Ahhh – is there anything more lovely than spring in Oregon? Tonight Clare, Sadie and I went out for a nice walk before bedtime. I showed Clare all of the flowers that were blooming, letting her sniff some of them and touch the petals (and tried to keep her from eating them). She laughed at the dogs who walked past us and yelled at the cars driving on the road. It was a nice way to unwind from the day before dinner. We’ve gone for several long and short walks in the past week and spent some time out on our sadly neglected back deck. I’ve started blowing bubbles for Clare, which she alternately ignores or is confused by.

A few fun things for the past week. Our little music aficionado has started to ‘dance’ a little bit. Specifically, when you sing Row Row Row Your Boat she starts to ‘row’ forward and back. OK, so maybe it’s not dancing in the technical term but it’s moving along to the music. We usually ‘row’ her as a game when we sing so now she does the motions herself along with the song.

Another little fun milestone is that Clare is showing signs of understanding language. I was reading her a story and I pointed to a photograph of a cat and said “look at the kitty.” She smiled and started to pat the picture of the cat. Not only was she able to recognize that the cat in the picture was the same as ‘her kitty’ Prowler, but she recognized the word for it. I was pretty proud!

Lastly, we have some new specials in the expanding menu at Chez McPherson. Clare is now particularly fond of blueberries and cheese. She took to cheese immediately and now it’s become a fast favorite. I got her to eat 2 servings of green beans tonight but putting little pieces of cheese in each spoonful. More and more I’m encouraging her to feed herself by putting food on her tray. If there are blueberries, cheese or avocado they are usually eaten first then she might be convinced to eat the other fruit, veggies or bread. It often takes some convincing and distraction though – songs during mealtime are common place now. I wonder what our neighbors think when they hear us singing “I like to eat eat eat apples and bananas” all the time.

In case you can’t read Clare’s onesie, it says Who’s Your Paddy? with a little shamrock. Our Irish girl celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in style with appropriate attire from Auntie Carrie.
Clari-belle is making huge developmental strides these days. It’s hard for us to keep up with her! Between the time I wrote and posted the last blog it was already out of date. Literally, on Friday Clare was ‘working on the pincher grasp’ and by Saturday she reached for a blueberry, picked it up between her index finger and thumb and put it in her mouth. Somehow that connected in her sleep on Friday night. She’s also gotten a little bit closer to actually talking. On Saturday she and J spent the day together (I, unfortunately, had a 13 hour day at work) and from morning until night all she said was “dadadadadada.” There’s been a lot of “dadada” and “mamama,” sometimes it even seems to be directed at J and I. She’s also imitated some of my intonation – I sang “all done” to her and she imitated my sing-song. I’m thinking we’ll get some words sooner rather than later.

There have been fewer changes this week on the mobility front, much to Clare’s frustration. She is trying to ‘throw’ herself forward but hasn’t figured out getting her arms and legs in motion together. She does use her hands to kind of pivot herself in a circle and with that along with rolling she does cover some ground. She especially likes to practice in her crib instead of sleeping – not our favorite new development.

There are a few things I want to remember at Clare’s seventh month. (I actually wrote this post a few days ago, but I’ll be posting it on her eighth month birthday).

Once the rolling starts, there’s no way to stop it. Our girl is a rolling machine. It’s taking a bit of adjustment for us to get used to her moving around – I went into the kitchen the other day and when I came back Clare had moved 6 feet and was trying to get into the dog’s bed. She is having a lot of fun with it though and it’s neat to see her exploring her world more.

I also start ‘doing’ Clare’s hair this week. It’s hard to keep Little Miss Moving to hold still long enough to do something, but I was able to get a Pebbles-style pony tail in her hair. She was so freakin’ cute that I might try to do it more often.

Gosh our girl is growing up fast! With her bangs and hoody, she looked like a little toddler! You can see why I took all the pictures – who could resist that smile. I also stood her up on her crib – she stayed up there for a while! She’s not pulling herself up on things (yet) but she was quite proud of herself standing up like a big girl. She continues to enjoy eating and we’ve now added bagels (or at least the soft part of the bagel), meat, and peas to her diet. I made up several batches of baby food over the weekend, so Little Miss has pureed green beans and peaches waiting for her this week.

I’ve been remiss in the blog again, but it’s been such a busy, busy week around here that I haven’t had much time to sit still. The highlight has been a visit from Grandma T. Clare took to her immediately (of course) and was bursting into smiles for her within a day. Yesterday she greeted Grandma with a big hug after a nap. We didn’t do to much during the visit, but Grandma T and Clare got lots of bonding time in. It was also an exciting week, full of milestones for Teresa to witness.

