Fun in a Box

10 months

I’m finally getting around to writing her month 10 update!

10 months…Wow! She’s officially been outside my tummy longer than she was in it. My helpless little baby is disappearing and is being replaced by a smart, independent, feisty toddler. This month has been an explosion of learning and changes for Claire. She’s turning into such a big girl.

Her bag of tricks is expanding every day; it’s hard to keep up! She is now clapping and her favorite time to clap is when the cats do something bad that gets them yelled at, such as jumping up on the counter. Claire apparently thinks it’s funny and deserves a round of applause. She likes playing with balls and will roll them back and forth with you and she’s also been trying to throw them. She does the “Give me 5.” We’ve also been working on “So Big.” And if Claire’s feeling generous, she will give kisses. If you kiss her on the cheek and then ask her for a kiss, she will come at you with a big open-mouthed slobbery kiss. It’s the best!

Her mobility is also a huge area of change. She’s crawling all over, pulling herself up, standing on her own, dancing, cruising along the furniture, walking with help, and climbing the stairs. Those first unassisted steps can’t be far behind.

Communication and language has also been a big area of growth this month. She says “dada,” “dad” and sometimes even “daddy” to her dad and any time she sees pictures of him. She also says what sounds like “ditty” or more often the shortened “-ty” (tee) when referring to a kitty. Those are the only words she regularly uses, but my what an imitator she is! She often repeats words, not when you’re trying to get her to say something, but she just randomly repeats words that you say when talking to her. She also imitates all sorts of sounds. For example…you cough, she’ll cough. Her sign language repertoire includes eat, drink, milk, up, all done, and she shakes her head “no.” But these signs are not done consistently because whining still works best for her!

And although she doesn’t say them, she seems to understand and recognize many words. Looking through picture books, asking her “Where is the…?”, she will point things out. Words/things she seems to know include a lot of animals like kitty, doggy, chicken, pig, and cow. She also will point out baby, although she hasn’t perfected it and any person is a baby to her.

Her eating pattern is always keeping me guessing. Sometimes food is met with a mouth wide open and I can’t shovel it in fast enough. And the next day that same favorite food is met with lips clamped tightly together and a shaking of her head “no.” Sometimes she’ll gladly let me feed her, other times she wants to do it herself.

Claire is absolutely amazing and brings us such immeasurable joy! I wish I could bottle it up and share it with everyone; the world would be a happier place.

New York or Bust

We said our final goodbyes today to our good friends Mike and Katie (and baby-to-be.) They are New York bound. It's sad to see them go, especially now that they have a little one on the way but what better excuse to visit New York City. I've only been there once and would love to go back. We wish them the best and can't wait to meet their baby girl (who's due in Nov.)

Busy Bees

Sorry for the lack of blogging. It's been a busy few days. I hadn't even taken any new pictures until we got home tonight after spending the day helping friends move out of their house. I snapped this picture of our exhausted little girl. What a tiring day of packing and cleaning (or crawling, chasing after cats, climbing the stairs, eating lint off the floor, turning the radio on and off, on and off, turning the volume knob louder and softer, and louder and softer...like I said, a tiring day!)

The other side of Claire

I know I tend to ramble on about how wonderful and sweet Claire is and how much I love her, which of course is true, BUT everything is not always rainbows and puppy dogs around here. Claire can be very stubborn, impatient and demanding (I want what I want, when I want it!)

"No," "Stop," "Don't _____ "(fill in the blank) are common phrases these days. And although I think she knows what I mean when I say them, it doesn't usually stop her. And with that comes mini temper tantrums (check out the photos) when I won't let her do what she wants to do. She's also started with the hitting, slapping, pinching, hair pulling, and biting. The louder the "Ouch" response is, the funnier she thinks it is. Yikes. I have a miniature monster in the making. I'm not looking forward to the so-called "terrible twos."

A break

I'm getting a break today. Nathan took Claire to visit his parents for the afternoon. Do I really need a "break" from Claire? No. But do I need some alone time? Yes. My alone time, my break, will involve laundry, dishes, vacuuming, mopping, and work. Such is the life of a stay-at-home mom.

Many people seem very surprised upon hearing that in Claire's almost 10 months, the longest I have ever been away from her is about 8 hours and that's only happened less than half a dozen times. In an average week, she is only apart from me for an hour or two here and there when Nate takes her to the park or with him running errands. Some people think I must be completely bored, that I've given up so much, that I have no life. This lack of separation isn't because I don't trust anyone else to take care of her, it's simply that I like being around her. I miss her when she's gone. Is there something so wrong with that?

