Claire

Claire had a check-up on Wednesday. She is 20lbs 10oz (almost 70th percentile), 29.25 (about 85th percentile) inches. She is just as cute as ever. She is not crawling yet, though she is getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. And she'll squirm backwards a bit. She is a firecracker.

She is an excellent eater. Here she just finished some blueberry pancakes.

Earlier this week, the girls were out of sorts one morning, so I just had to get out of the house. We decided to go eat at the Olive Garden and use my tattle-tale gift card (sorry, Megan). The girls were very good. They are always really good. We got some compliments while we were there. Claire wanted to eat lots of bread sticks. When I tried to give her something else, she would shake her head and scream. At one point during the meal, I caught her staring at me with this cute little puppy dog look. It was then that I realized she was out of bread stick.

Claire makes an excellent second child because she can hold her own with Lara. She will not tolerate Lara taking something away from her or getting too aggressive with her. I think Lara and Claire probably fight more than they get along. Or maybe it's half and half. It just depends on whether Lara is in a good mood or not. Lara gets frustrated with Claire for various reasons.

I don't do much about it because they are too little, and because I know a thing or two about siblings. As a parent, I cannot force them to have any certain sort of relationship-I simply have to accept it if they decide to like each other or not. Right now they cannot really have fun with each other since Claire cannot do much. So we'll just see what happens.

Claire continues to sleep great. 11 hours straight every night, and 2 2-hour naps every day. Ahhh, tricky baby stage is over.

I did have to ask the doctor what I should do when I am done nursing at the end of May. Claire will not take a bottle and will not drink any form of milk out of a sippy cup-only juice. She actually cringes and spits out breastmilk when I try to put it in a cup! The doctor just sort of shrugged and told me she'll give in eventually. Hmmm, have you met my daughter's stubbornness? :) But I know she is right.

Have I mentioned Claire's favorite toy? It is a wet washcloth. She'll put it on her head and play peek-a-boo!