Hey all! Sorry it's been a while since the blog has been updated. It's not that we're completely swamped with stuff to do. Rather, Claire has been running us ragged and by the time she's down for the evening, the last thing I want to do is type on the computer and upload a ton of photos. Many apologies!
A FEW FUN THINGS
My brother Mike and his girlfriend Ashley came out to visit us in April (backing up a bit, obviously). They hit the town like celebrities - went to a taping of "America's Got Talent", saw the Hollywood Sign, went rock climbing, etc... and to top it off, Mike was able to meet his new niece (Claire, of course).
At the Hollywood Sign, there's another sign that is of even more interest, and while Mike and Ashley were there, I asked them to snap a picture of the sign for me.
For those of you who may be a little slow on the uptake, the sign says that "Violators will be PERSECUTED" rather than the more appropriate "PROSECUTED".
Hey, I may be blonde, of average height, a little overweight, with strange feet and the beard of a bum, but that's no reason to mistreat me. I'm still a human being after all!
Mike, Ashley, Claire and I went hiking at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park (no National Park by any means, but still a cool place) - a.k.a. Vasquez Rocks (to the locals). Luckily for us, it's located only about 10 minutes from where we live.
This first picture is of Mike and Ashley. The second is of the whole gang - sans Jen, who had to work (work is for suckers - I'll regret saying this later, I'm sure).
Lastly, here's a picture of Claire and me, having hiked about halfway up the main rock formation at Vasquez Park.
If you want to know a little bit more about Vasquez Rocks, click HERE
While we were hiking (as you can see, I'm using the Bjorn to carry Claire - not the easiest thing to use while hiking), I accidentally head-butted a rock... with Claire's head. Oops! After the initial shock, and once the crying subsided, she was fine - with only a small red scrape to show for it. Mommy was not pleased.
If you saw the LAST BLOG POST, there's a picture of Dave (looks like) hanging off of a cliff at the Grand Canyon (it's a camera trick). Well, that type of a shot is so fun to get, and Mike asked if I had any ideas for a fun picture. Of course, I obliged.
While demonstrating, perhaps I should have unhooked Claire so as to AVOID the head-butting of the rock incident.
Anyway, here's the product of the demonstration. Pretty cool (and funny), if you ask me. Just don't ask Claire what she thinks about it.
MOVING ON... THE COLTS!
Claire really looks cute in her Colts Cheerleader Outfit - courtesy of Uncle Jay and Aunt Michelle (a Christmas 2012 gift). We can't wait until she can actually fit into this thing (She's a one-year old wearing 6-month clothes)!
SLEEPING
Claire's a really good sleeper. She's (normally) down by 8pm and sleeps until about 7am. She also takes one really good nap during the day (which allows me to update the blog), and sometimes a 2nd one for good measure.
OUR BELOVED DOG, PEYTON
Claire really loves our dog, Peyton. I'm not entirely sure that the love is reciprocated.
Click HERE to see some video of Claire playing with Peyton. Best Friends Forever!
BABYPROOFING THE HOUSE
Since we live in an apartment (with roommates), we didn't really feel that it would be appropriate to drill holes into all of the cabinetry with baby-proofing hooks, so we decided to block off the kitchen with a swinging-door gate. Both Claire and Peyton yearn to be on the other side of the prison doors.
ADVENTURES WITH SUNGLASSES
This is a multi-faceted story (and if you know me, this probably isn't a huge surprise for you)... so I'll start from the top.
When Claire was born, we were so overwhelmed with all of the stuff we had to do just to keep her alive, that we didn't have the opportunity (or we just straight-up forgot) to do the things we were supposed to do. For instance, we never really put hats or glasses on her, which is a really good practice because it trains the baby that hats and glasses are good things (unless you're in 4th Grade with glasses-glasses).
So, she hated glasses and hats for a very long time - couldn't keep her from yanking them off of her face as soon as they were on her.
After a lot of work, and a little help from a glasses-band that hooks around the back of her head, we've finally found some success with both!
Jen showed the 2nd picture to her 1st Grade Class. One of the students commented, "Is that your husband? He's cool!" When Jen asked for an explanation, the student said, "Because he has sunglasses... and a beard!"
