HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POP!

These videos were made this morning (obviously, since Claire is still in PJs), but it's taken me all day to get them posted. A couple of kids are fussy around here.





I'm WAY behind with blogging. Tons of pictures and video will be posted soon.

Alex's Green Thumb

Both grandmothers are great gardeners and it looks like Alex will be too. (Dave said having a green thumb must skip a generation.) Every time he has an opportunity to be in the front yard, he has to stop (for a long time) and admire the flowers he and Grandma planted.

Crawling, Trilling Baby...Boy?

Claire is crawling as of yesterday! Well, she's moving forward intentionally, but it's not your typical crawl. It's actually a bit painful to watch - so much effort goes into her forward motion (bunny hops, straightened legs with feet flat on the floor, with a few of your typical crawling moves thrown in for good measure), I just want to scoop her up and help her!

Claire crawling (apologies for the crappy YouTube video - blogger has a low file size limit)(hmm, now that it's posted, it actually looks OK so maybe I'll use YouTube from now on):



After watching Claire I wanted to look at Alex's first attempts at crawling. There are similarities, except his video is complete with a bump that's pretty funny until he cries - even Alex thinks so (well, now he does):



Claire is an expert at trilling (guess we should teach her Spanish NOW!), but she does it only when she's upset. (Dana used to do this when upset at this age too, didn't she?)

And, finally, try as we might, Alex still thinks Claire is a boy:

More Pictures & Video

Claire at 9 Months Old

New Toys

(water table and sandbox - well, we've had the sandbox for quite a while thanks to Ernie, but we finally added the sand)

Alex's Favorite New Pastime: Helping Grandma Garden

Claire Clapping When Asked

(Still working on waving)

Claire Speaks!

Yep, can you believe it? All this time we've been thinking that Claire will be a late talker since she doesn't babble as much as Alex did at this age (and she seems more focused on gross motor skills - though she's STILL not officially crawling).

Her first word was "uh-oh!" She doesn't consistently say it when she drops something, but this morning while I was making a bottle and she was sitting in her booster seat playing, I heard, "Uh-oh...uh-oh...uh-oh," and I looked to see she'd dropped her toy on the floor and was gazing down at it.

She's also becoming a proficient eater (mostly because I'm too lazy to spoon-feed her purees and have resorted to tossing a piece of broccoli or toast on her tray to keep her entertained during dinner).

I have lots of video and pictures to post. Here are just a few of Claire showing off her eating skills.