Promises, promises

I'm getting worse! Ahh! In my pathetic defense, my Grandma died in August so we went to CA for her funeral.  (Speaking of which, watching my dad's sisters pick on him is the best thing EVER)  Then Kyle and Alexa got married a week later, and Katie and John got married two weeks after that.  School started again somewhere in that mess and Nick and I both got new callings. (church jobs)  Look, I'm not saying any of those are good reasons to not post pictures of the cutest girl in the world... but they kind of are...

Okay. I'm really really gonna try to post once a week, even if that means I only have a few pictures instead of the deluge like this one. Deluge. That's a fancy word for "flood" if you didn't know. (coughcoughDADcough.)

Anyways- let the deluge begin!

These are in no particular order since some of them came from my phone and others from the computer...

This is her fake smile.  It's still cuter than anything I do.  Claire is like, "Mom, please.  Stop taking pictures of me so I can go back to reading my books.  Geez- you're so weird!"  That's right kiddo.  I'm weird.

"Hey, Mom!  Can I play with your phone?"

Lest you think that Claire is always happy- this was right after I took the TV remote away from her.  FAKE!  She's already learning to manipulate her parents with those tears.

Compare to the picture above.  These photos were taken about 10 seconds apart.  So apparently she got over the disappointment of not having the remote fairly quickly.

Little baby BYU Cougar!  I just hope the proximity to the BYU logo doesn't make her more susceptible to ankle injuries.  (24 so far this season!  Holy crap!)

Not surprisingly- Claire loves ice cream, but she hates that it's so cold.  So when I offer her a bit of my ice cream she leans forward with her mouth open and then chickens out when she feels the cold.  Poor girl.  Life is hard!  :)

Claire LOVES books.  Thank you to everyone who gave her books! We put all of the cardboard books in this little shelf in the living room so Claire has her own book nook.  Mostly she loved pulling all the books out and sitting on them while she reads one. 

She doesn't always know how to work them, but she likes covers too.

Strengthening her core?  I have no idea what's going on in this picture.

THERE'S a real smile.  :)  My happy girl.

One day Claire had a rough time at the babysitter's and didn't nap well.  On the way home she fell asleep and I wanted her to take a good solid hour nap so she wouldn't be fussy the rest of the evening.  That meant sitting in my car for 45 mins playing on my phone and listening to the rain while Claire slept like an angel. Really, really good times. 

Did I lie about the reading thing?  Nope.

My current favorite picture of Claire.  She loves to wedge herself in between the couch and the recliner.  Also, that coaster is one of her favorite chew toys.  What?  My baby has chew toys.  Deal with it.  :)

She loves the page where all the letters fall out of the tree.  She gets mad when I try to move on.  I'm pretty sure we only ever finished this book once.

We bought a booster seat/ high chair.  Claire loves to sit there with some cereal and watch Mommy and Daddy run around.  It's the one time of day when I can get things DONE!

Claire's first experience with the greatest burger restaurant of all time.  She was less than enthused.  Sad.

Hey look!  A picture of something OTHER than Claire!  Shock!  This was at Kyle and Alexa's wedding.

My two awesome siblings.  :)  

Kyle will never cease to be Kyle.  Even on his wedding day.  And the best thing is that Lex wouldn't want him to be any different.  :)  Also, how beautiful is my new sister's hair?!

Coming out of the temple!  Her dress was GORGEOUS!

Claire's wonderful Grandma and Grandpa!  

Claire's dress for Kyle and Lexa's wedding.  She was so good for the reception/luncheon!

Katie and John's wedding!

Claire with her #1 fans.  Notice the blue pen she's holding?  She LOVES to grab Grandpa's pen and chew on it, so Dad made sure that he had a pen with him at all times while we were there.  What an awesome Grandpa!

"Hahaha Mommy!  I have your keys and I'm gonna chew on them!"

At Val and Jerry's house!  Claire had never met a kitten before and she loved this lil guy!

I swear I have a picture of my Grandpa Wagner holding me with that exact same expression on his face.  I'll have to go dig it out and show you guys.  Someday.  When I have free time!  Ahahahaha!  Sniff.

Trying to show Claire how to walk.  No!  Sit down, baby!  No walking!  She can walk pretty well now when holding onto our hands or furniture.  I predict that she walks before Christmas.  