Apparently I rate well with the 6-8 age range.
A quick note about the beard... I haven't gotten complacent about facial grooming. A few of my friends were talking about growing a "Duck Dynasty" beard and apparently, I'm the only one who actually knuckled up to the task. The picture on the right is after about 1 Month.
And if you don't know what Duck Dynasty is, here you go.
Either that, or Brian Wilson - the Relief Pitcher for the LA Dodgers (ex. SF Giants).
NOTE: The above photos are not to be construed as an endorsement for either Duck Dynasty or The LA Dodgers (or SF Giants). I don't watch Duck Dynasty and I am and always will be a Cincinnati Reds fan - my public support of the Reds doesn't hurt nearly as bad now that they're pretty good.
THE BATH...
Claire LOVES the bath. She (normally) splashes around so much that it's rather difficult to get any kind of a quality photo out of the ordeal. But nevertheless, here are a few pictures from the first bath-bath.
Click HERE to see some video from Claire's first bath.
TEETH!
On May 7, 2013, Claire cut her first tooth. It was her (as you're looking at her face) Upper Left Central Incisor. It's exciting to know that her mouth is going to be in extreme pain now for about a year or so. Good times!
Here's a picture of Claire with a few teeth in her mouth (July 15, 2013).
Yes, her teeth are a bit askew. We can't do anything about it until she's about 8. It's a good thing she's so darned adorable.
CLAIRE IN FUNNY SITUATIONS
Those of you who follow the blog regularly will know that I like placing Claire into funny scenarios (poses) that look a lot more questionable than they actually are. Seriously, what's the fun of having a frustrating baby if you can't do things like this?
This is Claire in the middle of Jen's classroom.
And this is Claire trying to get some beer (out of an empty can).
THE SIPPY CUP...
We'd been having some problems with getting Claire to eat food (the Great Food Embargo of 2013 - which we'll cover later), so we needed to see an Occupational Therapist to help us with the issue. In the meeting, we found out that we had to get Claire off of her bottle and onto a cup - with one catch. The cup we use can't have a spout because after the Palate Surgery, since her (new) roof is going to be so sensitive and susceptible to puncture, nothing (including a spoon - temporarily) can go into her mouth. Sounds fun, no?
Insert the (What the hell??!?) "Okaaaaaay" HERE!
When Claire was born, she was using the Haberman Cleft Palate Bottle, which cost $30 each (we purchased 8 of them). After her lip surgery, we switched to the Pigeon Bottle (about $10 each) because her lip/mouth opening was much smaller and she was having a hard time with the Haberman.
We could only guess what was going to be in store for us with regards to the sippy cup! Please excuse our jaded attitude towards certin things nowadays.
Remember, Claire has no suction-ability, so straws are out, no-leak spouted sippies are out (again, because of no suction but also because of the reasons stated above), and, for spill purposes, a regular cup with a handle is out (basically to preserve our own sanity - what's left of it, anyway).
Luckily, after a ton of research, we found the Avent Natural Sippy Cup - sold in STORES (Yippee!!!) for about $6 each (double win!).
In the 2nd picture (the product taken apart - GREEN), you have the cup, the membrane holder, the rubber membrane (prevents the leaking), the handles/top where the membrane is inserted, and then finally, the disc stopper (holds the handles/top, the membrane, and the membrane holder together. The very top part is the lid, which we don't use.
No spout required. The cup is held up to the lip, and the top disc is compressed enough to allow fluid to flow into the mouth (see the top picture).
Anyway, brilliant! Thank God we were able to actually purchase something IN STORE (and inexpensive) for the purposes of feeding our child. This was a first for us - and it only took 11 months!
But the fun stopped there...
NOTE: FROM HERE ON OUT (UNTIL THE LAST SECTION - 1st BIRTHDAY), THERE WILL BE NO PICTURES. PERHAPS YOU'll SENSE A BIT OF FRUSTRATION IN THE TELLING OF THESE STORIES/TALES OR PERHAPS YOU'LL THINK IT'S HILARIOUS. EITHER WAY, CAMERAS WERE NOT FLASHING DURING THE FOLLOWING TIME-PERIOD.
