Photo Contest

Claire has been entered in a photo contest. Click HERE to vote for her picture. Be sure to vote so that she will win.

Voting ends on Sunday, 4/4/10. You can vote once a day.

Ahh... Spring!!!

10 Months

Claire is 10-months-old today! These pictures were taken this morning in our backyard. Claire is definitely a morning person. She wakes up happy everyday.

Month nine was a very big month for our little girl. She got her ears pierced. She traveled to Tulsa and Memphis. PopPop and MiMi came to visit, and she went to Rodeo and the park.

She has some mad skills. She can now curl her tongue, throw a ball, roll a ball, brush her own hair (or at least attempt this); and she can feed herself. She can recognize patterns and is beginning to learn her colors. (She can hand you a red ball or a blue ball or an orange ball on request.)

She is babbling almost non-stop when she is awake. She clicks her tongue a lot. In addition to "DaDa," "Mama" and "bye-bye," she now says "hi" and "bear." "Bye-bye" is a general greeting for her, similar to "aloha." She says "bye-bye" for hello, goodbye and sometimes just because. She usually waves one or both hands when saying "bye-bye." She has recently started waving at everyone she meets everywhere we go. For example, while riding in the cart at the grocery store, she will wave and say "bye-bye" as we go up and down the aisles. It's almost as if she were the queen on parade!

Claire is 27" long. She is wearing 9-month and 12-month clothes (depending on the brand and outfit) and size 2 shoes.

Food is big thing around our house these days. We have reintroduced bananas, turkey, apple sauce and Gerber Puffs. Claire loves them all. She has tried some new foods as well: Baby Mum-Mums, cinnamon raisin granola, apples with pomegranate juice, cinnamon raisins & pears, butternut squash with corn, pasta vegetable medley and hearty vegetable stew - all of which she loves. She also tried spaghetti-o's and maccaroni and cheese. So far she's not a fan of pasta, but she will eat a few bites if we force her to do so. Mashed potatoes, however, make her gag. Her body just will not accept them. We also tried giving her apple pie (a flavor of baby food, not the real thing), and she hated it.

As mentioned, Claire is now feeding herself. Here is a short video of the very first time Claire fed herself. She's eating banana-flavored Gerber Puffs.

Happy 10 months, Baby Girl!

We Went to the Park!

Last night we took Claire to the park for the first time.

I'm not sure who had more fun - Claire or her daddy!
Lovin' this springtime weather. Hope you're enjoying some in your neck of the woods.

Rodeo!

It's Rodeo time in Houston! We've lived in Houston for almost four years now, and we finally attended our first Rodeo. However, it won't be our last. It was SO much fun! Here are a few pics we took yesterday.

Claire meeting Miss Moo

Claire LOVED Miss Moo! I think the feeling was mutual!
Claire with a 3000 lb Texas longhorn.

Claire loved the bunnies. She wanted to pet them.

Driving her first John Deere... Look out, Uncle Adam! I think you may have some volunteer help for your ranch in a few years. (Although you know her daddy will insist on "a small fee.")

On the midway

And what would any carnival be without a funnel cake?! It was de-lish!

Everywhere we go, Claire attracts attention. While standing in the funnel cake line, girls of all ages surrounded us asking a million questions and telling me how adorable she is.

We had a blast at Rodeo. It's the best people-watching event I've ever attended. There simply aren't words to describe some of the characters we saw!

We recommend that anyone wanting to visit us or Houston, come during Rodeo next year. It always takes place during the first three weeks of March. It's the only time of year that the weather is perfect (mid-60's to mid-70's), and Rodeo is the perfect "Texan" entertainment!

Claire celebrates 10 months on Monday! She's changed a lot this month. Watch the blog for the update and hopefully a video!

Spring Break

PopPop and MiMi came to visit during MiMi's spring break. They came in on Saturday and left yesterday. We had a great time with them!

Claire got up every morning and played with PopPop. She loved showing him how her toys work.

MiMi is a lot of fun to play with too!
Claire and PopPop went swimming. They had a tea party.

Claire loves her MiMi!

Claire's PopPop is so much fun!PopPop and MiMi, we had a great time with you! We're so glad that you came to visit Claire! We love you!!!

Dinner With The King

We're in Memphis, TN for a few days. Tonight we rode to dinner in style - we were chauffered by a pink Cadillac stretch limo!

Claire enjoying her first limo ride - in a PINK limo nonetheless!
We enjoyed some authentic and wonderfully tasty Memphis BBQ at one of Elvis's favorite BBQ joints - Marlowe's. We even met one of Elvis's childhood friends. She works in their gift shop. And you have to LOVE that Southern hospitality!

This is parked out in front of the restaurant. This giant pig even has a curly-cue tail on the other side.

This cut-out was next to our table; so we did, indeed, have dinner with the king.

Hangin' With Minnie

Just Chillin'