Last night we instituted what I call “sleep defense.” It’s a little trick that we use every now and then as a last resort when Clare is giving us several nights in a row of rough sleep. I had heard that 4 months is a hard time for sleeping, but I don’t think I fully understood how hard it would be until now. We’ve had several weeks of off-again, on-again nights – Clare was waking up to eat 2 or 3 times a night instead of her usual 1 or 2 times, crying and needing to be shushed back to sleep almost every hour, or just wanting to wake up and play after her 4 am feeding (my personal favorite). We won’t even go into what a challenge naps have been. Sometimes it’s felt like all I’ve done on a given day is try to get Clare to sleep. Well, Saturday night it came to a head and J and I maybe had 2 hours of interrupted sleep each. We were in Bend and Clare decided that the pack and play, which she had slept in fairly well the night before, was not acceptable to sleep in. Every time we tried to put her down in it she would slam her heels into the ground, wake herself up and start to cry. Three hours of this… You’d think we would have figured out the system earlier but I blame the sleep deprivation. She would sleep in bed with us, however she was tossing and turning so much that *we* didn’t sleep.

Sitting in the Bumbo seat! We’ve noticed that Clare is a ‘watcher’ and is fairly deliberate and thoughtful (for a baby). This picture pretty much sums that up.

Mom found this dress that my Nana bought for me when I was a baby. We put it on Clare and tried to get some good pictures. Clare was more interested in playing with the lace than looking at the camera. When she did look at the camera she was more worried than anything. I don’t put her in a lot of dresses, so maybe that’s what has her worried. Still, she’s about the cutest worrier I’ve ever seen.

Another wonderful week in the world of Clare. I really should just rename our blog from Adventures with the Family Mac to One Mom’s Adoration of her Baby. I recognize that I lay on the adoring a little bit thick – but what can I say, it’s how I feel. Last night I was changing her diaper over at Mom and Dad’s and all four of us adults were standing around her, making big silly fools of ourselves trying to get a smile out of her. I think even the dogs were in on it. Mom commented that it really isn’t fair to subsequent children in the family because there will be fewer times when the entire attention of four adults (and 2 dogs) are entirely focused on one child. Or maybe that’s actually a good thing… if we keep up this level of attention and adoration for her it will be hard to keep her little ego in check. Oh well, I’ll deal with that later

I forgot to include all of Clare’s new fun tricks in the last blog post. Gosh darn, guess I’ll have to write another post fawning over my amazing daughter and include a cute video or two of her.

Here is our little bathing beauty in the tub the other day. She loves bath time and kicks and splashes so much that I have to put her little tub in the big tub instead of the sink like I used to.

Here is our girl about to go on a walk with Mary. It’s the first time out for her Patagonia coat – a gift from JP and Debbie. It’s so puffy you can hardly see Clare’s face – but she stayed plenty warm on that walk!

Clare’s favorite thing is to sit and talk to someone. Here she is talking and laughing with Daddy. She’s a very strong baby and we joke that she as perfect posture. She’s getting to the point where she doesn’t like to lean back in her bouncy seat or on pillows, she wants to be straight up. She actually does a little stomach crunch and lifts her head off the ground a couple of inches trying to pull herself into a sitting position if she’s laid back. She loves to sit in her Bumbo chair and really loves ‘standing up’ like she is here. Seriously, J is just balancing her, she is holding herself up with her legs. She also has a really strong back and can hold herself while we pull her up by her hands. I suspect that once she figures out balance and control our little girl will get mobile very quickly using all of these muscles she’s developing.

Finally, here are some pictures of the kitchen remodel. J and Dad have done an amazing job with it and I can hardly believe it’s the same dingy little kitchen. The cabinets are in, one last countertop needs to be installed, we’re putting in a microhood and then it’s all cosmetic. It will be soooooo nice to move back into my kitchen – between the construction and living in boxes the house is chaos and I’m really excited to put it all back together.

Just about every evening and weekend for the past two weeks has been spent on this project. Big thanks to J and Dad for all of their hard work!!

Have you ever seen such a cute little pumpkin? Big thanks to Auntie Terri for the Halloween outfit! Clare is a little to young for trick or treating, but we did pass out candy at Mom and Dad’s house. Mostly it was an opportunity for photo ops with our little cutie-pie.

This week has mostly been about the kitchen remodel. J has been putting in lots of late nights getting the old cabinets out, the new dryer and cabinets in. He and Dad are working on the countertops right now. Ordinarily you do all of the cabinets first and then move onto the countertops, but since J is going to be gone the rest of the week I asked that he get one wall as finished as possible before he goes. Ideally, it will be finished enough to have a working sink – but I’ll be happy with some cabinets and a dishwasher

Upper Cabinets are gone!
J working to disconnect the sink
New upper cabinets!! Wheeeee!!

Here’s some more pictures of our little cutie! Check out the adorable little BabyLegs legwarmers!

Here is a picture of Clare laughing. J kisses her tummy and shakes his hair on her chin – she giggles and giggles! I can’t get her laughing like that, it’s a special father-daughter thing.