A little windy

It is pretty much always windy here in Columbus, thanks to the geography of the area.  But a few days ago I was trying to get some cute pictures of Lucy and Claire and the wind was out of control, so we were unsuccessful.  One particular gust of wind came along right as I took this picture of Lucy and it cracks me up since she looks so shocked and her hair got blown straight up from her face.  Ha!

Claire: 6 months

Half a year.  Crazy how fast it is going!  Claire is growing and healthy and mostly happy. :)  Sometimes sweet and sometimes sassy these days.  Here's Claire at 6 months:

• Height: 90%, weight: 75%, head 50%
• Starting to crawl!  She crawled for the first time on April 3rd.  She's not consistent yet, but she's up and rocking and moving all over the place.  She can move her legs and her arms, but struggles doing it at the same time. :)  Needless to say though, she's getting all over the place these days even when she's not crawling.  
• Sleeping through the night, twelve straight hours.  7:30 pm-7:30 am.  She was getting up once a night at about 5:30 or 6  and when she was, I was just feeding her to put her back to sleep.  I didn't think I minded but then I realized I was just getting too darn tired.  So a week or so ago I just put her back to sleep without feeding her two nights in a row and from that point on she has slept twelve straight hours!  Worth it.
• Eats ALL kinds of food. We finally started feeding her rice cereal and baby food consistently because she really wanted it.  She also wants everything we are eating, so I usually give her small little bites.  She gobbled down a green smoothie, some muffins, bread... everything.
• Baby talks like crazy! Seriously likes to test out her voice.
• Super ticklish, especially her shoulders, feet, thighs, and ribs.
• Loves getting her back rubbed.  It calms her down.
• Loves her baby toys, but especially loves a crinkly bag of baby wipes.

I'm sure I will add more later, but this is all I've got right now because I'm tired and going to bed. :)

Notice the tears under her eyes? Poor thing was not a happy camper a few minutes before this picture.

Hair cut

I love having long hair, but I needed to get it chopped because it was just too painful with Claire.  She used my hair as a pacifier and would grab chunks and suck on it all the time, especially for comfort.  She also pulled on it constantly to balance herself.  It always looked like a wet dog part way through the day, not to mention it hurt.  So, it was time.  I chopped it.

See what I mean?  Gross.

 Before:

 After:

Two sit!

Lucy and Claire take a bath together every night, but Claire is in her baby bath in the tub.  Lately Lucy has been wanting to get in it but when we tell her no and that is is for Claire, she just says "two sit!" and gets in with her.  It's a little cramped, for sure.  Luckily Claire doesn't mind and Lucy gets sick of the tight space after a few seconds anyway.  

Life lately

We had to watch Marci's kids one afternoon and Lucy and Ty hid in her closet during hide and seek.  They get along so well right now and love to play with each other.

 Claire was tuckered out and scooted herself over to Big Bear and fell asleep like this.  She looked pretty comfy.

 My girls just watching a show together in their "seats" with their blankies.

 This little girlie of mine loves her thumb.

 Lucy and I ran an errand together and she wore my sunglasses like this the entire time.  I looked back periodically and she was totally in her own world just like this, not being bothered by the glasses being both upside down and halfway off her face. :)

Just a picture of my and Claire hanging out in the back of Relief Society.  We don't usually last long since she's pretty vocal in all quiet situations these days.

Just me and my Loose Goose snuggling before bedtime.

 Lucy got a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory for her birthday and we finally cashed in on it last week.  She loved going to a nice restaurant (doesn't happen much) and kept laughing at the "toys" on the ceiling (the fancy contemporary lights).

 She went to town on the cheesecake! We had to stop this quickly though so she would still go to sleep.

Lucy was helping me get dinner ready and was supposed to be shredding cheese.  Next thing I know, she's taking huge bites out of the large chunk of cheese. Yuck!  This girl loves her cheese.

We had a warm(ish) day finally and Claire tried out the swings for the first time and loved them!

 Lucy is super anxious to go swimming this summer.  Can you tell?  We pull out the pool any sunny day we can.

 Hipster. ha!

 Tired, tired girl.  Every kid has a sleeping-while-eating picture, right?

 Me and my girls.  This is Lucy's new pouty look these days.  She's mastered the fake cry that turns into a meltdown lately.  Still cute though.

Cutie Claire sitting on our new button rug in the playroom.

Claire Bear

A few days ago, the nap-stars didn't align and Lucy was asleep while Claire was awake.  I was loving my rare alone time with Claire as she laid on her back and cooed and babbled at me for a long time while I had my face right next to hers. Her mouth was trying so hard to move in all different ways, and she was so relaxed and content while grabbing my face, hair, nose, and whatever else she could that was within the vicinity.  The sounds she made seemed so "matter-of-fact," like she knew just what she was talking about.  I had the sudden urge to go grab my phone and record her "talking" because it was so cute and I wanted to be able to remember it forever, but I knew that as soon as I got up to get it, she would probably get distracted, roll over, and be done with the moment and on to the next thing.  So instead I just laid there with her and soaked it all in as best as I could and enjoyed that time with her.  A few minutes later, she rolled over and got distracted by a toy and, as I predicted, the moment ended.  I couldn't help but run and grab my camera and take a few pictures of my happy girl.  I don't have video-proof of these few minutes, but at least I have these pictures that will hopefully remind me of that precious time I soaked in that day with my little Claire Bear.

Stuck indoors with strollers and other toys

This winter has been brutal! We try our best to get out each day and go somewhere like the library or a play place but sometimes the wind makes it too cold just to even go in and out of places.  So we are having to do all sorts of crazy things, like going for long stroller walks (inside), watching movies from special reclining seats (Claire's car seat), making Big Bear do anything and everything that we do, etc. etc.  Nothing too exciting, but at least it's keeping Lucy's creative juices flowing!  Oh, and side note: most days Lucy insists on wearing her pajama shirt, a pair of shorts, her rain boots, and an old winter coat.  It's straight up meltdown mode if I make her change.  Haha.