Claire's 2011 Ornament... and the Christmas photos you never received...

Take THAT Hallmark... a cute little handmade ornament by Claire.

First something that DID work out.  I decided Claire would make her gift for her daddy this year.  Hallmark had a cheap looking hand print ornament, but I wanted something more handmade than that (imagine at this point me stamping my foot and raising my fist in some crafty determination).  Thanks to a snooty chick at Hobby Lobby, I came away with bake-able modeling clay in red... I finally got a hand print (it involved heating it with a hairdryer first).  Then I cut it into shape, baked it, and shalacked the heck out of it with modge podge.  I actually had Christmas scrapbooking paper, so I cut a piece for the front to frame it, then put a piece on the back to cover it.  This left about 1/4 inch visible on the sides, so I modge podged a sparkly red ribbon on it.  I thought it was sweet and very pretty (and sturdy!  That's what like ten coats of modge podge gives you).

The OTHER crafty Christmas idea came from this blog post.  We don't have a very light house (small windows, bad locations) so I waited for the best weather and dragged all the equipment to the back deck.  I taped up a sheet and lights (which I've had for years in our light box... I was giddy to actually use them this year, even if it was just taped to a sheet on the back of my house).  Then I decided I needed something for Claire to sit on, so I dragged the ottoman outside, plus blankets, pillows, toys, and books as props.  I got her awesome reindeer pjs all ready and tested the lighting.  Then Claire came home from day care.  In a bad mood. 

I took a lot of pictures, but none of them turned out. 

Matt thankfully helped with Claire's flailing and screaming, but we couldn't get one cute shot. 

So we took her inside and put her down for a nap and I watched the sun set on my project.  Before I pulled everything in, I did take some pictures of the Grinch in Claire's spot.  By this time, the light had faded enough where I didn't get the white out look in the back (my test shots before, with no Grinch, were perfect, just boring).  So.  I got bored tonight and dressed up the Grinch's photo like I would have done Claire's... only I'm sure hers would have been a little more classy. 

 

So.  This is the reason you didn't get a Christmas card from me.  My heart broke with no pictures.  And... I kept holding out for another chance at these pictures, but unfortunately it got rainy, cold, and ugly.  Maybe next year?

Christmas Decorating

So, even though we never posted about it, we DID get the Christmas tree up after Thanksgiving, as usual.  We were really curious how Claire would handle the tree (and really hopeful she wouldn't pull the tree over or eat the ornaments).  So during nap time we got everything up and the next day we were ready for the ornaments. 

 

My ornament philosophy is gaudy.  I get ornaments to represent special things--births, deaths, events, hobbies, etc.  I love Grinch ornaments (I have a soft spot for the guy since I read that book so many gosh darn times over the past two years).  I also like Winnie the Pooh ones (especially the baby ornaments--luckily I have TWO of them... because I totally got Wally one for the year he was born).  Then I have a whole slew of random pug ornaments which Wally is quite proud of.  We also have the real Wally (from the movie Wall-E) and Gizmo this year for Mogwai, since Gizmo is a Mogwai... get it?

Claire loves the ornaments.  She likes for me to carry her around the tree and show her everything.  She's used this opportunity to learn a lot of words--puppy, pretty, tree, and of course, NO and DON'T TOUCH, although she doesn't heed those as well as we'd like.  She probably laughed twenty separate times at a few of them, including the Wally pug in a tea cup which gets her every time.

I love this ornament.  It's so old and kind of ugly, but it's been on my Christmas tree since I was but a baby myself. 

My initial strategy with ornaments was to put all the ones with hooks and all the ones that break easily up high, but to put some sturdy ones on bottom to even out the look.  Unfortunately as the season wore on, many of those ornaments also found themselves perched higher and higher, until now our tree looks a little naked at the bottom.  Claire daily removes what she can and carries them around, then tries to get them back on the tree with little success.

She even put her socks on the tree one night.  She's gotten very handy putting up her own toys (and Wally's toys in his toy box--and my shoes in his toy box, and my cell phone, and her sippy cup).  So I guess putting the socks on the tree shows she's also learning how to decorate.  Good.  Next year I'll let her have at it.

