May Re-Cap

The rest of May was fun. Claire was practicing sitting up and getting very good at it. She also got to start using her cool shades!

Christi celebrated Sandra's wine-themed wedding shower. It was a great time catching up with the ladies and tasting a little vino!

We also celebrated the christening of Claire's pal Allison Richard. It was a great afternoon getting all the girls together. While the babies and moms chatted upstairs the men played Rockband in the basement. We did get the daddies to do a feeding though!

Congrats Allison! (Sara & Eric too)

Erika/Ella, Christi/Claire, Sara/Alli, Amanda/Anna (what's w/ the same first letters?!)

The end of the month was memorial day weekend and we went to the Sleeger's for a BBQ. Some of our friends are expecting baby #2 (Congrats Annie, Joanna & Tina!) It was a relaxing day and Claire got some QT with her pal Sofia.

We also got some great bathtime shots of our little honey bunny. She's so cute!

4 Month Photo Video

Here's a video composite of Claire's 4 month photos.

4 months & Mother's Day

This past weekend the Howards had lots to celebrate. On Friday the 9th Claire turned 4 months old. Check out her monthly photo! She's so smiley and expressive now. She's really on the move in her crib now too... never where we left her at night. She's also starting to get more coordinated with her hands as you can see from her holding her bottle. That makes for free mommy hands during the feedings! She's doing better with her rice cereal, but still doesn't like it very much.

On Saturday we had a hectic day that included another professional photo shoot. Christi was of course late getting dressed, Jon was shaving in the car on the way, and we were more than 20 minutes late for our appointment. Once we got there Claire did a great job hamming it up for the camera and we got some great pics. DJ Jazzy Jon will be mixin up some photos for another slideshow, so stay tuned to the blog! We also visited Granny for a Mother's Day preview. Claire and Granny had lots of fun bonding. She was mesmerized by Granny's floral print chairs!

On Sunday we had a wonderful Mother's Day. Jon gave Christi the best gift ever..sleep! He took the 6:30am feeding and later made a blueberry pancake breakfast (with mimosas!) We also celebrated with Grandma and Papa for dinner at a yummy French restaurant in McLean. Christi also got some beautiful pink roses. It really was a special first Mother's Day!

March/April Happenings

I know, I know. It's been *eons* since we last blogged. I guess we can blame it on Christi going back to work and finding very little spare time these days! Well a lot has happened this past month...

• This past weekend we went to Glen Echo park in MD and Claire got to enjoy her first carousel ride!
  
  
  
• Claire ate her first real food! (If you consider the shredded cardboard they call "rice cereal" real food) Daddy heard the doctor give the go ahead and couldn't wait to try it. He bought her pears not knowing that's after she gets rice cereal and the veggies first. So we also pressed our luck and gave her some carrots too. She seemed to do okay for her first tasting, but as to be expected she spit more out than she actually took in.

• Claire met the Easter Bunny for the first time. Pictures didn't turn out that great and the bunny seemed a little creepy, but oh well!
  
  
• Claire wore her first pair of shoes. In preparation for starting daycare we got Claire used to foot coverings and she didn't seem to mind at all.
  
  
  


• We all went down to DC to see the Cherry Blossoms. Rather than fight the weekend rush we went down at 4pm on a Wednesday. The tidal basin was close to peak bloom and gorgeous. We took so many pictures that Claire was soooo over it. :) We also took some pictures of her in front of the cherry tree in our backyard.

• Christi started back to work on 3/31 and it was like she never left. Total insanity is the Orbital way!

• Claire started daycare and loves it. Her British teacher miss Louisa is awesome and does so many projects with them. She's planted grass seed, made Earth Day granola bars, painted, made dinosaur fossils..you name it! She loves looking at all the other kids. She's still the champion sleeper, but when she's awake she's having fun.

• Claire rolled over on 4/7!!! It was like she knew that she was almost three months old and did it right on cue. Mommy put her on the playmat, turned around to grab something, and voila she was on her tummy! Unfortunately she still doesn't like being on her tummy and doesn't always know how to roll back over, so most of the time she screams until we rescue her. As a result of her newfound mobility she has decided that she prefers to sleep on her left side. No more "back to sleep" for miss Claire, it's straight to her side. Now she has worn a bald spot on the side of her head to match the huge one in the back.
  
  

  
  



• Claire turned 3 months old. Besides her worn bald spots, she's losing more of her hair. Hopefully it comes back soon! She's also getting very good at grabbing things and can bring her hands together. We bought her a jumperoo this month and she loves to bounce around in it. She's still a little small in it, but she's learning to spin around in the seat and play with the toys.
  

• Claire went to her first picnic. Jon's pals the Hurley's and their friends Vicki and Danny all joined us for a lovely afternoon cookout at Algonkian park.
  


• We visited Gunpowder Falls State Park near Baltimore. Not much to see there so we stopped at Fort McHenry and the Inner Harbour on our way back so the trip wasn't a total bust. Nothing like being a speed tourist!

