birthday girls

Happy 1st Birthday to our beautiful, comical daughter, Claire... the light of our lives.

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Happy 1st Birthday (+25) to my talented sister, Jessica...the designer behind this and so many, many more creative things.

37/37

Today Claire is 37 weeks old, and I was 37 weeks along when we welcomed her into the world. 

I can hardly believe that our little bear has been with us on the outside now as long as I carried her on the inside. She is so grown up now and such a little blessing :-)

Someone Loves Apples & Sweet Potators...

Fall Photo Shoot

This weekend we took advantage of the gorgeous Chicago weather and had a play day in Oz Park.

Since our big girl is now six months old, I thought I'd document the milestone with a mini photo shoot. Claire was a trooper and stayed out in the fresh air for over 3 hours, doing nothing more than relaxing and posing for mommy of course.

Big News! She can sit up on her own now, too :-)


We also met up with our friends, so I snapped a few cute ones of them as well:

Claire was officially tuckered out:

Happy 5 Months, Claire!

Happy 5 Months, Claire! Daddy did a little math today and came to the summation that you have been in our lives for 154 days, and every one of them has been a blessing.

Just recently you have mastered rolling over and are waking up in middle of the night with surprise from your newest feat. We don't mind though, because it's fun to see you over on your belly and you usually go right back to sleep when we flip you over or give you a binky.

You are also a drooling queen, so we suspect some major teething is going on in that tiny mouth.

We plan to let you try your first taste of solid food this weekend, likely just a little rice cereal to see how you do, and then we'll move on to the good stuff. Speaking of food, I guess we need to order a high chair pronto! Can't wait to see how you do with a spoon big girl!

And since we're on the topic of being a big girl, although you look pretty chunky, you're still a bit of a peanut, wearing a size behind your age group in most clothing. Your 0-3 month footed sleepers, however, are just now starting to get snug in the feet and short in the arms so 3-6 month sleepers here we come.

Mommy & Daddy can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Battling Baby's First Cold

Just two week's into daycare, at 17 weeks old, Claire got her first cough & cold. Everyone keeps telling me that this will be good for her immune system to build up all of those antibodies, but it's hard to keep in mind when your baby girl is struggling to breathe.

We took a trip to the doctor for our first "sick" visit, just to make sure it wasn't more serious, and luckily it was not. Just a cold that can last 7-10 days. Since there is really no medicine you can give a 4-month-old for a cold (really nothing for up to 4-years-old!), I thought I'd share the things that are making this more bearable for Claire-Bear.

1.) Fisher-Price Newborn Rock 'n Play Sleeper

Claire has been sleeping in her crib at night from day one, but we always had this around the house for naps since it is so portable and it's the only seat that is approved for sleep. From the reviews, the elevated seat has been a life-saver for many reflux babies, but little did I know it would come in so handy when our baby had a head cold! Our pediatrician recommended that Claire sleep elevated to help her breathe, so in lieu of propping up her crib mattress or having her sleep in the car seat, the Rock 'n Play is a much more comfortable solution and is working like a charm.

2.) Good, old-fashion hospital bulb nasal aspirator.

We bought this fancy, battery operated one and it is terrible. It has no suction and is basically only worth the music that it plays when you press the button. But the little blue bulb we took home from the hospital for free? Priceless!

3.) Crane Ultrasonic Cool Mist Elephant Humidifier

Effective and adorable, all in one. Plus, it matches the animals in Claire's nursery. (Doctor's recommend always using cool-mist humidifiers for children, as opposed to warm-mist, to prevent burns.)

4.) Johnson & Johnson Soothing Vapor Bath (Please Note: This is recommended for babies 3-months and up.)

I actually had this on hand because I used it as a body wash in the shower when I was pregnant and caught a bad cold. Since I was unable to use cold medicine, this and vapor rub were a lifesaver. We pulled it out on Thursday night and gave Claire a vapor bath and I think it really helped.

5.) Lastly, lots of snuggles and cuddles. We are lucky that between the coughs, Claire has remained in pretty good spirits with her cold.

I hope this post helps a few more mom's as they tackle their little one's first bout of coughs and congestion!

First Family Photo Shoot

Just after Claire turned 3 months old we had our first family photos taken by Pamela Quigley while we were visiting family and friends in St. Louis. We met early in the morning at Bee Tree Park on a hot day, heavy with humidity, but Pamela's photos look so light and airy that you would never know it.

I felt like we were totally on the same page in terms of styling the shoot, and style in general. I bought this fun picnic blanket from Land of Nod for our picnic theme and we also brought some special touches, like my late grandmother's picnic basket and the vintage letterpress blocks I bought for Claire just after she was born.

Check out all of the photos here, but I have posted some of my favorites in this post.

We are so happy with our photos and if you are in the St. Louis area, I highly recommend Pamela for any of your future photo shoots.

The Claire Project

If we are friends on Facebook, if you follow me on flickr, or you ever click on the top bar of my blog, you might be familiar with our weekly photos of Claire.

Now, I can't take credit for this fabulous fabric idea, which I borrowed from Young House Love's Clara Project (right down to a similar name for our baby girl!), but I will take the credit for wrangling our wiggly baby weekly and getting some ok shots along the way.

Each week (Thursday mornings for the first 14 weeks and now Saturday mornings since I have been back to work), I dress Claire in a short-sleeve white onesie, lay some fabric out and get to work. I try to do this in the morning so that the sun is coming through our windows just right. For a while, I laid the fabric on the couch cushion, but now that she is bigger I lay it on the floor over our area rug. Also, I highly recommend doing this after a feeding. In my experience, full belly = happy baby.

Most weeks I use one yard of fabric, usually bought on-sale from JoAnn, but sometimes I throw in a pretty printed sheet, baby blanket or other type of fabric object I find around the house. Basically, if you are handy with a camera and with Photoshop, you can achieve the same thing by following this handy YHL tutorial.

So here are the results this far:

And here are close-ups of a few milestone weeks along the way...

Week One:


Week Six:


Week Twelve:


And today, Week Seventeen:

It's really fun to click back and forth through the photos so far to see how much Claire has changed, especially from the first to the last.

At the year's end, I plan to do a few things.

1. Make a blurb book documenting Claire's first year.

2. Print all 52 images and display them at her 1st birthday party. Maybe like this:

3. Also, I plan to either learn to sew, or commission my sewing sisters, to create a few things out of the fabric, such as this pillow I found on pinterest:

Or maybe even a quilt, like Sherry made from YHL:

35 weeks to go! Only time will tell how our Claire Project project ends up for us.