Every day though Claire tells us that the tree is pretty.  She can even say it together, "pretty tree" which is pretty impressive for a 13 month old. 

Just look at that face!!  I love how excited she is about the tree and our decorations.  Makes me so happy to be a Mommy and give her these experiences!

Claire has even perfected the "share" technique, where we can put out our hands and she'll give us stuff.  She does the same thing back, but sometimes we don't always hand whatever we wanted to "share" back over... like the ornaments.  She's also learned how to say "thank you" when we give her something (or when she gives something to us, since we say thank you then... she's a little confused, but we're trying.  She can also sign "please" and sort of say it, so that's nice)

Don't mind if I do...

Oh here you go... I'll share... THANK YOU!

Thanksgiving Recap...

I didn't MEAN to not update about Claire's Thanksgiving... I just had a hard time getting around to the pictures.  Getting the Christmas pictures ready, though, I just couldn't let these go to waste!

 Claire dressed up nice for Thanksgiving, even though there's no way I'd let her eat her meal wearing something so nice!  Gotta love the eye rub... that's usually our cue to put her down for a nap... but she was just being shy (or hates the camera flash!)

 At Grandma and Grandpa's house Claire got to hang out with some of her favorite family members.  One of them in her "uncle" Brandon (who is really Matt's cousin, but since she doesn't have any real aunts or uncles, we just call everyone an aunt or an uncle). 

 But after the ads, Claire had to get down to business.  We stripped her nice outfit off, hooked her up with a huge bib (that actually was from the day care, lucky us it ended up in OUR dirty laundry just in time for Thanksgiving!)  Claire liked everything!  She ate a whole roll, my serving plus her serving of dressing, several small pieces of turkey, a little mashed potatoes, some of my sweet potato casserole, some green beans, and even cranberry sauce.  I won't lie, I was snapping wildly trying to get her expressions once she bit into something she didn't like.  I really bet on the cranberry sauce causing some faces, but instead she just popped in even more!  This kid is NOT a picky eater!

Notice the green beans never move from the side of her tray.  Once she tasted the other stuff, they were sadly forgotten. 

Well, from this meal we discovered a whole new menu to start feeding her at home.  She has stovetop and chicken and turkey and we even roll up mashed potato balls for her to feed herself (since you'll notice we fed NONE of this meal to her).  We had a great time and a great meal!  Can't wait for next year!

High Chair Remodel

A couple of months ago I saw this awesome picture idea in a baby magazine.  The photographer got an old high chair off of Craigslist, painted it, and let the cake fly.  Looking at the picture, I realized that chair seemed a little TOO familiar.  In fact, it appeared to be a cleaned up version of MY old high chair!  So I made my dad unearth my 30 year old chair from the basement.

It was in pretty rough shape--30 years of basement life will do that to you.  I cleaned it several times with Murphy's Oil Soap and made sure all the pieces were tight and it wouldn't fall apart.  I decided not to sand it because the finish appeared to be gone.  Also I figured sanding it probably would be difficult with the design. 

I spray painted the heck out of it... and I'm not sure if I needed more paint (two cans down, more to go?) or I really needed to sand it, but I had small parts of the wood showing through, especially on the detailing.  When it dried after the second coat, I decided to leave it.  One, I didn't want to paint it AGAIN.  Two, I kind of liked that it looked "aged" (as it was old).  Three, I figured it'd take good shots anyway and only someone as picky as me could tell. 

I was right about everything!  Claire took her cake smash photos and looked great in the chair--and hey, bonus!  Now we have a weird, clean, antique high chair if Claire ever wants to play real "house" someday!

Claire Turns One!

Claire at one... adorable photo by Heather Lynn Photography.

 Claire turned one this past Thursday.  We have no idea where this year went, but now I realize all I have to do is blink and she'll be an adult, so I am happy to have such a wonderful year of memories.

One of the better family photos--except my neck is being torn to shreds by Claire's death grip on my necklace!

 We had her party today because on her real birthday, she had a doctor's appointment (and four shots) instead.  We also did a one year photo shoot with Claire last Sunday so we'd have some good photos to show around at her party (or eleven minutes of photos, to be exact).

I love Claire's cute Abby hair bow!  I can't believe she just wore it and left it alone!

