Claire Turns One

Oh. My. Goodness. July flew by. Here it is August, and I'm just now going to try to catch up blogging about it all.

Our sweet Baby Claire turned one just two days after we brought Emma home. She up and turned into a big girl while I was gone. We knew before the baby was born that she could walk. But she wouldn't do it for more than three or four steps. When I came home from the hospital she walked across the living room to me, and she's been nonstop toddling ever since.

As you can tell by the pictures, this girl is the sunshine of our family. She is so stinking sweet and has the biggest smile. She loves any attention she gets from her siblings, and she and big sister Paige are really getting to be good playmates. She still doesn't say any words other than "mama" and "dada" and some baby babble, but after watching Drew, we're not really worried about that. I'm sure we'll turn around one of these days and she'll be talking our ears off. She certainly tries to a lot more lately. She is also Little Miss Independent. She does not like to be spoon fed anymore. More often than not, if she can't feed it to herself, she doesn't want it. So, I've let her to it learning to use a spoon. It makes for some messy meals, but let's be honest.....messy meals are about the only kind we do at our house.

Having just brought home a new baby, her birthday was certainly more laid back than the rest. Grandma and Poppy were here with us to celebrate, and we pretty much just played at home enjoying each others' company, had some cake and called it good.

She wasn't too big a fan of the candle. Whoops.

But I think the cake made up for it.

While we were in the hospital with Emma, it was so surreal to think how recently we were just there with Claire. We have just loved every minute of her first year. I don't know if we've mellowed out more with each baby, or if they really have gotten better. Little Claire Bear is so sweet, she's never had any problems sleeping, eating or anything. She has just been a joy. No other words can describe her and we're so grateful to have her in our family. Love you Claire!