• Claire got her first pair of sunglasses. In preparation for our family Carribean cruise with Grandma, Papa, and the Billings in early July, Grandma bought her the cutest sunglasses. She is so cool in them!

• Claire had her 4 month doctor visit at just the right time. She got her first cold and eye infection last week. Poor thing has bad sniffles and we keep torturing her with that big blue bulb! She's starting to feel a little better, but she gave mommy her cold. Otherwise the doctor said she is doing great and meeting all her milestones. She weighed in at 14lbs 6oz and 24 3/4 inches long. She's around 75th percentile in her all her stats. She also got her round of 4 month shots this trip..ouch! The doctor also told us to start introducing solids in the next couple months. Which leads to the next event...
  

• Lordy Lordy Jon turned 40! On March 19th we did a simple celebration of just the two of us and dinner at Bennihana. At least that's all he can remember since he over the hill and senile. Just kidding! To keep him young Christi gave him the steering wheel console for his XBox360!

• So that's what's up with the Howards. We're looking forward to our first Mother's Day next weekend. Here's a happy Mother's Day wish to all our new and soon-to-be mommy friends!

Deep in the Heart

The Howards headed to Dallas last week to visit Christi's family and had a great time! Claire did great on her first plane ride. She didn't get too fussy on the way up or down, she just decided to have a diaper worthy of a wardrobe malfunction. The funniest sight to see was the tag-team diaper change in the back of the plane!

Let's get this baby off the ground!

On Friday we finally gave Jon a drive-by tour of downtown Dallas which included lunch at the downtown El Fenix Mexican restaurant, pictures in front of the Convention Center with the longhorns sculptures, and a drive by the grassy knoll.


That night everyone gathered at Aunt Nancy's house for dinner and "Claire time". She was such a trooper and was so well behaved the whole weekend. She loved meeting all of the family!

The next day we went bowling with all the kids and Uncle Chris met up for a quick visit. We also got our second dose of Mexican food at a local El Fenix. Jon filled up on 5 tamales this time! Then we took a drive out to the country to Uncle Pat and Aunt Jane's for dinner. Pat did an awesome job smoking some chickens in his barrel smoker.

To round out our eating tour of Texas, we went to lunch at the new Harbour development on Lake Ray Hubbard in Rockwall. They had lots of fun shops including a tobacco store called En Fuego. Jon decided to play a joke on Christi by purchasing a mini cigar and giving it to Claire to play with. Let's just say she wasn't amused. That night Aunt Nancy made a wonderful home cooked Sunday dinner. Claire got some great quality time with Nana that night and the pictures turned out so cute.

In all, the whirlwind weekend was a success. Claire (and Jon & Christi) had a wonderful visit with everyone and enjoyed the taste of nice warm weather. Good thing we got our flight out just before the major storm grounded all flights the next day!

Here's a slide show of all the pictures we took. Enjoy!

Playdates & Potpourri

Sorry it's been so long since we've blogged..but here we go. The last few weeks have been tons of fun with Claire. We've had a few playdates and Claire was even awake for most of them. First we had a big group playdate with some of mommy's friends from VT and all of their older kids at Darcy and Rodney's beautiful home. Claire can't wait until she's big enough to run around with all of them. Rodney is a professional photographer and took lots of great shots that afternoon. Check a couple of them out!

Then we had a playdate with Claudia and Darren's new baby Sofia. She is just 3 weeks younger than Claire, but is oh so teeny! They had fun holding hands and arm wrestling. Christi and Claudia had fun swapping mommy battle scars!

We also had another playdate this past week with Ella and Erika. Ella was very intrigued by Claire's crying and why those sounds were coming from someone/thing other than her. Ella has become so cute and smiley!

Claire also had new visitors this month. Mommy's friends Kim and Trissie came to meet her. She can't wait to meet Trissie's baby Teagan in a few weeks! We hosted Trissie's baby shower this weekend and it was a great time. Teagan is set with all of her new gear!

Claire also had lunch with Grandma and Granny this week. She always loves to see them. See how cute she looks when Granny pinches her cheeks!

Claire turned 2 months old today. She is getting cuter by the day (at least that's what mommy and daddy think!) She has really started to smile and interact with us. She's also starting to roll onto her side and is pushing up during tummy time. She scoots with her feet on the changing table, so we have to start being careful she doesn't scoot away when we aren't looking. She also picked up a new trick from her friend Ella...sucking her thumb. Hopefully she doesn't do it for as long as mommy did as a kid. Breaking the habit is hard for a 3rd grader! We had her 2 month doctor's appointment this past week and Claire is a whopping 12 lbs 7 ounces and 23.5 inches long. That's 90th percentile for our little chubbs, but the rolls and cheeks are so cute! She got her next round of vaccinations and was a little cranky for a day afterwards but is feeling better now.

Next week the Howards travel to Dallas to visit Christi's family. We are looking forward to Claire's first airplane ride (sort of?!) and getting to meet new relatives. We are also going to try and show Jon a little of the city. He's been there 4 or 5 times now and still hasn't seen downtown! We'll post pictures when we get back.