Claire has a record of walking five steps.  She was at three all week, and then she really stepped it up last night and would have made it farther than five, but my big feet were in her way.  She's really into feeding herself these days, but not always so handy with her fork and spoon--unless it's sticky she has trouble getting it to her mouth without spilling first.  She also started eating "big kid food" at daycare.  We no longer pack her meals (turns out we never needed too, but apparently the day care thought we were crazy into organics or something and never offered their baby food to us... drat!)

Claire's cake smash photo shoot--I have to post about my chair remodel.  The chair she is in is actually my high chair from when I was a baby!  I had to do a lot to it to make it usable.  Gotta say I like the newfangled ones with dishwasher safe trays, though!

Mmmm CAKE!

For Claire's birthday we decided to go for an Abby Cadabby theme from Sesame Street.  It's her favorite character and even the pediatrician loves the fact we watch the show with her and since the songs and ask questions--she says that's great! (take THAT folks who say I'm wrong for letting her watch!)  But anyway, she really recognizes Abby.  She even took off from playing in her room when she heard the song come on TV once.  We also got all of the Abby party supplies on clearance, and you can't argue with that logic!

Is it strange every time I look at the pictures we took of the cake my hand starts to hurt?  I need to work on my finger strength!

I decorated the Abby cake myself--it wasn't even the cake she was going to eat!!  I used to do cake decorating once upon a time, and my grandmother was an accomplished cake decorator who even made wedding cakes for people.  In my family we have a standard birthday cake that is of her creation with homemade everything (this cake takes like a straight two hours of making--cake by scratch, homemade custard, strawberries, cream, and royal icing and coconut--wow!).  I thought about making it, but I realized she wouldn't have a cake smash with just a slice of cake!  So I'll save that for when she can truly appreciate the deliciousness, and I decorated an Abby cake instead.  More cake for everyone, too, so thank GOODNESS I made this cake!  I've definitely got this one down--my first one looked like Abby had a bit of a tan.  I think I really nailed the colors this time, if I do say so myself.

Claire's special cake for birthday smashing.

It's not a successful birthday until you have cake from head to toe, literally.

Claire on her way to her bath--she grew tired of eating cake and tried to paint the windows instead.

Claire had a lot of wonderful family and friends come to celebrate her first year.  I was overwhelmed (in a good way) by how many people came.  I forget we have friends sometimes with how much we stay home with her, but it's nice to know everyone is still here for us.  I'm hoping as she gets bigger, it'll be easier for us to get out a little more.  Maybe I'm just selfish with my time though, but I can't think of anything better than being around her.  I'm probably the most boring person in the world.

The only present Claire attempted to open.

Matt and I agonized over what gifts to get Claire because we wanted this year to be special.  Well, Matt did console me that really the first birthday is all about parents showing off and not for the kid (true, I think, but at least we did all Claire-centered activities).  Unfortunately Claire's favorite presents ended up being a Sesame Street lunch box holding a DVD, some plastic fish for bath time, and wrapping paper.  After her big nap post-party though she really was exploring the new toys.  We have a teapot, fridge/oven, clock, blocks, shape sorter, puzzles, a sock monkey and this cat thing that I find strangely mesmerizing (and so does Claire, apparently, she's been dragging it around), and she got some other stuffed stuff--including a pug (thrown aside) and an Abby (thrown aside... blast!).  Great Grandma Duckett also got Claire a beautiful diamond cross necklace.  I'm a little jealous, but will keep it safe for her until she's reliable enough to wear a necklace of that caliber! 

Sesame Street lunch box with DVD.  Who'd have guessed she was that excited.

The gifts.

The fish--the big hit from the birthday loot--again... why didn't I think of that!?

She also got a lot of wonderful clothes and her first two pairs of shoes.  I don't care if she can walk or not, she's wearing shoes the next time we go anywhere!  My mom also bought us a new shelf for all of Claire's goodies.  We've been excited about this for a while.  It's a nice way to keep the living room a little neater with her (giant) collection of toys.

