On the move...

Claire is crawling! As of yesterday, she can move both her knees and hands forward. It's shortly before her nine month birthday, and though I am excited that she's now a crawler, I'm thinking we're going to have to be a bit more on our toes! In the next few days and weeks, I'm sure she'll become a crawling expert. :)

A new favorite for 'unser kleines Maedel' is sharp cheddar cheese. She loves all finger foods, I think because she likes feeding herself. However, put a meat (chicken), veggie (asparagus), and cheese (bright orange sharp cheddar) on her tray and she goes straight for the bright orange!

I'll leave you with a picture for a laugh or two. We've started putting Claire to bed at 8ish this month because she got rid of her evening catnap and was just extremely tired in the morning...as seen here. Yes, she's asleep on the changing table. :)

Happy birthday, Aunt Lori!

Aunt Lori made the trip to see us all this weekend. If you asked her though, she was visiting to see her niece, and if you asked her again, she may have included her sister-in-law. She came down for a belated celebration of her birthday, which was March 25th. We went garage sale-ing on Saturday morning and got some cute summer clothes for Claire. We had a late lunch at Texas Roadhouse, her favorite restaurant, where she got to ride the saddle and have ice cream. Then we took a walk to the park yesterday evening where Claire and Aunt Lori swung together. Claire loves swinging! Daddy pushed her up high and she had a big grin on her face. :) Thanks for visiting, Aunt Lori!

Wet Diaper Girl, Wet Diaper Girl

Here's a lovely rendition of "Wet Diaper Girl," composed and sung by Daddy...

(not the best belly laugh, but Mommy grabbed the camera at the tail end of the song, and most of you don't ever get to see Claire laugh)

Ride, Ride, Ride, Hitchin' a Ride...

Since Matt and Lauren loved biking together as a couple, Mommy and Daddy were eager to get Claire biking with us as a family! We got a hand-me-down bike trailer, in excellent condition, from my cousins TJ and Lara. Of course we had to try it right away!

We tried it out Friday night. As you can see from the picture, I think we were both more excited than Claire. First Matt took it around the block for a test spin, then I did, then we strapped Claire in and went TWICE around the block. She was bored, or maybe just tired after a long day, but Matt thinks we need to give her a toy in there next time.

We're hoping to make great use of the bike trails in our city this summer! I'm so looking forward to summer with Claire. Maybe one of her buddies can even join us - there's room for two! (Consider that your invitation Annabelle, Norah, or Sage!)

In other news, we officially have a babysitter for next year! Our friend Sarah is having her third child in September and won't be watching Claire. The woman who gets to spend lots of time with our favorite girl is named Lisa; and we're excited because we've heard and thought nothing but wonderful things about her! She's a mom of four and will be watching two kids - Jack and Ellie, Claire, and another baby (cross your fingers that it's Sage!). We're convinced that finding Lisa was a "God thing" because of how everything fell into place. Thank you Lord! (One for example...we found her on craigslist of all places...which normally I would NOT recommend!)

Panther Pride

Can you believe that win over Kansas?!? We delayed our dinner plans so that we could watch the end of the game. I'm so proud of UNI! If only we were still in college, we could take part in all the celebration in Cedar Falls. We actually let Claire watch part of the game on TV - a big deal if you know that we don't let her watch any TV. ;) To dinner, we all wore purple, though I couldn't wear any of my UNI shirts that Matt loves because we had to dress up a little more than t-shirts. We got a picture, but it's on Julie and Dusty's camera, so it may make a debut later.

(Unrelated to the Panthers victory: To celebrate Laura's birthday, we ate at a Japanese hibachi grill and Claire's eyes grew so wide with the fire in front of us. Watching our griller Eddi work his grill magic was interesting to her. She also got sprayed with Saki. Did Eddi not realize that I had a baby in my arms?!? Does that make us bad parents? Also, Matt was very proud of himself because he ate a cucumber - only because Eddi threw it into his mouth though.)

Spring Break

Claire does like avacados! :)

"There's none left?...give me that and I'll find some somewhere!"

A couple weeks ago...Onkel Alex entertaining Claire!

