Guess Who's Crawling??

I haven't done an update post on Claire in about... forever. Sorry folks! Our little peanut is growing up way too fast though. She's 9 months. Can you believe it?? 9 months! Right before we went to Priest Lake this year, Claire started attempting to crawl, but hadn't quite mastered it. When we got home, suddenly the girl was crawling EVERYWHERE! We were shocked. She was one of those "overnighters" :) Our newest worry now are the stairs here at my Mom's. For some reason, they seem to have some magnetic force that attracts Claire to them whenever we're not looking. Needless to say, there have been many a dash to the stairs to scoop up the wee babe just before she tumbles downward. Luckily, there have not been any spills to date. She keeps us on our toes!

She's eating solids really well now and absolutely loves pears. I think she could live on pears alone. But, we encourage the veggies, even though she shudders any time she eats them. It's hilarious. She also loves graham crackers, Cheerios, cinnamon toast crunch (in very very limited quantities, don't worry) tortillas, bread, potatoes in any variety, i.e. french fries, baked potato, mashed potato, roasted potato, etc., and loves to chew on celery and carrots. She's got teeth too! 5 to be exact. Well, I think two of the teeth are fused together, so I guess technically 4? Anyway, she has her two top front and her two bottom front. The teeth that I think are fused are her bottom right front tooth and eye tooth. They're total snaggle. :)

She's started this new funny thing where whenever I feed her a bottle, one hand instantly goes to her ear and starts playing with it, while the other starts playing with her hair. Yeah, she doesn't hold her own bottles yet. She's totally content with me holding it for her. We're working on that.

Another funny thing- She has always growled. Ever since she was an infant, she has growled. But lately, she's started sounding like an engine that is struggling. :) Dallin took a video of it the other night on his phone. I'll have to post it on here, because it is so funny! She is consistently saying da-da, ma-ma, ba-ba, ga-ga, and every now and again, she says "sha-sha" and "fah-fah". She hasn't started associating those words with anything, although, she does look at me sometimes and say ma ma, and da da to Dallin, but I'm never sure if it's just coincidence or if she knows. I'll just say I have a genius of a kid and that she knows what she's doin. :)

She still loves her baths and loves playing with her toys in the bath. She hates being on her back, so changing diapers tends to be a challenge! She hates getting her hair fixed, but I always manage to do it somehow and she never sits still. The girl is ALWAYS on the go. I have to clip her toenails and fingernails while she is asleep because she wiggles too much while she is awake. She's totally unsure about animals, which ends up being quite entertaining to watch because she gets excited and nervous all at the same time. She reaches out to pet an animal then draws her hand back and starts whimpering. We can't figure that one out yet :) She loves to be outside and the other day we discovered that she loves to watch grandpa mow the lawn. Good gravy, she just sat in my lap and watched the mower the entire time. It's been one of the few times she actually stayed still. :) We think she must be allergic to sunscreen, because whenever I put it on her face, she breaks out in a rash and her eyes get all red and watery. So whenever we're outside, we stick to the shade.

Life with Claire at this stage is so much fun and we're loving every minute of it! I will post some videos soon. I just need to figure out my video camera... it's confusing to load things on the computer. Until the videos, though, here are lots of pictures!

We took family pictures with my immediate family the Saturday before 4th of July and this was Claire's outfit. I loved it, personally :)

My sleepy babe at Priest Lake

Kissy lips from Grandma Valerie at the lake :)

Playing with cords. Her favorite thing!

She loved being in the boat at Priest Lake. And she was super tired in this picture :)

CRAWLING!! :)