Claire Louise » Recent Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Mon, Nov 16, 2009 8:54 AM
Still no pictures, but we did upload a new video to the Robillard blog. I told you Claire loves to dance and she cracks me up every time she does it. The video is just one of her many dancing episodes we get each day. And, yes, I know she needs a hair cut....badly!

Out of nowhere, her talking has exploded! Yesterday I was holding her and she put her finger in my eye and said eye. Then pointed to my nose (alright, she really put her finger all the way up my nose) and said nose. She says thank you, night night, hi, bye, boo boo, more. She is starting to learn peoples names and if you ask her what her teachers name is, she will tell you. When she wakes up in the morning she calls everyone she knows...Mama, Dada, Aun-a (auntie), Anna (her teacher), Nuno (a worker from daycare named Mundo). At least we spend our days laughing now.

Enjoy the video and let me know what you think.

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Mon, Nov 9, 2009 11:33 AM
Last night I got motivated to update Claires page, especially since she is into so many funny things right now. She loooooves to dance any time music comes on. But she must get her dance moves from her father - it is too funny to see. Friday afternoon I moved videos from the camera to our external hard drive so I sat down on the couch excited and ready to upload for everyone to see. The conversation went something like this...

M: Dan, this drive is really slow. How come I can't see the first screen of the video - shouldn't I be able to see it."

D: Just restart the computer, it might be running slow

M: But the internet is working fine, it's just the hard drive that is slow

D: (Walks over and puts his ear to the drive) This doesn't sound good, I think something is wrong with the drive.

And thus our wonderful night began...realizing that we have currently lost all of our pictures and videos from the last two+ years. Oops! I guess it's not the end of the world since we have some pictures here and there on Ofoto, facebook, this site, E-mail, etc. But it was nice to have them all in one place and organized. Dan did find a lot of the Claire pictures backed up on his computer at work, but we still lost a lot including all the videos. I am holding on to a small piece of hope that we will somehow be able to recover everything, but only time will tell.

So bear with us as we are working to get our pictures and videos back together :-(

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Mon, Oct 5, 2009 8:37 PM
Make sure you check out Claires new videos - I finally added three new ones for your viewing pleasure. You will see Claire show you her body parts. She knows her head, eyes, ears, nose, teeth, belly, and feet. Her favorite is her belly and she walks around showing everyone her belly while trying to check out your belly button. Claire says no-no, shakes her head, and moves her finger like a little sass. She finally caught onto nodding yes, and you will see in the video that it is a full body movement for her to say yes - she hasn't quite figured out the nodding yet. Claire has also learned to find and say Elmo - it sounds a lot like apple, but she says it every time she sees Elmo. She also responds to "A" is for, by saying Apple. I guess they work on that at circle time so she now knows what to say.

Last week Dan and I had our first back to school night. They had all the parents come into daycare at night and meet with the teachers to talk about what the kids are doing all day - circle time, play time, reading, etc.... We had a good time and they sent us home with lots of Claires art projects as well as a DVD they made with pictures of her from the time she started at that daycare. She will have been there a year next week.

This past weekend, we headed down to Baltimore for the Clemson vs. Maryland football game. We decided a while ago that we were going to take Claire with us and I am so glad that we did. She really had a blast. We were worried because she normally naps from 12:30 -2:30 and the game was at noon, but there was only one way to find out how she would do - and I was willing to take that chance. Let me just say Claire was an angel. We didn't get to Baltimore until late Friday night and it was about 10:30 by the time we got settled into the hotel. I woke Claire up around 7:45AM and we were up and out to tailgate. She ran around the parking lot and played with lots of people. Around 10:45 I decided to try and get to sleep so we took a walk around the parking lot with the stroller and she fell asleep around 11. She started to stir at 11:40 so we packed her up and walked to the stadium. She sat the entire time and stared at the game like she knew what was going on. I was sure we would have to take her out a few times, but I let her run around the breezeway at halftime and she was good for the rest of the game. We didn't even have to pull out the pacifier to keep her calm. I thought she would sleep after the game but she continued to run around the parking lot and got lots and lots and lots of attention from the people we were tailgating with. She passed out in the car on the way home and slept until 9:40 Sunday morning.

