Spring is Here!

I’m such a slacker! It’s been over 2 weeks since my last posting. I’ll try to remember all that happened but leave out the boring stuff, so here goes.

Last week I got a job. It was a work from home job that I had found on Craigslist. It was only 10 hours a week and it was supposed to be half of what I made at my full time job, so I didn’t think it could get anymore perfect. The job was an appointment setter, and it was a whole lot more telemarketer-like than I was expecting. Not to mention super boring. But the real problem was that I wasn’t able to get Claire to nap for more than like 15 min at a time. I’m pretty bummed that it didn’t work out but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. So we are currently trying to get the house cleaned up and getting rid of stuff so I can start watching kids here. I’m thinking about doing the whole shi-bang and becoming a licensed daycare. It’s crazy though how much lower the going rates are down here compared to Washington County. In Washington County it’s $3-4/hour, in Salem $2-3/hour but $3 is considered pretty high. But I think that it would help considerably with making ends meet and it would be fun because I just love kids.

Claire had her 4 month appointment last Thursday. It had to be postponed 2 weeks past her actual 4 month mark (it seems like her doctor’s always out). So she was a whole 27 inches long (99th percentile!!!), 15 lbs 13.5 ounces (84th percentile) and head circumference 41.5 cm (55th percentile). Levi keeps calling her a little pea head but I think it’s just that most babies have heads that are too gigantic for their bodies and hers is just proportional. I knew she had to be pretty tall; people think she’s 6 months. She had 1 oral vaccine and 2 shots and again she did much worse with the oral one. She kept coughing it out and spitting it all over the nurse. So the nurse would give her a tiny squirt then I would shove her binky in her mouth super quick and we did that like 10 times. The Doc said everything looked good and that Claire is advanced for her age, like we didn’t already know that. ;)

Today we went and grabbed Subway and then went to the park in front of the State Capitol building. It was such a beautiful day today. This was the first time Claire was outside in short sleeves! The park was gorgeous with all the pretty flowers in bloom and the fountains. We ate lunch, walked around, took pictures and played with the baby. It felt glorious to have to sun on our skin again. I’m so ready to not look albino! Claire loved the flowers, I held her close to them and she grabbed some and pulled them off the stems, oops.

Also Levi’s brother, Logan left on his mission. He reported to the Missionary Training Center (aka MTC) in Provo, Utah on March 10. He’ll spend 3 weeks there learning everything he needs to know to be a successful missionary. Then he’ll travel on to the Jacksonville Florida Mission where he’ll spend 2 years. Levi set up a really nice blog that he’ll update with the letters Logan writes. Here’s a link to it http://sites.google.com/site/elderfergus/. As sad as it is that he’s gone, we’re so proud of him and we know he’ll be an excellent missionary.

This week I borrowed the book “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” from a friend and oh my goodness is it a miracle worker! Claire went from taking two 15-30 min naps to now taking 3-4 hour long naps. I was getting so frazzled that I wasn’t able to get anything done during the day, that book is so amazing. I recommend it to all parents, even if your child doesn’t have sleep problems it talks about all about the brain, sleep cycles, when to cut naps out, etc; it’s really neat.
I haven’t read a single non-baby-related book since we had Claire. I guess that’s what parenthood does to you, it makes you boring lol. Levi and I actually went out last night. My Mom came down yesterday (we went shopping; so fun) and spent the night so she could watch Claire. We went with a group of our church friends to Laser Tag. We hadn’t played in years, it was such a blast. And then we went back and hung out at a friend’s house. We have made such great friends in this ward. We ended up staying out till almost 1 AM. It was a much needed date night though! It felt so weird not hauling around 50 lbs worth of baby stuff; we kept feeling like we were forgetting something.

Well I better get to bed otherwise we might not make it to church tomorrow.

I tried to add a couple really cute pics of Claire and Levi but it wasn't working for some reason, hmm...

Squealing, Teething & Lots of Drool

Claire has learned to do the highest pitch, loudest squeal. Seriously, it is an absolutely ear-piercing, window-shattering kind of squeal. It cracks us up for the first 5 or 10 minutes but after an hour and a half we start searching for the ear plugs! We tried videotaping it but it's just not quite the same as being 2 ft from her.

Last Saturday Claire rolled from her back to her tummy, I'm not sure I can count it though. She did have the advantage of being on a bed that was not even. We spent the night at Dan & Lacey's and we were up trying to help Lacey decide on what paint for the guest room (aka our room ;) ) After Claire & me were sitting on the bed a while Lacey discovered there were wheels on one end of the bed but not on the other. So Claire rolled a little downhill.

While we were up there we walked up at Washington Park (up by the zoo) and it was so fun and such a gorgeous day for it. I didn't realize how huge Washington Park is. It seemed to go on for ever. We started at the Rose Gardens and walked down to the Holocaust Memorial (which I had no idea existed). It was so nice to be outside!

Claire is still teething and boy, oh boy, am I ready for those little teeth to pop through! She is still sleeping super awesome at night (about 10 hours worth of awesomeness!!!) but it has been super hard to get her to sleep. And she hasn't taken very good naps which also adds to the crankiness. But thank goodness for those teething tablets and tylenol!

Claire has found her feet and they must taste yummy! It's so cute, she'll grab her feet and then roll to one side or the other. I could just watch her all day. She also thinks that a gloworm looks suspiciously like a boob. She sucks on it's face, it's so funny! We gave her her first taste of food a couple nights ago. She tasted whip cream and chocolate pudding and wasn't too thrilled about either. We took a video of it but I can't get it to post, darn. I'll try again tomorrow.

The Sun Really Did Come Out Today!!!

It was such a beautiful sunny and kind of warm day today! Ahh, it felt so good! This morning we went to the temple and thank goodness because I really needed that especially after yesterday. Levi's brother Logan was going through for the first time and it was really special to go through with a lot of Levi's family. My Mom watched Claire while we were in there and Claire was so good for her! She didn't cry once, I was so worried she would.

So it turns out that Claire really, truly, at not even 4 months, is teething. I'm not ready for this! I thought we had a couple more months. We can see a little white spec on her bottom gums. So we washed her teething toys and got out the tylenol. We have a grumpy little baby on our hands. Any advice on what worked for your babies would be greatly appreciated!

For the last couple nights Claire has been sleeping in her crib. Up until this point she had been sleeping in her Pack & Play but she is too heavy for the upper level and I know I wouldn't be able to lower her into the bottom of that thing without waking her up. We weren't planning on moving her into her crib for another month or so but actually it's gone surprisingly well. And it is so nice to have our bedroom back. I love reading before going to bed but with Claire in the room I was too scared that the light would wake her up.

A very exciting milestone occurred today, Claire rolled from her tummy to her back! She's been looking like she might for about a week or 2 now. She was getting close and so I yelled for Levi to come look (he was making dinner for us) and he watched for a while but went to go check on dinner. And what do you know, the minute he walks away, she did it. That was really fun to watch her try so hard to accomplish something and finally succeed! But it's also sad because it's just more evidence that she's growing up. :(

These pictures were from a week ago but I really loved them and forgot to post them sooner.