Here is a video that our nanny Mary took of Clare rolling over. It’s probably only interesting to people who hang on Clare’s every action
(e.i. her parents and grandparents) but here you go anyway.
12 Weeks? Seriously?
My baby girl is now officially 12 weeks old – out of her “fourth trimester.” The last few weeks I’ve noticed that she’s turning into more of your typical infant with round eyes and cheeks and losing her newborn wobbliness. Those newborn times are so precious, but phew they go by quickly.
Her new stages are lots of fun. She’s so social and loves nothing more than to look at people and talk to them. Her vocabulary mostly consists of vowels, but sometimes she strings three or four sounds together into little ‘sentences.’ Her engagement with the world means she’s started to fight sleep because she’d rather play than take a nap. Hmmmm – I think we’ll have this battle many, many more times. It’s pretty typical now for her to make eye contact with me and coo when I’m trying to rock her to sleep – it kills me to ignore her when she’s being so cute but I know that what she really needs is a nap and that we can play later. Besides, I’ve learned that a tired Clare is a cranky Clare so nap times are very important around here.
Besides being social, Clare is using her hands more. She runs her hands over my shirt when I’m holding her, grabs onto toys, pushes things away and sort of bats toys to her. She’s starting to connect that these hands are attached to her and that she has some control over them. She also finds them fascinating and will stare at them.
I’ve been back to work now for a week – I started last Wednesday full time. It feels good to be back and reconnect with a pre-Clare part of me (it reminds me that I was an adult before I was a mother) but my favorite part of the day is still coming back home to her. We love our nanny and so far our nannyshare arrangement is working out great. It is such a huge help knowing that our baby is being loved and cared for while we’re at work.
Playing with toys – though she was getting sleepy and went down for a nap shortly after this picture was taken.
A picture from last week when Great-Gramma visited. Four generations of McCloy women. I just love how Gramma is holding onto Clare’s hand. You can’t tell by our nice smiles here, but this picture is Exhibit A of where Clare gets her feistiness from (Exhibit B is a picture of the Dion women).
Here’s one more from last week – Grandma T holding a swaddled Clare. Our girl still likes to be swaddled to sleep. I joke that we’ll keep doing it until she’s three if it keeps working!
Back to Normal Life
Whew! It’s been a wonderful whirlwind the last week. Grandma T returned to the lower Pacific Northwest last Wednesday to visit Clare – I mean, us. It was great to see her, Clare enjoyed some good Grandma time and I enjoyed having a happy baby-sitter while I ran errands. Oh yeah, the grown ups had some nice visiting time together.
We celebrated two birthdays over the week – Grandma Carol and mine. To celebrate we all went to Bend and enjoyed the last weekend of summer. Happy Birthday Mom!
Grandma T talking to Clare. Clare is getting quite vocal these days and makes the cutest little coo sounds.
Great-Grandma offered to rock Clare to sleep one night – and when we looked over both of them were asleep! 
Clare got lots of Grandma T loves! 
Helping Daddy plan a hiking trip.
We went for a hike along Falls Creek towards Green Lake. We didn’t go all the way to the lake, but it was a lovely hike and Clare really enjoyed it.
We took Clare out at one point – she loved the waterfall. She couldn’t stop staring at it.
Peeking out of the Beco Carrier – not napping since there was so much to look at!
We said good-bye to Great-Gramma and Grandma T on Tuesday – I think we all cried a little bit to see everyone off. Today was a big day though, since it was my first day back at work after maternity leave. I was a little apprehensive about it but it went much better than I expected. We have a wonderful nanny who we share with another family (1 nanny + 2 babies = happy families), so I felt much better knowing that Clare was in loving and capable hands. Still I’ve never been in such a hurry to get home before in my life – I needed my Clare cuddle fix.
Social Butterfly
It’s been a busy week around the Casa McPherson. We’ve had visits by Terri and Randall, my grandmother is still in town, and now Pat, Dave and Ry are visiting. Last weekend it was my Uncle Jon’s 50th Birthday on Saturday night and Race for the Cure on Sunday morning with my parents and cousins Glenn and Beth. Clare handled all of the excitement fairly well, considering it resulted in some missed naps. She’s quite the little social butterfly and loves to be around people. She was probably held by half a dozen people at the birthday party and handled it pretty well. She only lost it at the end – which was after the cake and toast, so we didn’t miss to much by leaving.
Clare with the birthday boy!
Mom, Clare and I
Got the toy…
Mom, Clare and I
Mom, Clare and Grandma
Race for the Cure was great fun. I heard there were 50,000 people there – it’s the biggest Race for the Cure on the West Coast. We ‘raced’ with Glenn and Beth and Mom and Dad with a blistering 5K time of an hour and fifty minutes. Half of the time is spent waiting while the 50,000 people are corraled through Portland’s streets, so more like a Meander for the Cure. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from it, but you’ll just have to picture Clare in her finest pink ensemble with every pink bib, blanket, binky, etc. that I could find.
