Clara has Hand/Foot & Mouth disease which is completely and totally awesome.  She was sick all weekend with a mix of symptoms and out of school yesterday.  Hand/Foot & Mouth is basically every symptom in the book--fever, sore throat, congestion, coughing, vomiting, rash, loss of appetite and lethargy.  None are particularly bad, but in combination, it's just not fun for her.  She's back to normal today and began eating again this morning.  Actually, she was pretty much back to normal yesterday, but could only really drink milk, eat popsicles and drink juice.

So here's some pictures from November.  Clara has more hair now, but not enough more to really be meaningful.

Reasonable minds could differ on who Clara looks like.  Who she takes after?  Not so arguable.  This was not posed in any way.

Clara sharing.

Clara very much not sharing (hard not to laugh).

Clara and Oscar, Natalie's puppy (O-KAR PUPPY!!!)

Take 2 of 1,000.  Natalie is sooo patient.  More patient than O-KAR PUPPY!!! for sure.

Undecorating the Christmas tree.  This landed her in time out, but not before I took some cute pictures!

BALL!

This is Virginia and me at the Supper Club I hosted in early January.  It was lots of fun until the present exchange.  Dirty Santa got dirty.  Never again!  The point in posting this is to show our Chritmas tree.  Pretty, right?



And one of my favorite pictures ever.





This was when we tried to go see Santa and the line was hoooours long.  We skipped it and rode the Merry-Go-Round instead.  It was a close call.  Apparently the Santa was later arrested for wrong doings.



The next day we went and saw Santa at North Hills.  NO LINE, NO LIE!!  Santa took one look at Clara and said, "you had better get that camera ready."  He was totally right!  She recovered seconds later and the whole thing, from when we walked in the door until when we left didn't take more than 5 minutes.

Pictures from School/Updates

I haven't uploaded pictures from my camera in quite a while, but here are a few Clara's teacher has sent me over the past couple of weeks:

Here they were exploring light.  After this they shined it on the wall and made puppets with their hands.

Further on the puppets, paper bag puppets the next week (doesn't Clara look cute in Carolina Blue!).

Sock puppets the next week.

Clara doing her favorite thing--coloring!

Clara throwing a tantrum.  Completely developmentally appropriate!

I love these pictures because they show Clara in action.  There are a ton more and I just love seeing her learning throughout the day.

We had Clara's 18 month appointment today.  She is 32" tall and 24.5 lbs.  She has stuck to the 50th-60th percentile growth chart for babies born her size ever since her first appointment.  The doctor was impressed by her talking and interaction and we are impressed too! 

Clara's ear tubes blocked a couple of months ago and since that time she's had 3 ear infections.  I took her into the ENT on 1/3 and she had a "raging" ear infection.  I made the decision right then and there to get a new set of tubes.  She was on an oral antibiotic from 1/3 until 1/12 and when we went in to get the tubes on Friday, both ears were already "hot" with infection.  It was certainly the right decision, but the whole thing was pretty darn stressful for all of us.  It's hard to watch them take your precious baby away, no matter how simple the procedure. 

My pregnancy with New Baby is flying by.  We have no names picked out and have just begun the nursery.  Thank God for Quincy's Mom, Granny Mac and my mom, who wanted to be called Grandma but seems to have been dubbed Nana by Clara.  Granny Mac's best friend Jenny is sewing us window valances, her friend Barbara is painting a book shelf for us, she is buying us a car seat and giving us the crib from our house to use until Clara can move to a toddler bed.  I don't know what we would do without all of the help.  Plus, I'm back to working full time until New Baby comes for a number of reasons, and she's going to come keep Clara on Fridays some to shorten Clara's week at school.  My mom picks up Clara at least once a week, Quincy gets to go play basketball and I get to work without any guilt.  Plus, my parents are giving us the 3/4 size bed that was mine and my mother's before that to put in Clara's new room.  And that, my friends, is one sentimental piece of furniture.

I can't wait to see New Baby's nursery come together and to see Clara's big girl room come together.  I'm super excited about some of the projects we have in the works--it will be interesting to see if I can actually get them done in the next two months!!

A Few Christmas Pictures

So at this point Christmas was three weeks ago, but we're just recovering.  Aunt Leah was joking at the Christmas Eve lunch that her husband believes in Christmas, he believes "it just happens."  She is so right!  I run around like a crazy person for a month prior to Christmas getting everything done, and then comes the non-stop action of the actual holiday.  Add in a toddler, a pregnancy and being slam busy at work and you have a recipe for Ho Ho Ho to turn to Whoa Whoa Whoa in a hurry!  Quincy helped a lot this year, but the burden just always seems to fall on the women. 

