Family update...

Claire Marguerite August 2-3 Months

Once again we were really bad about blogging for a very long time so here is our attempt at trying to fill you in on what's been happening lately.

Claire turned 3 months old on Halloween. Neither of us can believe three months have passed already. Since our last post Claire has been freed from her harness. Her hips are now totally normal. We will have to have x-rays every few months until she's a year old but other than that she's good to go.

She has been discovering the world around her more and more lately, including her own appendages. Here is a cute picture of her in awe of her hand (we're in awe of her many rolls...we told you this girl could eat)...

She enjoys tummy-time (most of the time)...

The weather has been getting colder lately so we have to bundle her up.
This is a photo from one of our walks around the neighborhood...

She loves hanging out with grandma and grandpa Diefenbach. Grandma Carol can get her to "baby-babble" better than anyone and she loves smiling at Grandpa Dave...

Claire loves bath time too, she's quite the swimmer already. Her only issue is that she tries to drink the bath water, if you put her face close to the water she opens her mouth and sticks out her tongue.

The following slide show is a collection of cute day-to-day pictures of Claire (some repeats from above). Notable shots include dad's punk rock hair styling and seeing her and Argos sleeping in our bed while she was wearing her wiener jammies from our friends Michael and Katie.

Uncle Larry's Visit

Bridget's Uncle Larry was in town from Santa Barbara for a few days. We got to have dinner over at her parents house and catch up with him. You'll see a photo of Angie kissing herself on the television. Yes, Auntie Angie is a famous scientist and was on the news for the research she did as a grad student at WWU. Mom taped it of course, so we all got to see it. Way to go sister!

Halloween 07'

Claire's first Halloween was pretty fun. Above, she's sporting her new bib from Aunt Helen (thanks for the package!). Claire in her chicken suit was definitely some funny stuff. We took her around the neighborhood with a couple that lives across the street and their three year old who was dressed as Batman. Claire was a hit and scored plenty of Halloween candy for her mom & dad.

Columbia River Gorge & Portland Road Trip

Well we decided to take Claire on her first extended road trip. We went south to the Columbia River Gorge area which is on the Washington & Oregon border. Aside from again realizing that I should tack on an extra hour or two one-way for travel times, everything went really smooth. Whenever Claire gets upset in the car we just have to roll down the rear windows, no matter how cold it is, and say in a cheesy Arnold Schwarzenegger voice "Chill out baby..", it works great.

We went to Carson, Washington which has an old decrepit hotel that was built at the turn of the century next to some mineral hot springs. Next to the hotel they have a spa with 8-10 claw foot bathtubs, and where for 20 bucks, you can soak in the tubs, and supposedly drink, the stinky really hot (128 degree) spring water. After that a scary looking attendant wraps you mummy-like for a half hour of sweating profusely on a cot. Sounds like torture but you feel awesome afterwards.

We got to spend a couple of days wandering around Portland with her favorite Aunties, Angie and Kendra, who just settled into a new place. Most of our time was spent wandering around the city visiting bookstores, drinking espresso, and eating at nice restaurants. Kendra captured a perfect smile in Angie's arms.

Claire actually spent quite a bit of time in some of the Pacific Northwest's finest breweries on our road trip (Walking Man, Bridgeport, Full Sail, Alameda) hopefully this will help develop the olfactory skills necessary to discern the subtle differences between Cascade vs. Yakima hops. Bridget had quite possibly the best hamburger either of us have ever tasted at the Full Sail Brewery in Hood River, OR. Free-range, grain-fed, never frozen, some farmer drives the beef in from his ranch, ummm. Here's a photo of Claire cruisin' through Hood River, you gotta love that smile...

Well, there's the latest. Bridget is back to work three days a week so Claire is in daycare those days. We've found a great in-home daycare that we are loving more and more each day. Claire is the only baby, plus a couple of crawlers and a few toddlers. They all love "baby Claire" and are so sweet to her. She seems happy and likes to socialize. It was much harder on mom than baby, but it's getting better.

We are enjoying our parenting group and look forward to getting together with everyone at least once a week. The babies are all about the same age and so adorable together. We will be taking photos and someday will post those as well!

We are looking forward to the upcoming holiday season and many more "firsts" for Claire (first Thanksgiving, first Christmas, first New Year's...etc) and can't wait to share those with everyone. We hope all our friends and family, especially those we don't get to visit with very often, are doing well. Until next time...take care!