burp cloths in the backyard

I looked out the window today and what did I see? A burp cloth in the backyard. I laughed. I knew it was there for one reason. It's the same reason why I can never find any burp cloths or hand towels. It's because Hallie steals them. My little girl has an obsession. They are the perfect-sized blankets for her stuffed animals and dolls. Yes, I cringe at the fact that what was wiping Claire's spit-up one moment is being used to swaddle a pink poodle a half hour later. And, it is inconvenient when I have to dry my hands on my jeans because I turn to the oven and my hand towel is gone. But it's sweet, and its fleeting. It's all going so fast anyway. So, my little girl, I love that you rip off my handy scraps of fabric.






Hallie loves trains and airplanes. Whenever she sees anything lined up (trees, cars, people) she points out that it looks like a train. And she loves to set up her dolls and toys in choo-choo alignment. As for airplanes, she has radar hearing that can tell a plane is going to fly overhead before anyone else recognizes it. And she can spot a plane in the sky even if it is a pepper fleck. She bursts in excitement (while usually bursting our eardrums) "Look, Daddy! An airplane! Do you see the airplane in the sky, Daddy?" It's a good thing we have an airport, several bases, and the Air Force Academy in our town. It's a plane-lovers wonderland here.
choo-choo alignment up the stairs








My favorite times with Hallie are 1.) lying in bed, holding her and singing lullabies, 2.) reading to her, 3.) and baking with her. Since we have been doing it since she was such a young age, she is so disciplined when we cook. If I say "don't touch that please" she obeys. I let her eat cookie dough bits until the egg phase. (I am too anal at the off chance she could get salmonella poisoning and die). She is so patient to wait until we are done baking to eat. She is great at measuring and dumping ingredients and can differentiate between baking soda and baking powder (which I surely couldn't do at that age). If she spies me baking without her, she excitedly starts dragging a chair over from the kitchen table to the counter.

cookie pizza (a recent Mom/Hal collaboration)

I didn't get punched, I smudged my eye makeup. It gives me a more "mom" look, don't you think?

As far as my Claire is concerned, she is getting so big. She is days away from five months old. A funny quirk about her is she scares really easily. If she is in her crib, and she doesn't see you coming, she has a fit if you sneak up on her. Chris and I figured out that we basically have to "announce" our entrance by talking and singing to her as we approach her bedroom. Or sometimes we let her see us out of her periphery first. That way we avoid startling her. Even if her eyes are squeezed shut mid-cry, if she opens them and you are there unexpected, she'll cry even harder. What a funny kid.

She is spitting up less these days (which makes Hallie's burp cloth obsession a little easier to handle). I was holding her today and I was just having one of those "mom moments" where I wanted to keep her that chubby and small forever. Now, when I hold her in my lap she can twist her head around and stare up at me with her big blue eyes. It's very cute.

She is doing what I call her "pre-teething" lately. She was miserable for a bit today. Even when I wore her around the house in my baby sling, she was still so unhappy. So, I finally gave her some tylenol and sat her on my lap. Soon she stopped crying and just sat there like a lump. Twenty minutes later she was cooing and kicking. I was so happy that my poor baby had some relief.

Sometimes I refer to Clairey-girl's hair as "Spike." Even though her smile and eyes are super feminine, her hair just spikes straight up these days. Yesterday after bath time, I tried to comb it down to see if it would dry that way. Ten minutes later the spike look was back. It's so sweet though because it is so her.

Clairey sporting "the spike"

One of my favorite moments with Claire is when she cries really hard. So hard that her head turns mauve and she scrunches her little face up. That sounds terrible because, I truly don't like her to be sad or in pain. But, it is the same face that I saw the first time I laid eyes on her. And even though she is crying I always think what I first thought seconds after she was born. "She's so beautiful" and "look at her perfect nose." It's another "mom moment." But it's what happens and what's real and I want to remember it.