Clare's 1st Birthday!

Clare celebrated her FIRST birthday ... in December 2016! We can't believe she is 1. Still. And it is now March 2017. Many people have commented at her birthday on "how is that possible?!" So our baby is now 1 - not 0 like William would say leading up to her birthday.

We celebrated her birthday at the playground in front of our house on her actual birthday. Simple playground fun with lunch and cake served. In the morning we relaxed at home and gave her birthday presents. We got her a chair for the playroom (the kids love their little chairs more than sitting on a couch in the playroom!), a puzzle and her godparents sent her an adorable gray horse. After breakfast and presents, we let her take her morning nap - as best as possible since her morning nap is slowly getting pushed back later and later. She took a little cat nap and was ready to party.

Likes her chair! William picked out the chair.

Did my best making the "one" with gum paste

Swan lake theme for Miss Clare!

Clare wasn't feeling a family photo

She loved her cake and loved playing on the playground. A great party for our baby Clare! 

Clare is 11 Months!

11 months

One month shy of 1. It's mind boggling. The year has flown by with this quiet, determined, tiny one. She is developing quite the personality. Silent, but feisty at times! She knows what she wants! She's racing around, climbing the playground, following the big kids, talking, pointing, clapping, waving, shaking her head no, sprouting teeth (5 teeth are now in), 

Walking into the Science Center together

Playing with oranges

Pressing the button to see the popcorn fly

First time voter (not pleased about the experience!)

Dominating the playground

Fun at My Gym

Front and center for songs

Napping

No limits on the playground

Lunch like a big kid

Cousins!

Upgrade to the big car seat

Grace photo shoot

Lady friends at the park

As you can see Clare is living the life! One fun day after the next - especially when you have two older siblings that like to keep busy. She has been a great sport at hanging with us (even when it means skipping a nap or cutting one short). Here are some other updates on our little 11 month old!

• Loves her bottles and we're down to 2.5 - morning and night then she really likes a little one before her afternoon nap. 
• She loves food pouches and she play with real food a lot - already making big messes, but a few of her favorites include blueberries, raspberries, bread, popcorn, muffins, chicken. 
• Still taking her morning and afternoon nap. 10:30am and 2:30pm about. It's pretty flexible though and I feel like she could maybe drop her morning nap if I wanted... but I do like the little break in the morning, which gives me time to do a couple things with Grace and William without her jumping into the mix. 
• Says some words like "this" (points to something she wants and says "this") and "yes" (Do you want to take a bath? and she says "yesh") and I think I hear her trying to say "William" - I haven't made out "Grace." She says "mama" when she is in distress like in the morning and it's more ma ma ma ma ma ma ma over and over again. She repeats "dada" often. She mimics a lot of other noises that are gibberish. 
• Understands commands pretty well and knows to follow us. We walked to a neighbors house a couple blocks over and she walked the entire way with us because she knew to stay with the pack. She'd get distracted now and then, and of course Grace was happy to run over to her and scream "Let's GO, CLARE!" Clare obliged. 
• Tough lady because she is constantly manhandled by Grace. She isn't afraid of trying to conquer the playground steps or walk around by herself because of the confidence they've instilled in her. She thinks she's a little kid! 

Overall, Clare is one happy baby! You can see the wheels turning in her head trying to figure it all out. She definitely won't let being the smallest and youngest get in her way. So close to being 1. And not "zero" as William says. Stay tiny, Clare! We love our baby Clare! 

Clare is 10 Months

Clare is 10 months!

Curious...

and very active!

Leading up to 10 months with Clare has been such fun! She is an active little lady and very curious. She's a walker!! That is the big highlight from the past month. She was taking steps beginning in 8 months and I knew in a few weeks that she would be walking. You could see the determination. Sure enough, 9 months old and walking.

Clare is waving bye bye, shakes her head no, no no, imitates noises like sniffing and repeats sounds like dada, baba, mama, and other funny babbles, scrunches her nose being silly, and even has a bit of feistiness in her. I took something from her the other day (probably a Lego piece) and she got mad! She even knocked her head on the floor in protest, which didn't go over well. Eesh!

Clare wants to keep up with her big brother and sister. She likes to chase them and sit in whatever toy mess they're creating. We started My Gym classes and she is really enjoying them. Being around other babies her age is great - a nice break from the older kids.

