Daddy's little angel

Although Claire Jane is a die hard Momma's girl...she holds a special place in her heart for her Daddy.
She had him wrapped around her finger since BEFORE she was born.
There is a special bond between father and daughter that is so sweet and amazing to watch grow and blossom.
Each time I look to upload a new photo...I have to scroll through all of the old. I am going to take us back to the beginning, as i said before, we are reminiscing these days. I love looking at the old photos of her as a baby, and want to share them with you.
I forgot how much I enjoy having an infant around...these days she is surely a toddler.
as we look back at her old photos, we will see how much baby number 2 resembles Claire as an infant...

Reminiscing

As we prepare for this new little baby, we have been reminiscing back to when Claire came into this world.
We were SO in love as soon as we laid eyes on her.
We thought we could never love anything in this world as much as we love her.
Our hearts have already stretched in anticipation to meet our baby boy...

mohawk

After taking this photo, I am sure that baby brother will definitely have a mohawk in his future.
Claire clearly enjoyed hers.

diaper hunt

"hi! look at my new cute diaper"

"I just looooove it"

This girl's legs are so dagone chunky...it is hard to find something that will not leave marks!
Even with the indentation it left on her big ham hocks...there was NO irritation!

I did my research, and a highly recommended brand was fuzzibunz. I bought one to try...it is SUPER soft and very easy to use.
It is a one size fits all diaper...which can be adjusted from birth to potty.
I loved that idea! That way we can use the same diapers through the next baby...
I am working on getting another brand to try this week, we will see who ends up on top.

Glitter-dough!

In anticipation of the snow, I bought all of the things I needed to make play-dough so we could be snowed in and play all day.
The snow never showed up, but we made the dough anyway!



It took a little coaxing... but eventually she dived right in.

I have always wanted to make my own play-dough, and I found this awesome recipe on creativemama.com, posted by one of my favorite bloggers. And it has glitter in it! It is a mess at first...but so much fun. Even mommy and daddy were into it.
Here is the link to the recipe, it was so so easy! creativemama

potty bound

These days Claire is fascinated with the big girl potty. She follows us in, and wants to sit on her potty whenever she can.
Lately she has been pulling her pants down before sitting.

Here she has chosen some reading material as she waits...
we have yet to have any action on the potty, but have spent lots of time there.

I also hate to admit that her poor skin is really bad this winter and her eczema is flaring up and dry as ever.
About 3 times a day we are stripping her down to lather her with lotion.
Since she is so chubby, and has big 'ol hamhocks, her cloth diaper liners have been chafing her skin.
ugh... I am totally devoted to my cloth, and will never go back. But for now...I have to do some research on the best
cloth for sensitive skin. And if baby#2 is anything like Claire, I better prepare early.
Our search for soft, dry skin friendly cloth diapers begins.

Happy 84th Birthday, Nana!

We celebrated Grandma Barth's 84th birthday with family this past weekend.

Here is all of the grandchildren and great grandchildren...(minus Mikey)

including 3 on the way!

Nana and her Great Grandbabies

Now here is my favorite photo... have I mentioned that I love out takes?

When you try and get kids together for a photo, it is always messy...

Here we were trying to get a photo of Grammy and Papa with the Grandkids.

We asked Claire to "show her teeth", our version of "say cheese", and when she

wrinkled up her nose and showed her teethy grin, they lost it.

I love these photos more than the posed portraits, because they are real.

We made a special gift for Aunt Carol for taking time out of her schedule to care for Claire

while mommy and daddy had to both work.

Ever since Claire learned how a paint brush works, she is overjoyed to sit and paint

literally anything.

I think we have a righty....

And this was the final product.