Claires vocabulary now includes Mama, Dada (her favorite word that she repeats from the second she wakes up until the second she goes to sleep - no, I'm not the least bit offended), dog, uh-oh, up, bye, Elmo, apple, all done, no-no, and yay.

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Wed, Sep 16, 2009 6:56 PM
Claires appt today was pretty uneventful. Her weight and height have not changed at all - still weighing in at 23 lb and 30.5 inches tall. She got measured today on the big people scale, which was a funny sight. And we don't have to go back until 18 months (unless the H1N1 shot is in and we take her back sooner).

One of Claires favorite new things is to dip any food in any other food. it started with ketchup and has progressed to anything that can be dipped into. Right now she is dipping her meat loaf into hummus. Only she doesn't get that once she dips she should eat that bite, she just sucks the hummus off and dips again - so beware of her double dipping! She is slowly figuring out how to eat with utensils. She will use a spoon to eat applesauce or yogurt, but she wears about as much as she eats. And she isn't quite strong enough to push the fork into her food. But she understand the concept and will move the fork to her mouth once we put food on it.

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Don: Uneventful can be good as the way this report sounds. And Claire's growing like a weed. Good to hear she understands the utensil concept - very important. Good report and wave hello to al, Claire!

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Sun, Sep 13, 2009 5:17 PM
We have had a great couple of weeks. Last weekend we spend in Massachusetts for Labor Day/family visiting/birthday celebrations. I think Claire enjoyed getting spend time with everyone and running around Grandma & Piperes lawn. She wears herself out walking around, which makes for long sleep nights. We are extremely lucky with Claires sleeping habits as Dan has to wake her up around 7:00 to get ready for daycare. But she must forget about this when the weekend comes because most morning she will sleep until at least 8:30, but usually more toward 9 or 9:30. Since moving to the toddler room at daycare she is down to one nap a day (12:30-2:30) so we moved her bedtime up to 8:00. However, she will pretty much stay up until any hour if you keep her occupied. Last weekend most nights she was up until 10 or 11 and wasn't fussy about it. I am realizing now how lucky we really are.

Claire has been teething like crazy lately and has been a little fussier than normal. I haven't seen any new teeth come through, but I know they are there somewhere. She can't take her hand out of her mouth and is drooling like crazy with a runny nose and low fever. From what we see, she has 6 teeth on top and just 2 on the bottom.

The daycare adjustment is now complete. Every day got a little better and the Tuesday after Labor Day they switched the personnel around and Claire now has her FAVORITE lady in her room with her. Since that day she has yet to cry when getting dropped off. Today I saw Claire stand herself up without the grabbing onto anything. She cracks me up whenever she bends over to pick something up, she had total concentration on what she is doing.

Today we went apple picking with some friends and had a great time. We didn't take the stroller and Claire was a trooper walking around the orchard. She passed out in the car and then slept for another 3 hours once we got home. That meant Mommy & Daddy both got naps this afternoon! :-)

That's about it for now, I have rambled enough. We head back to the doctor on Wednesday for her 15 month checkup.

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Tue, Sep 1, 2009 3:31 PM
Claire is walking around like crazy now. She is little Miss Independent and does not like any help walking, especially on her way home from daycare. I added a new video of her walking through the house, you can see how stable she is (except over the lip into our bedroom).

