She eats, she sleeps, she rolls!

So Clare is five months and she has had a few milestones. She has had her first meal of rice cereal. She didn't do half bad. She has been intently watching us eat for a while now and she got the hang of it pretty quickly. It was a blast to feed her and watch her lean and reach for the spoon with both mouth and hands.

She has rolled over quite a number of times now both belly to back and back to belly. We have not been lucky enough to get a good video of it yet.

We are trying to teach her to put herself to sleep now and we are in the second day of it. (We tried this once before but gave up because her crying was too painful to not respond to.) She has taken a while to fall asleep but she seems to be sleeping well once she does fall asleep.

I've been home with her during the day and I love it! I can't get enough father daughter time in. I love when she wakes up and is super cuddly, I love when she giggles and laughs, I love when she talks to me or to herself, and I love watching her play and playing with her. She keeps me on a tight schedule as she needs much attention. I find little time to email, call, work, clean, shower, and often do not get to brushing my teeth until she naps at 9:00 (gross). She definitely keeps me busy and on my toes. I have learned to plan errands in 1.5 hour chunks. That is enough time to get somewhere, feed her, go in and do or get whatever needs doing or getting done,and then go home and get her ready for naptime. She falls alseep, I start on cleaning, washing bottles, doing laundry, watering plants, (changing out of pajamas, time permitting), and planning out the next 1.5 hour chunk of time! Love it (and I think she does too!)

I have been keeping up with running (for the most part) though it is tough finding time when Elizabeth is home, I am not needed here, and it is still light out. I keep my log of runs online and it helps keep me motivated because I feel a sense of accomplishment when I put in the details of how easy or hard the run was and see what my pace was.

This afternoon we went down to the lakefront. We sat out on the grass at Alterra. I will take this opportunity to remind you all that back when that building was vacant I kept telling people that I would love to turn it into a coffee shop. Too bad I didn't have thousands to put into the place when I was in college!

We also took Clare for a walk. She is super cute (they both are).

Life with these two lovelies...I must be
living the dream.

What an exciting day!

Oh what a day! I have been working ever since my daughter was born and even on days that I had off, my wife was on maternity leave. For the first time ever, I spent the day with just my daughter and what fun it was. I was a bit nervous last night as I didn't really know her routine. My lovely wife was so kind as to tell me all the details this morning (while I was waking up). Needless to say, I remembered the first directions and called for the rest (I had to write them down to remember them).

But this morning we were off and running. She was in really good spirits as we played on the safari mat, in the exersaucer, bounced on the bed, rolled and jumped and bounced and giggled. She ate well, napped well, and all was good. I made plans to grab lunch with Elizabeth and I was so proud of myself at being able to get both the little angel and myself ready in half an hour!

I walked out the door and toward the car and realized almost immediately that we would not be taking mommy out to lunch. The phrase that comes to mind is "lightning never strikes the same place twice." I thought maybe nothing would strike "white lightning" twice! Some of you may know that I lovingly named my 'new' car white lightning after selling the green jellybean about five years ago. Anyway, my car was struck again and although I don't believe in superstition, I wonder if my car is a thief magnet or something (fourth or fifth break-in... I lost count). I had to look back to see if the photos always look the same and they do (Right down to the mess of papers and assorted garbage on the passenger side floormat)!



This time..................

Last time.....


I won't go on... you get the picture!

On the bright side, while I had the camera out documenting I snapped this one.

We planted this annual a few years ago and it never took, but this year we have this lovely flower and there is at least one more bud on the plant. How beautiful!

So Clare got to meet the friendly police officer, listen in on conversations with patient insurance agents and claims adjusters. She helped me make an appointment for glass repair. And then, when we thought the excitement was all over, the sirens went off. We migrated downstairs to wait out her first tornado warning!

Yikes, I thought my biggest worry was going to be a fussy baby! She was my little angel though. We had a blast today...
living the dream!

It is such a tough life!

So marathon training officially began today. I ran into TUNA at school today and he was so excited about training starting today. I was quick to point out, what I think is absolutely hilarious, according to our training program, the first day is a rest day. I have been training so hard today. I sat around and watched the Brewer game, I went and sat out on the porch to read, I am blogging. Marathon training is tough!

In other news, Clare rolled over! Both from front to back and from back to front. She has rolled over once each way. I am sure she'll be doing it regularly soon. We are in the process of teaching her to put herself to sleep. It is a lesson in patience as it involved allowing her to cry for a while without going to "rescue" her for a few nights. Really, it has only taken a couple days and tonight she let out some weak cries for less than a minute and then talked herself to sleep. It is quite fun listening to her talking to herself.

Here she is:
Not sure what to think of that horse
Four months
Hanging out on the front porch
A day at the park
She loves her lamb "Larry"

Well, I am sorry I can't write more. I really must get back to my marathon training
a.k.a. living the dream.