I got a new camera

This is how Clara gets when I take a photo session too far:

Clara is Five Months Old Today!

The monthly picture taking sessions are getting a lot more eventful:



Oh.  This Again. 



OK, I'll play along.  YAY!

Oh my goodness, my feet!

Oh look, it's my mommy!

Oh, my feet again!  Must get that sock off asap.

Her latest trick is moving from sitting up (supported) to her tummy.  She just belly flops right over.  She is not wild about tummy time, but she is getting much better.  She still isn't rolling over, but there's time for that!  I'm hoping she'll hold out a little longer, I'm not ready to quit swaddling her.  It's funny that she's late on this considering she started rolling over by accident at 1 week. 

We started rice cereal and that is going well.  Next we'll move on to veggies.  Mmmm . . . green beans, squash and peas! 

Clara weighed in at 14 lbs, 12 oz at her sick visit last Thursday.  She had her first ear infection, but handled it like a big girl.  She is in size 3-6 month clothes, but she is starting to out grow some of them in length. 

Clara loves to babble, she "talks" most of the day and even wakes up during the night, babbles a little and then goes back to sleep.  She likes to blow raspberries but has to try really hard to do it.  It always surprises her when she manages to do it!

This is the start of her trying to blow raspberries.  Notice the drool--out of control!

Clara's favorite things:  the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar toy that Annalise Hammond loaned her, playing in her exersaucer, trying to hold and shake her rattles, linking toys, sucking on her binky (binking):



Binking



Clara goes back and forth with who she resembles most.  From the picture above, it's clear that there's a lot of Quincy in her.  It's not the greatest picture, but it shows the resemblance.  She is definitely a blend of both of us, or as Aunt Judy says, a Fresh Model.

Here's a better picture of Clara and her daddy:





I am so excited to celebrate Clara's first Christmas.  Word on the streets is that Santa has some seriously good loot for her, and she will get to meet a whole slew of her King-side relatives.  Babies make the holidays so much more fun!

Christmas Cheer

This Christmas season Carter's had the most adorable outfit for baby girls, complete with a sparkly snowflake and red tutu:

I think it makes Clara look like an adorable Christmas ornament:

She loves wearing it, too (almost as much as she loves eating her hands):

Of course I also bought her an adorable smocked Christmas dress, but she prefers this outfit.  Oh, babies.

Last night Clara fell asleep eating.  I picked her up and put her sweet little head on my shoulder, holding her close, drinking in the moment.  "She won't be a baby for long," I thought to myself.  And then she burped real loud, straight in my ear.  Adorable.

The Stink Eye

Clara's got it perfected:

Sorry Uncle Tucker!

Baby Camouflage

Clara's walls are painted green, but in all other aspects of her life, baby camouflage = solid pink:

This picture of Clara in her camo was taken a couple of months ago.  She loves her crib!

This picture reminds me, if you are a new or expectant mom or know a new or expectant mom, clouds and stars crib sheets are the best thing you can get/buy for them.  The sheets are two pieces and actually cover the entire mattress.  The mattress sits in the bottom part of the sheet and the top part zips onto it.  SIDS regulations require that the mattresses fit so tightly into the cribs that it's nearly impossible to change a crib sheet, especially in the middle of the night, especially when your baby is crying, especially if you use a bumper, etc.  I have several adorable crib sheets from PBK with little birds and owls on them.  I haven't used them since the first time they had to be washed, which was approximately 15 minutes after I placed her in her crib for the first time.  I have a normal mattress pad on the mattress, but I put waterproof flannel sheeting (also called rubberized sheeting) under the zipper top of the sheet so I don't have to change the mattress pad either, I just change out the waterproof flannel sheeting.  You can but waterproof flannel sheeting at any full service fabric store, but call first to make sure they have it.  In the Raleigh area, JoAnn's is the place to go.  BTW, it's the same stuff they use to make the Carter's Keep Me Dry pads, it's just sold by the yard so you can fit the whole crib. 

December -- Please Go Easy On Me This Year

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  Christmas parties!  Christmas trees!  Decorating!  Presents!  It's such a wonderful time of the year and I love it so much. 

But.

It's also the busiest time of the year at my office.  Tensions are already running high among the partners due to the necessity of year end collections.  Throw in the demands of our clients at the end of the year and it's just a recipe for a whole office full of Scrooges.  It was bad in 2008, terrible in 2009, and I shudder when I think about the next couple of weeks.

Every year I feel like I wake up on Christmas Eve breathless and roll through what is a necessarily demanding Christmas Eve and Christmas Day schedule on fumes.  The work starts back on 12/26 and doesn't end until close of business on New Year's Eve.  I am so excited to share Clara's first Christmas with her, but I feel like this:

And yet, I don't want to wish a single minute of it away.  So while it's a little tacky, I will print out address labels for our Christmas cards rather hand addressing them.  Our tree will be 7 feet tall instead of 9 and may not be as full of ornaments as it could be.  The presents will be purchased online and might not have bows.  I don't think I'll have time to make cookies, and the sweet girls in my supper club may get a store bought dessert.  But we'll make it through and have a little fun in the process!

iPhone Pictures

I have taken some of my favorite pictures of Clara on my phone:


Example A

I'm not the best at taking pictures and they are not the best quality, but the iPhone is quick and easy and I usually have it nearby.  This picture may be the cutest picture I have taken of Clara.  It accurately depicts her pure baby joy and that onesie sure is a cute one.  The onesie was given to her by her Uncle Danny and her sweet Aunt Jenny.  Jenny is my brother's wife and we are so thrilled to welcome her into our family.  She went to high school with us and is between my brother and me in age.  I'm pretty sure Jenny and I were friends before she ever met Danny.  On this particular day Jenny was in town from Chicago, but was sick and didn't get to meet Clara.  Clara had not yet had her two month shots and Jenny, being a nurse, didn't want to risk getting Clara sick.  I took this picture to let her know we were thinking of her.  Jenny and Danny did get to meet Clara at Thanksgiving.  This time Clara was the one who was sick, and I'm pretty sure she passed those germs to anyone who held her.  She has a thing or two to learn about hygiene!



