Grabby Gus

Yep, that’s right. Claire has learned how to grab things and she won’t let go. A lot of times when I’m nursing her, she’ll grab onto my shirt. This presents a problem when I go to set her down in her bassinet. Both of my hands are lowering her into her bassinet and her sneaky little hand still has a hold of my shirt. So I have to bend over with her until I have set her down and then very carefully pull her hand off my shirt. Another of her favorite items to grab is Daddy’s headphones. She gets that from me. Sometimes that’s just the only way to get his attention. A couple days ago Levi was holding Claire when all of a sudden I hear Levi scream. I go running thinking the worst, like that our baby isn’t breathing or he dropped her or something. I exclaim, “what’s wrong!?” and Levi said, “Ouch! That really hurt! She just pulled my chest hairs!” And then a minute later he said, “Gross, she has some of my chest hairs in her hand.”

This last Sunday we took Claire to church for the first time. We tried to go last week but she kept me up the night before so then I wasn’t feeling so good. She was so good! She slept right through the first and second hour while Levi held her. But then it was time for Relief Society and just a couple minutes in, Claire started grumbling. So I went and changed her diaper and fed her and then she was a sleep again and it was time to go home. She did however manage to pee on one of her socks while I was changing her diaper. I’ve always known that boys were really bad about peeing when their diapers are off (Thanks to my little brother Eric for peeing on me 3 times when he was a baby) but Claire does it too. And contrary to all laws of gravity, it goes up! And at just the precise moment her little ninja foot wiggled right under the stream. But I should count my blessings that it was a #1 and not a #2.


We're going to the chapel



Today was the nursing support group again. Claire is almost 5 weeks old and weighs 10 lbs 13 oz! It was funny; I was sitting next to a girl I have never seen there before. Her baby girl was 3 months old but she looked super small. I asked her how much she weighed and she said “Oh 10 something” and so I was thinking her baby had to have been a preemie but no, she weighed like 7 and a half pounds at birth. Maybe it’s because Claire is so long but she doesn’t look chubby to me, she just looks healthy.

Something exciting happened tonight. I put Claire on her back on the floor while we were putting away laundry and she rolled onto her side all by herself. She stayed on her side for a couple minutes but never quite made it to her tummy.


Almost on her tummy

I’m really sorry if there are spelling/grammatical errors. I’m usually very concerned with double checking but I’m so sleepy I don’t really care so I am going to bed. Good night!
-Elizabeth

Mmmmm… is this hand shucked?

I can't believe Claire is 4 weeks old today! Where has the time gone?

Tuesday we had our nursing support group again. I really think we’ve gotten the hang of the whole nursing thing but I just keep going to make sure Claire is gaining the appropriate amount of weight. And plus it’s an excuse to get out of the house. Claire weighed in at 10 lbs 2 oz! She gained 12 ounces in a week. The nurses like to see at least an ounce a day so she is doing excellent. The only downside to her weight gain is that she can no longer fit into her newborn clothes. Darn, there were some super cute ones!

Claire does the cutest things while she’s nursing. I would videotape it but that would be slightly pornographic. She makes all sorts of little noises while she’s eating. It reminds me and Levi of What About Bob when Bob is eating dinner with the psychiatrist and his family and while eating corn on the cob he says, “Mmmm… Mmmm… Mrs. M. Mmmmm… is this hand shucked?” She also plays with and grabs her hair which has got to be the most adorable thing ever! And usually her other hand is stroking my side.

She’s really been getting so expressive lately. Everyday her smiles become more and more real and not just the result of gas. We’ve caught her sucking her thumb a couple times. We’re wondering if that is going to become a normal thing or if it was just an accident. We tried giving her a binky but she wasn’t too excited about that idea. She sucked enthusiastically for a minute and then made a stink face and spit it out. We keep trying though because she seems to just want to suck sometimes. I don’t know how I got so lucky with such a great baby. Every couple nights she sleeps for about 6 hours. The other nights are only 3-4 hours at a time but I can’t complain. She also loves her swing. I set her in it when I have to make dinner or do some chores and most of the time she falls asleep but like right now she’s in there just looking around and taking it all in. She especially likes watching the little mobile in her swing. I think this is pretty common with most babies but Claire loves lights. She loves to look at the sunlight coming through the blinds and this little light up toy she has.




It was really cute yesterday I was holding her so she was facing me and Roxcy (our dog) was sitting behind her. I was talking to Claire and Roxcy thought that someone else was here so she barked and Claire jumped and then started to cry, it must have scared her. Roxcy barks a lot though and Claire has never reacted like that. But as soon as I snuggled Claire and told it was ok she stopped crying. I just love that she is starting to respond to us and her environment; it’s so fun to watch her learning about the world around her.

I love being a Mommy. It's seriously the best thing ever! I’m really starting to feel like I’m getting the hang of this whole thing. And I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. It's so much more wonderful than I could have ever expected. Now if only I could get caught up on the housework, but I would just rather stare at my beautiful baby all day!

-Elizabeth

Gobble Gobble

I’ve asked Levi to write the Thanksgiving blog but it’s been a week now so I gave up on him. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We first went to Levi’s Grandma & Grandpa Longs’ and enjoyed a most excellent meal with all the trimming along with his Aunt Rae & Doug. Rae brought brussell sprouts (they were in a delicious cream of some sort), which I have never had before and they were super good. I love his Grandma’s corn and rolls, they’re my fave. And we had some yummy banana cream pie; it was out of this world!

Next it was on to my parents’ house. My Aunt Cheryl, Uncle John, Grandma & Granddad were there in addition to my Mom, Dad & Eric. The highlights of the meal were my Mom’s stuffing (she puts sausage in it; to die for), some yummy artichoke and spinach dips and not to brag but I do make some darn good candied yams. I usually make candied sweet potatoes however the sweet potatoes were like 65 cents a pound and the yams were 27 cents. And really it only would have been a couple dollars difference but it irritated me so I just went with the cheaper yams. Ok so there is a difference for all of you that use the two interchangeably. Yams are orange and funny shaped and the sweet potatoes are more of a potato shape and color and are much sweeter than yams. Anyhow, my Aunt Cheryl made some delicious desserts, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and pumpkin cheesecake. The pumpkin cheesecake was amazing! Two of my favorite desserts combined, it doesn’t get much better than that.

On our way home we stopped off at Dan & Lacey’s. Lacey needed a Baby Claire fix. And we ate some of their apple pie. I don’t know how our bellies hadn’t exploded by then. We always stay too late at their house but it’s always just so wonderful to see them and we always have so much fun. Claire was so good all day. She only cried a couple times when she needed to be fed. Her Grandma Janet bought the adorable bib you see in the pictures.

We are so blessed and have so much to be grateful for this year; most importantly a healthy, adorable baby girl. We’re also so grateful for:
-Such a great pregnancy, labor and delivery
-Each other and a happy marriage
-Our wonderful families, immediate and extended
-Great friends and an amazing ward
-That we are an eternal family and for the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ
-That we are able to provide for ourselves financially

The list could go on and on but I would like to go to bed. I hope you all also had a wonderful Thanksgiving!