Clara:Six months

Six months

November 15, 2013

Clara celebrated her first Halloween as a lady bug this year. She spent the evening with her sister and the majority of her Thomas cousins. 

Clara has been on the move the past few weeks. She rolls around to get to her toys and has been trying to crawl. And within the past week, she has been attempting to pull herself to a standing position. 

She is continuing to explore the tastes a variety of foods.  The doctor gave us the go ahead with soft cheeses and snacks!

Clara has her two bottom teeth! Will she get her top two in time for Christmas??

Stats:

Weight: 15.8lbs

Height: 26.75 inches

Happy 3rd Birthday Amelia!

Dear Amelia,

Tomorrow is your 3rd birthday! You have grown into such a beautiful, smart, fun, caring and imaginative young girl. You arrived at 9:06am on Saturday December 18th, the moment my life changed for the better. You remind me daily how precious life is.

This past year you have taken on the role of big sister. You did so without jealousy or anger. You welcomed Clara with open arms and enjoy teaching her about life.

Thank you for being a wonderful daughter. I look forward to watching you grow this year.

Love Always,

Your Mamma :)

Clara:Five months

Five months

 

Clara has mastered the ability to situp on her own. She loves sitting on her mat playing with her toys. She's still very happy and loves razzing and gooing at us. We are teaching her how to say mama, dada and aya (Amelia's nickname).

In addition to speech, we are working on teaching her how to crawl. We've been putting her in the crawling position and having her reach for objects. It won't be long now till she's mobile.

She has added pears, apples and squash to her diet. Later this week we plan to try carrots. I was making the baby food myself, but it's been tough. There are not enough hours in the day. I'm left with the guilt of wondering if I am a bad mom for buying store bought baby food :/.

On October 5th she enjoyed a fun day with her cousins (Thomas side) and met tons of extended family.

We think she may be teething these past few weeks. She's been a little cranky, drooling and hasn't been sleeping well. I hope this is temporary. I miss my 8 hours of sleep.

School days!

School Days!

 

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my sweet little baby girl is now in school. It seems like yesterday I held her for the first time.  I never fully understood the advice "enjoy every minute because they grow too quickly" until now.  My gosh, it really is the truth. 

We enrolled Amelia in the Terrific 2's program at Trinity Preschool of Berwyn. She had her first official start of school on Tuesday September 10th. Miss Independent left my side as soon as we got to the door of the school. She yelled a "cheerful" bye and waved as she ran into the building. Little did she know the first day, parents were asked to stay :) As I watched Amelia that day from a far, I knew she'd be okay.  She listened very intently to the teachers, she was happy to swing on the swings and slide down the slide. She enjoyed playing with the toys and making a craft. She giggled when she saw a photo of herself hanging on the wall in her classroom.

As I watched her navigate her classroom, I thought back to my dad and his reaction when he first met the tiny little baby on December 18, 2010. "There is something special about Amelia!" That is what he would tell everyone when he told them about his new granddaughter. He was certainly right. She is a special little girl. She will continue to amaze me daily and be spectacular in this world. 

On another note--we took the girls to the beach on September 7th. Words cannot describe how much Amelia loved it! She enjoyed the water, sand and boardwalk. She has the best time flying a kite with her daddy :)

Clara: Four months!

Four months!

Clara officially hit the four month mark on August 30, 2013. She has been growing and developing well these past four months.  First and foremost, she absolutely loves watching and playing with her big sister, Amelia. Clara watches intently as Amelia runs around the room and she squeals with delight. Lately, Amelia has been playing peek-a-boo and Clara bellows with laughter. When Clara sees Amelia running, she starts kicking her feet really fast. It won't be long before she is crawling after her big sister!

Sisters

Clara can roll front front to back and back to front. She loves grabbing and playing with her toes. Over the past few weeks she has learned to sit up. She's been able to sit for about 2-3 minutes at a time. 

She began eating solids. So far she has tried oatmeal, bananas and peas. She's adjusting well. 

First solid food experience

We took a trip to the beach on Saturday, September 7th. She enjoyed sitting on the sand, but did not like the wind very much. We'll try again next year :)

She is one of the happiest babies I have ever met and we just love her to pieces :)

Four month stats:

Weight: 14.5 pounds

Length: 25.5 inches

Hanging Out

Daddy and his girls

Clara: Three months!

Three months!

Clara is growing and developing well.  She had a cold/cough two weeks ago which wasn't fun. She has since recovered and back to her happy self. 

She is attempting to pull herself into a seated position from laying flat. She looks like she is doing crunches. In addition, she can hold her head at a 90 degree angle and somewhat trying to roll over.

Clara LOVES talking to us. She grins from ear to ear and babbles away. It goes without saying that we just love this :)

She gets startled with sudden noises and seems to be a little shy with people. But, otherwise she is a happy, healthy baby girl! She weighed in at 13lbs on July 15th!

Amelia and Clara

Enjoying the park

Pool time

The end of maternity leave

Maternity leave is officially over. Today is my practice day. I successfully woke up at 4:30am, nursed and changed Clara and left the house by 5:40am. Tomorrow I will go through the same routine, with one added step, I'll take the train to the University of Pennsylvania.

The past ten weeks have been awesome! I was able to enjoy every minute and really soak in the joy of my newborn and toddler. Maternity leave with Amelia was not easy for two main reasons. 1. Being a new mother is stressful! The first five weeks of Amelia's life I worried constantly if she was eating enough. This in turn caused me to be irritable. 2. I lost my dad without warning when Amelia was five weeks old. So...sadly those last five weeks of maternity leave were a blur. Needless to say several months of Amelia's life are blurry.

I've spent the past two years feeling so guilty that such a joyous moment in my life was overshadowed by grief. I am now able to let go of that guilt now. I made up for lost time with Amelia and I enjoyed every moment. She is my little firecracker and reminds me just how special life is. She also reminds me that Pop-Pop is still around. Just last week, she told me she saw him working on the building on our car ride to Target. His memory lives on within her.

And sweet Clara has reminded me that newborns are a pure joy and there is no better job then being a mommy. Watching her grow over the past ten weeks has been amazing! She went from a sleepy newborn to an active infant too quickly. I will miss the closeness of being with her throughout the day.

While, I will miss my girls tremendously throughout the day, I am excited for work. Working is a big chunk of who I am. I strived to be a successful career woman and want to continue to challenge myself. I hope my girls understand why I made the decision to have a career when they were young. I hope they learn from my successes. Because woman can have it all.