An afternoon in the life of an 8 month old

I took a lot of pictures of Clara one day a few weeks ago.  She must have seemed particularly adorable that day, maybe I realized how close she was to turning nine months, or maybe I just had the camera handy.  But these are the photos I got that day.

This is the sight I see when I go to get after her nap (We turned the crib into a “side car” to make it more of an extension of our bed.  This has been working well for us, for now).  I love her enthusiasm to wriggle to me as fast as she can.  I can always tell when she’s had a good nap when she’s chirpy and giggly afterwards. : )

Look, you can see her teeth here.  TOO cute!

So now Mama needs to do some things in the bathroom.   Now that Clara can sit up well, maybe she can help me (I stepped back much farther than I was standing to snap these few pictures, don’t worry!  I was guarding her tightly!).

Oh, and she always has to have her hands busy, so I gave her Daddy’s brush to hold. : )

“Oops!” She really did fall in!

Now it’s play time.  Even though I retook this picture, I still think it’s cute!  Silly Mama. : )  You can see I’m stretching her toys out with my pots and pans.   She LOVES the Tails book and all touch and feel books.  It’s funny though, we have been reading so many touch and even scratch and sniff books that she thinks she has too scratch and feel all of the pictures now.  I’m trying not to feel guilty for confusing her!

There we go: more teeth and smiles.  AND she sees me and the camera. 

Look out!  She’s coming for me!  I think this session ended with kisses and tickles.  I so love my little girl!

 

Well, there’s a few more pictures.  Maybe I’ll keep doing this while going backwards until I either share all my pictures or we are ALL thoroughly confused!  Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Clara learns how to eat a banana

I am so far behind in blogging—well, I’m so far behind in everything, so who’s surprised about blogging?—but there is so much to share with you about her and about our lives.  I give up.  I’ve got cute pictures, and I’m going to share them.  : ) So here you go.

One of the amazing things about being Clara’s mama right now is just how much she is learning, growing, and changing everyday.  I can’t keep up with all of the new things she is doing and trying and mastering!  I forget that one week ago I wondered if she would ever do something, and here she is, doing it like a little pro.  Still, on the other hand, there are so many things she has yet to learn.  So many, many, MANY things!  Like, for example, eating a banana.

“ No, no, Sweetie.  Not like that.  Let’s try another way.” (For anyone cringing at this photo—the banana IS organic, this happened for a split second while I took the picture and no longer, and I had handed the banana to her and SHE decided to put it in her mouth).

“Alright, Clara, you have your bib on.  Are you ready for the banana now?”  Can you tell that I am not a fan of my highchair?  Oh, and the outfits were because we had TWO banana eating sessions on different days.

“Here you go!”

 

“Do you like it?”

I think that’s a “Yes.”

Banana cheeks!

“All done!”

Bananas are really a neat invention of God. : )  They are soft, sweet, and lightly flavored and perfect for little people.  Plus, LeiLoni Bowlus taught me this trick, they come in thirds.  Did you know that?  Take a portion of banana and gently press into the center of the top and tug down on a section of the banana and it will neatly divide into three sections.  Amazing.  : ) 

Well, that’s Clara’s post of the day.

The Great Cloth Diaper Hunt (updated)

I need to write a post about finding the right diaper for your family and your baby and even one about the wonderful diaper/baby stuff giveaways I’ve been enjoying*, but this isn’t it.   Instead, I wanted to draw your attention to something that I’ve never participated in before, but looks like a lot of fun.

The Great Cloth Diaper Hunt seems like a fun way for online diaper shops, diaper makers, and blogs to advertise goods and services while allowing participants to win free diapers and cloth diapering supplies.  First you have to register.  From there, we will be figuring this out together.  I do know that I will be looking for this symbol on lots of different websites:

                                             

. . . and trying to win great prizes!  Just so you know, I’m not earning or winning anything by sharing this with you; I just didn’t want to keep all the fun to myself!  Oh, and it starts November 1st.

 

NEW!  While searching for that cute little symbol above, I stumbled across Cute Caboose which is having its own special diaper giveaways all month for those who follow the clues and find the hidden diaper-owls on their site (and tell them about it). So, there you go (and this time I DO get something for telling you—an extra entry into their giveaway)!

 *Yes, I’m a little obsessed with cute cloth diapers and winning prizes, but it’s a lot better for our budget for me to try to win theses fun goodies than to talk myself into buying them.  James appreciates it!

Are you in the market for a car seat? Win one!

