Sunday, July 8, 2007
Rolly Poly Turns Scooter
Today our Home Teachers were over and I was telling them how weird it is that kids seem to change over night. For instance, it seemed that over night and all at once Clara stopped taking naps in her swing, stopped spitting up all the time and developed an intense emotional attachment to me (meaning if I walk out of the room she starts screaming, not fussing, SCREAMING, even if Jason is holding her). So after they left, she took her nap and then after I fed her and went another round with the rice cereal (no better this time around), I put her on the floor. She saw a toy and put her left hand down, grabbed her left wrist with her right hand and pulled herself forward a few inches! I was excited because before that, I had only seen her dig her toes into the carpet and scoot half an inch or so. Then, it became a game to see if we could get her to do it again. Sure enough, if we put a toy a few feet away, she would scoot all the way over to it! She did not do this yesterday, so really, these things do happen over night. And, she has continued to do it, so it's certainly not a fluke. It is too cute because you can see the determination in her face. Wahooo, a kid that sees something she wants and doesn't give up until she gets it. I'm a proud mama. Proud and happy as I am, I have to admit I am getting really emotional that she is growing up. She is just so cute and sweet and I am sad she has to grow up. Yeah, you can have another baby, but that doesn't keep the other one from growing up. Is this normal or is this another reason I should be considered crazy? I have enjoyed every stage of her life (as many as there are in her WHOPPIN' six months of life) so I guess I just have to see it as a long life of enjoyment and remember the past, enjoy the present and look forward to the future.
Rice Cereal
Now that Clara is 6 1/2 months old, I decided I could feed her rice cereal. There were a few reasons I was putting it off: she gets all the nutrients she needs from me, solids are inconvenient, I didn't want to do it too soon and make her tummy hurt and I didn't want to feel like my baby is old. But, yesterday I decided I couldn't put it off longer and I wanted to go back to feeding her five times a day (I went from five back to six when the Dr. showed concern for how little weight she was gaining). Clara puts pretty much anything she can get her hands on into her mouth and if there is nothing in her hands, she settles FOR her hands. This said, I thought, she is going to LOVE eating rice cereal. HA! The first time, I kind of scraped the spoon on the top of her mouth and she could not figure out what was going on. There was something on the roof of her mouth and she couldn't get it off. So I added a smidgen of water and warmed it up and that didn't help. She would take it, stare at us and then spit it back out with her tongue. Then, nearly every time I went towards her mouth with the spoon, she would grab at it. Eventually, once the rice cereal was somewhere on her face or in her neck fat, I gave her the spoon and she LOVED chewing on it. Hmmm... we'll see how long this will take her to figure out. Here is a before, two durings and an after.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Day 7: Friday July 6th
Home at last... We had to leave a day earlier than everyone else because Jason's 2nd 5 week Summer school class started Monday and he has already missed the maximum days permitted (3). I was so glad he was able to come because there was a point that he thought he wouldn't be able to come and take that class, but he worked it out so he could do both. It was the first trip we've been on since I think last August and the first time he's come with Clara and me (aside from little day or two-day trips up North). However, this did turn out to be one of the most exhausting trips. The house we rented had three rooms and was pretty big, but, it was all tile and wood floor and the ceilings were VERY vaulted... which created a very loud and ECHOEY (if that's not a word, it should be) living area. Clara's pack and play was under the stairs and there was a cut out from our room into the hall (don't ask... it was designed that way but I still can't figure out why). So, Clara rarely took her naps while we were up there and it kept getting worse and worse. She's not used to having other babies around or that many people so she just couldn't get her naps down. Then, she got sick so she started waking up at like 11pm or 12am (CO time, an hour later than AZ) and would still wake up at 6am. Anyway, it was rough on her and for that reason, I was anxious to come home. We left at 640am and got home at 302pm... less than 8.5 hours because we only stopped once. Clara was a champ and slept most of the way home, I'm sure to make up for all the sleep she lost during the week. One really frustrating thing about driving is she will turn her head sideways and look up at me with her big blue eyes and I want so bad to pick her up and squeeze her. :) She was super hyper when we got home and was so glad to be out of her seat. And now, I'm exhausted. Vacations are tiring, especially when you have to blog about everything and you take as many pictures as me!! :) I am so tired and my head is actually spinning right now, that's a little freaky and I'm guessing that's my signal... TOO MUCH BLOGGING.
