6 months

I can't believe Claire is already 6 months old. A half a year. Wow.
It has been 6 months since she joined our family & it feels like she has been here longer than that, but it also seems like she was just born.
I can't believe in another 6 months she will be a year old!
I know I say it all the time, but Claire really is one of the happiest & smiley babies I have ever known. We are so lucky and blessed to have her as a part of our family.

This past month she has started eating baby food. She loves it all! She has had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, squash and carrots. She gets excited when it is time to eat. I only feed her 1 meal of baby food a day. I feed it to her during Kate's nap so that Kate doesn't see me feed her. I don't want Kate trying to feed her food, so this is my trick! So far, so good. In the next few weeks I will start giving Claire 2 meals of solids a day, so I will figure something out!

Claire is getting the hang of sleeping longer. She has slept through the night a few times, but it is pretty inconsistent. If she doesn't sleep all the way through, she usually only wakes up 1 time.

Claire's favorite activity (besides eating) is rolling. She rolls around all over the family room! And, she rolls all around her crib. Several times I have found her at the opposite end of her crib & sleeping on her belly. She hasn't attempted to crawl yet (which is just fine with me! Kate was crawling at 6 months & it was exhausting!) Claire is learning how to sit up on her own & can sit by herself for about 4 seconds before falling over. Each day she gets better at sitting! She is getting good at finding her pacifier & sticking it back in her own mouth! Love it when they master that skill!

Later this week she has her 6 month check-up & I am going to do her 6 month photo shoot. Stay tuned!

Fun with Numbers

{1} time Claire woke up last night

{8} hours I slept last night
{2 } eggs and pieces of toast that Kate ate this morning
{3} cups of coffee I had today
{7} loads of laundry I did this week
{4} more loads I still need to do
{16} poopy diapers Claire has had this week
{3} visitors we had this morning..Aunt Patty, Auntie El & Grandma Jill
{9} the number of times I had to tell Boulder to get off Claire's blanket
{16} times Claire has rolled over in the past 6 minutes

{2} seconds Claire can sit up on her own before tipping over
{11 } spoonfuls of carrot baby food that Claire ate
{6} days since Boulder's 4th birthday
{43} days since Kate's 2nd birthday
{186} days until Claire's 1st birthday
{24} episodes of Monk we have on our DVR
{554} pictures on my camera's memory chip
{32} times Kate has gone down the slide in our backyard before lunch
{1/2} peanut butter sandwhich Kate ate for lunch
{12} times Kevin has listed to the new U2 Album this week
{1} hour since Becky went to the hospital to get induced
{3} times Kate asked to watch Backyardigans
{0} times we let her
{7} the time we are meeting friends at Ascona tonight.
{62} degrees outside today
{17} minutes until Kate goes down for a nap
{4} pictures on this post that were taken this morning
and....
{100} the number of posts I have now written on my blog!

Potty

About a month after Claire was born, I bought Kate a little pink potty to put in their bathroom. I just wanted to put it in there so that she would get used to seeing it & so she could sit on it whenever she wanted. The potty has a feature that when pee lands in the bowl of the potty, music starts playing. We have never heard the music. Kate likes sitting on it & reading books or while playing with toys. I never pressure her into sitting on it, but if she asks to go on the potty, we take off her diaper & she sits...and sits...and sits...and sits.

Today after school, we were at home eating lunch. I was watching my nephew Kyle for a couple hours & during lunch he excused himself to go potty. When he came back Kate told me she wanted to go potty in her pink potty. So, we went upstairs, took off her diaper and she sat on the potty. Less than a minute later, music starts playing! It startled me! Kate ACTUALLY went pee pee in the potty!
Kate was as shocked as I was!
We went downstairs and got her a chocolate candy & told Kyle the exciting news!
I told Kyle that Kate wouldn't have gone if it weren't for him going potty first!
Thanks Kyle!
Kate wanted to call Daddy at work and tell him what she did!
She was mostly just excited about the candy.

Claire is happy Kate went in the potty.

I am pretty sure that this was a total fluke that she actually peed in the potty, but it was fun to watch it happen for the first time. I am still not going to pressure Kate to go in the potty. To be honest, *I* am not ready to potty train her! Having 2 in diapers is not a big deal to me, it is actually quite convenient! I don't have to worry about accidents, I am take Kate on errands & the park without having to take potty breaks, etc. I am just glad that Kate is interested in sitting on it. And, she tells me whenever she poops & that she is "stinky" and needs a new diaper. It is good she is becoming aware..I suppose this is all part of the process!
We aren't going to start really potty training Kate until this summer. Summer is the plan because I will be off school & home all day, everyday. I can really focus time & energy into potting training her. I don't want to start while I am still at work because I don't want my mom or Kevin's mom to have to deal with potty training her while I am at work in the mornings. In the meantime we will still keep the pink potty in the bathroom & we won't pressure or ask Kate to use it. Whatever happens, happens!
In the meantime, I should probably read a book about potty training since we are going to start this in 3 months.
Wish me luck at the end of June! I am not looking forward to this...