                        

Clara is going to outgrow her car seat within the next few months, and we are going to need something bigger that will still live up to my safety standards.  I love the safety features of the Safety 1st Complete Air Car Seat as shared by The Shopping Mama.  Right now on her blog (through November 16) you can enter to win a car seat of your own.  If you have a little time, browse around The Shopping Mama’s other giveaways as well.  You might find something you really want (and win it!).  Have fun!

It’s still autumn in our yard!

October 12th, a day when it would not be improbable to have snow, when all of our neighbors have already lost the leaves from the Alaskan birch and aspen trees, our yard is orange and yellow and golden and sunshiny.  We have some pretty petunias, snap dragons, and pansies still surviving the frosty nights.  There is a thick carpet of gold leaves from the mountain ash that just now decided to become a beautiful bower of autumn’s last stand.  I am loving it.  The gorgeous light reflecting off the leaves fills our normally dark living room with a warm glow.  I don’t know why we have been blessed with one of the most beautiful summers and now autumns of my memory, but I am thanking God for it

When winter comes, as it must, I will let out a contented sigh.  This Autumn seems to be like the “finale” in a fireworks display or the encore at a concert.  The soft, pure snow will seem as perfect as the silence after the last firework crackles in the sky or when the lights come on after the lovely strains of concert music die away.  I thank God for His design in nature.  And I hope I will always have a mountain ash in my yard to enjoy in the autumn.

Happy Birthday, James!

James celebrated his 29th birthday on October 3.  I made him a cherry pie.  Here are a few photos we took to remember his first birthday with our sweet daughter.

Our family.  Aw!

Here Clara realized that those things look like fun for grabbing!  Yikes!  (Today she upended a bowl of hot soup on my lap, splashing herself as well!  I’ve got to watch that girl!)

She was really enjoying the dinner.

 

Especially since she got to sample lots of things from Mama’s plate!

We love you, James.  Thank you for being such a special husband and daddy.  May God bless you with many, many more special years to come.

Three Quick Plugs

I have become terribly addicted to entering online giveaways recently, because . . . it works!  God has been so good in giving us some special things for our family: cloth diapers, an EmmaLu carseat cover, and an ecousable water bottle, for  starters.  As I said before, I do not want to bug you all (mostly friends and family hoping to learn more about our life and see pictures of Clara) with notices of giveaways and baby stuff blogs to link to, but every once in a while I find something that is either too fun to pass up, or something you all might enjoy too.  Here are three quick things I’d like to share with you (hint:  if you like to do Where’s Waldo and I Spy all three things are right here on our blog if you can find them).

                                 

Ugg, the makers of soft, comfy, warm, sheepskin lined boots are giving away a free pair of Whooga boots every month to people who have a link (like the one above) on their blog or website.  Click on the link to find out how you can enter.  It’s very simple.

 

                       

Madsen Cycles is doing something similar in giving away one bike per week to people who link, tweet, and subscribe to their website.  Look at what a neat bike that would be for going on family bike rides or picking up groceries!  Check out how you can enter as well.  If you notice in my sidebar, my Madsen link is small and unobtrusive, so they have many varieties to fit your blog style.

 

 

Last but not least, Swagbucks is my new favorite thing.  Swagbucks is a search program (I believe it runs through Google) that allows you to search for anything you would normally search for, but rewards you randomly with Swagbuck “bucks” which you can save up and redeem for all kinds of things.  I’m amazed at the gift cards.  Save 45 Swagbucks and turn them in for a $5 Amazon gift card or turn 70 Swagbucks in for $5 Paypal dollars anywhere!  Wow!  Just for using a search engine!  It’s fun!  I downloaded their new toolbar, and I have received special Swagbuck codes to plug in to get free bucks all month. 

 

My tip for maximizing your Swagbucks earning is to download the toolbar and use the Swagbucks search engine  instead of the web address window.  For example, when I want to go to gMail, Facebook, Amazon, etc. I “search” for them instead of inputting “www.facebook.com”.  Very often, I’ll earn one, two, or even three Swagbucks just for going somewhere that I go to all the time anyway.

 

If you’d like to be nice to me, joining Swagbucks from my referral link, helps me win more Swagbucks.  I do hope you’ll give it a try.  So far, I’ve earned $15 in Amazon gift cards and $5 from Euphoria Baby.  At the rate I’m going, I will be able to get a significant discount on Christmas gifts this year!

P.S. Do you think I said Swagbucks enough in these three paragraphs?  Swagbucks!