Claire: 7 months

Claire turned 7 months a few weeks ago on May 3rd.  I will try and remember the things that applied to that month and not since then, which might be hard.  Here are some details!

• Always has her tongue sticking out.
• When on her belly, Claire always kicks her foot against the floor... happy, sad, entertained and distracted, bored, etc., she is kicking that foot. 
• Teething but no teeth to show for it.
• Waking up WAY too early!!  Between 5 and 6 every morning!  
• Had an ear infection yet again, which caused some of that early rising.  
• Still having a bottle every 3 hours, with some baby food in between.
• A serious mover.  Crawling like crazy and goes from room to room discovering everything she shouldn't be getting into. :)  Her knees are constantly red from all the crawling (as seen in above pictures).
• Claire still loves to sleep on her belly but is rolling all over the place.  When we put her to bed, she immediately reaches down to her side and grabs some of her blanket to have right next to her face when she sticks her thumb in her mouth and falls asleep.
• She has developed a little bit of stranger/separation anxiety.

Five years

Five wonderful years of wedded bliss. :)  I'm still so glad I've got this guy by my side.  We celebrated by going out to dinner at a restaurant downtown on the riverfront off the Scioto Mile called Milestone 229.  It was good.  I always love reminiscing about our relationship on our anniversaries- funny dating stories, where we were however many years ago, our wedding day, and everything in between then and now.  It helps put things back into perspective and gives us another fresh start to a new year of working through, and enjoying life, together.

Dryer

One day Lucy ran into the laundry room and was quiet for a few minutes.  This usually means she is trying on different shoes so I didn't think much of it until I heard her mooing like a cow.  This always means she is playing hide and seek and wants you to come find her.  Haha!  I went into the laundry room and found her sitting in the dryer smiling at me.  Silly girl!  As cute as it was, we had a little discussion about how dangerous that could be and thankfully she hasn't done it since.

Easter

Easter this year was great.  We tried really hard to get Lucy to understand that Easter is about Jesus and I think she got it.  We got up and went to church, came home and took a few pictures, checked out Easter baskets, and did a little egg hunt in the backyard.  Then later on that day, the Madsen's came over for Easter dinner.

 These next 3 pictures make me laugh.  Lucy is trying to help Claire put on her sunglasses and unfortunately Claire turns her head to smile, Lucy pokes her in the eye on accident, and Claire falls over crying.

 The chubbiness in this picture is incredible.  I love it.  I could just eat her up.

Easter egg dying

We dyed eggs the night before Easter, which was fun.  I think it was our first time dying eggs with Lucy (and Claire).  We had a Disney princess dying kit and Lucy loved pointing out which princess was which.

Bike rider

This girl has been in love with bikes from the moment she saw one.  A few weeks ago something just clicked and she got the whole pedaling/steering thing down all on her own.  She was so proud of herself and we were proud of her too!

 She still loves her princess sit-and-ride too.  For some reason this is a favorite toy amongst all the neighborhood kids.

This particular evening, Lucy rode her bike while I followed her with the camera and Ryan and Claire hung out on the front porch waiting to go in for bedtime.

Hanging out

We had so much fun on our staycation that we had to spend the first day back catching up on some chores, like laundry.  My girls entertained themselves on my bed while I sorted and folded laundry.  It was great company.