Day 6: Thursday July 5th
Much to my delight, Jason agreed to try to match today to take some family pictures. After all, Clara is 6 months old. We thought about the morning to avoid the sun, but Clara is sick and has been waking up twice in the night and then super early. SO, that idead went out the window before we even got out of bed. In the afternoon, we were waiting for the clouds to cover the sun so I just took a bunch of Clara. That's right, I can't stop taking pictures of her. The older she gets, the more entertaining her little personality becomes. And I have decided that as soon as we sell our house in Utah, I am buying a new camera. We took these pictures with Ryan's camera (Cannon EOS or something like that) and it's awesome. NO delay at all and the pictures are just crystal clear, except of course when Clara shakes her arm wildly in the air with excitement.
Okay, now no one needs to wonder how Clara got her mouth open as big as she did in my post from when Jen was here... :)
Hmmmm, I now appreciate people with more than one child that get a family picture with everyone looking AND smiling. My dad took these pictures and as you can see, there was no one around to act like a fool to get Clara to smile. Oh well, there's always next time... :) Jason loves that I take pictures non-stop...
After our attempt at family pics, we went and drove around for a bit. Jason was pretty confident that his Corolla could take the jeep trails since it is front wheel drive, but we opted to just enjoy the scenery from the dirt roads. After that, we went back to the mine for the picture... what a sport. Jason didn't complain once and he didn't start his smart alec comments about the amount of pictures I take until we got back to the house.
Okay, this is sweet, Clara grabbing Jason's neck while he was kissing her. I feel like I am crazy for how in love I am with my baby. What could be better than this? Nothing beats this feeling!! I often wonder how I could have enough love to share with another child?
After we had our photo shoot at the mine, we went to tour the Mayflower Mill. That was pretty cool. Milling is what they do to the ore after they mine it... essentially, they take the rock and turn it into a powder and then I think they ship that overseas for the next step. There was a lot of BIG machinery and you could turn some of it on. Jason likes to see how things work, so I think he especially enjoyed it. This picture is by the ore buckets. They would put the ore in these and bring them down the mountain. I think my brother said the line is like 2,000 feet. What is crazy is they had little tiny buckets that the guys would ride in and they weren't more than 2'x2'... once again, glad I didn't have to do that!
When we got home, we were walking in the door and I asked Ryan to take some pictures of us in front of the house and that's when Jason started with his comments. I told Ryan I only wanted a few, so Jason in an ever-so-sweet voice says, "We just want 36 up close, then 32 far back and take 28 longways..." Ha ha ha... very funny.
For food, we decided everyone (us, Ryan and fam and my mom) would each bring one meal to share and then we were on our own for the rest of the meals. Well, Ryan decided he didn't want to bring any food, so instead, he took us all out to eat to The Pickle Barrel. We were told it is the "fine dining" of Silverton... The food was actually pretty good. They had sweet potato fries, but not near as good as Durant's, but I don't know what I was expecting in a town like that. Most fun was being together with the family...
Remember the spoon obsession... hopefully she will be equally obsessed with HER spoons when I start her on solids (of which I continue to put off).
Daniel tries to be sneaky and hide from the camera all of the time. When I made my mom her Mother's Day book from myPublisher, I had to go to her house and tell Daniel what I needed pictures of him for and take them of him. Naturally, it became a game for Jason to see how many he could get of Daniel that night. Don't mind his icky scab, he wrecked on his motorcycle and trust me, that's not even the worst one.
After dinner, we got all packed up and ready to head home...
Okay, now no one needs to wonder how Clara got her mouth open as big as she did in my post from when Jen was here... :)
Hmmmm, I now appreciate people with more than one child that get a family picture with everyone looking AND smiling. My dad took these pictures and as you can see, there was no one around to act like a fool to get Clara to smile. Oh well, there's always next time... :) Jason loves that I take pictures non-stop...
After our attempt at family pics, we went and drove around for a bit. Jason was pretty confident that his Corolla could take the jeep trails since it is front wheel drive, but we opted to just enjoy the scenery from the dirt roads. After that, we went back to the mine for the picture... what a sport. Jason didn't complain once and he didn't start his smart alec comments about the amount of pictures I take until we got back to the house.
Okay, this is sweet, Clara grabbing Jason's neck while he was kissing her. I feel like I am crazy for how in love I am with my baby. What could be better than this? Nothing beats this feeling!! I often wonder how I could have enough love to share with another child?