Finally, Matt got Claire a 3/4 Strat Hello Kitty guitar.  Granted she can't play it yet, but we're calling it a legacy gift--a gift of "talent" that we'd like to pass down to her.  And as far as talent, guitar playing is a lot cooler than me giving her some crochet hooks and cake decorating tips.  :)

We are just so thankful to have our family and friends--they've been 100% supportive for this first year.  And of course we are thankful for our (not so) little Claire.  She brightens every day and makes us laugh a hundred different ways.  It's been an amazing year, and I miss every minute of it.  But I have so many more minutes to look forward to, it's hard not to be excited about what's to come.  Happy birthday, Claire!

The Owl Hat Saga

Hat on your left is mine, hat on right is Claire's.  The eyes and beak are the same size for both (smaller for the other ages).  I'm jealous of her hat--but I guess if I had a head that small, I wouldn't have enough room for all my "smarts," right? 

Everyone knows I have a serious love for crocheting hats.  Claire is unfortunately at an age where a hat might be wearable or not--meaning she'll rip it off her head if it's not a hat day.  How I long for the days where she was too young to know better!  This hat pattern is from Etsy, where I get most of my patterns.  I love buying patterns because I get them in PDF form usually the same night or day after I order in my email, so I can start work on it right away.  With this hat, however, I waited a bit (I've had this pattern probably since last winter).  I wanted to make a hat for this winter, since owls appear to be all the rage right now. 

I started the hat back in September when I had my surgery.  I figured since I'd be useless and stuck on the couch I could at least make the most of my time by working on something productive that required little thought (I can fall asleep crocheting and not screw up stitches... it's a gift).  Unfortunately, my reasoning skills were a little muddled by the wonderful pain killers, so when I selected a size (1-5+ years... seemed reasonable considering she'd be one this winter and the smaller size was only 6-12 months) I didn't think anything about it and never stopped to say to myself, "Self... does this look Claire-sized to you?"

I made the hat itself minus ear flaps and owl accessories the weekend of my surgery, but everyone knows you can't keep this girl down, so I was back to work on Monday and back to life and I ignored the hat since I didn't need it right away (and I still never thought about the size).  Well, that's a lie.  I put it on her, but with no flaps, it was a little big, but didn't seem huge. 

With our one year photo shoot coming up, I wanted to have the hat for cute shots since I have a thing about making sure those pictures always showcase not only my adorable kid, but also all those adorable things I make for her.  So this past week I sat down and finished the hat.  Then I realized, hey, this is pretty big.  I put it on my head and to my horror, it went right on.  I hoped (at that point Claire was asleep for the night) that somehow she had the same size head as me and I just had a small head, but in the morning I realized that no, she was NOT going to fit in this darn thing--and pictures were only two days away!!

I did check my gauge again just to make sure the error wasn't on my part (it wasn't), so I quickly grabbed the yarn and started to work on the 6-12 size hat.  I was careful because I didn't want TWO huge hats, and again my stitches were spot on, so I didn't have to worry any more that my skills were off.  I finished the hat in a record two days (I stayed up pretty late, I won't lie) and on Sunday for pictures the hat was finished, fit, and was adorable.  And now we have matching owl hats! (trust me, it wasn't intended.  I'm sure I'll wear it, because I too love hats, but I think I'm a little old for a purple owl hat ;)  )

 I have another hat, this time with bubble crochet stitches, that I absolutely am in love with.  It'll be Claire's Christmas present.  This hat was technically a birthday present (oh, we'll wrap it, don't worry).  After that I'm pretty much hatted out for her.  A lot of people keep asking about me making hats--I'd love to, but I'm so worried I won't ever get them finished or they won't be as nice as what they want.  I'm a perfectionist like that, I suppose.  I never really thought my crochet skills were good enough for other people to want!  I have some family who I feel "deserve" hats... I also don't know the resell status of these hats--I buy patterns from some folks who let you sell the work and some folks who won't let you sell them.  I don't see the point, because I find it unfair--I made the darn thing!

I have thought about actually researching this and opening an etsy shop of my own to sell the hats.  I have a gift for a friend's newborn and I just love the hat and would make them all day if I could.  Just don't know what I'd do with all those newborn hats, because I'm not having a ton of babies just to fill them (oh, but if I could... ;)  shhh don't tell Matt!)