Example B

 Much to her father's chagrin, this picture of Clara in her UNC outfit beats the pants off of any pictures I have taken of Clara in her NCSU gear.  I went to UNC for both undergraduate school and law school, but my dad has been a professor at NCSU since I was 2 and Quincy and Tucker are huge NCSU fans after attending school and playing football there.  My heart is divided when it comes to these two teams, but baby girl seems to be a Tarheel!  Thanks so much to Beth for the outfit, which she gave to me when I was about 15 minutes pregnant.  Our friends take our baby's sports allegiances very seriously.  I snapped this picture on my phone during the first UNC game of the season.

Birth Story

July 21, 2010

If you want to see what someone looks like 9 months pregnant, hours before giving birth, see above.  This picture was taken right before we headed to the hospital.  

The story of Clara's birth is actually pretty funny--now.  First, a little background.  The room that is Clara's room now was previously a work out room.  We foolishly put a treadmill upstairs in the house, which caused all sorts of damage.  In particular, the floors squeaked in both our bedroom and the nursery.  About a month before Clara was born, Quincy went into nesting mode.  He fixed most of the damage caused by the treadmill, but despite trying every DIY method he could, he could not get the floors to stop squeaking.

On the morning of July 21, Tucker, Quincy's brother, came over and the two of them moved all of the furniture out of our bedroom and the nursery.  Quincy hired someone to pull up the carpets and fix the squeaks and that was the day they were to come.  Due to Tucker's extended paid vacation, he was able to stay while the work was done, but he and Quincy did not coordinate moving the furniture back into place, so we were left with no furniture in our bedroom and no furniture in my carefully decorated nursery.  I begged until Quincy put the bed back in our room--I just didn't see how I could get up and down from a mattress on the floor 9 months pregnant.  Man, I was irritated.  I told Quincy several times that he was going to send me into labor, and that was the last thought that went through my head before falling asleep.  45 minutes later I woke up and my water had broken.  It was 11:53pm.  We got to the hospital at about 1:15 am and there went through the usual rigmarole of labor . . . pain, drugs, pain, more drugs, more pain, pushing and finally, at 7:39 pm, Clara arrived!  Here she is, minutes old:

And here's our first picture as a family of three.  If I look tired in this picture, it's because I was.  You try being in labor for 20 hours and see how you feel!

For those who are wondering, Tucker and Quincy met at the house while Clara and I were still in the hospital and put the nursery and the bedroom back together, so we didn't have to come home to a construction zone!

Beth Tilley Green

My sweet friend Beth has taken three sets of pictures of Clara, and we have loved the results of all three.  She recently launched her photography business and I am sure she would love new customers.  You can see her work at http://www.bethtilleygreen.com/, and here are a few pictures she has taken of Clara:





From her newborn shoot.  This is the hat she was given just after her first bath at the hospital.

Clara's little baby bootie at one month.  Thanks to Hallie for the adorable diaper cover!

Clara and me at one month.

Clara at three months.

Sweet baby smile.

Our family.

Clara over mommy's shoulder.

As you can see, Beth has a lot of talent.  We're looking forward to asking her to take more pictures as Clara grows.

Halloween

We had some hiccups finding a Halloween costume for Clara.  I bought her a cow costume at a huge consignment sale back in February when I didn't know if she was a boy or a girl.  It was way too big when Halloween finally got here.  So I went to Marshall's and bought an adorable lamb costume:

Totally cute, right?  But it was so big she couldn't move at all, and she started screaming two seconds after this picture was taken and didn't stop until I took it off didn't take to that too well at all.  So I took it back, ran into the consignment store next door and found the winner:

Yep.  An orange sleeper with a jack-o-lantern face on the front and an green stem on the hood.  Clara does not yet suffer for fashion.  She would much rather lounge around in her jammies.  Can you blame her?

Monthly Pics

Month One

Month Two

Month Three



Month Four
(Didn't work out on her chair!)

  The monthly markers are just stickers on a white onesie.  You can get them here.  Clara has so many clothes, and yet I feel like I have so many pictures of her in just a white onesie!  So, for kicks, here are a couple pictures of her in a fun outfit:

Blog Title

I reserved this blog name long before Clara was born.  The poem it is inspired by, Song for a Fifth Child by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton, spoke to me as I contemplated what life would be like as a working mother.  Replace the cobwebs with an iPhone and the dust with documents and you have my life.  We are doing our very best to enjoy every minute of Clara's babyhood, it has already proven to pass much too quickly!

Getting Started

I'm not quite sure how to get this whole blog thing rolling, but I thought it would be a great way to keep everyone updated on Clara's growth.

This is one of my favorite pictures from her three month pictures my sweet friend Beth took. If I can get the hang of this, I'll do a few catch up posts of life over the past four and a half months.