On Christmas Eve Eve Quincy's dad, BK, came for lunch (holiday meal # 1).  That evening we brought take and bake pizzas to my parents' house to eat with my brother and sister-in-law and my grandmother, who had flown in for the holiday.  Christmas Eve lunch we went to Leah's (holiday meal # 2) followed by church with friends and soup and salad at our house (holiday meal # 3).  Quincy's mom, Granny Mac, came to church and spent the night with us so that we could do Santa and breakfast with her and Tucker in the morning (holiday meal #4).  Following some good play time and naps all around, we headed to my parents' house for a giant Christmas dinner (holiday meal # 5).  Clara was so good, but at 7:00 on Christmas night she had enough and fell asleep for 13 hours!  With a 3.5 hour nap the next day! 

By the 27th I had a stomach bug.  Quincy got a cold later in the week, which he promptly shared with Clara and me.  I had Clara to the ENT on 1/3 at which point it became clear that her ears were in such bad shape that we'll need another set of tubes by the end of the month.  Like I said, we're just starting to recover. 

Lindsey has all of the pictures from Christmas Eve, so I will post those when I get them.  Also, we took some hilarious ones of Annalise, Marin and Clara at church, but they are on another camera. 


Lunch on Christmas Eve Eve with Quincy's Dad and Tucker.



Clara opening her present from PK and BK.

Clara and me on Christmas morning--the sole picture of me that was taken over the holidays.  I'm a little bit glad, do you see how tired I look?



Pure Joy realizing that Santa had brought all of these toys to her!



Cooking at her new kitchen.

Opening presents with Janet and Tucker.

Christmas morning present opening for the rest of us!

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Helping Daddy open!

Riding the Rocking Horse.

Christmas Day at my parents' house.

I should have taken more pictures.  I always say that, but not a single picture with BK or either of my parents.  Maybe sometime I'll get around to it!  I know there have to be some pictures of our tree somewhere, it turned out really pretty this year.  At this point, you'll just have to take my word for it!

Go Wolfpack!

Clara's oldest friend (ha!) is Henry Cobb, born less than two weeks before her.  Jenna and I walked around Shelley Lake during our maternity leaves from the time the babies were tiny and they have spent the past 17 months growing up together.  Here's a picture of the two of them at a recent NCSU game.  The Cobbs had seats in the Champions Club and shared them with us.

New Baby King expected 4/9/12!

If you ask Clara to show you her belly, she will point and say "baby!"  Why?  because she knows that Mommy has a baby in her belly, so she must have one too!

Notice Wesley in the background wanting to join in on the fun.

P.S.  I recognize this is not news to anyone who still reads this blog!

Halloween

Clara was a kitty cat for Halloween.  Fortunately for us she loved her costume and could not WAIT to put it on each time she needed to wear it.  Here she is trick-or-treating at my office.  Actual Halloween was rainy and miserable, so we only took her to the neighbors on each side.  I have a bunch of pictures, but this one is my favorite.

It's a Mom Blog, Y'all.

I haven't blogged since October, a lot has happened since then.  But this is a Mom Blog, and what you want is pictures, so here you go:

We went to Walt Disney World in early October to hang with Mickey.  What?  Take a toddler to Disney?  Oh yes we did and she had a great time!  I don't think she had a preference between the hotel pool and the parks, but it was a fabulous family vacay.

As a little background, Quincy had a big job going in Orlando and needed to drive down there to be on site for the first few days.  He drove down early in the week with all of our gear and Clara and I flew down on Thursday.  My first experience flying with Clara was made much easier because all I really had was Clara, a diaper bag and a bag of toys and snacks.

These are out of order, but I can't fix them without starting over, so please use your imagination.

And one day it rained and we went to the Orlando Science Center.  Those pics are in here too!

More Disney Food



Waiting in Line



Minnie.  Clara walked right up to her and kissed her on the nose.  No fear with this one!

Napping during the big performance at Magic Kingdom.

Clara and me at Magic Kingdom.

Clara as we walked into Downtown Disney.  Not thrilled.

Clara getting the hang of things.

Clara excited that the Disney Kids Meal includes a smoothie.

Clara picking flowers in Florida.  Big surprise.

Water Play at the Orlando Science Center.

Playing in the kitchen at the Orlando Science Center.

During the Parade.  Skeptical.

On the Safari.  What does a Lion say?  ROOOAR!

Family Photo.

If anyone out there with a toddler is considering visiting Disney and wants tips, I have a few.  Get in touch!