Am I worried that she will have separation issues or stranger anxiety? There is a mom in our play group that left her son for the first time when he was 14 months old. First time. Ever. She said she just never felt the need to be apart from him. She likes being with him. And this rambunctious little toddler is one of the most independent, secure, and happiest little boys I've ever met. So no, I'm not worried about Claire having any "issues" from hardly ever being apart from me. It only strengthens the bond between us.

I don't feel like I've had to give anything up in becoming a mom. Claire gives me so much everyday. She is my life. This is what I am supposed to be doing. True, I don't have a lot of time to sit around and watch TV, but neither Dr. McDreamy or Dr. McSteamy can give me quite as much joy as the smiles my daughter gives me. My life is more fulfilled now than it ever has been.
And she's only been gone for an hour and I miss her already!

Say "cheese"!

Every little kid at some point seems to develop the really fake cheesy smile when you ask them to smile for a picture. This is Claire's!

Growing up...

This is what I see most days now--Claire crawling away from me, off to explore the world. Right now she always comes crawling back my way, but I know that won't be the case forever. I need to savor every minute of this time because before I know it, she will be all grown up and off to explore the "real world."

At the grocery store yesterday, a woman came up to us to tell me how adorable Claire was. She told me how she's sending her son off to college tomorrow and she was having a hard time letting go. And then she said, referring to Claire, "It seems like just yesterday that he was that age. It goes by in the blink of an eye." Nooo! Don't tell me that! Where is that darn pause button?!

Book Lover

Both Nate and I enjoy reading and our parents are all big readers. It's important to us that Claire also develops this same love of books and reading. We've been reading to Claire since she was born (well actually even for a few months before she was born.)

When she was really little it was easy to read to her-- she wasn't going anywhere. When she started getting more squirmy and more observant of the world around her, she seemed to have better things to do than sit still for books. Nevertheless we kept reading to her even if she would only tolerate a few minutes a day of it.

Now that she's starting to recognize pictures and understand more and more words, she has started to take an interest in her books. When you put her on the floor of her bedroom, she will crawl right past her toy basket straight to her bookshelf. And she will start pulling out books. She doesn't do it just for the fun of pulling stuff off the shelf (well at least not entirely), she will actually sit down and slowly flip through the pages and look at the pictures and she will do this to almost every book she pulls down. They are her new favorite "toy"!

I do spend time every day reading to her and explaining the pictures, but I also like to let her have this time to look at and explore the books on her own. I'm so excited about her new found fascination with books. Let's hope it continues!

Out with the old, in with the new

This cool weather gave me the ambition to re-organize Claire's closet. This is always a little bittersweet for me. Packing away all the things she's outgrown and will never wear again makes me a little misty-eyed. But at the same time it's also exciting to see how much she's grown and to bring the next size clothes out of storage. But seriously, how cool would it be to get a whole new wardrobe every few months?!

For a couple of cute Claire pics, check out The Curt Wood Blog.

Look Mom! No Hands!

Claire is determined to learn how to stand on her own. She's been standing for longer and longer periods of time over the last 2 weeks, but she would just try it a couple times a day. Today however, that is all she wanted to do. She would use my hands to help her up, balance herself and then let go (SHE lets go of ME.) She'd stand up until she lost her balance and fell on her butt, and then would do it all over again. And again. And again. And again.

She is also starting to walk all over the house (holding onto my hands, of course.) Her steps are a little clumsy and uncoordinated, and she steps sideways or backwards more often than she steps forward, but she's learning!

(As you can see from the picture, she also learned how to take off her pants. Today was the first day in a long time that I put long pants on her, and she didn't want any part of that!)

Daddy's Little Girl

Having a child is a great excuse to be silly, carefree, and to act like a kid again. Although if you know my husband at all, you'll know that my house has never been lacking of silly and childish behavior. Anyway, it's fun to have a reason to go on the swings and go down the slide again!

Claire and her dad have a special park a few blocks away that they always go to. He takes her there to play every day that he's home. Just the two of them. It's their special thing. (once in a while if I'm lucky, they will invite me along!)

In related news: Claire said DADA. To her Dad! You can bet that it made his day!

Mama's Milk

I knew it was the best thing for her, but Wow! Check this list out!
101 Reasons to Breastfeed your Child

Tunnel Time

Claire loves crawling through her aquarium tunnel, she just doesn't like when she sits down while she's in it and it bumps up against her head!

