Vexing

I have to laugh thinking about the little things that Claire does that "vex" her dad. ("Vex" is a favorite word around the McIntyre house. I can't remember when or why we started to use it, but it makes an appearance at least once a week, sometimes more.)

Claire just learned how to turn the TV off and on. She doesn't even really realize that she's doing it because she's not as fascinated by the TV flashing on and off, but she is magnetically drawn to the teeny blue light on the Power button. (I'm constantly amazed at the tiniest observations little ones can make.) I'm just waiting for the day that Scott is in the midst of an intense moment in his favorite racing game only to have Claire turn off the TV...hee hee....

Claire also loves to kick her legs...almost constantly....while laying on the changing table. Today I was particularly entertained listening to Scott trying to get her tights back on....hence the reason that she only dons outfits with tights on the weekends when I'm around the patiently push her wiggly little feet in and scoot them up her chubby little thighs. He got the job done, though. Ah, the things a dad has to learn to do for his little girl.

Of course, Claire vexes me sometimes, too. For instance, today I wanted her to wear a headband with bow. Unfortunately, though, I haven't been having her wear them much lately, so she was having nothin' doin' of keeping that headband on, no matter how many times I pulled her hands down, saying "Oh, such a pretty headband" with my most excited, encouraging face. Guess I'll just have to keep trying.

What I've Got

I should be in bed right now, but you know how it is. I sat down to check Facebook for just a few minutes, and now, more than a few minutes later, I'm feeling moved to write after having spent the last 20 minutes reading a random blog that an acquaintance whom I never talk with anymore had posted on her FB page.

I have a confession to make: I've had a bad attitude as of late. Maybe you already knew this, so it might not seem like much of a confession to you, but I'm admitting it without trying to cover it with excuses. Tonight I'm telling myself that I'm going to get over thinking life isn't fair and quit thinking about the things I want but just can't have right now.

Instead, I'm going to focus on what I have here and now. And I must say, some of it is pretty good. I've got a living room floor strewn with dominoes, tiny striped socks, pillows, a pink sock monkey popping his head over the edge of the toy tub, a stray mitten, and a few cans of vegetables (long story, but let's just say that Scott gets creative in seeking ways to keep Claire busy during the day). Just a few hours ago, the most adorable little girl on the planet was crawling around amidst all that stuff.

Now that adorable little girl is all snug in her crib, sucking on her orange paci, peacefully sleeping away 11 hours or so while her new front tooth continues to push its way through. She's happy and healthy and thinks I'm the best thing ever. How can I be sure of that, you ask? Well, I don't see her doing the "I'm a little bird, flapping my little arm wings, trying to take off up into your arms" dance when you walk in the room :)

I've got a 4th block class full of freshmen who don't act like crazy monkeys between 1:45 and 3:15 each day.

I've got a good audio book to listen to on my drive in the morning, and I'll enjoy creamy, vanilla flavored coffee while I listen and drive.

I've got an amazing husband who loves me in spite of my incredibly moody moments.

And I've got a warm cozy bed that I will now crawl into. Good night.

Daddy's girl

It's amazing how much more I can fall in love with Scott by simply watching (or hearing about) him care for Claire. After two months of him filling the role of stay-at-home dad, I have one word: amazing. Considering that he had never diapered, fed, dressed, bathed, or anything more than held a baby before becoming Claire's dad, he is doing a rockstar job!

Our day starts with me waking Claire up at 6:30am. I love watching her rub her eyes with her chubby little fists, peering up at me standing over her crib. On the way out of her room, we stop at the hallway mirror, so she can laugh at herself (she's quite funny in the morning) and lightly bump her forehead against her reflection in the mirror I nuzzle my nose in her fuzzy bed-head hair, entertained by her two-tooth smile and laughter in the morning.

I usually deposit her in our bed at 7 am to snuggle with dad....well, Scott would like to snuggle with her (he's constantly commenting how "I just wish she'd want to hug me!"), but she's much too busy to have time for snuggling and hugging. I play peek-a-boo a few times before I head out the door.