Claire is not a huge fan of grass... so that's what happened every time we set her down.

Loved playing with the animals at the Jacob's house!  I tried to get the horse to come over and say hello, but he wasn't interested.

Grandpa gives Claire his phone just to make her happy.  Daaaawww!

Claire still loves her bouncer but the cat didn't know what to make of the tiny human in the large cat-toy.

GREAT Uncle Irv!

Aunt Nancy the Great!

Aunt Pat the Great!

P.S. I was super bummed when we got home and I didn't have pictures of Claire with everybody!  Duh!

Claire's very first plane ride!  We had to bring her birth certificate to prove that she was under 2.  Sheesh!

Tired in the airport before getting on the plane.

Claire was SO GOOD on the plane!  She cried a tiny bit when we changed elevation and her ears hurt, but she loved being held by Mommy and Daddy for a few hours!

Claire was so tired after Katie and John's wedding.  We couldn't get her to smile at all.

This was the closest we got to a smile from Miss Crabby pants that day.

Claire with Aunt Valerie the Great!

Such a great day!  We were excited to hang out and party!

Well, guys- that's all for now!  (Haha- "that's all"  like I didn't just kill your brain with a billion pictures.)

I promise, I WILL try to post more frequently.  Promises promises....  Love you all!

Radio Silence

I know.  I KNOW.  It's been 2 months since my last post.  All 3 people who read this blog must be completely devastated.

Dear 3 people who read my blog, 

Please turn off you Alanis Morrisette CD, open your windows, and shake off the crushing depression because I have about a thousand pictures to show you!  

Love, Megan and Claire

This summer has been wonderful/stressful/exciting/frustrating/awesome!  Claire learned lots of new tricks, we moved to an apartment in Draper, and we got to see tons and tons of family!

Trick numero uno:  Claire can hold her own bottle!  Now, don't get CAN confused with WILL.  She definitely CAN hold a bottle.  The problem becomes that if you give it to her, she becomes distracted by something about 0.2 seconds after you let go, she turns her head (SQUIRREL!) and loses the bottle.  Then Claire is annoyed that she can't eat anymore and cries until you give up and just hold the bottle for her.  

Honestly though, I really don't mind the snuggles while she eats.  It won't last forever!

Some of these pictures are massively out of order... Oops.  

Aside from playing with Claire myself, one of the nicest things to watch is other members of my family playing with her.  My dad is SO cute around Claire.  He pretends to be all tough but he turns to melted butter with her.

Also, please note the awesome high-water jeans.  Stylin' dad!  :D   (Oh, he's gonna kill me for that one!)

"Look Mom!  I caught a foot!"

I can't get enough of her chunky legs!  :)

Funny story- did you know that some babies hate spoons?  Right before we moved to Draper, Claire decided that she didn't like spoons in her mouth anymore.  I did some research (thank you, Google) and found out that some babies don't like to eat from a spoon while they're teething.  So for the past 2 ish months, we have been mixing Claire's baby food in with her formula.  She eats everything, as long as it's in a bottle.  Just in the last week or so, since her first tooth sprouted, I was able to get her to eat a few bites from a spoon.  Let's hope she grows out of this soon!  

Oh she'll play with the spoon when there's no food on it... sure!

We went to the park a few times and had fun playing on the swings!

Considering how much Claire loved her baby swing at home, I expected  a much stronger reaction to playground swings, but Claire was thinking, "Meh."

This is the fake smile she gives you when you're smiling at her but she doesn't want to smile back!

We also tried taking off her socks and feeling the grass.  She wasn't too sure at first!

Mom!  This stuff is poking me!

Baby's first dirty feet!  

Oh great... I just realized I'm THAT mom..... :)

Claire learned how to lunge for things she wants, like anytime mommy is holding her and daddy is nearby... "Oh here I am sitting quietly in mommy's arms and then all of a sudden.. LUNGE FOR DADDY!!!!!"

It kills me how cute she is!

This shirt was so baggy on her just a month ago and today I put it into storage along with her other 6 month clothes.  She's just growing so fast!

I don't know where she learned this head-tilt thing, but it's freaking adorable!

The weekend before we moved, the Denneys came to stay with us for a couple days.  Claire remembered Grandpa Denney's crazy duck voice!

