Natalie Dancing

Natalie loves to dance like a ballerina, especially now that she's seen the Nutcracker in person.  She's always showing us her ballet poses; her favorite ones to say are the arabesque and attitude.  She's such a little performer.

Claire is walking!

Claire has been taking a few steps now for about a month but wasn't that interested in actually using it to get places.  As of Friday, she decided to put her new skill to use and has started walking to get to things, across the room, etc.  She's so proud of herself as are we. 



Also, as of today, Claire is done nursing.  And that means after 3 years, 3 months and 18 days, I have reclaimed my body.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Over the last 3 years, 3 months and 18 days I have been either pregnant and/or breastfeeding since I got pregnant with Claire while I was still breastfeeding Natalie (I nursed her while pregnant for 3 months, until she was also 12.5 months old).  I'm excited to have my body back but sad that this phase has ended for Claire and me!

I'm also working on getting photos of her birthday party on the blog but it's been a slow process.  They're coming soon!

Claire is 11 months old!

My sweet pea is 11 months old today!  She is becoming such a big girl -- almost a toddler!  I have so much planning to do for her party in one short month; I'd better get on it soon.  Claire is walking behind toys and while holding one of our hands all the time now.  She is determined to get where she wants to go and play with what she wants to play with.  She moved took one small step the other day but hasn't yet started moving both feet.  I'm sure she's going to be walking soon though.  She's also started "talking" more now.  She says "ah, ah, ah" when she wants your attention or wants something.  And she's now starting to point at what she wants using her whole hand.  And as always, she loves to wear a big smile!

Also, I've been wanting to show the following two videos.  The first is Natalie running like mommy according to her.  I love when she does this.  It cracks me up everytime -- and makes me question my form when running!  The other is Claire walking behind their shopping cart.  She's getting so good at walking!

Summer Family Fun

At the end of August, Claire and Natalie's Oma and Opa came to visit.  Emile's aunt and uncle from the Netherlands, Anneke and Norbert, came with them.  The first time they got to meet the girls and see where we live.  The girls spent a lot of time playing with everyone.  We also went to the Capital building in downtown Raleigh and took Natalie to Build a Bear for the first time.  She picked out a bunny, which Anneke helped to name "Trudy".



Claire had a few other big moments recently too.  Right before Oma and Opa got here, Claire started pulling up on furniture.  She's all over the place now.  She's even starting to cruise some on furniture although not a lot yet.  Now that she is so mobile, she is determined to get to what she wants even if she has to climb over us and toys to get to what she wants.  And anything Natalie is playing with is what Claire wants to be playing with to.  I hear a lot of "No Baby Care, that's my toy" from Natalie right now.  But Natalie is doing a great job of sharing with Claire.

Claire also started eating table food while Oma and Opa were in town.  She's now eating a lot of dishes that Emile makes.  Her table foods were peas and bananas, and her first meal was curry chicken.  She loves the spices in Emile's cooking.  She likes to store food though in her chunky cheeks :). 

We finally took the girls to Falls Lake to play at the beach and go swimming.  It was the first time Claire was in the Lake.  Both girls had a blast.  Natalie loved jumping and splashing in the water. It's too bad we didn't get there until the end of the summer but it has been so hot, that even sitting at the beach would have been too hot!

Family Videos

I finally got a chance to upload a number of videos from when the girls and I visited WI.  Plus, I get to show you Claire crawling!  In the last few weeks she's become so fast compared to these first few crawls!  The cats now have to run from her.





The girls spent time with Nana and Grandpa at Kids Cove, the Racine Fountain/Sprayground and the beach.











And of course it's always cute to see others make funny noises to get Claire to eat.





Grandpa and Nana also took the girls and their cousin Hayden to the Racine Zoo.  Sounds like they had a lot of fun.  Natalie still talks about going to the zoo with Nana and Grandpa.

Rolling and Potty Time

I'm so proud of my two girls.  They've both achieved great milestones in the last two weeks.  Natalie is now potty trained!  She's been doing so great with it since we started two Saturdays ago.  We decided to try the 3-day potty training method with her since the laid back approach was not working with her even though she wants to sit on the potty -- I think she just needed to know the feeling of letting it out when sitting there.  So we put her in underwear as of 10 days ago and she hasn't gone back to diapers since.  She even wore them right away during nap and bedtime.  The first 48 hours were the toughest -- for her and us.  But she didn't have any accidents at nap or bedtime for the first few days and only a 3 or 4 since.  She had one day of regression last Friday but since then she's had no accidents.  We're so proud of her.  She's such a big girl!  She picked out her own underwear to start with (in combination with the ones Oma got her) and of course, they were Disney Princesses.

And our other great news -- Claire started rolling back to tummy this past Sunday!  She's been moving all over while sitting - twisting, turning, and scooting all over.  She finally decided to try this rolling skill out!  And she's so close to crawling.  She inches around on her belly from left to right and even scoots backwards.  Plus she's lunging forward.  I think she's going to start crawling soon.  Here is a video I finally got of her rolling.



We also got Claire a different type of puff to try eating (Teddy Puffs). They are not as light so she's able to grasp them and actually get them in her mouth without them sticking to her hands like the other ones.

Claire is 6 months old!

Our Claire is already 6 months old!  As is the case every month, I'm shocked as to how fast it's gone.  She is such a sweet little pumpkin.  Always smiling!  And she loves to watch what her big sister does.  She's not rolling back to tummy yet but is getting very close.  She does great sitting up and playing.  Just yesterday she discovered her voice and now shrieks. 

Happy Mother's Day!

She Sat Unassisted!

We are so proud of Claire.  She sat unassisted for longer than a few seconds on Friday for the first time.  She sat for a few minutes before toppling over.  We put a pillow behind her to catch her during her topples.  But she's already sitting longer each time.  I think she enjoys it much more than being on her tummy!  She can actually reach for her toys and play with them for awhile.  Plus, she can watch her sister playing more too.

Kinsey also took the girls for a stroll in the double stroller and had Claire sit in the stroller instead of in the infant carseat.  They both had a good time enjoying the weather.

And of course, lots of snuggle time.

Claire is 5 mo. old.

Claire is 5 months old today!  It's gone so fast.  She laughs and smiles all the time.  She's getting very close to sitting unassisted and rolling from her back to her tummy.  I wouldn't be surprised if she does one, if not both, before the end of the month.  Today she also started laughing over and over at Natalie acting silly.  It was so enjoyable to watch. 



She is drooling a lot now.  She loves to chew on everything -- including her sister's shirt when she's sitting next to her.  Natalie only barely got away from Claire's grip:

We took the girls to the Raleigh Arboretum on Saturday.  There were a lot of beautiful flowers that Natalie got to explore.  It was very pretty although not as nice as Duke Gardens.