Scott is not one to just loiter at home with Claire all day (which I must say I'm impressed by because taking an active 9 month old out is can be an endeavor, as all of you who area already parents well know). Just this week they had lunch at Panera with a friend (apparently three college girls at the table beside them got very little studying done while Claire was there), visited the guys at FastTrack trucking, and frequented Target several times.

Here's one difference in Scott from the pre-Claire to now with-Claire days. Scott still loves the toy aisle at Target, don't get me wrong, and I'm almost certain he and Claire strolled down it yesterday, but he didn't come home with Legos for himself (my man loves his Legos!). No, he came home with two pink, fleecy outfits for Claire (cute yet practical!), a red Sock monkey doll (because "I've always wanted to get her a Sock monkey!"...sounding like he's been waiting years, not just 9 months), a round tub for her toys (one that's big enough that he can empty all the toys out, put Claire in, and push her around in it. I know that alternative use factored in to which toy bin was purchased), and a monkey hat with matching brown mittens. Technically the tag on the monkey hat did say "Infant Boy", which I gently pointed out to him, but he won me over when he said, "Well, you can take it back if you want, but I just love the hats with little ears!" I must admit, it is quite adorable, so I'll just make sure that she's wearing pink when she has it on.

Scott commented that as he walked around Target, he was thinking to himself that he was about the only guy in the store, it seemed, and probably the only one pushing around a little girl in the cart. And to hear him talk about how the cart could be better suited for babies ("the strap to buckle her in needs to be lower. It goes up into her armpits and then she slouches down, putting her feet up on the handle"), and how he has to bend over the cart while he pushes to make sure she doesn't slip out....I know, I know, I'm such a sappy mom, but I can't help but smiling when I picture it in my mind!

Perhaps the most entertaining Daddy moment of the day yesterday involved the new sippy cup. Lately Claire has been losing interest in the bottle. Food is just more appealing these days, but don't worry, she's obviously still getting enough, as her chubby thighs and cheeks will prove. We decided it might be time to try a sippy cup, so Scott also picked one of those up at Target. Watching him figure out how to use it was priceless. In his defense, it was tricky, being the "stage 1" cup which is similar to a bottle nipple in the fact that Claire still needs to suck to get liquid out (hard to explain...if you could see the cup, you'd understand). So he filled, turned it upside down, tried to drink, realized that if you pushed your nose on the center part by the nipple, the water came out better. Problem being that the distance between his mouth and nose is much greater than a baby's. Eventually Claire would hold it up to her mouth and suck, but we don't have much confidence that she actually got any water, since she loves to just chew on stuff these days. The cup went back already last night, so we'll have to try a different style.

Anywho, I suppose I've rambled long enough. Yes, I'm that mom who is absolutely enamored with my child, so don't complain that you haven't been warned! As I watch her crawl around (which she's quite fast at these days) and pull herself up next to things (mostly on her knees, but every so often up to her feet...yikes!), I can't believe that our little Claire is already nine months old. I can't wait to spend two uninterrupted weeks (thank God for Christmas break) with my little girl :)

Princess

Yesterday was Claire's 7 month birthday....woah, time, please slow down!

It was also another milestone: Scott's first full day as "Mr. Mom." We've been super blessed by God's job provision for Scott. First, his internship was extended one month because of a coworker recovering from kidney donation surgery (very cool/random, yes). Then he worked for almost a full month contracting for Bozell. Again, an answer to prayer. So now, as he's in a "lull" between jobs and as he continues searching for a full-time position, he's taking on the role of full-time dad.

I texted about 11 am to ask how things were going. An hour later (I wasn't sure if the time gap was a good sign or not), I receive this text back: "Well, Princess only drinks her milk warm ;) if it best a bit cool it must be warmed again." I laughed out loud, thinking about the fact that Claire was already wrapping daddy around her little finger. Our babysitter has said that Claire is sometimes slow and a bit stubborn when drinking, but I know that she's just persistent in having Claire drink. Scott, on the other hand, goes to rewarm the bottle (which is sweet) in order to please his little girl.

