What goes in, must come out...

The first week of "solid" food went well. Claire eagerly ate the rice cereal. However, a side effect was no kaboom. She tried hard and strained and grimaced, but nothing - Lynn can relate. So, we gave her a bit of diluted apple juice and the following morning, problem solved.


When we were in Maine at the end of July, Claire mastered rolling over on to her back and then on to her stomach. Well, she has since forgotten the latter part. She will often wake us up crying, because she is stuck on her stomach. Of course, as soon as I typed the last sentence she just rolled a 360. Lynn is at work today and I am Mr. Mom. I have to admit, I absolutely love it. She is such a happy baby. Sure she has off days, but overall, I am so grateful that Lynn and I are able to have at least one of us at home everyday - well most days. Today we are working on building her arm strength, which will help her start crawling. Is that a wise thing to do?


Yesterday, we moved on to pears and rice cereal. She loved it. She would lunge at the spoon and ate everything. And when the bowl was empty, she cried for more. By mixing pears with the rice cereal, she gets a full stomach and the kaboom issue is taken care of - 2 kabooms today! Genius!!

Last night was our neighbor Kristi's 30 b-day. In the past when the neighbors have partied at Nick and Kristi's, we were outside and the baby monitor would reach us from Claire's bedroom (about 250 feet). However, last night we were inside Nick and Kristi's house and the monitor didn't quite make it. So, we got a babysitter, Kelly. She lives down the street and had mentioned before she would babysit if we needed her. Claire went down for the night before Kelly came over, so we spent most of the orientation time showing her how to operate the TV and the PS3. We were at Nick and Kristi's for 3 hours. Babysitting cost us $25! When I babysat, it was $2/hour. Anyway, we were happy with her and will use her again.

There are no other milestones to report. So until the next posting, stay regular.

Day 2 of Food

Last night after getting solid food for the first time, the bear slept for 11 hours. I wish we could do the same. The result was she was a little off on her schedule. Her 9am nap - usually 2 hours - lasted 2.5 hours, but then she didn't take a usual nap at 5pm. It's now 7pm and she is finally settling down.

Earlier tonight, we gave her more rice cereal. She gobbled it down, but not before eyeing us suspiciously. Nevertheless, the results tonight were the same as last night's - more cereal ON bear, than IN bear.

Until the next posting, keep a towel handy

Food!!!

I made it back to Atlanta on Friday and Lynn and the Bear came to the airport to get me. It made the 10 hour flight worthwhile. I was left in charge of Claire today as Lynn went to work. I noticed that we (Claire and I) have the opposite hair growth pattern. She's all top and little sides, and I am the opposite. She has also taken notice of when we eat. She watches intently as we put food in our mouths. We gave her a little ice cream after dinner tonight and she ate it. So we decided to give her some "solid" food. Lynn mixed up a little rice cereal with breast milk and the outcome is shown below. Enjoy

Until the next posting, chew your food well.

and she's back!

our sweet little girl is back. full night sleep last night, 3 great naps today, and a cheery disposition. man, i love this kid! not sure what is going on with the teething as it didn't seem to bother her very much today. we played and skyped grandma (happy birthday!) and daddy and had friends come over for dinner (hi nick and kristi!).

if the camera battery hadn't died, i would have had more pictures to post. i will try again tomorrow. especially since claire decided her toes look quite tasty. she tried out this new trick today.

here's to hoping for another full night sleep! and only 3 more until daddy (mark) comes home!

okay, i take that back

there is something worse than awaking at 4am to a screaming baby who has rolled over onto her tummy. awaking at 2am and then again at 5am to a crying baby who is teething. poor claire is teething (or at least i think so) and she was up half the night just crying and moaning. baby oragel and tylenol work fairly well to take the edge off, but unfortunately they wear off before the next dosage can be administered.
all in all, though, claire is being very good and is overall cheerful. she loves to be outside and around other kids (the kids in the neighborhood like to make her laugh). yesterday, we spent about an hour on the floor just playing and laughing. she was laughing mostly at freddy the frog (thank you uncle paul and aunt taya) and her care bear (thanks kathryn and heather).
hope the rest of you, including mark (for now!), get some sleep :)...

