Almost 8 months old...already?!?

Daddy and Clare

So, I totally dropped the ball for month 7 of Clare's life. I'm going to blame it on just not having enough time. After working and playing with my girl I just haven't found the time and energy to devote to blogging lately. I'm going to try to find more of a balance because I'm trying to use this blog to document Clare's first year of life (and subsequent years, too, but I'm REALLY trying to document her growth the first year month-to-month). Now we're a week away from her turning 8 months old (How?!?)...but rest assured the pictures posted are my younger, 7-month-old girl. I'll just have to do another post for Halloween to show some 8 month pics. :)



Things are just trucking along here in the Whatley household. Clare has turned into such a happy baby. As some may remember the first few months were very hard between the colic and a permanently overtired baby. However, as soon as she learned how to go to sleep and stay asleep she transformed into the most delightfully pleasant and happy baby. I believe that going to the babysitter's house has also helped her to be more flexible and open in her social skills and now she has big smiles for everyone she meets. She still LOVES music and loves to dance. Andrew won teacher of the year for his middle school and was in the homecoming parade one Saturday morning a few weeks ago and Clare's favorite part of the parade (other than seeing her Daddy, of course) was the marching band. She kicks her feet, opens her mouth in a big smile and waves her arms when she hears music. She also has favorite songs that we sing and Andrew and I joke that now that we're parents it seems like we're turning every spoken word into some sort of song. We sing all. the. time. For now Clare seems to enjoy our voices so I guess we'll ride this train as far as it will take us!

Taking a walk on one of the first really cold Fall mornings. Love it!

She has not started crawling yet but is a master at scooting across the room. She does a mix between an army crawl, roll and 360 degree spins to navigate the surface area of any room. She loves to sit and stand upright and often leans in to give big hugs and wet, slobbery kisses when she stands in front of us. Andrew has quickly become one of her favorite people. He picks her up 4 days per week from the babysitter's house and she just loves being in his company. She still looks exactly like him, except for her eyes which are the perfect shade of blue from the Dougherty side (just like her Aunt Libby and Uncle Ned). She enjoys sitting in her high chair for breakfast, lunch and dinner and has found that she loves to suck on frozen fruit (especially apples) using a mesh pacifier. She loves almost every food she has been exposed to...except for peas. She does not love peas! Most of the time, especially in new situations, she is still the little observer sitting back and taking everything in. When she's in her comfort zone she makes noises and giggles to communicate. The consonant sound she makes the most frequently is the 'H' sound and when she says it, it sounds like a very southern 'Hi' to which we respond with 'HI!!!'. She can wave 'hi' and 'bye bye'...she waves with her whole arm and so far will not do it on command but she can go 'upside down' on command when we say it and she tilts her head to the side or leans backwards.

Clare's version of dessert: a mesh pacifier with a frozen slice of apple.

On the day Andrew found out he won teacher of the year I received a text message from Celeste saying that Clare had her first tooth! Her bottom left front tooth was the first to come in and it was followed very quickly (about a week later) with the right front tooth. Teething temporarily upended our sleeping plan with her. She went back to waking 1-2 times (and as many as 4 times) per night. However, as soon as she cut the 2nd tooth she returned for awhile to her 'old ways' of sleeping all night or almost all night (1 night waking). She goes to bed sometime between 6:30-7:30 each night depending on how tired she is and she generally wakes up between 6:00-7:00 in the morning. This past week she came down with her first cough and cold and we had one pretty sleepless night but have gotten more closely on track since then. I'm so glad we taught her how to sleep well early on. Now when he have little bumps in the road like teething or illnesses it's easy to re-institute the old plans and she falls right back in line with them.

Getting ready for bed and playing with her ducky feet

One more small note...as some of you already know my dad was diagnosed last summer with Lewy Body Dementia. He is currently doing well and Clare is the light of his life. He looks forward each week to spending Wednesday afternoons with her...a day that he and my mom have dubbed, 'Clare Day'. Well, October is Lewy Body Dementia awareness month and the goal of our family is to raise awareness on the disease in the hopes of helping others. Please check out the link below for more information.

http://www.lbda.org

Clare and Mommy