I love, love, love watching Scott fall even more in love with his little girl. And she's pretty darn lovable, I must admit. She's a girl on the go these days, rolling and backwards slide/scooting all over the living room. She "chooses" a DVD to watch several times a day (really wish we could find the glass doors to the TV stand so we could put them back on to baby proof a bit) and loves playing with the springy doorstops in the hall. She purposefully rolls over to Shoes to pet her, but Shoes has already decided that she's not so down with that. She'd rather watch Claire from a distance. She loves standing in the exersaucer and pressing the button that plays "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"....over and over and over and over.....you can imagine how much Scott loves that :) Mirrors are sources of extreme fascination as she tries to figure out just who that adorable little girl is!

We love our little Claire-a-belle!

A week of milestones

Claire's been a busy girl over the past week! Last Monday, after much grunting, squirming, and red-face making (on her part) and much cheering (from mom), she rolled from her back to her stomach! We were playing on the floor around noon. I'd been coaching her a lot on this rolling thing because I really wanted her to do it before I go back to school (more on that later). Once she was completely over, she still had her arm trapped beneath her. I resisted the urge to help her get it out because I wanted this to really "count" as the first roll (is that lame of me?), so I let her fuss it out a bit more until she got the arm free. I was so excited...but she was less than. After all that work, she just wanted to be picked up :)

I was so excited to actually see her accomplish this for the first time because she has to start going to the babysitter on Wednesday. We have an awesome woman lined up for her (sister of a good friend from church, has seven kids of her own, only watches one other girl full-time), but I'm still a bit sad thinking of the things I'll miss, so I'm feeling blessed to witness this milestone. Maybe I'll tell the babysitter not to tell me if Claire accomplishes a "first" while there. Or maybe I'll put the video camera in the diaper bag each day. Or maybe I'll just pray she does all the good stuff during the evening or weekends. The best bet, though, might be to follow Scott's advice (shhh....don't tell him I think he might be right :) to remember that just because I don't get to see the absolute first time, doesn't mean that it won't be awesome to see the second...or third...or fourth. I tell him it's a "mom thing," but he does have a point. We'll see how the year goes :)

Rolling does present some new challenges though. Unfortunately I only helped her practice rolling from back to tummy, and she hasn't figured out how to roll from tummy to back yet (which is somewhat backward. most babies do that first...perhaps I didn't do enough tummy time?) So she gets rather frustrated when she's tired of being on her tummy but can't seem to do anything about it. Also, putting her down to sleep is trickier because, again, she'll roll to her tummy and then get really mad about it (which isn't good for sleeping), or she'll roll part way and get an arm or leg stuck between the crib bars, which also makes for a mad baby. We're working it out, though...and now practicing that ever-so-important tummy to back roll :)

She's also made two amazing discoveries this past week: those feet down there are actually hers! And her thumb is a mighty fine pacifier. I love watching her rock on her back, playing with her feet (she's not sucking on them...yet). Even cuter is peeking in on her sleeping, sucking away at her thumb. Really, does it get cuter than that? She's still not an expert at the thumbsucking....sometimes her other fingers about poke her eye out, but I'm ok if she's not doing it all the time. Just like the paci, all good things in moderation, yes?

The final milestone: she's now sleeping upstairs during the night. I wanted to make the transition from the pack-n-play in our room to the crib in her room for night sleeping so my alarm doesn't wake her up in the morning. (I'm already going to have to wake the poor girl up in the morn when school starts. No sense in that happening any earlier than it needs to). She's a rockstar and slept through the first night in her crib with narry a peep. Which is more than I can say for me. I woke up at least twice to listen for the baby monitor. Scott indulged my testing it several different ways "just to make sure." Are there people that worry more about little things than moms? I don't think so :) She even slept through the noisy dumpster emptying at 3:45 am the second night. Really, Mr. Garbage Truck Man? Not a different time you could empty that dumpster next door? This is a residential neighborhood, for crying out loud!