"This guy is funny! Even though it's late and I'm tired, I don't need that paci...

I can't even smile big with it in!"

Grandma is teaching Claire early -

"You want me to pose?!? But I'm in the middle of playing here, c'mon!"

(Grandma and Grandpa were in Hawaii on Spring Break,

but since they missed out I added a picture from a couple weeks ago.)

She does like Mommy's food -

"Let me get ahold of what Mommy's eating...it looks much more appetizing than

that mush they try to get me to eat!"

Since we've had the whole week off (Claire and I) for Spring Break, I promised Matt I'd find time to post on our blog...it's Saturday and I'm finally getting to it!

Spring Break has been simple and wonderful. It makes me look forward to summer with our little girl so much! I've been thanking God for each day and trying to enjoy each day and not look forward to the summer too much, though. :)

Our friends Kristin and Derek came to visit last weekend from Madison, WI. We loved that they were able to make the drive to visit and spend some quality time with us! Kristin is one of those friends who I know I'll never lose touch with because she's so good about calling, visiting, and making sure we're updated on each others' lives. She's also the friend who I'm able to pick right back up with most, which is awesome! Right now she's busy getting her Master's at UW-Madison and I'm trying to convince her that she and I should start a school together someday - she'll be the principal. ;) Anyway, we did a lot of shopping trying to find her an appropriate interview suit (for a new teaching job and principal job in the future) and weren't exactly successful, but it was fun trying. We also went out to a new restaurant. The food was tasty, but we weren't totally impressed overall. Amber and Ross watched Claire...thanks guys! It's fun to see Claire and Sage start to interact a bit more. Give them a few more months and it will be too cute, I'm sure!

(Random note: As I type this blog (on our new laptop, which allows me to be in the family room with my two favorite people), Claire has successfully moved totally off her blanket and around on the floor several times. Matt keeps moving her back, and she's not actually crawling, but she just manages to move herself around lots.)

Claire and I started off the work week at Omi and Opa's house. We spent lots of time just hanging out with them and Onkel Alex. Aunt Lori, Great Grandma and Grandpa, Jaclyn, Uncle Tom, and Aunt Patty made some time for us, too. :) Opa especially liked playing with Claire when he could get her out of Omi's arms. They read books together and really loved pulling on Charlie's ears and petting his soft fur.

Since we've been back at home, our days have been uneventful. Just lots of playing, singing, and reading. We did take a long walk and go to the park on Thursday with the beautiful mid-60s that we had (not going to mention that today it's cold with about five inches of new snow on the ground) and went on the swings and slide! She liked the swing, but wasn't sure what to think of sliding. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture.

Claire is starting to eat three meals a day now, too. She's not a big fan of baby food, which I'm not sure about considering each family gathering pretty much revolves around food around here. She makes an exception by being very interested in whatever Mommy and Daddy are eating. She'll catch on soon enough I'm sure...maybe it's just a texture thing and she doesn't like purees. ;) Matt did feed her a breakfast of rice cereal, mashed bananas, and cheerios this morning though. She's starting to get the pincer grasp and feed herself cheerios...it's so fun to see her development!

Tonight it's Taki for Japanese food - where they cook on the grill in front of you, and tomorrow church with Schwartz's. Then, back to the grind Monday. Thanks for reading! :)

Our Little Diver

The three of us embarked on our first vacation. Central Florida in February - you'd think 70's, but we only got upper 50's. Despite the weather, we had a great time getting away for a few days. Thank you Rob and Chris for hosting us!

Highlights included manatees, sea turtles, and dolphins at the Mote Aquarium - did you know that sea turtles are reptiles? We also toured the Ringling Brothers mansion, where there is an amazing model circus layout and enjoyed fabulous food at a little place in the village area of Siesta Key.

Claire was a trooper! She did a great job taking in all the sights from our Moby baby carrier. She even took naps in there with just her little legs sticking out. You'll have to ask Matt about the time he sprinted to the car because she was tired and without her pacifier...and about how he got completely soaked with hard rain because he gave up his coat so Claire wouldn't get wet. What a great dad! :)