After a few months of on-again-off-again teething symptoms Clare’s first tooth is finally breaking through. It doesn’t seem to be causing her to much pain (yet), and it’s pretty cute to watch her constantly sticking her tongue out and playing with her lips as she gets used to the feeling of having a tooth.

Besides that, Clare is now getting mobile. She’s started rolling over! All of a sudden last week she rolled from her tummy to her back and then over again to her tummy – a roll 360 roll. We were watching the Olympics at the time and I think it inspired her. Since then she’s rolling constantly and won’t stay in one place. She’s also getting increasing frustrated with not being able to reach things, so I suspect crawling will be soon after. The weekend will be spend baby-proofing.

Clare has also started liking solid foods. Suddenly she eats full servings of fruit, veggies and cereal – tonight she even ate 2 ice cube servings of pureed sweet potatoes and cereal. I’m thinking about introducing some meats next and seeing how she takes to them. It’s a nice thing that she’s finally starting to eat food. Clare weighed in at 17 lbs. over the weekend, which is about a pound and a half gained in a month and a half. Whew! That’s a lot of growth for a little girl whose diet has been all breastmilk. I’m appreciating having some of her calories coming from other sources. So far I’ve made all of her baby food and I think I’ll keep it up. She really won’t eat purees for much longer and after that we’ll be feeding her whatever we eat for dinner.

More than all of the milestones, our girl continues to be sweet and joyful. Things like making her baby food, nursing, washing her diapers (we use cloth), etc. are so fun for me. It may seem like extra work in these days of convenience, but I’d rather take other shortcuts and spend my time taking care of Clare and doing things for her. Our laundry piles up, but I never get behind in Clare’s laundry. I feel like everything associated with her and taking care of her is a joy, so I want to do it the best I can.

Sorry for the posting delay (Grandma T). We’ve been dealing with our first family illness in the Land of McPherson. Really it’s amazing that it’s taken this long – Clare has been a remarkably healthy baby. Not being in daycare helps with that tremendously. My friends who have kids in daycare tell horror stories of multiple rounds of ear infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, etc. It was actually J who brought home a cold last week, then Clare got it, and finally me. It was a pretty mild cold, but it wasn’t fun for any of us. It was particularly traumatic for Clare, since she considers having her nose wiped a form of torture that should be covered by the Geneva Convention.

This week we had our favorite photographer David Lim come and take pictures of Clare. David’s work is known by blog followers (aka our mothers) since he took our maternity pictures and the pictures of Clare when she was a week old. David’s a weekend photographer, but his pictures are amazing. He’s also been a great friend to us – he and his wife Jennilyn are parents to two sweet little girls (Kadie and Violet – Clare’s birthday buddy) and they were the ones who introduced us to the Bradley Method for birth. Funny story, both Jenn and I were over a week past our due dates in July and were just sick and tired of being pregnant. We would call/text each other to offer moral support/commiserate. I texted her when I was going to be induced and she texted back that she was having regular contractions. A few (or maybe more then a few) hours later I texted her and said “I had a baby girl” and she said “me too!”

This picture is one of my favorites. This is a common expression of Clare’s – it’s her “figuring it out” look. In this picture she’s figuring out David’s camera and what exactly he’s doing.

Anyway, the pictures were so fun. David came to our house and we pretty much just played with Clare while he took pictures. It was very relaxed and we LOVE the results.

We’re all very excited around here because Jeremy’s dad (“Papa”) is coming to visit tomorrow. He’s staying for a whole week to get his fill of playing and Clare goodness.

This is such a fun age. Clare is so interactive, interesting and joyful these days. I was telling J the other day that the words “pride and joy” take on new meaning. Every little accomplishment brings such feelings of pride – it’s normal baby development going from a little lump who can’t do anything except swallow and cry (well, they do more then that but you know what I mean) to a full little being with personality, preferences and attitude. Still, the normal development is a series of little miracles that keep us in awe every day. This week she started clapping, or at least trying to. She doesn’t get any sound when she claps her hands (those darn fingers get in the way), but today she clapped some stacking cups together and loved that.

Clare’s favorite person is still Daddy. No one can get her to laugh like Daddy can! As you can see from the picture – the adoration is mutual. She loves my parents too and now recognizes them when they visit. My dad came over on Friday night and she just lit up when she saw Grandpa.
Little Miss’ latest accomplishment is holding her own bottle. She’s been doing this for Mary for a couple of weeks now, but J got her doing it this week. She even corrects herself when she drops the bottle to low for milk to come. Such a little smartie. I don’t have any pictures, but she’s sitting up really well right now too. Today she sat up for about ten minutes completely unsupported. She’ll start to topple over, catch herself and pull herself back upright. She also was sitting on my lap today on the floor with her feet in front of her and she launched herself forward. Of course she landed on her head, scaring me to death but not startling her at all. Hmmm – I see a new phase Clare’s life. It will be a phase full of bonked heads.

