We have been so busy the last month and there is a lot to update, so be prepared for a long post! Work started back at the beginning of August and my time then became extremely limited because we want to spend all our free time with our girl. Blog posts have been put on the back burner and I'm only able to get to them after making bottles, making baby food, washing clothes & diapers, packing my lunch, ironing clothes for work, taking a shower and getting Clare's things packed to go to the babysitter's house. Oh, and attempting to train for a 1/2 marathon when I have time (not going so well!). Whew! So, needless to say, this hasn't been high on my list. I'm taking full advantage of this weekend's naps and bedtimes to get caught up on what our girl has been doing these last few weeks!
The last week before returning to work Clare and I went to our last library play session with Katie, Riley, Kaye, Logan and Jennifer with her daughter, Jada. We had such a great time and it was great to spend one of our last days of summer hanging out with our friends. We're going to try to get back in the groove of going to the Library during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring Breaks.
We also had Clare baptized at the beginning of August. Andrew and I started attending Holy Trinity in Decatur before Clare was born and we really enjoyed the church. The people were friendly and we felt comfortable coming and going as we pleased. They have a GREAT preschool program and that was really important to us looking ahead a couple of years to a 1/2 day program we'd like for Clare. Ned and Erin served as her godparents and we survived the long Mass without any fussing...she did so well! It was also a great excuse to get the whole family together and hang out back at the house enjoying good conversation and food. Perfect way to end the summer!
My mom and dad kept Clare during my first week back to work because our babysitter, Celeste, was out of town. Looking back I think this was a good way to ease both Clare and I into the separation. She is familiar with my parents and even though there were some crying spells (for both of us), by the end of the week she was doing much better. The day before she had to go to Celeste's for the first time we took her over there to familiarize her once more and to install the car seat base in her car. This put my mind at ease because I was able to see, yet again, what a loving family Celeste has and how well she does with babies and children. The first couple of days were rough and a bit of an adjustment. I have to drop her off in the mornings and I had a very hard time that first week. Clare had some more crying spells, as did I. It's the hardest thing in the world to leave your little baby in the care of someone else. Luckily for me it's gotten easier each day. Now when I drop her off she smiles when we arrive and she loves interacting with Celeste's children before they go to school. Celeste's older daughters take turns holding her when they get home from school in the afternoon and Clare is always happy and being held or cuddled by someone when Andrew picks her up on his way home from work. There's another little girl who stays at the house, too, 3 days per week and one day I got a text from Celeste that Clare thinks she is hilarious! I receive text and picture messages throughout the day to keep me updated on her progress and I am just so thankful she's staying in someone's home with such a competent, loving mom to provide such nurturing care. It truly is the next best thing to staying home with her myself.
Here's a list of all the things that Clare learned to do between 5 and 6 months and also her latest stats from her 6 month check-up:
*Sitting up on her own
*Drinking from a sippy cup (with handles :)
*Holding her bottle
*Holding her spoon
*Sitting in her high chair
*Weight: 16 lbs (60th percentile)
*Height: 26 inches (70th percentile...she's going to be tall like her Daddy!)
We love to take her on walks and have been going to the local park each weekend to walk in the morning and also walking the neighborhood with our dog, Marley in the evenings after dinner. We also started on a cloth diapering adventure this summer. Thanks to our friends Joann Frick and Lisa Schulze, we were given sets of the cutest cloth diapers ever! Joann's daughter-in-law Janelle makes diapers under the brand Rumpsack Diapers (http://hyenacart.com/rumpsack/) and Lisa Schulze's friend Cami makes her diapers under the brand Momma Made (http://www.facebook.com/mommamade). Check it out! We also started our girl on solid foods a couple of weeks ago and thanks to our neighbors and friends, Meghan and Brendan, we've decided to make her baby food instead of purchasing it. We've been able to use some food from our garden and bought the rest from the organic section at the Dekalb Farmer's Market. Clare was able to start on avocado and then we introduced bananas. She caught her first runny nose/cold this last week so I took her off solids so she could be exclusively breastfed to hopefully speed up the healing process, but we re-introduced solids today with great success. She absolutely loves to eat, just like her mother. :) She get so excited to put the spoon in her mouth each time and has started to smile and giggle now before each bite because that's what we do as we watch her. I've tried to put the food on her plate but she's not interested in putting her hands in it...she prefers the spoon and she also prefers to help guide the spoon to her mouth. It's so much fun watching her eat and it's really been a lot of fun to make her food, too. I've referenced a terrific website in making baby food:
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/
I've also found a book called 'Feed Me, I'm Yours' very helpful...it's the same book my mom used when my brother, sister and I were babies.
Amidst all of this I'm supposed to be training for a 1/2 marathon at the beginning of October that I'm running with my good friends, Beth and Rodney Edwards. Yikes! It's so hard to train in this heat and with such limited time. I'm typically able to get out once or twice a week to run but I'm not increasing my mileage yet like I should be. The most I've run is 4 miles...a LONG way away from 13.1. Hopefully as the evenings get a little cooler it'll be easier to run. Since Clare goes to bed at 7:00 it's easiest to run in the evenings as far as her schedule goes. She wakes up between 6:00-7:00 in the morning and it's impossible for me to wake up earlier than that to run. It just doesn't happen. So, hopefully I won't make a fool out of myself at the Atlanta 13.1! It will definitely NOT be a personal record run for me, but it's hopefully going to help me get back to pre-pregnancy weight...even if I have to walk some of it. :)
Well, that's about all for now. I can't believe she's already 6 months old. I just know she'll be crawling in no time...she's started to attempt the stomach 'scoot' so I imagine it's on the horizon! She is such a happy baby and has so much personality. Her smile lights up the room and it's the highlight of both of our days to come home to her and spend as much time with her as we can. Andrew is such a wonderful dad and I love to watch the two of them interact. Life is good. Really good.