Jen and I were in disagreement with how to get Claire on to this miraculously designed cup. Jen wanted to expose Claire to it and allow her to figure it out. I wanted to just shove it into her mouth and get her to start drinking.
We worked with Jen's idea for over 2 weeks and Claire just wasn't getting the idea. She didn't want the cup and (we think) she knew that she'd get her bottle eventually. Any time the cup was around, she played coy or threw a tantrum, batting it away with her hand. The success rate was rather low, to say the least.
Well, these are the benefits of being the stay-at-home Dad while Mommy goes to work. Daddy gets to try unorthodox ideas without Mommy even knowing about it :-)
I was sick of the battle and I (seriously) didn't want to continue washing two sets of milk delivery systems, so while Jen was at work, I decided to try it my way.
Kicking, screaming, tantrums, throwing, jostling, batting, more screaming, and further tantrums ensued - and that was just on my end!
But I was NOT going to allow a 9-Month-Old baby to beat me!
I don't know if she realized that the bottle wasn't coming or what, but eventually, I got her to take a few sips. Claire screamed some more, and then she realized that she could get a few more sips with relatively little pain and frustration.
The first cup took about 1.5 hours to administer. The second cup - an hour. The third cup, 45 minutes. The time commitment was dwindling down in my favor.
Jen came home and I bragged about my success. I told her that I was going to have her completely on this cup by the end of the week.
We now have a baby who drinks from a cleft-friendly cup. One point for Dad!
Here's a picture of Claire drinking from the cup (sorry for lying).
PART OF THE PROBLEM...
Claire is an amazingly resilient baby. She's very strong-willed and stubborn, but she's also quite adaptable when the time comes (a little force never hurt anyone).
We haven't really gotten Claire to understand (and communicate) sign-language yet and she is limited in the number of sounds she can make. But, even though certain "normal" developmental stages have been neglected, forgotten, or just plain skipped over, she persists, and we persist right along with her.
The Avent Natural Sippy Cup is a Stage 3 cup. Stage One is a bottle. Stage Two is a sippy cup with a spout (in normal developmental stages).
Part of the frustration with getting Claire to take her cup was that she physically wasn't ready to use it yet. We've realized that we're constantly asking Claire to do things that she's not developmentally ready to do because we have to prepare her for her palate surgery - it's always hanging over our head and EVERY decision we make reverts back to "What is this going to mean for her palate surgery?"
Whether it was needing Claire to eat solid foods earlier than normal (had to get her weight up - more on this in a bit), or whether it was requiring her to use the Stage 3 Cup versus the Stage 2 Cup, she always adapts and makes the best of it (eventually).
What will we be asking of her next? Who knows?
THE GREAT FOOD EMBARGO OF 2013
In certain areas, there are things that Claire desperately wants to do and we can't allow her to do these things. For instance, we can't allow her to hold a spoon.
Well, Claire (like I said before) is very stubborn (and the Occupational Therapist acknowledged it too). When she wants something she wants it now, and that's the end of the story.
Another tid-bit about our Occupational Therapist (OT) appointment was that we needed to start allowing her to feed herself - but not with a spoon (like she wants).
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this... in the meantime, Claire literally (I literally mean "literally") stopped taking the spoon. She said, "Old man! I've had enough of this you-feeding-me thing and now I want to do it myself!"
So, the next logical step was to get her to feed herself, hence the need for the OT.
We prepared special foods for her that she could pick up and feed to herself, but she either couldn't figure it out or she just didn't know what she wanted.
And keep in mind... she doesn't want our spoon.
So, we have a hungry baby, who won't feed herself, and won't take our spoon, who now reluctantly uses her new Sippy Cup. This doesn't make for much of a fun period of time, to say the least!
I should also mention that our Surgeon has placed a minimum weight requirement for scheduling the surgery (16 Pounds - ideal weight is 20 Pounds)
On July 26th (10.5 Months Old), we were very close to the 16 Pound minimum (15lbs 10.8oz) requirement for surgery. Two and a half weeks later, she was down to her 10 Month (pre July 26th) weight of 15lbs 5.3oz - all on account of the GREAT FOOD EMBARGO OF 2013. Claire, don't you know that you're giving Mommy and Daddy gray hair? Regarding the one thing we're worried about the most (Surgery and Weight Gain), this Food Embargo was the very last thing we needed - very counter-productive.