After we had our photo shoot at the mine, we went to tour the Mayflower Mill. That was pretty cool. Milling is what they do to the ore after they mine it... essentially, they take the rock and turn it into a powder and then I think they ship that overseas for the next step. There was a lot of BIG machinery and you could turn some of it on. Jason likes to see how things work, so I think he especially enjoyed it. This picture is by the ore buckets. They would put the ore in these and bring them down the mountain. I think my brother said the line is like 2,000 feet. What is crazy is they had little tiny buckets that the guys would ride in and they weren't more than 2'x2'... once again, glad I didn't have to do that!When we got home, we were walking in the door and I asked Ryan to take some pictures of us in front of the house and that's when Jason started with his comments. I told Ryan I only wanted a few, so Jason in an ever-so-sweet voice says, "We just want 36 up close, then 32 far back and take 28 longways..." Ha ha ha... very funny.For food, we decided everyone (us, Ryan and fam and my mom) would each bring one meal to share and then we were on our own for the rest of the meals. Well, Ryan decided he didn't want to bring any food, so instead, he took us all out to eat to The Pickle Barrel. We were told it is the "fine dining" of Silverton... The food was actually pretty good. They had sweet potato fries, but not near as good as Durant's, but I don't know what I was expecting in a town like that. Most fun was being together with the family...Remember the spoon obsession... hopefully she will be equally obsessed with HER spoons when I start her on solids (of which I continue to put off).
Daniel tries to be sneaky and hide from the camera all of the time. When I made my mom her Mother's Day book from myPublisher, I had to go to her house and tell Daniel what I needed pictures of him for and take them of him. Naturally, it became a game for Jason to see how many he could get of Daniel that night. Don't mind his icky scab, he wrecked on his motorcycle and trust me, that's not even the worst one.After dinner, we got all packed up and ready to head home...
Day 5: Wednesday July 4th
Let freedom ring! Wahooo, I LOVE this Country. I am thankful for the freedoms we enjoy in this Country and feel so blessed to have been born here. This morning we went to the parade in Silverton and it was great fun. They threw lots of candy and lots of bead necklaces, which Clara loved. At one point, 4 jets flew in formation over the parade and then back over us. I am not sure why, but seeing that always makes my heart proud to be an American. I suppose it's a way I see very fitting to honor those that have fought and those that continue to fight to allow us to live the lives we do.
At the end of the parade, well, they say that, but it was in the middle of it, the Silverton fireman have a tradition of having a water fight with their fire hoses. We all scattered to avoid the drenching stream of water, but no worries, I still made Jason take a picture of the water in the background.
This afternoon my dad, Daniel and Daniel's friend Josh drove up to hang out with us up here. My dad is such a cute grandpa and absolutely adores his grandchildren. Clara always stares at him like with this really concerned look and will ocassionally reach out and touch his face. I think my dad's week of scruff was especially confusing to her. But at least she was looking at the camera! :)
After the parade, Jason and I went to go grab some lunch and my mom watched Clara. Well... if you look at this picture of her and my dad, you'll notice she has different clothes on. My mom was holding Clara and felt something warm on her legs and looked down and Clara had pooped ALL over my mom and the couch!! There was a tiny drop on her onesie but it seriously looked like my mom lost control. Luckily, Kathryn let us borrow her OxiMagic and it came out and my mom worked her own magic and got it out of the LIGHT beige couch. I am pretty sure this can be attributed to dad putting her most recent diaper on... he suffers from the syndrome that instills fear in you of getting a diaper too tight, so it gets put on too loose. Anyway, I went on a jeep ride with Kathryn and Ryan up to Clear Lake. Jason stayed home to watch Clara because my mom was watching the twins. I took about 30 pictures of this same mountain from the jeep, I suppose it was my favorite. I just loved seeing the really red rock with the green trees on such a large mountain. The jeep ride was fun and very dusty! We went up to Clear Lake and be warned, these pictures don't compare to the real thing... this earth is BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING.
Not real sure what I'm doing here, but hey, I can laugh at myself just like I laugh at others! :)
This was a huge waterfall... that yet again looks like some trickling water in the pictures.
TA-DAH! Here I am at the lake. The lake was HUGE, trust me. It was really chilly up there too, but just breath taking. I often wonder how people can question the existence of God. Stuff like this just doesn't happen. 
Me and the jeep. I trust Ryan's driving so I never once feared for my life. 