These last few weeks have been trying for her as she has been transitioning from the infant room to the toddler room at daycare. Some of the changes she is going through are 2 naps to one nap (on a 12:30-2:30 schedule). Sleeping on a mat instead of a crib and eating at little picnic tables instead of high chairs. They had been working with her ahead of time on sleeping on the mat and getting only one nap, but she has been having a hard time transitioning to the new care takers. It has been about 3 weeks now and she is finally starting to spend the entire day in the toddler room without being sent back to the infant room. They tell us she is doing much better now, but still has a few breakdowns throughout the day. Dan says she freaks out when he drops her off in the kitchen with her new teacher (the breakfast tables are in the kitchen), but she stops once one of the infant teachers comes over. Everyday is a little better and I think she will forget about the infant room soon. At least she is interacting with bigger kids now and gets to head outside to play at the park a few times a week. In the infant room, they went out for walks, but weren't allowed to get out of the stroller and play. Claire also sustained her first battle scar at daycare last week when she tripped walking to circle time. She didn't seemed bothered by it, but had a nice bruise above her eye. And I never like to see the daycares name on my caller ID at work.

Claire has been a little fussier than normal now that she is teething pretty badly - she has 6 teeth. She surprises us everyday with something new - knowing a new body part, sign, or word. She loves to clap her hands and show us where her belly and nose are.

Eating habits have not improved at all - I think she is going to turn into a chicken nugget.

Comments:
Meg: Sounds like Claire is loving her mobility and indepedence. Turn into a Chicken Nugget? Never...relax! She will try new things when she is ready. She probably just really likes them or the ketchup :)

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Wed, Aug 12, 2009 8:47 AM
Claire is changing so quickly. I know I haven't updated in a while, so here is a quick rundown of what she is up to. At her last pediatrician appointment (July 22nd), Claire weighed in at a whopping 23lb 10oz, 30.5 inches tall, with a 46cm head circumference. That puts her about 50-75th percentile in just about everything. Two weeks ago, she figured out she could crawl. She never goes more than a few feet before sitting up and continuing to scoot, but at least she knows HOW to crawl now. The scooting still continues and she is faster than ever at it. Claire has her top and bottom right teeth which came in first. Last week, Dan put his finger in her mouth and found 2 more teeth on the tap way in the back. I didn't even know they were coming in and she wasn't too fussy, which is good. On Friday, the top tooth to the right of her front tooth came through and any day now I am expecting the front left along with every other tooth in her mouth. The poor girls gums are ready to explode. But I must say she has not been fussy :-)

When I picked up Claire at daycare Thursday they told me she was no longer scared to walk. I shrugged it off and we packed up and headed to Vermont as soon as we got home. Once we got to Vermont I let Claire get up and walk around a little and they weren't kidding - she was off! But only walking from person to person or object to object. By the time we left Vermont Monday, Claire had learned how to pull herself up and also gained the confidence to take off walking on her own. Now we are really in trouble.

Claire enjoyed her visit to the camp, and got to play in the sand, in the lake, and she also went for a boat ride. She enjoyed it so much she slept the entire ride. Maybe the fact that she couldn't move in her lift vest helped? Also while we were in Vermont, we had our bathroom renovated so Claire now has a tub at home. That is a huge plus for us.

Claire is saying Mama, Dada, up, baby, no-no, bye-bye, and I am sure there are a few I am missing. As far as the signing goes, she is absorbing that like a sponge - milk, water, food, hat, please, baby, more, all done, mom, time...She loves those videos and just stares at the screen and tries to follow along with the signs. We are back to the pediatrician on the 19th for more shots - fun times.

Comments:
Meg: Sounds like Claire is having a great summer!

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Mon, Jul 20, 2009 10:03 PM
No doctors appointment for us today. Claires pediatrician called out sick and they offered for us to see another doctor, but warned that the wait might be a little longer than usual. No thanks, we'll head back Wednesday.

Claire cut her second tooth on Saturday, the top right. So now she has the bottom right and top right. It is funny to see since most babies get either their top or bottom teeth first. Not Claire, she'll take one of each.