 So the short answer is, if you want a hat I'm pretty nervous to make people buy them, but I'll see how the gifts are received first (like if my cousin throws it away?)  and then I'll branch out.  It's gonna be a long winter.  You know I won't be doing anything but hiding under the blanket on the couch anyway. 

Hope you like the owl hats.  A lot of love and percocet went into the first one, just a lot of love in the second one.  It's Claire's birthday today.  I find it fitting to talk hats because the first thing we did was try on all the hats I made last year and I remember thinking how adorable she was and that she was alllll mine... I don't think that thought had anything to do with hats in particular, but she's been our baby doll all year.  In a lot of ways today I felt my heart was breaking because she's not a little baby anymore.  But watching her do real people things and eating real people food and having a personality (and last night she "read" me a book--how sweet!!), has warmed my heart.  I'm a proud momma.  Every milestone is bittersweet, but today I'm trying to remind myself of how many wonderful things we have to look forward to and how many wonderful memories we've made. 

Happy birthday, Baby Claire.  You'll always be my baby, no matter how many birthdays go by!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Claire Bear!

Mommy's Lil Pumpkin

 Today was Claire's first Halloween!  I kept forgetting all day and asking her if she remembered last year... just to have to remind myself of course not, she wasn't born yet!  I'm unfortunately in all sorts of first birthday mode, so I can't remember little details like, uh, it hasn't happened yet!

M-I-Z-Z-O-U!

 Claire was a very important girl for Halloween.  In fact, she had day care to dress for (the "Mommy's Lil' Pumpkin" shirt), a Halloween party this weekend, and of course, the big day itself.  She couldn't be caught wearing the same costume twice, so she dressed up differently every time.  Unfortunately for us, Claire is on the move these days!  She's crawling everywhere (silly me, I thought the grass would stop her), and now she's standing all the time and starting to take steps all on her own!  It sure made taking pictures a real challenge!

...and I'm done posing

 So Claire decided she wanted to wear her MU cheerleader uniform to the party this weekend.  She has cute Mizzou tights from Grandpa Larry and she's had this uniform since... before she was born!  The tiger ears, too!  The taggy blanket is the one I made last spring and her tiger was given to me at my Master's ceremony.  Costume complete! 

Is THIS the Great Pumpkin?

 Claire wears this get up to go to the MU games, which means it's technically an outfit she's already been seen in (gasp!) but we didn't have any good pictures of her all decked out, so we thought this would be a good photo op as well.  Besides, we didn't want to do a reveal on her actual costume early!

She's so curious about everything; it's almost impossible to get her to smile at the camera!

This reminds me of a senior picture pose for some reason

 For real Halloween we didn't actually do any trick-or-treating since Claire can't eat the candy, and I thought it seemed greedy to take her out just to eat all her candy when we got home (oh, we still got candy, don't worry about us!)

Who is outside now??  Are they coming to take my candy away?

 Our first stop was Grandma and Grandpa Duckett's house.  She crawled around their newly remodeled house, enjoying the splendor of their new padded carpet!  I really thought she wouldn't be able to crawl in this costume so I was hoping for good pictures--turns out yes indeed she can crawl as a pumpkin.  Capturing her in it sitting still was impossible!

Peeking out the door for trick-or-treaters!

...and she WORE THE HAT!  For all the trouble I've gone through to make her lovely hats, this cheap thing stayed on her head for a long time.  Rats!  Double rats!  At least it was cute for pictures!

So determined!

The hat disappears--it got too hot for a hat, anyway.

 And Claire even went so far as to show off her newest trick, standing and taking a few steps all on her own.  She's been standing and cruising on furniture for what seems like forever.  But now she's finally been brave enough to try a few steps.  We can't wait for her to really start to walk!

Little steps!

 We also went to visit our Auntie Anne where we got to see trick-or-treaters (which she smiled at).  We couldn't stay too long because it was getting close to bed time, and Claire does NOT let you forget she's getting sleepy!  She really didn't seem to mind the costume, which was impressive since we thought it would be a terror.  She smiled and patted it a lot; I think she liked how shiny it was.  Overall Claire had a pretty fun first Halloween.  I can't wait until she's a little older and can actually trick-or-treat, or at least appreciate all the fun of Halloween! 

Happy Halloween!