner with the china, why not?

 Bonus guests Paul & Drew

Bonus guest Evan

On December 27, Joe and I hosted the GIG Florida Christmas Party. There are about 9 employees who are "from" Florida, but everyone travels so much, it's not like any of them are here much, except for Joe and I. Five GIGsters total were at our party, plus a few bonus guests, and it was really fun to hang out with everyone. We had a bit of an issue cooking the chicken, which will be a funny story for years to come. But it was really fun to spread some Christmas cheer with those I mainly speak to over the phone and email!