There is a reason why this picture is blurry.  The reason is that Claire loves to jump more than anything else in the entire universe.  Or multiverse.  Or whatever.  She will jump either on your lap or in her jumper for HOURS.  She'll jump when she's tired, hungry, or frustrated.  When that happens, she'll just take a break and cry for a minute or two and then resume jumping and giggling to herself.  When I was unpacking everything I would prop a mirror across from where Claire was jumping and she would entertain herself forever!

So, this happened.

That's right- my 7 month old has better splits than I do.  So sad.

Claire learned how to roll from side to side and got pretty good and navigating the open spaces in our home.  Then she figured out how to back up.  This led to Claire finding her way into teeny, tiny spaces and getting herself very stuck.

90 seconds before this picture was taken, I left Claire in the middle of the living room rug to run to the restroom.  I came back and didn't see her at first.  Oh, I panicked!  Then I heard her whining and found her trapped under the endtable.  

I think I've mentioned before that we have a fabulous baby swing.  I think that swing saved my life.  I know it sounds dramatic, but there was a point at around 2 months (right before we got the swing) that I was going to work full time and driving in the pitch black cold of winter for 45 mins every morning on 3 hours of sleep.  I would hallucinate that the red lights from the cars in front of me we actually coming towards me.  *shudder*  So maybe it's understandable that I was hesitant to switch Claire to sleeping in her crib.  

We waited until after the move was over so that Claire would have a little bit of normalcy during the craziness of moving, but she actually switched over pretty easily.  We had about a week of sleep regression where she was waking up multiple times each night and we had to let her cry it out a little bit during naptime- but everyone survived!

I had this idea of buying a minky blanket to put in her crib so that she would get used to the texture.  That way when we have to go to Idaho or California to visit people, or when she goes to the babysitter for naps, the texture of the blanket can help her know that she's supposed to sleep here, even if she's in a new place.

My mom came up a little early to babysit Claire while I went to a meeting for work.  It was fun to have her here and she helped keep me sane when we had to let Claire cry at nap time.  

I can't tell which cutie looks happier!

Then Dad came up and I think I mentioned before how he turns into a puddle of mush around my sweet girl... right?  

See that blue pen in Dad's shirt pocket?  That pen was Claire's number one most favoritest toy while Dad was here.  

They were here for my cousin Chuck's wedding to his beautiful bride Bethany.  There wedding was lovely, but I was so stressed out about keeping Claire happy (she was teething and cranky) and keeping our stuff dry in the very Utah-esque 10 minute downpour, that I forgot to take any pictures!  

Katie finished up her semester at BYUI and came down for a day or two before she and Mom drove to CA.  In that short time, Katie managed to teach my daughter how to make this face:

Oh yes, that face is completely intentional.   She'll hold it for a second or two and then bust up laughing at herself.  If you play along and make the Katie face back at her, you can have fun for days!

Claire got to experience her first road trip to see her cousins, aunt, and grandparents in Idaho.  The trip up went pretty well.  Claire entertained herself in the backseat for almost an hour.  Then she got bored and I had to sit in the backseat with her for the rest of the trip.  She got tired and didn't understand why she wasn't sleeping in her bed so she whined for about an hour before falling asleep.  

The trip home was worse.  Infinitely worse.  I don't want to talk about it.  

Nick's mom loved having a baby in the house again!  Claire loved poking at the green carpet!  So interesting!

I was surprised by how much Claire's cousins wanted to play with her.  I figured that since she can't really do much, they would get tired of her after a few minutes, but they kept bringing toys for her to play with or asking to hold her.  It was cute!  Claire loves being the center of attention!

Lovin her Aunt Milainia!

Denney family picture!  

(Charles, Trent, Hunter, Milainia, Jackson, Margot, Claire, Megan, Nick)

Getting ready to hang out with Nick's former roommate, Jason!  He just got back from a huge, scary hike in Wind River Valley, WY.  He brought a map and pictures and video to show us.  It was pretty awesome!  

Last, but not least, Miss Claire has learned TO CRAWL!  She can only go a few inches before she loses her balance and flumps down on her tummy.  It's funny to watch her trying to crawl to something, because she'll whine and pretend to cry when she gets stuck, but if you give her 15 seconds, she'll shake it off and keep trying!  I've never seen a baby who was so determined to learn new things! 

We sure have one smart, stubborn, beautiful girl!  

Til next time!