Because....

her smile...heals

Party(better late then never)

Better late then never. Party pictures from two weeks ago. Blogger has put them in all sorts of non order, but oh well.

IT's a week of the Birthday girl

Monday was Claire's Birthday. The real Party is Saturday, but here's a glimpse of the birthday girl on her actual birthday. We celebrated on Monday with just the three of us.

Halloween 08

Claire's first Halloween!! We weren't going to take her trick or treating, but since her cousin came over we let her go to a few houses. She loves spending time with her cousin, so fun was had by all.

Last week...

It seems I'm a day late and a dollar short on this blog. So I'll try and catch up. Went to the pumpkin patch last week. Claire was more interested in riding(falling out of) the wagon, then in the pumpkins themselves. It was funny to see all the Moms and Dads with their cameras, us included..
I could just take a million photos of this girl...wait I have


Fall birthday celebrations...
Claire loved playing with the big kids...
Halloweenie pictures to come....3 guesses to what we dressed her up as.

292 pictures: 1b

Blogger is acting up tonight. It won't upload all the other pictures. So I'll leave you with this!!

There are still times when the fact that Claire is actually with us astounds me. Sometimes I look at her and it's like I'm in a dream, watching someone else's life. Someone with a child. Then it hits me all at once; this overwhelming realization that I'm not dreaming and she actually is ours and in our living room. I often have to choke back the tears when this happens. It feels so fresh at that point. People told me that after she was placed in our arms that I would forget the wait and forget the pain of what we went through. I haven't forgotten. And I don't think I will. I have my reflective moments, but then Claire bonks the dogs on the head with a very hard toy, or spills the water bowl all down the front of her freshly changed outfit. Then she's eating handfuls of dirt and diving off the couch all the while screaming and laughing. Those are also the moments when I sit back and choke back the tears because this is what I've waited so long for and it's better then I ever dreamed!!

292 PICTURES: part 1a

Blogger messed up order of the pictures, but who cares. Lovin' my...I mean our new camera. I still don't really know how to use it, but oh well..
Love this picture of Claire going up to our front step.
Readoption day. Not the best picture, but I love how cClaire is pulling on Jon's tie.

For the past several months the conversations have been like this:
Clarie: Dada
Me: say Mama, Claire MaaaaMMMMMAAAA
Claire: BA!!
Me: MA
Clarie: BA!! BABA!
that's pretty much how it goes. But she's smart this little one. The other day I was reprimanding her for throwing her food on the floor:
Me: Now Claire, Mommy's not going to let you feed yourself if you're just going to throw your food on the floor....we don't throw our food on the floor...
Clarie: MA!!
ME:WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!! MA, SAY MA!!
CLAIRE: MA!!
ME: ohhhhhh, Claire it's okay if you throw food on the floor, just as long as you say MA, while you're doing it!!

more pictures to come: swings, yards, cousins, and pumpkins..oh my....just some of the 292 pictures we took!

Seriously?

Okay, so have we not learned our lesson about this JON?
For those that don't know the story, click on the word lesson above....then you'll understand why this picture so didn't thrill me!!!

Yes I am one of those. You know...the ones who swear when they get home with their child they will continue to blog on a regular basis, but then don't. Yes that's me. I don't know how people do it. By the time I get Clarie to sleep at nine I'm in bed to enjoy TV for one hour, the off to sleepytown.

So a quick update

1. Claire is walking...very well...has been since around 10 1/2 months
2. Claire NEVER stops
3. Claire NEVER stops
4. Does that make her officially a toddler...seriously I'm not claiming her as a toddler until her first Birthday so there!!
5. We did get a new camera, so once we download the software and the 100 pictures we've taken in the past one whole day, we will be able to load new better pictures(hopefully this week)
6. Today was READOPTION DAY!!!! YaY. She is officially Claire Jocelyn. Makes my heart all sorts of happy
7. Had our first family pictures today too. She takes great pictures. Mommy....not so much. Nothing like professional photos blown up the size of half a wall to remind you that it's not the angle of the picture, but that 6 years of stress and unhappy eating really have caused you to gain some weight. Really?
   
8. So Diet starts tomorrow, b/c now I have no excuse. I'm happy.
9. Conversation in the car after Claire's readoption: Jon "I really wish you'd stop telling people that we aren't going to do this(adoption) again"......"because you don't know...just tell them we haven't decided...you never know...."
10. So I guess.....YOU NEVER KNOW!!!
    