My Gym with Clare

Get this crazy out of my crib!

Playing with Grace

Always being carried around... oh boy...

Playroom playing and mess making

Grace probably entertains Clare the most at the moment. Grace is relentless with her. Always grabbing her, picking her up, trying to put her on furniture. A sitter said the other night... Grace really loves Clare, but she is really rough with her! Yes. It's constant. I'm always telling her to be gentle and to put her down. Clare NEVER gets upset with her. The picture above of Clare crying in the crib was only because she wanted me to get her out instead of taking a picture. Nearly every morning Grace jumps in her crib and plays with her. William on the other hand is very gentle with Clare and patient. Clare wants to get into everything and William is now at the stage where he wants to concentrate on whatever he's playing with, so he will ask for me to remove her. When he leaves for school he kisses her on the head in the car and I'll look over now and then to see him rubbing her head or giving her a hug. It is very sweet. All on his own accord. He helps me by bringing diapers down or grabbing a bottle for her. The three of them are wonderful. We haven't had any moments of jealousy or resentfulness at all.

What else is going on with Clare... I'll do some bullet points to keep it easy.

• Loves bath time and water in general. She tries to stick her feet in the pool when we're outside letting the kids swim.
• Loves food. She would skip over a bottle for food. She has been very open with trying food. Bananas are a favorite. Avocado. Baked beans the other night were a hit. Black beans too. Cheese. Fruit and veggie packets are a hit too - thank goodness because those are easy and so healthy. 
• Naps at 9:30/10a and naps again at 1:30/2p. The morning nap was getting later and Daylight Savings should help with bringing that earlier. Her afternoon nap is always longer than the morning nap. Bedtime is 7-7:30p, but she is very good at staying up later if need be. Up around 7:30 is my guess, but she is very quiet when she wakes. Plays with a couple stuffed animals and waits patiently for me - or usually Grace to come in.

Eating a banana

Clare's first road trip happened earlier in the month. A hurricane came for Florida (Hurricane Matt interestingly enough as Matt left for Australia just as this was happening) and we decided to leave Orlando for Naples to stay at my dad's condo. The west coast of Florida was suppose to be fine. We sat in traffic for 7 hours (Naples is 3.5-4 hours away) and sure enough the hurricane wasn't nearly as bad as anticipated in Orlando. We bunked up at Grandpa Tony's place for a couple days and that didn't go as planned because red tide hit the west coast during this hurricane. Well red tide is gross. There were dead fish everywhere! I had planned to visit the beach for a couple days and relax, but as soon as we got to the beach William started screaming, "Get me out of here!!" The drive down was so traumatizing that we stuck around and found kid friendly things to do in Naples like the zoo and the children's museum. Both pretty fun, but not the most relaxing trip! Amazingly, the kids were very good. It was tiresome though and we were glad the drive home only took four hours. This was a very eventful few days, so here are the pictures from that adventure!

We finally arrived... 7 hours later!

Passed out in the biggest pack and play ever.

Breakfast the next morning

Hard at coloring work

Red tide strikes! Dead fish EVERYWHERE!

William NOT happy about the fish!

Lounging by the pool instead

Naples Zoo

Too hot for footies

Children's museum

Water table outside

Climbing on the outdoor playground

I fit inside the side table!

Clare is experiencing her first "fall" and did a couple fun activities. We went with friends to the pumpkin patch. A lovely sibling picture didn't really turn out... see below. But we tried. Clare loved the hay and I had to keep removing it from her mouth. Then she came to the kid's Fall Festival for a little bit and did such a good job tagging along. There wasn't anything for her to do, but I'm sure she enjoyed the sights. 

Clare up front

First pumpkin patch

No one wanted to participate in this picture.

She kept scrunching her nose!

Clare's first fall festival

And the weather has been perfect for afternoons at the park. She is loving the playground and wants to get into everything. Also eat the mulch and stick acorns in her mouth! 

Playground fun! And the nose scrunch :)

Cooler weather means sweats!

Seesaw

By the end of the day Clare is ready for bed. She's active and fun loving. She is such a dream. So agreeable and easy going, but determined to hang with us all. I can't believe she is nearly 1. This year has gone by at lighting speed. Stay little, baby Clare! We love you! 

Clare likes Pooh - a gift for William from Ali

This day she shopped with mama till she dropped