from the field

i usually don't post here as this is really mark's blog. but i wanted to share with all of you (and mark, too) claire's most recent accomplishment. it may seem small to some of you, but at 4am there is nothing small about waking up to a screaming baby who managed to roll over onto her tummy and not be able to roll back. as mark noted, claire worked on rolling from her tummy to her back this week (thanks, lori!). she is quite proficient at it. but, what was more amazing was this morning when i went in to check on claire while she was napping and found this (see above). so, it now appears that claire can both roll over completely and also be okay sleeping on her side/tummy.

we miss daddy (a.k.a. mark) a lot and send him lots of love and prayers for a safe trip every day. we know we only have 6 more days until we get real hugs from him. we can hardly wait.

otherwise, things are going well (i labeled this entry "from the field" and although mark is out in the field doing fieldwork - yes, really that is the term - we are also "in the field" - that is, claire's field). our friends and neighbors have been checking in on us (the estes, the mcdermotts, the samsons, and the skibinskis from NY), feeding us (thanks, tinsleys), and mowing our lawn (thanks, robbie). claire did really well with two babysitters this week (thanks ann and lori!!) while i went in for departmental and school meetings. and, we spend quite a bit of time enjoying the sunshine and breezes on our front porch.

today, we are expecting the rich family to visit. talk about good friends - they are stopping in atlanta on the way home to dallas (driving). did i mention that they were coming from florida! not exactly on the way, but very very much appreciated. this will be the first time andrew, caroline and jason get to meet claire. benjamin and kim have already been to see her (see previous posts). we can hardly wait until they get here!

UPDATE: unforunately, the rich clan couldn't join us as they are sadly passing around a nasty stomach bug and decided it would be prudent to head home. while we are disappointed, we totally understand and send healthy vibes to everyone. we'll see them in september when we make our annual trek to dallas for birthday parties.

thanks for indulging me!

Have a seat...

Well, it's been awhile since the last post. I am still in southern Chile doing research (it's freezing cold). I am in a small town called Los Angeles, which is pretty remote, but still has internet. Thanks Al Gore. So, Lynn and I skype each other twice a day. I bought a webcam before I left. This screen capture of the bear, which is what I get to see, including the mysterious yellow stripe. But it's better than nothing.

I hear from Lynn that Claire is starting to learn to sit up, albeit i a tripod position. And she can now roll over completely. Plus Lynn thinks Claire has a tooth coming in. Darn it, at this rate she will be in college before I get home next week. I miss you bear (and you too mom).

Until the next posting, stay warm.

12 days

That's how long I am going to be out of town starting tonight. I am going to Chile to meet up with some colleagues and continue my work on studying deforestation in the foothills of the Andes. I would rather stay home and change diapers. I am afraid I will miss out on something that the bear does. Look, she is now holding her bottle, which takes a lot of coordination. I also feel bad for Lynn, who will be home alone. It is tiring to look after a baby. At least Kim and Jason and the kids will be coming to visit on their "way back to Dallas" - from Florida. So, if there is anyone in the ATL area who reads this blog, feel free to contact Lynn and bring her dinner (no onions or mushrooms or meat - fish and seafood is ok). I'll try to blog while I am away, but I will need to rely on Lynn for photos.

Until the next posting...

Little Brown Q-tip

Did you know the airport in Portland, ME provides rocking chairs for parents and their babies. I rocked Claire to sleep in one of them as numerous people stopped to first comment/inquire, "what a beautiful baby, how old is she?" and then to ask, "Is this her first flight?" To which I would reply, "thank you, she is 4 months old and this is her 4th flight." Once again the bear slept all the way (2.5 hours) back to Atlanta. I wish I could say the same for other babies and kids on the plane.

It's been a relatively plain week around here. Though I did decide that with the bear's hair coming in, she looks like a chubby brown q-tip - which is this week's nickname. Perhaps a hallowe'en costume in October. We do think the bear is going through another growth spurt as her sleeping and feeding patterns are all out of wack this week. Some of her 3-6 month pajamas are too small now. Today is her 5 month birthday. That's about all for now.

Until the next post, use a q-tip to clean your ears.