The highlight of the day (and maybe the week) was the 6-month reunion of our Bradley Birth class. It’s so much fun to see that group! It was great that all 7 families could make it, complete with their cutie-pie babies. Seriously, not a funny-looking baby in the bunch! The babies are all at different stages of rolling, crawling, wiggling, etc. (except stationary Clare). She, however, was the loudest of the group with her shrieks and sings. We re-created the picture we took at the first reunion with the boys in one row and the girls in another. It goes from l to r Grayson, Jake, Teo, Peter along the top and Libby, Clare and Attilie along the bottom. I love the picture above because Teo is reaching for Attilie’s head and Attilie is reaching for Peter. There was an awful lot of head and face grabbing this afternoon.Amazingly, no one cried during the picture and they even held fairly still for a minute or two.

Note to Aunt Kathy, Aunt Debbie and Uncle JP, and Grandma T: I put her in her cutest outfit from Grandma T, with her pink Nike’s from Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jon and green Patagonia coat from Aunt Debbie and Uncle JP. She was easily the most stylin’ baby there and everyone commented and how cute she looked. Thanks for keeping our girl looking good!
Last but not least, here is a picture with the toes in the mouth. This is a common occurrence for all diaper and clothes changes.

What are those numbers you ask? What is the significance of 70 and 35? Well, let me tell ya. At her last pediatrician appointment (the 6 month well check) Clare was in the 70% for height (26.3 inches) and the 35% for weight (15.04 lbs). She’s still a long skinny little thing, but J reminded me that she was at the 25% for weight at her 4 month check so she’s gaining ground. Grow baby girl grow!

It’s crazy to believe that a mere six months ago we were still in the hospital introducing ourselves to our precious little Clare. When I look at pictures it’s hard to believe it’s the same baby – she was such a long skinny little thing. I called her my little bird baby and she kind of was, she sort of chirped and flapped like a skinny little bird. Now she’s round and chubby in the sweet little baby way, certainly makes more noises besides little chirps, and moves beyond little flaps. Gosh these little buggers grow up so fast!

Anyway, I digress. It’s been a good week around here. Mary, Clare’s amazing nanny, was out for the week with a family emergency so we figured out a schedule with me, J, my mom and a substitute sitter to watch Clare. While it took some juggling, we all enjoyed the extra time with her. I’ve been home with her on Thursday and Friday and I’m not really looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Hmmmm, maybe there’s something to the stay-at-home-mom thing… (that sound you hear is J gulping – I’m just kidding Sweetie, mostly).

Our girl continues to be the most vocal 6-month-old I’ve ever met. Right now she’s playing on the floor and going “Blah blah blah.” It’s pretty funny. Jeremy says sometimes it sounds like we should be able to understand her since her intonation and rhythm are so much like English. No wonder since she loves to be talked and sung to. I’m expanding my repertoire – She’s Coming Round the Mountain and Baa Baa Black Sheep are current favorites. Suggestions are welcome, since I sing the same half a dozen songs several times a day.

She loves her exersaucer and has figured out that if she pushes a specific button music plays. She spent about 15 minutes this morning pushing it over and over and listening to the songs. Fortunately the song changes each time – otherwise we’d be pulling the batteries out. She’s still not QUITE rolling over but came thisclose to going from back to front this morning. She is starting to wiggle around more – Friday night J went into check on her after she went to sleep and saw that she had rotated 180 degrees from where he put her down. She’s very strong and holds herself up in push-ups all the time. She also sat up by herself for about 2 minutes yesterday without any support.

Speaking of bed – she has a new game. It’s called the Binky game and it’s where she spits her binky out instead of going down for a nap. She then pushes herself up on her arms and “cries” for us to come in. I figured it out by hiding behind the door and watching her do it – she spit the binky out, cried and then turned back toward the door to see if I was coming. Little Stinker! We’ll be figuring out a way to nip that in the bud soon.

Swimming continues to be fun and one of the highlights of the week. She enjoyed it a little more this week – talked and ‘growled’ a little more, cried a little less, etc.
On a sad note, our kitty cat Prowler isn’t doing well. We’re working on a treatment plan but also facing the reality that it might not work. It’s casting a shadow over our house right now.