Not my child... I didn't even take this picture of Elsa, BUT, I love the angle it is taken from and the mountains in the background. This is when they were waiting for the fireworks to start and I don't even know who took it, but it's an awesome picture.
At the end of the parade, well, they say that, but it was in the middle of it, the Silverton fireman have a tradition of having a water fight with their fire hoses. We all scattered to avoid the drenching stream of water, but no worries, I still made Jason take a picture of the water in the background.
This afternoon my dad, Daniel and Daniel's friend Josh drove up to hang out with us up here. My dad is such a cute grandpa and absolutely adores his grandchildren. Clara always stares at him like with this really concerned look and will ocassionally reach out and touch his face. I think my dad's week of scruff was especially confusing to her. But at least she was looking at the camera! :)After the parade, Jason and I went to go grab some lunch and my mom watched Clara. Well... if you look at this picture of her and my dad, you'll notice she has different clothes on. My mom was holding Clara and felt something warm on her legs and looked down and Clara had pooped ALL over my mom and the couch!! There was a tiny drop on her onesie but it seriously looked like my mom lost control. Luckily, Kathryn let us borrow her OxiMagic and it came out and my mom worked her own magic and got it out of the LIGHT beige couch. I am pretty sure this can be attributed to dad putting her most recent diaper on... he suffers from the syndrome that instills fear in you of getting a diaper too tight, so it gets put on too loose. Anyway, I went on a jeep ride with Kathryn and Ryan up to Clear Lake. Jason stayed home to watch Clara because my mom was watching the twins. I took about 30 pictures of this same mountain from the jeep, I suppose it was my favorite. I just loved seeing the really red rock with the green trees on such a large mountain. The jeep ride was fun and very dusty! We went up to Clear Lake and be warned, these pictures don't compare to the real thing... this earth is BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING.Not real sure what I'm doing here, but hey, I can laugh at myself just like I laugh at others! :)
This was a huge waterfall... that yet again looks like some trickling water in the pictures.TA-DAH! Here I am at the lake. The lake was HUGE, trust me. It was really chilly up there too, but just breath taking. I often wonder how people can question the existence of God. Stuff like this just doesn't happen. Me and the jeep. I trust Ryan's driving so I never once feared for my life. Not my child... I didn't even take this picture of Elsa, BUT, I love the angle it is taken from and the mountains in the background. This is when they were waiting for the fireworks to start and I don't even know who took it, but it's an awesome picture. Jason and Clara watching the fireworks... I started out holding Clara and Jason kept staring at her and asked me if he could hold her during the fireworks. It was pretty cute. Clara loved the fireworks and was half asleep by the time they were done, but managed to keep her pretty little eyes partially opened until the end.
Here's Clara, me and a few fireworks. It has been a while since I have ever seen such a fabulous firework show. Last year we went to the show at Tempe Town Lake and I swore I would NEVER do that again. It was miserably hot, we had to walk really far (it didn't help that I was pregnant and sick) and all that was to stand on concrete. We had blankets on the grass, but too many people were standing up so if you stayed on the ground, you couldn't see. Anyway, I decided I will go somewhere cooler for fireworks or not watch them at all. This show is funded completely by donations and I think the only one that compares is the one I saw on a sail boat, in a harbor in San Diego when I was like 9. Everyone from Durango comes to see it. The show lasted at least 45 minutes and had some pretty cool fireworks. It was done on the side of a mountain so the echo down the canyons was incredible. Some of the "booms" were more fascinating than the fireworkds themselves! The last firework, though, was better than any I have ever seen. It was HUGE and shimmery and never seemed to go away. It had to have been in the sky for at least a minute and the shimmers made it seem like it was moving. It was VERY cool. 
Here's Clara, me and a few fireworks. It has been a while since I have ever seen such a fabulous firework show. Last year we went to the show at Tempe Town Lake and I swore I would NEVER do that again. It was miserably hot, we had to walk really far (it didn't help that I was pregnant and sick) and all that was to stand on concrete. We had blankets on the grass, but too many people were standing up so if you stayed on the ground, you couldn't see. Anyway, I decided I will go somewhere cooler for fireworks or not watch them at all. This show is funded completely by donations and I think the only one that compares is the one I saw on a sail boat, in a harbor in San Diego when I was like 9. Everyone from Durango comes to see it. The show lasted at least 45 minutes and had some pretty cool fireworks. It was done on the side of a mountain so the echo down the canyons was incredible. Some of the "booms" were more fascinating than the fireworkds themselves! The last firework, though, was better than any I have ever seen. It was HUGE and shimmery and never seemed to go away. It had to have been in the sky for at least a minute and the shimmers made it seem like it was moving. It was VERY cool. 
