In my last post I reported that we received good news from our orthopedist. That is, Claire no longer has to wear her harness for her hips. She has such a greater range of movement and is getting so strong. Because she is 'sans harness', she loves to be in the bouncer and saucer at daycare and our bouncer here at home. She also loves, just loves, sticking her feet in her mouth. It's a new development within the last few weeks. Now that she's found her feet, though, I don't think we'll ever keep them away from her mouth. Ryan even caught her sucking on her big toe instead of her thumb the other day.
She's also on her way to solid foods. Starting almost 4 weeks ago, we started rice cereal. At first, she wanted nothing to do with it and got really fussy when we tried getting the spoon in her mouth. She's get the cereal in her mouth and hold her mouth open. You could see the cereal just in her mouth, slowly dribbling out the corners with an absolute look of disgust on her face. After several tries on our end she started warming up to it. Then her aunt Ashley came for a few days and she would just gobble down the cereal for Ashley. In fact, she'd try attacking the spoon if you brought it anywhere in her eyesight. She's now tried about a half a dozen types of baby food for 'supported sitters' like Claire. We also believe she's going through teething...unsuccessfully at this point. No teeth have broken through, but she is absolutely obsessed with chewing on fingers and anything else she can fit into her mouth. She's getting chapped rosy little cheeks too.
Prunes
Pears
Green beans
Claire also experienced her first Easter at the farm as well as up with my parents in Minocqua. She had two beautiful Easter dresses for her to wear. Unfortunately, she wasn't big enough to participate in the Easter egg hunt, but she did get two baskets from the Easter bunny. One was from us...we filled it with hair bows, onsies, a new bottle, cotton hats, and her first cellphone--the kind that makes animals sounds and plays music, of course. When we went up to visit my parents on Easter Sunday, she met her great-grandma and grandpa Wiesner for the first time. Despite how nice the day was, that night was her worst in her short life. The three of us were in my bedroom at my parents house and she decided to howl from 8 till midnight and then intermittently during the early morning hours. It was awful. Poor little thing.
Claire has now been at day care for almost two months. We really like her teacher Ms. Diane. She keeps Claire and the other little babies busy doing all sorts of artwork. We have about 12 different pieces of art that Claire has done...mostly with hand prints and foot prints, but they're absolutely precious.
Claire had her first fever almost two weeks ago and like the worry wort I am, I panicked. She had a 103 fever and I didn't sleep a wink that night. Yeesh. It was horrible. I know it's the first of probably many to come, but it is scary and I am not looking forward to it. She's been such a good baby with so few problems that sometimes I think we take it for granted. Now that she's teething and seems sort of not herself, I feel a lot more tense and nervous. I have officially become a 'hover parent'. Sorry Claire...overprotective parent!!!
School is almost over for the year at St. Norbert, so I will be glad to be back at home with her every day. We have big plans to just hang out. She likes being outside a lot, so I'm sure we'll have a swing up and once she's bigger, a splash pool. Once Claire learns to sit up on her own (very soon), we'll have little picnics in the back yard. I can't wait for all three of us to be at home together. We're so lucky.