So exciting times for Team McIntyre. Times that make me smile and make me sad all at one. Time flies a bit too fast sometime. God, show me how to treasure each and every moment of it :)

8 pounds later...

Good friends of ours welcomed their little boy into the world 10 days ago. Yes, another little boy in Claire ever-expanding group of friends. All of my six friends who were expecting over the last year had boys. Claire has a wide circle of future suitors to choose from. Scott is already oiling his shotgun :)

I stopped by to visit little Jacob and jumped at the chance to hold him....all seven pounds of him. Just 4 months ago Claire was that little...at least almost. As I was holding the little guy, I was trying to remember back to when Claire was just a little peanut like that, but I almost can't....yikes! How did it feel when she would snuggle up to me before she could hold herself up? How did she look before she grew an extra chin, thunder thighs, and cankles (all of which I love :)? She's on the road to being a big girl!

Other big girl things she's been doing lately:

• so very close to rolling over from her back to her stomach. She gets the bottom two-thirds turned, but just can't get over her arm and swing her head up. I help her practice, showing her how to point her arm up to get over it, but not quite there yet.
• purposely grabbing at objects hanging down from her play gym.
• sleeping on her side. She just started doing this last night, and for some reason it seems like such a grown-up thing to do, don't you think?
• sitting up in her bath...with help, of course, but so adorable the way her hands grip the side of the dishpan, and her feet kick up an occasional splash.
• sitting in the front of the stroller, no longer in the car seat clipped on top. Cooler for her, I think, and much easier for me to push....win-win for both of us!
• yesterday at the doc, she weighed in at 15 pounds, 3 ounces, which puts her in the 78th percentile. She jumped to the 91st percentile for height, so it looks like we're going to have a tall girl on our hands. Highwater pants are in her future, I suspect....I can only hope they come back in style when she's in those ever-so-important-to-be-in-style teen years :)
  

The Mom Reflex

I just finished reading What is the What for book club. Not an easy, fun summer read by any means, but I'm very glad to have read it. In a nutshell, the book is the story of one of the Sudanese "Lost Boys" from his childhood days in a peaceful village to the civil war to living in several refugee camps before finally immigrating to the United States.

The book opened my eyes to the plight of refugees and asked many questions that have no easy answers. Before having Claire, I would still have been started, angry, and sad at the story, but now that I'm a mom, a new surge of emotions takes me by surprise.

And it's not just the book. Last weekend at my mom's farm, when I saw one of the barn cats heading to the house, carrying a very baby kitten by the scruff of the neck, my eyes teared up. Blackie, the ambitious mother cat, thought she would bring the kitten into the house. That's not such a far-fetched idea because Blackie is allowed on the porch, but only the porch, occasionally because my 7-year-old niece loves her. (Can I just say that I begged my mom for years to have a house cat? Apparently there's something called the Grandma Reflex as well). In Blackie's mind the porch is the perfect safe place, but much to her dismay, mom won't allow it. So I found myself shedding a tear because Blackie would have to find a different safe place for her baby.

Then there was the other night on the Keystone Trail. Sandy and I were enjoying a stroll with Claire (who, I must add, is now riding in the front of the stroller like a big girl!) when three upper elementary aged boys were coming towards us on their bikes. The youngest (who I would guess to be in 3rd or 4th grade) was slowly riding straight towards us. Sandy said he has an ornery "let's see who will be the first chicken" look in his eye. As he swerved a way at the last minute, I turned an yelled, "Hey, you need to be careful!"

He didn't seem at all sorry, so I added, "You don't own the trail, you know."

"Really?" the punk kid replied.

Not nice retorts formed in my mind and were on the verge of spilling out of my mouth when Sandy replied, "You need to be careful when there's a baby around." Much nicer than I would've been. If you know me, you know it's not like me to yell at young kids on the trail, so, again, the mom reflex seems to have struck.

And yes, I know, this is just the beginning...