Claire Gives us a Tour

Claire loves to hold and use the camera. So I helped her give us a tour of her toys...

March Madness and Jimmermania

Being the sports addict that I am, I've been teaching Claire a phrase over the past several weeks. Here it is...

Claire's Bubbles Dress

Claire calls anything with dots, "bubbles." Thus, she wore a bubble dress to church today. This is Claire striking a model pose by her play kitchen set.

Claire smiling.

Suzy at 30 weeks and one day.

Playing with Birthday Balloons

She's Two

Weekend Bananas and the Park

One of the few foods that Claire can feed herself without requiring a bath afterwards is bananas, which also happen to be a favorite. However, she does love to shove as much of the banana in her mouth as she can possibly fit. She does the same thing with bread, goldfish, and cheerios.

Eating the banana like corn on the cob.

Saturday was a beautiful day out, high 60's and sunny. We decided to head to the park which was thoroughly packed because it seems that everyone else had the exact same idea. We first tried Claire on the swing, but she hated that idea. So we climbed around on some of the playground and went down the slide a few times.

Surprisingly, this playground was mostly wood. I thought that these types of playgrounds were a thing of the past.

Claire also liked just walking around on the mulch watching all of the other kids play. She is highly entertained by other kids.

Then on the way out, Claire was insistent that she continue walking and helped to push the stroller from the playground, all the way to the car. She only stumbled once. She did a great job walking. Everyone that passed commented on how cute she was helping to push the stroller.

Here she is, head down, full speed ahead.

Sunday Dress

These pictures are at least a week old, but they are cute and we wanted to share.

Now that Claire has turned one, we have been working with her on feeding herself. This is one of our first attempts, and they almost all still end with her needing a bath.

Last week we finally had a beautiful sunny weekend after a dreary winter full of rain and cold and four snow storms! We celebrated by dressing Claire up in a nice new dress and taking her outside for some pictures before we left for Church. Unfortunately, there was something more interesting going on off to the side.

These next two are classic Claire faces.

Claire's Weekend

We finally had a nice weather weekend around here. Saturday was blue skies, sunny and decently warm (mid-60s). So we took advantage and went for a walk. We wound up at a park where Claire tried out the swing.

She was not sure what to think of the whole swinging thing.

Then on the car ride back, Claire munch on her new favorite treat, Goldfish!

She ate nearly half the bag!

Then when we got home, she decided it was time to play in the tupperware cupboard.

Arizona Trip

I had a great time in Tucson visiting my family. The only downside was that Casey was not able to come. Hopefully he will be there next time! We spent a lot of time playing with kids, eating, playing Wii and board games and just having fun.

Claire really enjoyed playing with her cousins. She love little kids. Here they are helping her walk. She is getting much better and yesterday walked across the whole bedroom on her own.
I tried to get a picture with all the kids, but as you can imagine, its a little tricky. 5 yr old is holding 18 month old's head still and I'm trying, unsuccessfully, to keep Claire still.
Claire and her buddy cousin enjoying a meal together. If they sit too close, they will steal each others food.
Another attempt at a group shot.
I also got to see an old mission companion who lives in Tucson now. Her little boy is super cute and just a few months younger than Claire.

I thought this was a funny shot. She is just going to rip the keys away in one second.
The weather wasn't perfect, but it was so fun to see all the kids and my parents, and my brothers and their wives. I wish we all lived closer, but I guess we'll just have to enjoy the moments when we have them.

Funny Video of Claire!

Suzy and Claire recently returned from a trip to Tucson, AZ to visit family. Pics from Suzy will be coming shortly, but in the mean time I want to direct you to two blog posts about the trip so you don't miss them. The first here, from Suzy's brother, Ryan's blog, is a really amusing video of Claire and a Tigger toy (scroll to the end of the post). The second, here is from Suzy's mom's blog.

And just as a bonus... a complementary picture of Claire folding herself in-half.

Birthday Festivities

Here are some pictures from Claire's birthday.

Family pic (we had to hold down her hands so we could get here to wear her birthday hat).

Cake was a big hit, well frosting more than cake.

Then things got a little out of control. This was right before Claire and half of the kitchen got a bath.

Claire taking in all the presents.

She got this wagon with blocks in it. It is one of her favorites.

On Saturday we had a party with some of Claire's "friends." It was a great excuse for a get together, and then we put all the kids to bed and the adults played games. Claire really enjoys other kids and is so excited watching them and laughing at what they do.

Claire had a great birthday and even celebrated by taking her first few little steps! Our little baby is growing up!

One Year!

I can't believe its Claire's birthday. I was reminiscing on the last year in pictures and decided to share a few with you.

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

Can't wait to see how much she changes in the next year. We just love this little girl so much and are so happy she joined our family.

Claire's New Tricks

We recently removed Claire's obstacles that kept her pinned in the living room. Claire has really enjoyed her new found freedom and exploring all the nooks and crannies of the downstairs. She has also discovered the stairs, and Suzy has taught her to climb them.

Claire Stair Climbing from casey sullivan on Vimeo.

I guess it is time to get a gate for the stairs!

Where has my china doll gone?

I was looking back at some pictures of Claire a few months ago and I saw this picture and thought "doesn't she look just like a China doll?" She has perfect, beautiful white skin.

Fast forward to now. She is a quite a yellow girl. Granted this picture may not be the best lighting and she's against a wedding dress back drop, but I have gotten comments from the doctor and several complete strangers that she must really love eating carrots.

And while it is true that she loves to eat all things orange/yellow, she also loves to eat all things green, brown, apple/pear/banana-colored and just about any color you can throw in there. I guess she will grow out of it one day, and she is still very cute, just not my little china doll anymore.

We are going to be posting pictures of our trip to Utah very soon. I am having serious troubles with uploading, hence the reason we have been on a blogging hiatus. We recently got snow leopard on our Mac and I'm wondering if thats the source of all the trouble. Maybe I'll have to try it from our PC.

Happy 2010!

6 Months!

I can't believe my baby girl is 6 months old already! Time has flown, but I guess we've been pretty busy since she was born.

She's gone from this...

To this...

She's getting to be so much fun. She laughs all the time now and loves to play with her little toys. I can't wait to see her continue to grow. Being a parent definitely has its challenges, but its all worth it when I walk into her room when she wakes up and she gives me that big smile and when she laughs at my funny faces and looks at me with those beautiful blue eyes. Love it!

Rice Cereal

We gave Claire her first bites of rice cereal.  No surprises here, she loved it.  She loves anything in her mouth including milk (obviously) even from a bottle, vitamins (I tried these, they taste gross), baby tylenol and liquid vaccines.  That's all she had tried up to that point, but rice cereal was a big hit.  It has helped her to sleep better too, which is wonderful.  

Of course it was a big mess.  She even lunges after the spoon or bowl, trying to get a little more.

Post-eating bath.  She has such wide eyes and looks so curious all the time.  

And for dessert...toes.