Clara is 7 months old. This girl will not stop growing. She is getting so big and is so much fun at this age. Here are her updates for the past month.
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| clarabelle |
Clara's looks haven't changed much. Her hair is getting longer, especially in the front where her bangs are. She looks adorable with a little head band in. She is looking more like a girl and less like just a baby. Her spot on the back of her head where she rubbed her hair shorter is also starting to fill in. She is working hard on getting her two bottom front teeth in. They are so close. You can see the bulge in the front of her gums where her teeth are. She still has nice round thighs, round cheeks, and big brown eyes.
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| cool baby |
Clara has such a sweet and social personality. Despite her happy and friendly disposition, she is quite shy at first. When we are around new people or people she hasn't seen in a while, she will always look to mom to see what she thinks. If mom smiles, then she will smile at the new person. If mom doesn't, she won't typically smile back. She is very expressive and mimics people's facial expression. It almost feels like a game. If you make a concerned face, she makes one back. If you smile, she smiles back. If you make a serious face, she is serious back or sometimes she smiles to try to get you to smile.
While obviously not saying any words yet, Clara is babbling to herself and does like to shreik with excitment and cackle. She blows raspberries and loves to chatter to herself and to her brothers.
Clara is trying to crawl, but is luckily not there yet. She has been getting on her tummy the past few weeks and getting on her hands and feet. She also gets on her tummy and tries to scoot herself by kicking her legs. She will get the hang of it soon. In the mean time, she rolls around to get where she needs to go. She sits unassisted well and likes to bounce on her bottom while sitting. She has started this thing when she is sitting where she will flap her arms or clap her little hands together, earning her the nickname "birdy".
As far as sleeping, she sleeps through the night. With teething, we have had a harder time getting her to bed. She has been going to bed at around 9:30 pm. This is not horrible, but mom would like it to be earlier. She then sleeps until around 7 am. We are not going to knock it. Although, mom really needs to give up the 4 am pumping session to keep her supply up. It's getting super old. We also have been working on getting her to sleep in the pack and play (and eventually the crib) during naps. We had her in the swing during naps until a few weeks ago. The transition has meant shorter naps, and a number of times were she hasn't napped at all. She sleeps in it fine at night at least.
Clara started eating solids this month! She wasn't so sure about eating at first and would use her tongue to push most of the food out of her mouth. We also struggled to get her to open her mouth. Mom often tricked her by giving her a spoons. When she went to put the spoon in her mouth, mom would quickly scoop the food spoon in. After a few weeks, she started to get the hang of it and opens her mouth when she sees the food. Now it's on to try to teach her to sign to let us know what she wants. So far she has eaten peas, avocado, bananas, apples, watermelon, strawberries, carrots, sweet potato, and we just started peaches and giving her cheerios to practice her pincer grasp.
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| strawberry mouth |
We had a busy month with family in town and visiting family in Indiana. Clara took in all in stride. She loved the extra arms to hold her and the extra attention. She did wonderfully with the 8 hours she spent in the car to Indiana.
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| clara and gramma |
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| clara and grammy |
She also had a few adventures and a few firsts. She had her first hiking trip to Hocking Hills State Park. She fell asleep for most of it, but woke up to see the water falls.
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| hiking in the ergo |
She also had her first time in swimming in a pool at grammy and grandpa's house. Mom had her sit on the top step and she loved splashing around in the water.
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| beach babe |
She also had her first trip to COSI. Again, she mostly slept in the carrier. I guess that is what happens when you go in the morning during prime nap time hours. She did wake up toward the end to watch her brothers play in the water table.
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| papa and clara |
We had another wonderful month with our little belle. We love this little girl so much and are so excited to continue watching her grow.
-eric & anna
