Chowhound

The amount of food Claire can pack away is unbelievable. She usually doubles, if not triples, the amount of food Molly eats at mealtime. For example, last night for dinner Claire had a Nutri-Grain bar, a Baby-Bell cheese, Cheerios, a large bowl of peas, another large bowl of rice cereal, a whole banana, and then finished off what was left of Molly's macaroni and cheese. What makes this particularly impressive is that Claire only weighs eighteen pounds and is 1 1/2 weeks away from her first birthday. She must have Chris's metabolism; it's the only thing that could possibly explain why she's so teeny but can eat outrageous amounts of food. As a side note, she still doesn't have any teeth :)

Pennsylvania Trip

Last week I went to Pennsylvania to help my sister Jessie while her son Jack is in the hospital with botulism; you can check the Chin family blog for updates. I spent most of my time watching Amelia and Colin and one of the highlights of the trip was going for a visit to the hospital to meet with the person who helps brothers and sisters of the patients get comfortable at the hospital. They had a very large doll (she said it cost upwards of $900 for it) that had a belly you could open to see the organs inside, the leg opened up to see the bone, and a few other things. They each got their own smaller dolls with hospital gowns that they could give shots to, put bandaids on, use alcohol swabs, etc. They hadn't quite gotten their fill at the hospital, so when we got back to Jessie's house we played doctor some more. Except this time they had me for a patient and not just the dolls.

This is Amelia instructing me on the best way to give the doll its medicine.



Colin giving me a shot in the leg, then coming at my face for a shot. I was covered in tape and bandaids by the time we were through (it was the cheapest wax job I've ever had) and I was completely sanitized by alcohol swabs.

Claire's Firsts

Claire's getting big enough to really start enjoying some of the big-kid things Molly does. My dad has a little train car in his backyard that the kids can push on a little track, and Claire had her first ride a few weeks ago. As you can see by Molly's face, it's very hard work.




We also went to the playplace for the first time in a while, and Claire loved it. It was pretty gross because she's crawling on that dirty floor, but she had a hand sanitizer bath when we were done so hopefully that took care of any stray bugs she might have picked up during the visit.

Cheerio Disaster

I told Molly she could get some Cheerios out for Claire while I unloaded groceries from the car. They went all the way down the entry way and into the kitchen. At least she was helpful cleaning them up, although Claire looked pretty disappointed that her Cheerio haven was disappearing almost as quickly as it had come. She probably knew it was too good to be true.

Playing Outside

Last week the weather was so beautiful that we had to soak up as much time outside as possible before the sweltering heat takes over. We spend a lot of time in the grass belt next to our house.




Claire thinks the best part about this car is turning around, standing up, and trying her hardest to fall overboard.


Chris and I haven't been able to get much use out of the longboards since the kids came along, so we're getting creative.

Crazy Claire

Claire is definitely getting to be a handful to keep up with. She is pulling herself up on everything, including the most unstable objects. She doesn't like to be held, and if it's a time where I need to be holding her she just spins circles in my arms trying desperately to get down. She is also getting too fast for me to keep up with. My dad thinks we need to attach a dustmop to her clothes so she can get a little work done while she's moving. She (like most babies her age) puts anything and everything in her mouth. Her worst finds lately have been a piece of glass (she didn't even cry, the only reason I knew it was in there is because her mouth was bleeding) and a dead horsefly. Luckily when I fished it out of her mouth it was still in tact, so I don't think she managed to swallow any wings or legs.

Lollilocks

Molly went to Lollilocks this week for her first official haircut. I thought it would be so fun, but I was definitely wrong (as usual). The place was really fun, but Molly still cried 3/4 of the way through. They have fun animal chairs to sit in, but we sat in a regular chair because she insisted on sitting in my lap. The haircut was pretty mediocre. It wasn't any better than a haircut my mom gives at her house sitting in her highchair, and that would have been free. Probably a lot less crying too. These pictures were taken after the haircut was over, when the elephant chair suddenly didn't seem so intimidating.