12 Month stats

I took Claudia to the doctor this week and the poor thing had to get 4 shots. And she goes back in a month for 4 more. But she did pretty well considering all the pokes in her little legs. She's been as Happy as ever as if she never even had them. Today she is starting to walk more then ever. She now will put her hands on the ground and get herself up to standing in the middle of the room instead of scooting over to something to pull herself up on. Its great! I see her little legs getting stronger and stronger each day. She's just not so good at the balancing part, but I'm sure she'll catch on soon enough.

So her stats are:

Weight: 17 lbs. 13.5 ounces

Length: 27 3/4 inches

So not much growth from her 9 month appointment.

At 9 months she was 16 lbs. 8 ounces and was 27 inches long. 

She is also finally cutting another tooth. It's a top one on the side. Kinda weird, she may have side teeth before she has the front ones. So funny!

My New PR

On Saturday my good friend Janica and I ran a 10K together. We did our first ever 10K together back in 2009. You can see the post here. For that race we ran it in 1:05:32.6. This time I was determined to finish in under an hour. So thanks to my handy Garmin watch we were able to complete it in 58:32 (*updated: posted race results.) Hooray! We shaved about 7 minutes off our previous time. That is pretty good. I felt pretty good the whole time. The race was very low key, there were only about 500 runners. It was along the beach in Huntington so the weather was perfect for a long run.

Now I am thinking I could get my PR even lower next time. 

I am so glad that running has become a hobby of mine, I LOVE IT!!! I love that I can set goals and see the progress that I make as I work to complete my goal. It also feels SO good to complete a long run.     I think one day I want to do a Marathon. 

Anyone want to train with me?????

The Pink Ribbon bands are in support of my sister in law who is fighting breast cancer.

We ♥ you Anna!!!!

My BABY is ONE!!!!

Claudia 1 month old 

 Claudia TODAY

Yes it has been a whole year and a week since our Beautiful little Claudia has joined our family. She is by far my best child yet. Or maybe I'm just more experienced since she is number 3, who knows! She is GREAT!!!! She is always smiling and happy and loves people. She finally decided that it was okay to walk. She's been taking some steps but the day she turned ONE she decided it was time to show us what she can really do. It has been fun. Before we had to convince her to walk without holding on to our hands or a couch or a wall, no she just does it all on her own. She even walks while holding her snacks.

Oh, how I Love my little Claudia.

We don't have her 1 year check up until next week so I am not sure how she measures up, but I pretty sure she is still on the TINY side. Which I really don't mind; clothes last longer and they are much easier to carry when they are tiny.

We had a family party on Saturday to celebrate Claudia. It was very low key and the weather was perfect! We had it at the park in our community. We played my traditional first year games "Put the photos of Claudia in order by month" and we tried a new one where you had to answer some fact questions about Claudia. For example, how much did she weigh at birth, how much does she weigh now, when did she get her first tooth, when did she take her first steps. It was really fun to play. My aunt Susan (who probably sees her the least) won the game. She follows the blog, so she did GREAT! Way to go Susan!

  
Our Family of 5!


Kisses for Mommy and Daddy

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our Claudia!!!!

First Day of School, First Day of School!!!!!

Wow my baby is a 1st grader! Hard to believe it. 

He is getting so big and is so much fun to have around. As you saw in this post, he has been growing up a lot this summer. Since then he has lot another tooth. He now has two missing on the bottom. 

Well today was the 1st day of First Grade for him at a NEW school. We decided to make the change to the new school because they are doing a new program that combines more Arts and Innovations into everyday learning. I think it's go to be great!!!! And two of his buddies from church are in his class. I think I might be more excited for him then he is. 

 

His teacher said Good Morning to all the kids and then waited for them to say it back. Then she taught them their class cheer. It was really cute! Their cheer is "Room 5 Rocks."  

I think this is going to be a GREAT year for Charles!

Now if only preschool was starting for Madison we would all be happy! Poor girl is so BUMMED that Charles gets to go to school and she has to stay home with me! Just a few more weeks.

Done!

Well summer FUN has come to an end.

It's back to the grind of school tomorrow. I am SO READY for school to start this year.We did have a LOT of FUN this summer! Check out our Summer To DO LIST! We almost got it all done! I think this will be a new tradition for our family!

Steps

Last week Claudia took 3 steps. I didn't' really mention it to John because it was only one time and it wasn't that much so I didn't really think much of it. Then at dinner Monday night John asked if Claudia was taking steps and I said "oh yeah she took 3 last week" he asked why I hadn't told him and I didn't really have an answer. I guess with 3 kids those little moments don't seem so monumental. So I brought Claudia over to where we were and stood her up and had her show daddy what she could do. It was perfect, she walked over to him, taking about 6-8 steps. I think John was very happy to see Claudia walking, especially so many steps. It was the first time she had taken that many steps all at once.

I think sometimes as a stay at home mom I tend to forget how important some things are to John. He needs to be involved and feel like he is a part of what is going on even though he is working most of the day. But we LOVE him for all he does for us! I am truly blessed to be a stay at home mom.

11 Months

On August 11th Claudia turned 11 Months old!  

She is such a HAPPY Girl!

Taking her picture next to the monkey for comparison is getting more and more difficult. She just wants to grab the monkey and eat him, or throw him at me. She is too funny!

 

The kids wanted their picture taken too!

She isn't walking yet, which is unusual for my kids, but I'm okay with it. She has mastered going up the stairs and thinks it is SO funny to climb to the top super fast and then sit up there and squeal at us down below. We've taught her to come down backwards on her tummy and she does a pretty good job. She still worried me on the stairs so I stay close by when she's there. She is eating pretty much all table food now and loves most everything. We are still nursing which is huge for me. I think nursing is great, but I do not enjoy it and have never nursed passed 7 months until now. Claudia is doing great.
She is babbling like crazy and does say "hi" and "dada dada." I can get her to do the "mmm" with her mouth but the M sound doesn't come out. I'm sure she'll get it soon enough. She is starting to explore more and more each day. She has discovered my kitchen cupboards and loves to try and get them open.
The other day I found this...

You may not be able to see if very well. But the jar sitting next to her is our oil jar. The jar where the cooking grease gets put once we've used it. Yeah! Nasty! She grabbed the jar and when she dropped it the bottom broke off. Luckily it was in a plastic bag so the glass did not get out but the oil was EVERYWHERE. She was frustrated because she couldn't get away. She was so slippery! I had to mop my floors multiple times to get out the oil off. And the towels I used to clean up the mess still smell like Vegetable oil after washing then 3 times. Yuck!!!

This past week she had Roseola. She developed a fever on Sunday that wasn't too bad. It came and went then on Tuesday it spiked up above 102 and continued through Wednesday. Then went away and came on mildly again Thursday and then on Friday she started getting redness around her eyes. (Which is normal for her when she cries, but not normal all the time.) I thought maybe she irritated her eyes by rubbing them with something on them. But when I was getting her into the bath I noticed her back was COVERED in red spots. I went to my Kaiser Health Care book and researched rashes. Then I tried to rack my brain to remember if there was any new soap or detergent I was using that she may be allergic to. I couldn't think of anything so I read on. I found were it discussed Roseola and the sudden rash that comes after fever. All the symptoms that they listed were EXACTLY what Claudia was experiencing. Luckily her fever never got too high and she now just has the rash a little bit. Which is way better then the fever.