Clare is growing by leaps and bounds. While I won’t continue to brag about how exceptional she is, I will say that she’s reached another mini-milestone (an inchstone? Footstone?) She has been reaching for toys for a few weeks now, but caught one on the hanging toys on her bouncy seat and brough it to her mouth. She’s attempted this before, but for the first time actually had the coordination to follow through with it. I did capture it with a few pictures.
Got the toy…
Into the mouth!
So proud of herself!
She’s also quite chatty these days. At brunch on Sunday she was talking to Beth and, if you ask her Daddy and Grandma, she said her first word. Now, these people are about the most biased audience ever, but they both claim that after Beth said ‘Yeah!’ to Clare she responded back with a ‘yeah’ of her own. I was looking down and didn’t hear it, but they both swear it’s Clare’s first ‘word sounding noise’ so I figured I’d preserve it in my electronic baby book 🙂
Tomorrow marks the return of Grandma T and a long weekend in Bend.
Two Month Check Up
It’s official, Clare is an exceptional baby. Even her pediatrician thinks so. OK, so the doctor might not have used the word exceptional to describe Clare, but I’m sure she meant it. We Love LOVE our pediatrician – for example, she walked into the room waving her arms and cheering “good job guys!” because she saw Clare’s height, weight and head circumference. Why was she cheering? Because our girl is at the 55% percentile for height, and the 50% for weight and head circumference. This is compared to just being at 10% for weight and head circumference when she was 5 days old. She’s growing by leaps and bounds and our pediatrician couldn’t be happier. She also noted that Clare is ‘really strong,’ ‘has great head control’ and ‘holds eye contact really well.’ Seriously, I don’t think proclaiming that Clare is exceptional is to far out of line 🙂
On a little more traumatic note, she also got her first set of shots. She cried, of course, but got over it quickly. I think it was hardest on Daddy since he watched her little face while it happened (I looked away). We’re going to have a quiet day at home today just in case she has a bad reaction to those nasty shots. Hopefully tomorrow she’ll be better though – since I know Clare wants to see her great-grandma again.
Two Months
Today we are celebrating two months of Clare being in the world. It seems like I just was in the hospital, but I don’t really remember life without her. She is celebrating by not taking her usual afternoon nap – fortunately she’s still happy and smiling (so far).
Clare continues to grow (10 lbs. 10 ozs. today) and is more alert and aware everyday. She’s started to reach for things and bat at toys – one time she succeeded in pulling a toy to her and then wasn’t sure what to do with it. I suspect it won’t be to long before she starts putting toys in her mouth. Her hands are always moving and she’s pretty good and chewing on her fists. She also likes to hold her hands together.
My grandmother arrives yesterday and met Clare for the first time. Clare took to her right away and they’ve been fast friends.
Our girl is also showing more of her personality. She’s very social and loves to smile and talk to people. She knows Jeremy and I and I think she also recognizes my dad. She also has a pretty strong temper and can go from ‘0 to 60’ in a second and a half. Fortunately she’s easy to please, but it’s a little bit like Jeckyl and Hyde when she gets mad. J and I each blame each other for her temper 🙂 In general she’s a fairly happy baby. I think J’s favorite part of the day is when he hears her wake up in the morning. He jumps out of bed when he hears her start to wiggle and make little noises. When she sees him over her bassinet she breaks into the biggest, wide-mouthed grin – he says it’s the best way to start the day.
Travels with Clare
We just returned yesterday from Clare’s first plane ride. She’s quite the little jet-set infant, going across the country and back by 8 weeks old. If this trip is any indication, our girl is going to be a great little traveler (though I know better than to assume just because she did well on this trip that all other trips will be this smooth).
I mentioned in the last post about our trip to Alabama. Here are a few pics from that visit.
Smiling at Donna. Terry and Donna kept teasing each other over who Clare liked best… siblings never grow out of that 🙂
We drove up to Nashville/Clarksville on Saturday and spent the rest of the time with J’s Dad and family. It was mostly family visiting and ‘baby gazing’ but we did a little bit of sightseeing in Nashville. Of course I didn’t get any pictures of the sightseeing (you don’t really want to see pictures of Andrew Jackson’s house, do you?) but I got several of our girl. Truly, the best part was seeing how much love she brings to so many people. She’s a lucky little lady to have so much wonderful family who adore her. She does great with all of the attention – a little social butterfly. On Sunday night nine of us all went to a Japanese buffet and Clare was passed around the table. She just smiled and cooed at everyone – charming even the waitress. She really holds eye contact now and makes those little ‘ah-goo’ baby noises.
