Wonderful Weekend

We have had a wonderful weekend in Rochester with Grandma and Grandma. We will post more photos later this week but we are here another night, so here is a video of Claire and Grandpa playing.

Seriously What are you wearing Grandpa from CMB1936 on Vimeo.

Our New Bathroom

So after 8+ work days without our main bathroom they are 99.6% done, so for Friday we figured we would do the reveal...

We went from...
Old Bathroom:
To our New Bathroom:






I think it's a world of difference and we cannot wait for Claire's tub to get its first use.
And because its Claire that drives our readership...a Friday video of her eating her spoon:

Yummy Spoon from CMB1936 on Vimeo.

We are off to visit Grandma and Grandpa (Dan, Jean and Dex) in Rochester this weekend, so I'm sure many photos will follow.

Home!

Claire and I are home. It has been 11 days since we have been home and it feels so good to be back. I was afraid Claire was going to forget what our house looked like. The bathroom transformation is almost complete and I can't wait for the final pieces to be installed tomorrow.

Huge thanks to Nana & Papa for housing us this past 11 days. I am not sure Claire is going to like going back to just mommy during the day after having loads of Nana & Papa attention.

A sneak peek of the bathroom before the big reveal later this week:

Still here

Claire and I are still crashing at Nana and Papa's. The bathroom is progressing and we are able to go home tomorrow. More work will be done on Thursday, but it is pretty minor. Nana and Papa have not minded the delay one bit, they love their little house guest (Claire & I come as a package deal so they have graciously allowed me to stay as well).

Since the heat finally broke today we took Claire to the park.

Rice cereal continues to be hit or miss. Somedays she gobbles it up and other days she wants nothing to do with it. We offer it once a day and see what kind of mood she is in.
Love that toothless grin!

Longer than Expected

Our bathroom project is getting extended into the middle of next week, so for now more time with Nana and Papa. They love having Claire here, mom and dad on the other hand, not so much :-)

Claire had some exciting firsts this past week. She dropped her 10:30pm feeding, so she is going to bed around 7:30pm and waking up between 6:30-7:00am. We are hoping this is not just a fluke at Nana and Papa's and will continue when we get home. Claire is also not using a pacifier during bedtime or naptime. She still occasionally uses it during the day for fussy periods. We reduced her pacifier use for a few reasons, during the night Claire would loose her pacifier and fuss until it was replaced. Cory and I would take turns in the night doing 're-plugs'. This was not great for our sleep or Claire's since she was not able to re-soothe herself back to sleep without it. Also, Claire's daycare prefers children not use a pacifier and limits pacifier use to their crib. I thought there was no way Claire would go to bed without one. To our surprise she fussed for a minute or two and then went to sleep without it and stopped waking in the middle of the night wanting her pacifier back. Maybe when potty training rolls around we may need to plan another visit to Nana and Papa's so this magic can continue.

Please, can I have some more:

Dixie Cups

Claire loves Dixie Cups, they keep her very entertained especially during dinnertime.
Thanks for the idea Dex.

Video of Claire Eating

Rice cereal with Bananas from CMB1936 on Vimeo.

We are Bananas for Bananas

Cory did some research on feeding babies rice cereal and found a few suggestions to try rice cereal with bananas. The sweeter taste can be more appetizing for babies. Well we found a winner, Claire loves rice cereal with bananas. She cooed through the feeding, opened her mouth for more, and finished a whole ounce (a first!). We'll have a video posted tomorrow.

It's fun to watch Nana tear paper:
But it's even more fun when Claire gets to rip paper:

Banana rice cereal is tasty!

Update from Nana & Papa's

Day 3 at Nana & Papa's and of course we are being spoiled! Claire is still eating rice cereal with mixed results. We give her cereal in the morning and the evening; sometimes she is receptive and other times she lets us know "nice try, this is not happening".

Nana, Claire, and I have been busy with shopping trips to Kohl's, Target, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Claire is an excellent little shopper. This afternoon we tried out the kiddie pool to cool off from the heat.

Papa carrying Claire in the carrier:
Papa letting Claire play with things that are not mom and dad approved:
Trying out her high-chair:
Playing in the kiddie pool:

The Start of a New Bathroom

This week Claire and Mom are staying with Nana and Papa in Buffalo, while Claire gets a new bathroom (I say Claire, since she cannot take showers yet, we are having a tub put in for her). While they are away I will be updating the progress of the bathroom. We are doing a complete gut (we meaning the people WE hired) and starting from scratch.

The Before:

After Day One:

Hopefully every-day's progress is this fast, but tearing down is much easier than putting up.

Since I know that you actually read the blog for Claire, here are some cute photos from the weekend:
'Now rotate 43* counterclockwise and it should unhook'
'I'm in Mommy's Chair'
'This is MY Monkey, you have your own'
'What you got over there? Maybe I want that Monkey Also...'
Mom as furniture.
'If I try hard enough, I can get the entire block in my mouth'
'Look into my eyes....you will buy me a new tub'

Rice Cereal

Claire had her first taste of rice cereal on Friday. I think the pictures tell the whole story on how it went.

All ready to go in her highchair:
First spoonful:
What the heck is this...
More on her face then in her mouth:

Rice Cereal Take 2, Saturday:

They are really going to try this again:
Trying out a different spoon:
Nice try with the new spoon, I still don't like it:
Moved Claire to infant seat to see if that helped:
Hey this spoon is fun to chew on:
Our second attempt was a definite improvement. Claire needs more practice to get the hang of eating with a spoon. Claire had another first this weekend, on Saturday morning we found her sleeping on her stomach in her crib. Much to our surprise there was no screaming, which usually accompanies Claire's tummy time.