She is much closer to walking now, however, she has realized that it can be fun to fall on her butt. So, sometimes she would rather fall than walk. But she gets around with her push toys and cruises once she hits a road block with her toy. She hasn't quite figured out how to pull up on things, but she was standing in her crib last night. I guess it is only a matter of time now. Claire no longer wants to be carried around, especially home from daycare. The second we hit the sidewalk, she wants to be walking on her own. She walks the one block home holding just one finger. It takes us a while, not so much because she walks slowly, but she feels the need to stop and wave to everyone along the way. She is a waving machine (still!) and is not interested in crawling at all. She scoots around on her butt still and gets everywhere she wants to go, and she is pretty quick.

She is now saying Mama, Dada, and Bye-Bye (see the video). She knows when we are headed out the door and immediately says bye-bye. I love it!

Her eating habits have gone downhill. Fruit is OK as long as it is baby food puree or bananas. Any other fruit is out. Blueberries are hit and miss, but nothing else touches her lips. She closes her mouth and shakes her head no. Pretty much the same thing with vegetables. We are going to have to work on that. She still loves her veggie burgers, veggie dogs, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, goldfish, cheerios, and graham crackers. Because her bathtime splashing has gotten out of control, we are working on getting a contractor to renovate our tiny bathroom and have a tub installed. Tonight we took a trip to Home Depot to try to price a few things out. I always bring Goldfish to keep Claire occupied. She was eating them up when I was holding her and then she started making a funny noise. I think Dan know what was happening because he just looked at me. Two second later, we realized that she had been eating the Goldfish without chewing them. And I know this because I was wearing half of them on my shirt and she was wearing the other half on her pretty dress. Of course Claire thought it was HYSTERICAL and couldn't stop laughing as we were cleaning things up. Glad she has a sense of humor...

That's about it for now. Be sure to check out the new videos. I uploaded a lot of them, but I often wonder if anyone is still reading this page? Hello - anyone out there??

Comments:
Kristin: I love the journals Mere - good job.

Jessie: I read and watch. Lets me grow up with you all

Peggy: I am here and read/watch everything you post. We love it!!!

Meg: Hi Mer! I still read your journals. :)

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Sun, Jul 5, 2009 5:33 PM
Who is the person most slack about keeping this page up? Me!!! Sorry it has been so long.

Holy cow - where has the year (plus 2 weeks gone)? Claire turned one on June 20th and she has had her round of parties that finally finished up this afternoon. It started with a small party at daycare on June 19th. Unfortunately, we picked Claire up during nap time in the infant room so not many of the kids were awake. But they wanted Claire to dig into her cupcake anyways. She did so and was mildly interested in it. That afternoon we headed to Massachusetts, with Claire in the big girl forward facing car seat, and started a great weekend. Friday afternoon Kristin, Grandma, and Mommy took Claire for her first haircut. Gary did a great job and Claire looked like such a big kid once he was gone. That Saturday was Claires Birthday party in Massachusetts. We were worried about the weather, but the rain held out and we had a great time. Claire got lots of awesome presents and kept the crowd entertained with her waving. Everywhere we go people comment on Claires waving. The consensus is Claire will either be a politician or beauty queens. Claires cake eating experience led to Claire just waving to everyone. We even pushed her hands in the cake, but all she wanted to do was wave to everyone.

The following week we flew down to South Carolina for some more fun. We realized this was already Claires 5th flight. It is getting harded to fly with her now that she is mobile. Around 11.5 months she started walking with a pushtoy, but doesn't walk on her own yet. Anyways, back to SC....We had a great time down there, and Claire got to show off her new separation anxiety. If Dan or I are out of sight, Claire flips out. It is really frustrating and I hope this phase passes quickly. Claire also had a birthday party with some family and friends in SC. She enjoyed the ice cream cake much better and tried to stick her entire face in it. Thanks to everyone who came over to make the day wonderful. Claire loved swimming in Grandma & Grumpys pool for the weekend. Also while in SC Claire had her 1 year pictures made. I think they came out pretty good, you can see some of my favorites on the front page. We also had family pictures made with the whole Snider family. I think they came out really good.