Day 4: Tuesday July 3rd
Early this morning Jason and Ryan went jeeping around the Alpine Loop. They are proabably about 12,000 feet up in these pictures. I laughed that they took pictures of each other while they were up there, but they did it so Kathryn and I wouldn't get mad. Really, you have to be there to truly experience the mountains.
The babies in their RETRO pj's. :) You can't see in this picture, but Clara's have peace signs on the feet. 
Jason and I went to eat lunch and left Clara with my mom. As I was leaving my mom said, if I get desperate, I will just give her a sucker. I told her that was fine, as long as she took pictures. For those of you that know me, I am pretty particular about what my baby eats and have still not given her rice cereal... we were gone for 40 minutes for lunch and sure enough, Kathryn documented Clara's first sucker experience while I was out.
After lunch, we walked all around the town. The shops are fun and the funnel cake was fantastic. Ryan bought some for us on Monday and today we tried one with carmel. It was so delicious but I think the high fat and sugar content was too much for my body because I felt so sick afterwards... so that was our last one for the trip. MMMMMMM!
This is the County Courthouse. I think it's one of the prettiest buildings in the town. I am sure it isn't that neat to anyone who has lived on the East Coast, but just let me think it's cool.
Here's another house, just to show that all of the houses are so colorful. 
Grandma reading to the grandkids, no wonder they are so smart!
One of Clara's new loves is for spoons, plastic or metal. But as you can see, a happy face can quickly turn grumpy if that spoon goes anywhere.
While Jason and I were out and about, we bought some bubbles for the twins. I'd like to think I bought them for Clara too, but she just isn't real interest in those quite yet. The twins, however, loved them. Elsa loved them so much she took a step towards me as I was blowing bubbles towards her. 
For dinner, Ryan and Jason grilled up the fish they caught (plus James' and the neighbors gave them some as well). They were all Rainbow Trout and Jason taught me the pink ones are farm raised and the white are spawned in the lake. Fresh fish is so good.
After dinner, we went back to the lake for more fishing... except for me... it was more picture-taking. :)
Lily was the first to catch a fish this time and Jason followed her with one. Lily cast her line and reeled it in all by herself! When all was said and done, her pole was broken, but we don't know if it was like that before catching the fish.
The babies in their RETRO pj's. :) You can't see in this picture, but Clara's have peace signs on the feet. Jason and I went to eat lunch and left Clara with my mom. As I was leaving my mom said, if I get desperate, I will just give her a sucker. I told her that was fine, as long as she took pictures. For those of you that know me, I am pretty particular about what my baby eats and have still not given her rice cereal... we were gone for 40 minutes for lunch and sure enough, Kathryn documented Clara's first sucker experience while I was out.After lunch, we walked all around the town. The shops are fun and the funnel cake was fantastic. Ryan bought some for us on Monday and today we tried one with carmel. It was so delicious but I think the high fat and sugar content was too much for my body because I felt so sick afterwards... so that was our last one for the trip. MMMMMMM!This is the County Courthouse. I think it's one of the prettiest buildings in the town. I am sure it isn't that neat to anyone who has lived on the East Coast, but just let me think it's cool.Here's another house, just to show that all of the houses are so colorful. 
Grandma reading to the grandkids, no wonder they are so smart!One of Clara's new loves is for spoons, plastic or metal. But as you can see, a happy face can quickly turn grumpy if that spoon goes anywhere.While Jason and I were out and about, we bought some bubbles for the twins. I'd like to think I bought them for Clara too, but she just isn't real interest in those quite yet. The twins, however, loved them. Elsa loved them so much she took a step towards me as I was blowing bubbles towards her. For dinner, Ryan and Jason grilled up the fish they caught (plus James' and the neighbors gave them some as well). They were all Rainbow Trout and Jason taught me the pink ones are farm raised and the white are spawned in the lake. Fresh fish is so good. After dinner, we went back to the lake for more fishing... except for me... it was more picture-taking. :)Lily was the first to catch a fish this time and Jason followed her with one. Lily cast her line and reeled it in all by herself! When all was said and done, her pole was broken, but we don't know if it was like that before catching the fish.
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