The embargo lasted from August 5th until August 15th and in the process of Claire's stubbornness (and general unwillingness to learn), she ruined my 36th Birthday by crying, not eating, not sleeping (because of hunger), barely drinking milk, and by causing me tons of frustration (and a migraine to boot!). Many people in my family called to wish me a Happy Birthday, but nary a call did I take. Not only was I not in the mood to talk, but I was also tired and seriously second guessing my decision to stay at home to raise Claire. How can parenthood be THIS HARD??!?
I've said it before and I'll say it again - Sometimes, with kids, you seriously want to blow your brains out. Other times, you just sort-of want to blow your brains out.
Now I understand why parents are always walking around zombie-fied with gray hair, eye bags, and that look. I'm in on the joke now.
I'm happy to report though, that Claire is holding steady at 16 Pounds 1.8 Ounces and I haven't blown my brains out (yet). I'm also happy to report that we've finally gotten the palate surgery scheduled (more on this to come in a minute).
Click HERE to see Claire's very first success with feeding herself.
And click HERE to see how I finally put a stop to the Great Food (Spoon) Embargo of 2013... Trickery works on babies!
She's really proud of herself. Check out those pearly whites!
HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, CLAIRE!
Do you want to see more pictures? I'm sure you do!
Jen and I took our first stab at making a Birthday Cake for Claire. Jen baked it and I decorated it. In all, it turned out pretty well, even though the cake crumbled out of the pan, and needed reassembling afterwards - using icing as glue. We certainly learned a few lessons about what NOT to do (for next time), but in the meantime...
It's supposed to be a bear, by the way.
And then there was some cake that needed to be eaten (and when I say "eaten" I mean thrown everywhere)!
Click HERE to see some video footage of Claire with her cake.
On September 23rd, 2012, when Claire was 9 days old, we took inkprints of her hands and feet. The effort didn't go too well (as you can see on the top of the picture). On her Birthday (September 14, 2013), we decided to commemorate the event by re-taking the inkprints of her hands and feet. Look how much she's grown in 1 year. Unbelievable (and the quality of the prints is improved too)!
The most popular toy was a balloon. God help us when this thing dies.
Click HERE to see how much Claire likes her balloon.
IT'S BEEN ONE HELL OF A YEAR!
I feel like we've learned as much from Claire as she's learned from us (perhaps not).
Patience is the most important virtue we've picked up with regards to dealing with a baby (and I'm sure it'll continue being important now that Claire's a toddler) - with Claire and with each other. We've learned that, sometimes, the "right way" to do something isn't the right way for US to do something, and that's OK. We've learned that life turns unexpectedly on a dime and strength is garnered by dealing with it (sometimes not with a smile) and learning from the experience. We've had some tremendous ups and some unbelievable downs, but looking back, honestly, the experience wasn't that bad.
This first picture is of Claire in her car seat very soon after she was born. The second picture is of Claire in her car seat (tried to get the same camera angle) around her 11 Months. Isn't that crazy?
WRAPPING UP
The Palate Surgery is scheduled for November 6th. I'm pretty sure that the blog won't be updated beforehand, but afterwards, I promise a full write-up about everything - the surgery, feeding differently, etc...
In the meantime, please pray. Pray for Claire - to deal with the rigors of surgery and for a good recovery. Pray for the surgeon - to have calm hands in order to perform the surgery properly and with wisdom. Pray for Jen and Me - to have the strength necessary to endure November 6th (I seriously can't imagine anything that could more stressful than handing a baby over for face surgery - and we've already done it twice), but also the trials that will most definitely follow. Pray for us to have the patience, wisdom, and love to carry Claire through this very difficult time in her life.
In the next post, we'll talk about walking (she's almost there), some new visitors, the Concerts in the Park, drums, and Halloween 2013!
That's all for now. Thanks for reading and for your continued love and support!
Love,
Dave, Jen, Claire, and Peyton (the dog)