1ST week back at work

I've survived my first week back at work. Does is suck to have to go back to work? Well...of course. But it is tempered by the fact that she is in good hands....her Daddy's. It's tough on us, Jon the most, but we survived. It is so sweet to come home and see her big smile when I walk through the door. I will say that the weasel(Jon) is getting her on his schedule...sleeping later and up later...but we're all working on that one!!! We've noticed a few changes. Our angel who was too big to be rocked to sleep before is now wanting to be rocked again. Which of course I love. But it is a reminder of all the changes that she's endured in her little life.
For some reason Claire loves the weather. When we have the news on she never pays attention, until that is the weather comes on. She will stop what she is doing and focus totally on the weather. When the weather is over, she will go back to what she was doing. So cute. She did it at my parents house too.
And seriously....yes that is my living room. Notice our dog is in the corner b/c there is no space on the floor. Poor thing. We had to put a video in, just so we could clean up. I have had to let go of my guilt about putting her in front of a video, b/c I can't get anything done unless I pop in that baby einstein video and clean or cook as fast as I can. The video gives us 30 minutes. I tried really hard not to do it. But I couldn't even get dinner prepared..so I allow myself to "use" the video for cooking. That way she's not screaming while Jon is trying to get precious sleep before going to work...do I sound like I feel guilty. Okay, so I'm still working on that guilt thing.
And just because I love her little smirk...

p.s. we really don't have her in front of the TV much, even though these pictures make it look that way. There it goes again...guilt.

jumping bubble bath

Yeah, Yeah...I know....But we have our home computer back and now I have to figure it all out again. I will be able to upload the family day video and edit it better now...so that's to come soon..until then...enjoy..
If one picture could sum up the perfectness of my life right now, it would the one above..my daughter and my puppies...what could be more perfect.

Claire loves loves loves her bath time...she will crawl at lightning speed once she hears the bath water running..and if I'm late...she'll let me know.

Oh and she likes to dunk her head and try and drink the water...I'm trying to break this habit..but it is cute..
Yes...I did remove the plugged in charger from the bathroom....
remember I told you Jon bought sports clothes....Go Jags...I had to put the bow in her hair so she looked like a girl!!
Party at Pump it Up....that's such a neat place to have a kids birthday party...no need to try and entertain the kids....Claire loved it(as she does all things)


This is the clearest picture of us going down the slide. Next to her is the Birthday boy...he's two and soon after that he was going down the slide by himself!!
So Monday marks my first day back at work...I'm seriously not happy about that, but what can I do..Hopefully the video will be up shortly.

Snipets

Not much going on. We went to my nephew's Bday in Orlando. She did great for her first car ride. It was only a couple of hours, but she pretty much just slept. Don't think we'll be able to do much longer then a couple of hours for a while, but she was a trooper.
Poor thing, wanted to play with the big kids.
This was my attempt at my own photo shoot. But everytime I got the camera on Claire she would try and crawl towards me....oh well I think this is cute.
And just because I could...I put my scrunchie in her non existing bangs. Yeah I know....only I think this is cute!!

ALLLLMOST Walking

Mommy and Claire...yes I have to take pictures of us myself b/c I'm the picture taker, not Jon.
So she's alllllmost walking. Actually she's free standing. I'm not sure how long it takes for them to go from freestanding to walking, but I'm guessing it's coming soon. Do you see the pure joy on her face!! I love that. She's so proud of herself!!
These are the "action" pictures from my "momma's gotta get a new camera soon" camera.(see post below) This "mode" doesn't allow for a flash, so I had to tweak it so you could see her.
She's so funny, b/c she'll be standing there and then get so excited, start clapping, then fall.
Isn't that just too cute. She has her "bo, bo" shoes on. I'm not sure why Jon calls them that...ummm maybe because they're boy shoes. Seriously. Oh and this weekend he bought her "sports" clothes. Those pictures to come.


Yay~~she's just too proud. We were watching the frisbe dogs and she really enjoyed it.
Notice Jon is fixing her "bo, bo" shoes.....
Awww...and to celebrate we went out to lunch....
isn't she cute(wait...did I say that already?)
I can't believe that we are already on the cusp of walking. She has gone from a quiet little thing that would stay put on a blanket in a hotel room...to almost walking and getting into everything. She is loud, she screams, she laughs like we're the funniest things on this planet.
It's so fun to watch the world through her eyes; To get excited about the simplest things; To find joy in the mundane and to find the greatest in the smallest of accomplishments.