Claire is 5 months old!

My baby girl turned 5 months old yesterday! She had her little procedure first thing in the morning and she did wonderful! We really couldn't have asked for it to have been any easier. She fell asleep in my arms before they came to take her to the OR. I was so glad I didn't have to look in her big eyes while someone else was carrying her off. She was only away from us for about 15 minutes and she ate as soon as we got her back. Other than being a little tired for most of the day, she wasn't any difference. I took these first two pictures yesterday and as you can see, she was in a wonderfuly mood! I'm a little OCD about pictures and think that I have to have my baby's picture made every month for their first year. I did it with Grant and have followed suit with "sissom" (as Grant calls her). However, I loved these (and so many more that I took yesterday) so much that I think we'll just call it good for her 5 mth portraits.

Claire has really come into her own in the last few weeks. She is grabbing EVERYTHING!! You seriously cannot hold anything near her that you don't want her to touch. She is trying to eat my food if I'm holding her while I eat. She pulled placemats and silverware off of the table at Buca last week and she is obsessed with water bottles! I swear she gets excited when she sees one across the room. She is loving her rice cereal and fruit now. She knows it's coming when I start fixing it and gets so excited. When I'm feeding her, she grabs the spoon and tries to shove it in. That's my girl...loving her food! She's weighing in at about 16 1/2 lbs and I have no idea how long, but I think she's growing and distributing her rolls a little more evenly! She has started raising her arms for you to pick her up recently and leaning into whoever she wants to hold her (usually me). She LOVES her brother so much. She never takes her eyes off of him. It's so funny to watch her watching him!

Claire goes to bed almost every night before 8:00. It's the greatest thing! I'm just hoping she'll stay that way. Grant slept pretty well as a baby, but never wanted to go to bed until 11:00 or so. When he wasn't there on Monday night (he spent the night w/my mom) and Claire went to bed at 7:45, we literally didn't know what to do! So, we rented movies and watched them. I cannot even remember the last time we rented two movies and watched them both within 24 hours. The funniest thing she's doing in her bed now is scooting right up to the end of her bed and sucking on the tag that's on her bumper pad. It's not usually hanging in the bed like this, but since I noticed she's doing this, I've left it. It seriously soothes her to sleep. I know a pacifier would be much easier, but she will not take one!

Claire went swimming for the first time this past month. I can't say that she loves the water, but she's tolerant of it. That's all I'm asking for. Our weekends in the summer are pretty much full of pool time and that's about it. My house rarely sees a broom or dust rag anytime, but especially in the summer. We love nana and papa's pool so we spend as much time as possible there on Saturdays and Sundays. Here's a pic of her first time in the pool. Apparently my husband doesn't know what use the zoom and don't get me in the picture means!

This is a picture of Grant and Claire Sunday before church in their matching outfits that Alicia gave them. They were precious! Trying to get a picture of the 2 together is just about impossible. We're going to try professional pics of both next month..should be interesting!

Happy 5 month mark baby girl!! We can't believe how fast you're growing up and that you'll halfway to 1 next month!