Half a Year Has Flown By!

Clare is six months old!  This last half a year has truly flown by!  I can't believe I already have a 6 month old.  And a not quite two year old.  But things are going really well!  This last month we took a trip to Arkansas, celebrated Clare's first Easter, and enjoyed some nice spring weather.  Clare finally started sleeping much, much better, became absolutely fascinated with everything around her, and started sitting up though she is very easily distracted so I can't move away yet.

We decided to take a trip to the Ozarks in Arkansas over Easter weekend.  We rented a house on Beaver Lake with some good friends.  Our weather wasn't great but it was still beautiful and we had a great time!  Clare had just started rolling everywhere before we left on the trip so we had to use pillows and blankets to sort of trap her in to a smaller area or else she would have been rolling in to furniture or the fireplace.  The lake view was beautiful and the boys had so much fun picking up rocks and throwing them in the water.

While we were at the lake we celebrated Easter.  It was Clare's first Easter and Grayson's second.  She had fun playing with the plastic eggs and she looked beautiful in her Easter dress but other than that Clare was too young to know what was going on.  Grayson, on the other hand, loved finding eggs and pulling out the jelly beans to eat as quickly as possible.  Next year I will probably put something a little more healthy in the eggs because he had WAY too much sugar for one morning!  After our egg hunt, Julian read Grayson the resurrection story in his children's Bible and then we enjoyed a nice day as a family.

The day after Easter we drove back to Oklahoma but on our way we stopped at the Gentry Wilderness Safari which was a really cool place!  It has a very cool petting zoo and some animals in smaller cages but then there is a 4 mile safari drive that has a ton of animals spread out over acres of land.  Grayson was in heaven!  He kept going up to all of the animals and saying "Hi Goat!" even to the donkeys, pigs, chickens and llamas.  They had an area with kangaroos that you could feed and pet so G was able to feed a kangaroo.  He walked up to every kangaroo and said "Hi Joey!"  which was pretty adorable.  We saw several joeys climb into their mama's pouches which is something that I have never seen at a zoo.  I thought that Clare was too young to care about the animals but she seemed really interested in looking at any of them that were moving.  She especially liked the monkeys and then during the drive she liked the zebras and emus that would walk up to the car.  We were so glad that we stopped at such a cool place!

At 6 Months Old, Clare:
-weighs 16 lbs 11 ozs which puts her in the 65th percentile for weight.
-is 27 inches tall which puts her in the 96th percentile for height.
-only gets up once a night, usually between 4-6.  We had a huge turnaround on sleep this month and I am so grateful!
-loves to watch her brother and all of his silly antics.  He cheers her up a lot when she gets sad.
-loves to play with her feet.  They are constantly in her mouth now!
-is a little rolly polly!  She has been able to roll for a few months now but this last month she really started rolling constantly.
-can sit for a few minutes at a time though she still falls over a lot.  She gets easily distracted by toys that she wants to reach for so she will fall over reaching for something.
-puts EVERYTHING in her mouth!  When she sees anything new she tries to figure out the best way to get it in to her mouth.  She will pretty much chew on anything.
-loves it when mommy sings to her.  She laughs almost every time that I start singing to her.
-loves books though her desire to eat them usually wins over her desire to hear them.
-really likes toys that make a crinkle sound.  She also really liked playing with plastic Easter eggs this last month.  They were the perfect size for her little hands!

 

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Clare is 5 Months Old!

My Sweet Little Lady is already 5 months old!!  I cannot believe that it has almost been half a year since Clare came in to our lives!  She is growing like a weed and getting so much more interested in everything around her.  This last month we had a visit from Grandma, our first real snowstorm followed by nice spring weather, and we finished up the month with a visit from my sister Courtney.

I also really felt like Clare and Grayson got closer this month.  He doesn't call her Clare but he is always asking where the baby is or watching to make sure that she is seeing what he is doing.  She loves to watch everything that he is doing which is very cute.  Clare is a very observant baby and she definitely thinks her brother is fascinating!

My mom came out to see her grandkids (Julian and me too but mostly the kids) and she spoiled them rotten!  She played with both kids, helped a ton with Grayson when he got sick (first fever ever), and bought Clare a whole bunch of new headbands and cute clothes and shoes.  We absolutely love visits from Grandma!

We had our only big snowstorm of the year after my mom left and we decided to take the kids outside to experience it even though we were all just getting over having colds.  Clare didn't cry but she also definitely didn't enjoy herself.  She sucked her breath in at the cold temperature and just looked annoyed.  Grayson thought it was a ton of fun until his hands got wet (we don't actually own kid gloves) and then he got really upset and we had to put him in the bathtub to warm up his hands and calm him down.  He had a lot more fun the next day over at his friend Erick's house because Erick had extra gloves.  Clare and I decided to stay inside in the warmth :)

After our snow weekend, the weather finally started to warm up and we spent the next weekend at the park where it was gorgeous.  Oklahoma weather is kind of crazy the way that it bounces between being hot and cold.  We have definitely enjoyed the nice spring weather and we are trying to soak as much of it up as possible before the hot Oklahoma summer.

We ended Clare's 4th month with a visit from my sister Courtney and it was so much fun to see her!  She came out for her Spring Break and while I don't think Enid, Oklahoma is a very spring breakish location, she wanted to visit her adorable niece and nephew.  She was a huge help and we all enjoyed having her around!

At 5 months old, Clare:
- wears mostly 3-6 month clothes though she is long enough for a lot of 6-9 month stuff already.
- is very happy and sweet most of the time but she is not a very good sleeper.  She has regressed and now only goes 2-3 hours at a time before waking up.  I really don't want to make her cry it out but we may get to that point soon if she can't go a little longer.
- loves Mort the Moose, her peacock, a hanging monkey toy, books that make a crunchy sound and rattles.  She really likes toys now and she particularly loves anything she can get in to her mouth!
- loves watching her brother no matter what he is doing.  She will twist her whole body around so that she can see what he is doing.
- is very observant of everything going on around her.  I don't think Grayson was nearly this observant at the same age.  Clare loves to look at people and try to figure out new things like fans.
-smiles and laughs frequently.  She has the sweetest little smile in the world!
- likes her bouncer, especially the brightly colored one with the fish (we have two so that I can keep one in the family room and one in my bathroom so that I can get ready).
-will sit in the bumbo but she is always trying to reach for something that is too far away so she gets a little frustrated after a few minutes.
- finally doesn't hate tummy time!  She still doesn't love it but now that she can roll and also get her head up a lot higher she tolerates it much better.