Helen Claire Weekly

Happy 40 Weeks, Helen Claire!!!

This is a big weekly birthday because she was born at 40 weeks, one day. New babies have already been created and born in her little lifetime now! This is such a fun stage. I was really kind of upset because everyone told me 6-9 months was the best age, and Helen Claire was sick most of those three months. Well, the fun has defintiely been major around here since she has started to feel better. She points and motions for things all.the.time. She makes the cutest hand motion when she wants someone to "come here." She puts her hand out and squeezes it back and forth, like she's saying, "Come on." So cute. She LOVES her Daddy. It is so sweet to watch her with him. She starts kicking and clapping and banging on the screen door when he is walking down the driveway. She gets bashful and sort of blushes when he flirts with her. She smiles the funniest, slant-eyed smile at him and wrinkles her nose. She just can't contain how much she loves him... he is a definite favorite right now. He can make her laugh more than anyone else.

Eating has become a really big deal lately. She started eating school lunch this week. They have a really healthy menu and the chef Tony from the university cafeteria serves the food there. Right now, we pick the things she can have from the menu and send other items to supplement. She is a huge fan of school lunch! Here is a picture of her first snack day from the school snack menu. Such a big girl!

Eating at home is another adventure. She gets to have meat now, so we try to give her a good vairety of whole grains, veggies, fruits and protein. So far, she is a great eater, but she is slow like me. She did not stay in the pureed baby food stage long at all. She prefers things she can pick up by herself, so we come up with things that we can cook really soft and let her eat by herself- Miss Independent. If there is nothing on her tray that she can pick up, she will pretend to pick up something and put it in her mouth... it's her way of telling us to get some food on her tray, I guess. She takes her time and examines every little piece before eating. Here are some pictures. We have to go au natureal to eat beets...

Helen Claire still does not crawl in the traditional sense, but she can get anything she wants. She does this strange scoot in a circle thing, and she will stretch to get any toy or paper or piece of mail that she sees. We found out this week that her bff at school brings her toys all day long, so she really has no reason to crawl there :) Miss Lindsey said Helen Claire can be sitting in the center of the room, with no toys/books/anything in sight and before they know it, she has a nice little spread all set out for her. We are still on size three diapers- I'm not sure she will ever grow out of them. Since losing weight, she has also grown a few inches, so the size threes are hanging on. She's been in them since Thanksgiving... I remember moving her up while we were at Granny and Pa's visiting!! While changing her diaper this week, I saw a freckle on her right, next to last toe. It is on the side, and we thought it was a piece of food or "something else," but it is a little tiny freckle. We haven't found any birthmarks yet, but it was fun to notice something new about her this week. On her 40 week birthday, we also celebrated St. Patrick's Day. HC wore an outfit that was mine and Vickie's

and a little leprechaun brought her a windchime...

she LOVES them, and now she has her very own hanging by the front door.

She also played dress up at school

and Miss Lindsey sent me a picture of her "reading" to Mrs. Beryl at school this week. She said Helen Claire acted like she wanted to get in the basket, so they let her and she was as happy as could be.

Happy Birthday baby girl... we love you so much!