With Meta (Darlene’s mother) in the buffet. Meta decided she’s also Clare’s great-grandmother, so lucky Clare has 3 great grandmothers. 
Nanny (Clare’s great grandmother) holding Clare.
Jeremy and Nanny loving on our girl.
Four generations of McPhersons.
Papa and Clare bonding. She was quite smitten with her Papa. (Check out that grip – she’s holding onto things really well now.)
Grandma Darlene loving on the baby. 
It was a great trip and everyone got choked up when we had to leave. These pictures don’t even include Aunt Jan (Hi Jan!), Cousins Justin and Jaden, and Lace and Levi. It makes me wish Tennessee (and Alabama) and Oregon were somehow closer together.
This next week is going to have even more excitement for our girl, with her third great-grandmother (my Gramma) coming into visit this weekend. Aunt Terri and Randall visit next week, and then after that Pat, Dave and Rylee come to see us and Grandma T returns at the end of September.
Clare at 7 weeks
On Tuesday our baby girl was seven weeks old. We celebrated the occasion by getting on a plane the next day and going to Tennessee and Alabama to visit J’s relatives. Clare met her grandpa Wayne (Papa), her grandma Darlene, and her great-grandmother Nanny.
We were both a little nervous about the plane ride, but Clare did beautifully. Yes, it’s true, it’s easier to fly with them when they are little. She rode the whole time in her sling and pretty much slept, except when eating of course. We pulled her out a little bit and she got to stretch and see some people (including a cutie one-year-old who was taking his daddy for walks up and down the plane aisle), but we only had one fussy spell and it was before the plane even took off. The same can not be said for our drive down to Alabama yesterday, when she decided from time to time that she was sick of her car seat and wanted out. For the most part she was fine, but those moments when she wasn’t happy seemed the longest.
Our girl continues to grow by leaps and bounds. She was 9 lbs. 12 ozs. on Monday – meaning she’s still gaining over an ounce a day. Her muscle control is getting better, she’s holding her head up more and has more control over her arms and legs. She’s smiling and is generally more social. She’s also more vocal – making happy little coos and cranky little squawks.
Last weekend we went to a Pink Martini concert in Bend with my parents. Clare slept most of the time through her first concert in her Beco carrier. It got kind of cold for the rest of us, but Clare stayed warm in her carrier.
Auntie Carrie also came to visit this last week.
And of course Clare got to spend time with Grandma and Grampa. Carrie’s dad tie-dyed Clare the cute onesie and socks, so I had to put her in the little overalls with it. I called it her ‘Oregon hippie farmer’ outfit. 
We haven’t taken many pictures on our trip so far, but here is one we took this morning of Clare in her Alabama outfit from Auntie Donna. 
And finally here is a picture of Clare smiling at me this morning. I can’t resist this smile.
Quote that I like
“And know that in our imperfect world, with all my imperfect ways, I have been given you, the most perfect gift one could hope for.” – Kelly Roberson, quoted in the Motherlode blog on nytimes.com, in a letter to her son on his first day of kindergarden.
Something about this struck me, the idea of being an imperfect parent in an imperfect world trying to raise someone I see as perfect.
6 Weeks!
ClareBear is six weeks old today! She is getting bigger, more alert, more interactive and more complex every day. By complex, I mean she is occasionally fussier and harder to please. Gone are the days when a little bit of cuddling will solve all of her cries (and if that didn’t do it then a meal would). We’ve identified a new cry of hers – the cry of boredom. We don’t hear it very often, but she does let us know when she is not entertained by her surroundings. She also sometimes is happier when we’re not cuddling with her – her first signs of independence. It’s a little bit discouraging when my baby would rather watch her mobile than be with me, but I better get used to that. It helps when I see her smiling at her mobile, mirror, etc. She’s beginning to ‘play’ with her toys.
Her other developments are that she is beginning to open and close her hands (often around my shirt neckline or my hair) and she imitates our faces. She smiles back at us, sticks her tongue out, and purses her lips when J whistles to her. We had a few extremely fussy days, which I think is normal for the age, but they seem to have passed (fingers crossed). We got through them using our sling – she would sleep in it and we would get things done (like eat dinner). She ended up with a few extra crumbs in her hair, but we all were much happier. Like I said, I hope these days have passed and our quiet evenings will return.
On the parenting front, I went out for my first ‘night out’ this evening with some of the other Mommy’s from our birth class. It was only for a couple of hours but it was nice to get away a little bit, sit at a restaurant and not worry about diapers and spit up. We all commented that it felt weird to walk out of the house with just our purses and not a diaper bag and baby. We’re planning on making it a twice monthly event, so it will be something to look forward to. Of course I missed Clare, but it was kind of nice to look forward to seeing her.