cousins in the bath...again.

These two little birds have a ton of fun together.  Here they are in the sink at Oma's house, having a grand, old time getting clean!  I love the laughing in this video. 

climbing...stairs, that is.

We were hoping she'd struggle learning to climb stairs.

Two days ago, she climbed from the bottom all the way to the top.  That's 15 stairs people!  Oh no!  Bring on the baby gate!

girls and their trucks.

My mom has a piano student whose family has given Clara so many great toys.  This particular toy was given to us and we all thought Ben would take it back home to Palouse.  Before it left Oma's, I think Clara had to get some play time in with it!  She ended up loving it!

Yay for Tonka trucks that are made for boys AND girls to enjoy!

Sorry for the upside down video. 

I know it was November and my child wasn't wearing pants...don't call child protective services on me!

Thanksgiving 2011.

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We found out last minute that Emily had to work a little later than planned on Thanksgiving day, but we still had a ball.  We ate with the Waldons at about 5 pm.  We shared making the meal, I brought a few dishes, Teenie fixed a few, and Mom and Dad did the rest.  Everything was divine!  I felt like I worked hard to get just a few of my side dishes done, I don't know how my mom did it all those years on her own!  I don't think I could pull it off nearly as gracefully (although there are a few funny memories of a year with terrible mashed potatoes and another year with awful gravy - don't be offended Mom!).

Here are a few pics from our time with the Waldons.

 This photo is an outtake from a slew of pics we took to try to get a great Christmas card for my parents.  I loved this one!  My parents' new fancy camera takes a series of 10 shots when you use the self timer and obviously...none of us expected it to continue to take pictures!  This is the second pic in the series, and we all look like a bunch of goofs!  We shaped up after that and even managed to get a great picture of all 10 of us (the tenth being Ben's baby brother or sister who is due in January!). 

Thank goodness my parents took lots of pics, because I didn't snap a single one with my camera!

After dinner, we headed to the Brooks' for dessert!  We met up with the whole fam there.  I continued to be a picture putz, and only snapped these three pictures!

We were able to hang around for a little bit with everyone, and then the Black Friday plans started! I went with my Mom and sisters to Walmart, and Janet and Angie headed there too with Angie's mom and Janet's friend Diane. 
Can I just say...I think I'm done with Black Friday shopping that is done on Thanksgiving and into the wee hours of Friday.  After being harassed by a super scary woman who looked like David Bowie circa 1983, and feeling completely claustrophobic in the gridlock cart traffic at Walmart.

Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday!  Thanksgiving 2011 went down as another fantastic day of eating, drinking, and spending time with the ones we love!

Clara meets Santa.

I love Edward's Nursery in Boise.  Previously, I'd only been during spring and summer, but I get e-mails about their events throughout the year and thought this might be fun to attend.  They host a holiday open house and kids can take free pictures with Santa!  A local high school takes the photos.  It ended up being a great time.  We went with both sets of grandparents and met up with Mike and Kelly and Harley.  There was wine, coffee, and great snacks, and of course, the company was fantastic!  

Back to the main event.  I was so curious about how Clara would act around Santa.  It could have gone so many ways.  At first, she was a little uneasy.

 Then she just wanted to snuggle with his soft red and white coat.

 Then she had to get a second look at him!

Then she was a little uneasy again!

 I was cracking up at her roller coaster ride of emotions!

 When it was all over, she was back to her normal self. 

It was a big day!  The poinsettias were stunning, the wine tasty, the group of people was loads of fun, and baby Clara's first meeting with Santa was priceless!

cousin photo shoot in Christmas jammies - another photo shoot gone wrong.

We bought the babies Christmas jammies on black Friday (at approximately 2:30 am) and we wanted to get a great holiday shot of the two of them.  Once again, easier said than done...remember this? 

It started out great, except I forgot to take Clara's binkie out (she was on the verge and ready for bed!). 

 Both babies love giving this huge, old bear kisses!  Can you believe how long Clara's hair is getting?

 Oma is trying to wrangle the two of them...they're not so happy about it!

 Cutest pic of Ben...EVER!

 After lots of failed photos (I didn't include them, it would be painful for all of us!), Teenie had the genius idea to bring out a strand of Christmas lights!  We were hopeful that maybe, just maybe, the two babes would sit still for a half second and look at the camera!

 Another great shot of Ben!

 I'm afraid these were our best photos of the night!  They finally sat still in close proximity to one another and played with toys...fairly Christmassy, right?

 Here they are, the kissing cousins!

Maybe when they're a year older we'll get a good picture...oh wait, we'll have a third cousin to wrangle for a photo op (Ben's going to be a big brother)!  At least we have fun trying!

9 months old.

Clara turned 9 months old on the 22nd.  Her measurements were:

height - 29 inches (90th percentile)

weight - 19 lbs. 13 oz. (60th percentile)

head - 17.5 inches (75th percentile)

Developmentally, this was quite the month for Miss Clara.  She is crawling FAST and pulling herself up to standing with ease.  She can stand on her own for brief moments, but mostly stands holding on with one hand to something.  She knows what these words mean: more, all done (and she can sign this one), kisses (and does this on command), and no.  She probably knows more, these are just the first I can think of. 

She loves to feed herself.  She is getting a little tired of baby food.  She prefers something she can hold onto and put in her mouth on her own.  She's becoming quite independent!  She hated avocado for a while, but I've been cutting it into small chunks lately and she's back to loving it.  She loves the cold weather because of all the soups she's been able to eat!  I've been on a major soup kick lately.  She loved the Thanksgiving food - especially TURKEY!  Sometimes, she just hates eating from my spoon so much that she needs to hold her own spoon while you hold her spoon and feed her.  Sometimes during meals she can be quite a handful!

She can do a few great tricks.  She can click her tongue, and she can clap her hands, and as I mentioned before, she can kiss like crazy on command!

She has such a personality.  When she doesn't want something, she either shakes her head "no" emphatically, or she scrunches up her face and breathes really quickly through her "teeth".  Speaking of teeth, she's a vampire at 9 months!  She has her front two bottom teeth, and her two lateral incisors (the teeth NEXT to the front teeth).  Of course she does!

She loves soft stuffed animals.  Still loves her silly Dipstick dog, and she loves her soft bunny from Auntie Emily, her soft bunny/blankie from Cousin Ben, and her soft sheep from Uncle Arlen. 

Her favorite letter from her name is L.  You saw that a few posts back, but she still just loves that L. It's all chewed up compared to the other letters. 

She's wearing 12 month or 12-18 month clothes now, and she's wearing 18 month jammies.  She's just too tall for those 12 month winter jammies!

One bit of sad news from her Dr. appointment was that we need to go see a pediatric optometrist because her tear ducts are still closed.  They may need to be probed and opened up.  Her eyes are watery quite often and drip out the outside edge of her eyes.  We hope it is nothing to be too concerned with! 

She loves to read books and especially loves to shred magazines.  She's great at turning the pages for us when we read to her, and she can do this on command! 

We are just really enjoying watching Clara grow and learn.  She is a delight to be around and is so pleasant (unless she's cutting teeth!).  We love being parents to such an amazing little girl!

 I love this next picture!