Fair Fun

Nate and I go to the MN State Fair every year but with all the hassles and cost involved it sometimes doesn't seem worth it. So this year we decided we are going to skip it. We decided instead to get our annual dose of deep-fried food on a stick at the Dakota County Fair. Good decision. We all had a great afternoon. We spent a lot of time looking at all the livestock. Claire loves animals and she got to touch some of them at the petting zoo which made her giggle. She also got her first taste of fair food-- corn dog and sherbet. (my favorite this year--deep fried cream cheese stuffed pickles! Yum!) We also checked out the carnival rides. Claire and Daddy rode on the carousel. She didn't seem to care one way or the other about it (unlike the little girl about the same age who started screaming as soon as the ride started.) Claire also got to do her first carnival game and she even won a prize! She did the Lucky Ducks game (you pick a duck from the water and you win a prize based on the color on the bottom) And since Claire plays with the same type of ducks in her bathtub, she knew exactly what to do! She splashed in the water a little bit (for luck, I think) and then grabbed her duck. She won this cool blue and pink fish. And you should have seen the look on her face when the lady handed it to her. Boy was she happy and proud of that fish! What a fun day at the fair!

Mmm! Mmm! Good!

Just thought I'd write a little food update. Right now Claire is eating just about anything (minus the list of high allergy foods which we'll keep her away from for a few more months.) She's eating more chunky, less pureed. I usually just give her bits of whatever I'm eating-- meats, fruits, veggies, cheese, bread, etc. as long as it's soft enough. She's had tastes of sweets-- ice cream, cookies, etc., but just little bites. I don't see any reason to be giving her so much sugar at this age when she doesn't know the difference. We've been working with the spoon a little bit-- if I put food on it and hand it to her she can usually get it in her mouth, or at least close! :) You can see what I mean from the picture. :) This is her first attempt at using the spoon herself.

Kind of related to eating...Claire's been licking off her top lip if there's food on it and also licking off her fingers. It's not really something important enough to be on the milestone charts, but it was still a first and I was impressed!

And she's off!

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It's official. Another item for the baby book. Claire is crawling. This morning she spotted a crinkly ball cat toy across the room and there she went. Hands and knees crawling across the entire room! A little clumsy and slow, but she did it! And of course I was so excited I had to see her do it again and again, so I used my cell phone as a bribe and just kept moving it from one end of the room to the other. This worked about 4 times until she got frustrated with me and had enough. I'm going to have my hands full now (not that I didn't before!) Just in the few times she went back and forth across the room, every step was a little less clumsy and a little bit faster. And you could just see the look of excitement in her eyes! Time to put up the baby gates!

Brown noser---um, I mean, orange noser!

As requested, a picture of her new top front teeth. They are not all the way in yet, so it was a little hard to get the right picture angle to see them. Glad they are just baby teeth...check out that gap!

And the orange nose...yes, she's had a little too much squash lately, but hey at least she's eating some vegetables!

Story Time

Looking for a book to read...

I guess the one she wants is on the top shelf...

After pulling out several books, she finally finds one to read!

Lovebirds

Here's to 35 years!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Grandpa K.

Happy Birthday Grandpa K.!!

Love, Claire

(Picture: Grandpa and Claire-11 days old)

4 Years Old

I want to wish my niece Ella a Happy 4th Birthday! Wow, they grow up so fast!

All I want for Christmas is my...

After some horrible nights of no sleep and days of crabbiness, we finally have a breakthrough! And I mean that literally...Claire has FINALLY cut her two front teeth! Thankfully Nate was home during the worst of it and we took turns switching between sleep and staying up with the screaming baby. The 2 side top ones are still swollen and haven't come in yet, but I don't think or at least I hope, they won't cause as much pain. She has been catching up on her sleep the last 2 days, and all is well again. Those teeth must feel funny, because she constantly has her tongue out!

And as a result of being a big girl with 4 teeth, she now has to brush them! It actually must feel good, because she really doesn't mind it. I do a quick brush to get the job done, then I give her the toothbrush so she can practice brushing! No toothpaste yet, just water.

Wish List

Claire:

• Littlest Pet Shop stuff
• Tag reader books: such as "Olivia," "Tinker Bell's True Talent," "Giraffes Can't Dance,"
• Brain Quest cards: For Threes and Preschool
• fun bath stuff: bubbles, toys, bathtub crayons/paints
• Snack and Play travel tray
• New Tinkerbell movie
• Barbie Three Musketeers movie
• Dress-up stuff

She's currently wearing 3T clothes and size 7 toddler shoes.

Grace:

She's currently in 3-6 month clothes.

A New Look

My boss and I have been working on revamping our italian charm website, which gave me a little inspiration to update my blog a bit. It's still a work in progress, as I only get a few minutes here and there to work on it. Since it's all about Claire, I thought pink would be a good look. I'm also thinking of a different name since, let's be honest, this blog isn't really about the entire Kachelmyer family, it's mostly about Claire! (Nate keeps asking me when I'm going to write a monthly update on his newest accomplishments and developmental milestones!)
Any suggestions for a new name instead of Kachelmyer Family?
All About Claire
Chronicles of Claire
Help...give me some ideas!