Seven Months Old

Claire is seven months old today. I'm using it as an opportunity to post some of the great pictures my mom took while she and my dad were visiting a few weeks ago. Some highlights at seven months:

• Claire is sitting up on her own now with fewer and fewer face plants (unless she's desperate to get a toy just out of her reach).
• Check out her long eyelashes--I've been jealous of them since she was born. (See the bath photo for the best look.)
• She's quite mobile by rolling herself all over the floor; unfortunately, that means we can no longer contain her many spit-ups to a blanket on the floor.
• I'm slowly but surely winning the nap-in-the-crib battle. She still screams bloody murder when I put her down, but generally it lasts only 10 minutes or so now instead of 45 minutes.
• All food is Claire's friend. She loves mealtime and hasn't refused any of the foods I've tried with her yet.
• Those of you who are Calvin Alumni will appreciate the souvenir my parents brought back from a conference they attended at Calvin. Of course, they also had the latest tuition figures...frightening.

Two Kills in One Day

After a few months of being, as they say around here, a "hunting widow," Nate filled both his elk and whitetail deer tags in one day in the mountains about 40 minutes north of our house. He shot the elk in the morning, packed it out with his friend Scott, brought it to the butcher in Helena, and returned to the same ranch at nightfall when he shot the whitetail buck. For those of you not familiar with hunting, this is not a normal occurrence. It is, however, a result of much time spent in the woods and also a little bit of luck. Claire and I are glad to have Nate home again... well except for waterfowl and upland bird seasons.

Visit with Grandma and Grandpa

We've enjoyed another wonderful visit with parents. My parents arrived Thursday afternoon from Washington to enjoy a three-day weekend with us. I put my parents right to work watching Claire while I rushed off for an evening of parent-teacher conferences, but then I had Friday off so we were able to have three uninterrupted days together. Claire, of course, loved the extra attention, and I loved having extra help around the house. In the past few days Claire has really found her voice and has started chatting and babbling up a storm. She's also discovered she can scream in frustration, especially when she's convinced Mom's arms are the ONLY place good enough for her to be at a particular moment. It's fun to see her get more and more personality--which my mom described as "intense." She's in constant motion and enjoys looking at the world while upside down. (I'm trying not to read into that one....) While the house seems empty again now that my parents have left, we can look forward to a visit from Nate's mom in early December and then a trip to Washington over Christmas to see my family again. (I don't have many pictures from this weekend because Grandma took most of them; I do have a family picture we took while they were visiting though.)

Pumpkin Time

Grandpa Charlie is visiting and brought Claire the cutest little cat ears, so, of course, I wanted to get the perfect pumpkin, Halloween picture. We don't have a costume for her other than the ears, so this is as dressed up as she'll get. Speaking of pumpkins, for those of you who are cooks out there, I've included a link for some yummy pumpkin bread. I made it once last week and have another loaf in the oven as we speak. (I made 1/2 the recipe for one normal sized loaf.)

New Mom's Group

I think I've mentioned in other blogs that I've been working on starting a group for moms who like to hike, ski, bike, so we can enjoy the outdoors with our children (and hopefully a few times leave the kids behind with the dads). I have about 10 moms who are interested, but, as you can imagine, trying to find a time when everyone can go on an outing is impossible. Nonetheless, I have been meeting some new people and getting to know other moms with young kids which is great! This is a picture from our outing yesterday. It was a gorgeous fall afternoon, almost 70 degrees, so we (Jennifer, myself, and Claire (a mom) and her daughter Jade) took advantage of it. Claire lasted almost the whole time in her backpack (except for the last 10 minutes); however, I wondered at times as we were climbing in elevation if I would make it! Whew, the thighs were burning with the pack and all 16 pounds of her weighing me down. All I can say is if we keep these up I will be one buff lady!

Six Months!!

I hate to use the old cliche, but I can't believe how time has flown. Claire had her six month check-up yesterday. Has it been half a year already??

She weighed in at nearly 16 pounds and is doing all the requisite cooing, reaching, rolling, and drooling as a baby her age should. No teeth yet, but we have started with solid foods and so far she loves everything she's tried--cereal, banana, avocado, squash, and pear. I'll try sweet potato and green beans this week. Claire is still not rolling from her stomach to her back, but she can sorta sit up and loves to be a part of the activities in the house as well as explore different places like the grocery store, doctor's office, and outside. We tried her in the backpack again this Sunday, with a little better luck. I think it would have gone fine if we weren't walking right at nap time. Tomorrow will be a big test as I have another hike set up with my moms' hiking group that requires the use of the backpack.

Six months...only a short step on the overall path of parenthood, but so far we are loving it!!

Hmm...what to post about?

Hate to say it, not too much exciting action going on around here since Grandma left last week. I'm not saying that as if it were a bad thing; we have a good routine going with school, work, and some periods of time even just for mom or dad. However, I feel like I should post SOMETHING...I'm kinda winning the battle of getting Claire to nap in her crib, though not without some crying each day. Over the past few weeks I've been working on starting an outdoor recreation group for moms and kids. Tomorrow is our first outing, and about 7-8 women have expressed interest. I'm looking forward to meeting some moms with similar interests and hopefully developing some new friendships. What else? Nate has been busy with bow hunting season in search of a big whitetail buck and elk. I guess that's it...I like this picture of Claire; I think it shows some of her personality : )