Today, Claire had her last birthday party with her Hoboken friends. Mommy met all these ladies at the new mother support group in town. They have been an excellent source for information, and we enjoy ourselves and getting out for a few drinks every so often. I don't know what I would do without their sanity checks every once in a while!

So, what else has Claire been up to? She is getting better at eating and loves anything she can grab and put in her mouth herself. Still no crawling, but she scoots like a champion. Along with her waving, everyone comments on her scooting. She has figured out how to get herself from laying to sitting, but doesn't pull up on things yet. Once she figures out how to pull up, I think she will be off walking. Yesterday, she took 25 steps down the hall at the Hyatt! She is getting better everyday. She cut her first tooth (bottom left) on her birthday and I think she has a few more coming in. At her 1 year check up, she weighed in at 21 lb 10 oz and 29.5 inches long. She signs "more" and "milk" and I am starting to believe she knows what she is saying. She says Mama (finally!) and Dada.

Sorry it took so long to post an update. I will try to do better.

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Tue, May 26, 2009 9:33 PM
Seriously? Has 11 months already gone by since Claire was born. I was on my way to the office this morning and found myself thinking about this time last year when I left for Memorial Day weekend and then started my official maternity leave. I wish I could have Memorial Day to Labor Day off this year again. But my 3 weeks vacation will have to do :-(

Miss Claire has changed so much lately. Every day I feel like the is trying something new. She is not a wonderful eater like she previously was. She wanted to be independent and feed herself, but there aren't many veggies or fruits she likes to feed herself. She much prefers wagon wheels, puffs, yogurt bites, the Gerber freeze dried fruits, and any other Gerber creation. It is harder to feed her off the spoon now because she just wants to swing and hit the spoon sending the food flying. Dinner time is quite an adventure. She loves cheese of any kind - string cheese, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, Goldfish (I think you get the point). She also enjoy veggies burgers and we found out last weekend that she likes hot dogs as well. Next shopping trip we will find some turkey or tofu dogs instead of regular hot dogs. I think those would be a little healthier for her. She also enjoy eating lasagna, which I think is the cleanest food to give a baby.

Claire is completely mobile, but not in the way that we ever expected. As you can see in the video, she is a scooter. She gets where she wants to go on her butt. She still hasn't figured out crawling, which I think could be because we have all hardwood floors. She will walk while holding onto your fingers and thinks it is great. This also meant we had to start investing in shoes.

We finally ordered the next car seat and will have to make the switch soon. I am trying to hold out until she is 1 year old so we can install in forward facing. However, I am not sure we will make it. Claire has spent a lot of time in the car lately, considering we don't drive around Hoboken at all. Dan's grandfather passed away last week so we drove out to Ohio. Claire was well behaved and a much needed distraction through all the services. Luckily, Claire was able to meet her great grandfather over Easter. And I know they had a great time together. Last weekend we were in Massachusetts and this weekend Mom & Dad head down to Maryland for a wedding while Claire spends the weekend at The Camp For Inner City Children (AKA - Camp Wishing Well). Over Memorial Day weekend, we were in Massachusetts and Claire got to swim for the first time in a while. Thanks Fletchers for letting us use your pool. Claire was pretty much fearless in the water so we are looking forward to the summer. We did find one negative side effect of living in the city, Claire did not know what to do with the grass. She hated the feel of it on her feet and refused to sit or walk in it. Maybe next week....

Enough rambling for the night - it has been a while since I updated so now you have it all at once. Be on the look out for birthday celebrations coming to a theater near you - Massachusetts, South Carolina, and then New Jersey. We can't believe it has almost been a year...

Comments:
beth: let me know when you guys will be in SC, i'd love to shoot up and see you all.

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