Month: May 2010

Travels with Baby

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

We spent Clare’s ten-month birthday in Sun Valley, ID, where I had a conference for work. The conference was good, but traveling to a beautiful place with the family was better. This trip was just one of our whirlwind May, where J was in Orange County two weeks ago, Greg visited last week, we just got back from Sun Valley, I go to Chicago this Friday, J goes to Las Vegas on Saturday (there’s about a 12 hour gap between when he leaves and I get back, so we’re both out of the state for 12 hours – thank goodness for grandparents!), and Grandma T arrives on Saturday! Oh wait, but that’s not all – next week JP and Deb arrive for a much anticipated visit. Whew! To much fun stuff going on (and some silly work stuff too). This weekend is also the first birthday of Clare’s best buddy Gabriel, and Clare is going to bring us along as her date to the party. It seems like not that long ago Robin and I were both pregnant and working out the details of the nannyshare agreement.

I’ll mix in some pictures from our hike in the Sawtooth Mountains, just outside of Sun Valley. We just drove up the highway a little bit, pulled off on a dirt road and started hiking. In retrospect maybe putting Clare in white tights before letting her play in the dirt wasn’t the best wardrobe choice, but oh well, kids in white are made to get dirty, right?
Our little girl is doing such fun stuff now that she’s approaching toddlerhood (gasp – my little baby is almost a toddler!). She’s scooting all over the place and pulling her little feet under her into seemingly awkward positions. She’s also started pulling herself up on things like the coffee table. It’s lead to some potentially dangerous situations (pulling the ironing board over herself for example) – when I say dangerous I mean it risks giving me a heart attack. Why don’t they make onesies out of bubble wrap or something similar to keep these little buggers safe?
Besides her physical milestones Clare is talking a bunch more. We had her say “hello” over the weekend and she imitates our words like a little parrot. Her understanding of language is pretty impressive too, so I think we’re going to have to start watching our language pretty soon.

She continues to be our little social butterfly. I can’t remember if I’ve written about this before or not, but every time Clare sees another baby she starts talking to them. At the Boise Airport Clare saw a little girl halfway across the terminal and started to call out to her. It’s pretty cute, even when other kids don’t react accordingly, like this little girl who was to sleepy to notice. It’ll be fun when she has more words and we can understand what she’s saying to them.

Little Miss Chatterbox

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

The words are coming thick and fast around here. Clare has always been a little talker, but now we actually recognize some of her words. Her current vocabulary consists (as of today) of “Dada (Dad),” “Bo(book),” “yum,” “Hiiiieeeee,” and occasionally “Mama” or “Momom.” The words seem to come and go, but these are pretty consistent. She’s also really starting to imitate sounds, so more words may follow soon. If she’s not talking, she’s signing “milk” or “all done.” It’s pretty cool to see her starting to communicate with us more and more.

Besides her vocal achievements this week, she’s been very busy going from laying down to sitting up and then from sitting to hands-and-knees. I think she’s delayed crawling for a few more days while she’s practicing this new trick. She’s also starting to pull herself up to her knees and is working on how to pull up to her feet. As with the scooting, she likes to practice these new skills instead of sleeping in her crib. I’m ready for that to end 🙂
The big news this week is that Uncle Greg is visiting us from Arizona! He brought the sun with him and we’ve had some beautiful spring days while he’s been here. I don’t have any pictures of he and Clare yet (the picture below is my dad), but she’s warming up to him so I hope to get some good pictures of the two of them together. J and Greg went golfing today and have big plans to do some hiking tomorrow.
Oh yeah! Today was my first Mother’s Day! It’s been a lovely day doing exactly what I wanted to do – play with my little girl all day! We’ve kept it pretty low-key, but Clare and I went and got a new carseat (for her) and just spent lots of time playing. Then J, Greg, my Dad, Clare and I had a BBQ at our house. My comment was that “everyday is Mother’s Day” because everyday is a day with my little girl.

All I needed to know…

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com


I’m ten months into this motherhood thing and I thought I’d write up a few things that I’ve learned as a parent.

  • I had NO idea what tired really was. I think of all the times I’ve said “I’m tired’ in my life. Ha! I laugh at that well-slept girl/woman who said and thought that. I haven’t had an uninterrupted night of sleep in… probably about a year. Seriously, between the end of pregnancy and now a baby I can’t even imagine what it’s like to NOT wake up several times a night.
  • I can “function” on a lot less sleep then I thought I could. I put “function” in quotes because there have been times when I’ve done it better than others, but generally speaking I haven’t forgotten my husband, quit my job or burnt my house down. On some days that counts as success 🙂
  • I fully, fully understand the depth of the term “gut wrenching.” My stomach literally clenches and wrenches any time I possibly imagine, or even think about imagining, something bad happening to my little girl. Sure I was empathetic and imaginative before I had Clare, but there is NO comparison to the horror that I can conjure up in my head and heart in 0.2 seconds when I think of certain scenarios.
  • I have never, never, ever, ever been so afraid every single day in my life. It will never end. The fear is constant and almost, almost debilitating. No one told me that letting my child leave my arms is the bravest thing I will ever do. I do it every day, and always will, but every day it is an act of bravery against my fear that something will happen to her.
  • Bodily fluids and functions aren’t gross when they are from the most precious thing on the planet.
  • How amazing it is that humans walk and talk. Watching a baby develop is like watching human evolution at warp speed.
  • True joy and fulfillment. If I never read another book, travel to another country, wear another cute outfit, or hiked another beautiful trail I know that I have known pure joy.

“Hiiiiiii,” says Clare.

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

So I’m calling it – Clare, at 9.5 months, is now saying her first word. It’s not Mama, or Dada, it’s “Hi.” Often done with a wave, sort of like a shriek, but it’s happening with enough regularity that I’m comfortable saying it’s her first word. I’m pretty sure she’s also saying “Da” for Daddy and maybe even “book” but we’ll see if it continues.

These pictures below are part of the “Clare and Prowler” series. Prowler is really good with Clare. He comes up to her looking for petting, and she pets him at first and then often will grab him and even throw him on the ground. He is great about just moving out of the way, and even coming back again. She LOVES him and will usually giggle whenever she sees him.


As you can see from this picture above, he’s pretty good at moving quickly to avoid her reach.
Clare continues to be a book lover. Her new favorite toys are books and she will push other toys out of the way to turn the pages of a book. We have several little cardboard books of various sizes that she can turn the pages of and throw without damaging them. I’ve even noticed her ‘talking’ quietly as she turns the pages – imitating what it sounds like when we read to her.
The picture above is of one of my favorite times of the day – the bath and bedtime ritual. We usually give Clare a bath (which she loves) and then wrap her up in the towel and smile in the mirror on our way to her room. We sing “Sweet Baby James” (except we change James to Clare) while we rub lotion on her and put on her night diaper and PJs. Then she gets her soft yellow blanky (which she usually greets with a little hoot and then she snuggles with it) and she settles in to nurse in the rocking chair. We finish with a short book while she cuddles in my lap and then it’s into the crib. She’s getting so that she really enjoys this time of the day. She knows what to expect and seems to look forward to each step in the bedtime ritual. I love any excuse to cuddle with my little girl.
What you can’t tell from these happy pictures is that we had a rough weekend around here. Clare’s top two teeth are causing her fits on their way in (and those little suckers still haven’t broken through yet!). We’ve had a lot of scenes like the one below where she’s chewing on everything in sight and is generally cranky. She has NO patience when she’s not feeling well and every little frustration sends her into a screaming fit. Fortunately the storms seems to have passed and our sweet girl has returned.