Sweet, sweet Claire bear with a twist

Daren has been out of town since Saturday. I have missed him very much, but I have LOVED the time with Claire. I am tired but it reinforced how much fun my life is going to be at home full time with her very soon. We fingerpainted, played outside, went to church, ran errands, planted flowers, sang a lot, dressed up like princesses, had picnics outside, took walks and loved on each other. It was really special time. I do have many cute pictures but until Daren gets home to hook the fixed computer back up, I won't have them online. Trust me, though, I will back them up. :-)

Last night, Claire and I were up all night long. It was back to 'newborn baby style,' up all night, sleeping in the chair while Claire sleeps against my chest, snuggling, nuzzling and crying off and on. Claire has a terrible cough that finally took its toll and she couldn't sleep. The only way she could sleep is if she was against my chest and upright. In a strange way, I will treasure last night forever. She was miserably sick and I was miserably tired, but moments like last night are pretty rare these days. Claire is too busy to snuggle for hours. :-) There was a time at 3 in the morning where about every few minutes, she would lean back, look at me and say "I love you, Mommy." Every single time, I cried. It rocked me to the core and melted my heart. We were playing today and she looked at me when I got close to the stairs and said "Be careful, Mommy." It cracked me up because I say that to her every time we go near the stairs. I guess she listens a little closer than I realized. I, too, have a cough that won't quit and every time I cough, she says "Bless you." Sweetest little girl in the world... I am so thankful.

(Dr Diagnosis: I took her to the Dr. and she has double ear infections. I was really surprised because she was up and upset last night with a cough, so the ear thing threw me off. Poor baby! Anyways, we had a sweet, low-key day today with more dress-up and lots of cuddling. She is sound asleep for now... Hopefully, she gets some rest. She is definitely worn out and tired. (and so is Mommy)

Just so I sound too obnoxious about how sweet she is, I will also write a different kind of story. We have a little potty and we are practicing. She is doing very well. She pee pees on the potty from time to time but is no where near being in underwear. I am not in a rush but I do want her to start learning. Right now, I just want her to learn the process of the potty and the little princess potty is working quite well. Potty training is one thing that I truly knew nothing about, but I have read A LOT so we shall see... It will be a long process, I am sure, but I am ready for her to exit the diapers if she will!! So, today for a while, she wanted to be naked so I let her. We were playing outside and Claire was in her "birthday suit." I didn't notice but I looked up and Claire was holding her poop. She didn't mind one bit and probably would have played with it for a while. :-) She is fascinated with taking her diaper off right now so I now have to put the diapers on backwards. So far it is working and she hasn't figured out yet how to undo the backwards diaper, so keep your fingers crossed.

No luck

No data recovery. Everything was lost. Horrible lesson learned to always back up my computer stuff. I am sick...so sad but life will go on. I am the most sad about all the videos I had of Claire because I never backed those up and there were 2 years worth. :-(

Baby #2 update

Good news...seems that Computer Nerdz may be able to fully recover our data AND fix our computer. Keep your fingers crossed...

This morning, Daren, Grandma, Pops and I headed to the BIG sonogram for baby #2- the one that you have at 20 weeks. I had it late, at 22 weeks, because my Dr's office moved to a much better place. :-) Anyways, baby #2 looks great. There are 4 chambers of the heart, a working stomach, kidney function occurring, blood flow coming in and out of the umbilical cord as it should, brain development normal and all bones growing as they should. The baby is measuring on the "big side of normal" which is exactly how Claire still measures. So, we are measuring about 10 days ahead of our due date in size. That would be exactly the same as Miss Claire bear who graced us on April 22 with a May 3 due date. This appointment, for me, is scary as hell but also so amazing. The amount of information that science can see in unborn babies now is incredible and also terrifying. All prayers are answered so far and the baby is really healthy. We even stood our ground with NOT finding out the gender of the baby. It was really hard for Grandma to look away but she did it. Way to go, Grandma! The surprise will be fun, I promise.

I am feeling good. I am really tired by late afternoon and feeling really big, but I have only gained 5 pounds so far. I am proud of that. I am trying to take good care of myself for Claire, for me, for Daren, but especially for the growing life inside of me. ;-) I can't wait to meet him/her. I can't wait to see Claire and the boys hold baby #2. I can't wait to smell the newborn baby smell. And even in a weird way, I can't wait to go through the exhaustion again- the long nights, the gassy days, etc... It is a rite of passage that leads to the most amazing journey. I look at Claire and I look at my belly and life is good. Life is really good. Thanks be to God!

Mother's Day 2009

Well, we may be on a blog break for a while. I will still write but no pictures for a while. Our home computer crashed and we lost everything. Yes, we are the dummies that didn't back anything up. I am sad about losing work documents, addresses, emails, etc...BUT I am devastated about losing pictures of Claire that I had never backed up. Luckily, I am fairly OCD about uploading to Kodak, but I hadn't done it since January. So, the last 6 months are no longer... :-(

Mother's Day was nice. We spent a lot of the weekend in Houston celebrating Mother's Day with Becky. We went swimming and played outside a lot. Becky wanted to ride the merry-go-round with Claire in The Woodlands so we went. Claire rode the zebra, the pony, the rabbit and the tiger. It was a huge hit! We all took a turn with Claire on it because she was loving it so much. Daren and Lashelle cooked breakfast on Sunday morning, we gave Becky her gifts and then we drove back to Austin to have some family time of our own.

Claire crashed and burned when we got home and took a LONG nap. Consequently, so did Mommy and Daddy. It was a nice treat. We then enjoyed our time together. We went to the store, we played outside, we went to my Mom's to hug her neck, and Claire, Daren and I ate dinner together :-) Claire and Daren cooked me dinner and it was delicious. They gave me the sweetest card and a beautiful necklace. It has a charm on it with her picture in it. I love it!! And, when baby #2 is born, we can add another charm. My family treated me to a nice bag that I will haul around all summer and I will fill it with towels, sun screen, a bathing suit, flip flops, etc...to survive during the summer heat. I guess they knew I would need it pretty bad with this big ol' belly and a 2 year old. :-)

I love being a Mom. I feel blessed to have such a sweet little girl and a husband who honors who I am as the mother of his daughter. They made me feel special and they made me feel loved. This year, Mother's Day was very emotional for me because I have a growing life inside of me and a little girl who counts on me every day to love her and nurture her needs. Daren laughed at me because I got very overwhelmed with the emotion of that a number of times, but it is both a miracle and a gift. I will never take it for granted. I am so thankful.

Claire's birthday party

Claire's 2nd birthday party was a blast! We headed to JW Tumbles for an afternoon of bubbles, balloons, slides, swings, magic carpet rides, train rides, roller coaster rides, snake jumps and much more! Claire had such a good time and she loved having all her little friends (as well as her older friends) to celebrate. This was the perfect party- lots of fun, lots of space, no clean-up and no fuss- perfect for a pregnant Mommy who works full time and is trying to juggle it all to give her daughter the best. :-) Happy Birthday, sweet girl! We can't believe you are two. Claire LOVED the slide and spent lots of time playing on the slide. She rode the magic carpet with her friends.

They all lined up to "jump over the snake."And Claire even drove a train!!