Claire Bear is 5 Months Old!

(As of this posting date, she's offically 5.5 months old...eeek!)

C Bear, The Bear, Bear, C, Claire Bear and Clairemont are all of Claire's nicknames.  Come on - how fun are nicknames?!  Another new nickname was recently created by my Mom and Dad...Eclair.  Like the creamy, sweet dessert...because Claire is creamy white, sweet...and well, a little lot chubby.  Claire is confidently fitting into 6-9 and 9 month clothing.  You go, girl!

Avery and Claire love sitting together.  Avery can now multitask watching TV and playing with Claire.  I'm proud...I think.

Here are some updates, videos and pictures of our little love...

Teeth: Her bottom two teeth are here.  The second one popped through three days after the first one.

Sitting Up:  Pretty much mastered this skill the past week.  I still stay very close and surround her with pillows, but she can brace herself when she starts to topple and can play with toys in this new fun position!

Talking: ...and screeching and yelling.  She LOVES playing with her voice!

Smiles:  She is a very happy baby and her smiles light up the room!

Stranger Danger:  I don't want to jinx myself, but her stranger danger awareness has almost completely subsided.  Not entirely, mind you, but enough that other people can hold her and I can confidently leave her in childcare when I work out.  Yay!  Who knows what it was that got the best of her with other people for a month or so...maybe teething and knowing that I could soothe her best?  Only she knows for sure!

Sleep:  Ehhhhh.  As Ryan Reynolds said about his daughter recently, "it's like she's allergic to sleep."  Couldn't agree more, Ryan.  Her 30 minute naps during the day are easy and consistent, but I won't push away the longer stretches when they start to appear (assuming they will!).  Her nighttime sleep is all over the map.  Some nights her first stretch will be 4 hours, some nights it will be 6.  Usually from there on out, she's up every 3.  So yes, I'm up 2 - 3 times a night.  We have those rare nights when it's once a night, but I have learned to not get excited about those.  Thank goodness she's cute!

Avery:  She loves Avery so much.  Her smile appears and her eyes are glued to her when she does just about anything.  It's one of the most special things about having two kids - watching their bond.  I could just melt!  (I try to sneak attack videos of them whenever possible!)

Claire is such a joy.  We all love her to the moon and back a million times over!

FPT

Practicing her modeling poses.

What's Been Goin' On

Avery and I participated in a 5K in the beginning of March in honor of Chelsea King.  It was a nice morning just the two of us.  After the race, we spent time playing at the post-race festivities!

Avery is slowly warming up to people in costumes.  This Geiko guy was the first one she has ever held hands with.  Ha!

Doing some art with the big kids.

She LOVED these streamers!

I told Avery what the sign said and asked what she would do...

"Give flowers to everyone."  Follow through - we bought two sunflowers and gave them to friends who came over that night.

In the past month, my mom and I have take the girls to Legoland twice.  Yay for season passes!  And, yay for slow afternoons in the "off" season.  No lines, no crowds!  And a third yay for Avery who has become fearless when it comes to rides!  There hasn't been one ride that she has said "no" to yet.  So, so FUN!

She now goes on this ride by herself.  She told us, "you can wait for me at the fence."

This is her favorite ride (as of today).  My mom...not so much.

Action shot from the big roller coaster!

Thanks, Mom!  You wear Claire and I'll go on the rides with A!

A Legoland must-have?  Ice cream!

We celebrated Papa's birthday this past weekend in San Clemente with the whole family.  It was a perfect afternoon - great weather, delicious food and wonderful company!  Avery and I made Papa a birthday cake for the celebration...and to make a long story short, we were experimenting with some design and food coloring that didn't go as planned...but you'd never know looking at the final product.  Right??  Right!

Such potential...

Crap.

Taaadaaaa!

Cousin twins!

The girls and I continued our Papa birthday celebration with an afternoon visit yesterday.

Claire loved playing with Papa!

We gave papa some peanuts and changed the label to "We're NUTS for PAPA!"

Claire loves Islands as much as the rest of us.  She's a keeper!

FPT

Hip Hip Hooray for chubby tushes, fun daddies and little girls who love to dress up!

Dancing

Avery started dance at a new studio last week.  This studio is more "official" than the community center where she was taking classes prior, and she was craving, and ready for, something more challenging.  Oh, and there is a huge recital in June at UCSD, which we are all super excited for...especially Jeff since he's IN the dance with Avery.

Avery didn't know a soul at the studio before her first class last week, but totally knocked the ball out of the park and made me so proud.  She walked onto the dance floor like she had been there for years, followed the teacher's instructions so well, made friends with the girls and truly enjoyed herself.  This class has been in session since September, but Avery fit in so well that the instructor looked at me after class, shrugged and said "well, that went great!"

Another great thing about the studio...parents are invited to sit in the class once a month to watch the kiddos dance.  Here are some pictures from yesterday!

Free dancing with little butterflies on their fingers.

All the girls got to try on butterfly wings, which are the same ones they'll be wearing for the recital.

We can't forget about Claire Bear and her dancing, so here you go!

FPT

Bird nests are the new headband.  (Styled by Avery.)