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!

Claire's First Christmas!

A Very Grinchy Christmas indeed!

Claire tries for her Grinchiest expression.

Claire's first Christmas was a very successful one.  Even though we had to travel to FOUR different places, she behaved quite well.  However, this year taught us that it will be the LAST time we decide to travel around to so many places on Christmas!  Next year I'm looking forward to a fun morning at home opening our gifts from Santa... and then staying home to play with said gifts for hours upon hours.

Looking less than thrilled on Christmas Eve--Where's my Grinch?

Claire obviously received the best stuff.  On Christmas Eve we had a small get together and she received a copy of The Night Before Christmas, which we read before bedtime, along with How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which is still her favorite... I mean, you'd think someone not two months of age would not show preference, but she seems very happy hearing that book and looking at it's pictures.  Perhaps because they are black and white and red pictures, or maybe, just maybe, I make those voices the best).  
She also received some "educational" literature:

The White on Black book is a favorite that we are putting in our diaper bag for when we are out and would like to read.  The Mizzou 101 book is so she grows up being a smart, educated Tiger!

So then we readied ourselves for Christmas Day.  Claire wore a beautiful red, black, and white plaid dress (her first fancy outfit!) and we had a second dress in the waiting, just in case (and yes, eventually we spit up on the very nice dress).

A brief moment in the Santa hat and "Baby's first Christmas" bib and nice dress.  All will soon go to hell in favor of comfort!

But after a whole day of "Ho, Ho, Ho-ing" around town, Claire had quite the stash of gifts:

Claire's swag.  Note, most of the books DID come from me (I am the English teacher), but she also has lots of cool toys, too.  I'm partial to the stuffed animals, but she got a lot of great noise making toys, too.  Hours of fun (for us, very soon, I'm sure). 

These aren't even all of them!  We didn't throw in her outfits or other baby gifts that are really more for us.  And her Baby Einstein entertainment thingy is still at her grandparents' house--we didn't have room in the car!  Of the gifts so far we've played with the snail tummy time toy (which she LOVES!), her rattle ball, and we've read Green Eggs and Ham, a story from her big book, and the Dog book, which although I didn't think she'd really register what it was, perhaps she recognizes pugs, because she loved looking at it, especially when there was a page that had moving parts, then she'd look with big eyes and smile up at me.  

But her favorites?  The stuffed animals, of course!

It's like playing Where's Waldo

Here I am! 

She also surprised herself by hugging a few of the toys.  She doesn't know how to hug, I know this, but she grows more active with her hands and arms every day.  So in her flailing she got her arms right around Eeyore,  and surprised herself by giving him a big hug.  I had to laugh, because once she did it, she kept looking at him and doing it again.  I think she just liked the way he felt, but still, it's a start!

I like you, Eeyore, but Dad says I can't do any more than that until I'm 21. 

And here is Claire's accidental hug of the Grinch.  By this point, she realized we were taking great pleasure in something she was doing, so she's got a pretty smug look on her face!  We are just completely in love with Claire--what a great Christmas present to us to get to enjoy the holiday through her eyes!

Did you know he stole the last can of Who-Hash?  But then his heart grew three sizes, so he gave it back. 

The Three Wise Bags

Claire after her bath this morning--super stoked about Christmas Eve!

I can finally say I know more about sewing than I thought I did.  Last Christmas I made everyone a standard pair of flannel pants (and much to their dismay, I didn't go to the flannel sale at JoAnne's Fabrics this year, so no one got a pair of pants!).  However, in my quest in all things crafty, I found this pattern for an awesome bag!  I was going to make my own diaper bag, or a school bag, but I'd kind of been shot down on the diaper bag idea, and we already had one.  We really need two diaper bags so I can use one for just daycare and one for us.   But in the meantime, I got a great idea that these would make nifty "Grandma's Day Out" bags for our two new grandmothers!  This way they could have something special to carry when they go out with Claire (of course, they could just use MY diaper bag, but that's not nearly so special).  So I decided on the pattern, and bought some fabric, and came up with these:

The flowery bag is for Grandma Katy and the circle bag is for Grandma Paula. 

A close up... this is my favorite--except for mine, of course.

 So I picked coordinating fabrics for both Grandma bags.  I didn't want anyone jealous or upset about color choice (not that they would be, but you never know, I've made people angry over smaller issues).  I found the fabric at JoAnne's Fabrics, although I'd had my eye on some designer Anna Marie Horner fabric when I'd looked at the bag originally.  After I'd finished Bag #1, I realized that in fact it was a great size, and customizable to fit things like bottles and my phone (I can't find a good place to stick my phone in the current bag, drives me crazy).  So, I sucked it up and got in touch with Sew Fresh Fabrics on ETSY who was kind enough to talk me through the process of buying fabric online--and I did!  And I LOVE the end result:

My new diaper bag!  I love love love the fabric!  It looks so good together!  Who knew I could pick colors so well? :)

My customizable inside--note: I've got 4 BumGenius in here, plus a receiving cloth, wet bag, wipes, a changing pad, a bag of cleaning products, and assorted other goodies inside--more than enough space!

And on the outside, although you might not be able to tell, there are pockets on both sides.  One side is split in half and fits two bottles perfectly.  The other side I left open, which fits a bottle of water (to mix the formula, of course). 

But I wasn't done yet!  We've been trying to use cloth wipes, but found that we needed several more.  Remember all those flannel pants I made last year?  Well, their scraps went to good use!  I also picked up a remnant of fleece and made some fleece liners for her cloth diapers (for when we have to use diaper rash cream, since it'll ruin her diapers if it gets on them).  The fleece was better, because it was no stitch, but I made a ton of wipes (these are just some... we've been wiping with them since I made them, we are totally out of the cute purple ones, so I can't show you!)

Fleece liners in two sizes (for our two diaper types, since one is a little smaller).  And many many wipes!

 And what does Claire think about all this?

Claire's first smile on camera... she's been smiling forever, but it's sort of like Bigfoot--you can't catch it on film to prove it!