Helen Claire Weekly

50 WEEKS!!!! Is anyone else freaking out that we have an almost one year old?

But, look how cute she is.

She is so ready to walk now, and she practices any chance she can get.

You can tell from her faces that she is getting more and more expressive. Mrs. Mickey told me she makes so many faces during the day at school, and we have really noticed it at home too. She raises her eyebrows a lot and makes cute little faces all the time. I can't handle all the little expressions she makes- so sweet and cute!

She is a pro at crawling around in her crib, and she loves to laugh and laugh at night when we first lay her down. She knows she is funny, and she gets so tickled at herself.

We went to the park over the long weekend, and she had a good time playing. We have noticed that she is a little funny about new places. She has to look around and warm up before she will really play. She is great about playing independently at home and at school where she is comfortable, but in unfamiliar situations, she will take a little longer to play on her own.

We made sure she wores shoes so that we could hold her hands and let her "walk" around. She loved the swing set, and she was curious about the other stuff. She explored and gave out lots of her serious Helen Claire looks like she was trying to figure it all out.

The little baby belly in the picture above is my favorite!

She moved up to a big girl, convertible car seat this weekend too! It has been a lot for this mommy to take in. All of the sudden my little baby is moving around all by herself, needing a bigger car seat, playing at the park. It's like she is hitting all of these milestones at once... but we are having so much fun watching her grow. It is a hard emotion to describe... we are happy for her because she is learning so much and growing and maturing, but it seems like so many of our "baby" things are going away so fast. I know I am not explaining it well, but it is a little bittersweet.

It was really really really hot on the day we put her new car seat in... see how sweaty she is! So, we tested it out and drove to get fountain drinks :)

Neither myself nor Helen Claire really cared for the new car seat for the first few days. We are working on it, but we still kind of miss our infant seat that we could take in and out. Also, she is still rear-facing. There was actually a debate about this (not with HC, but with another child) on Facebook between some of my "friends." Anyway, many of them have already moved their babies to forward-facing position, and the debate was a little heated. That is a personal decision, and I am not for telling other parents what to do, so I stayed far, far away from that :) For us, we are going to keep Helen Claire rear facing for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, that's what our pediatrician advised, and also, she is on the smaller side for her age, and we still aren't at the weight limit to turn forward. So, that's that.

We had a family fun night on Friday and ordered pizza, and no one is going to believe this, but I actually let Helen Claire eat a piece, and she LOVED it! I think she really was happy to have her very own big piece of food, but she was so funny and giggly and squealy about it. We took a picture with our cell phone, but we don't have a smart phone, and I didn't think to grab my big camera. But, trust me, she was a greasy, pizza face mess, and it was completely worth it to see her big smile!

Next week, our baby will be one week closer to being a whole year old! We will be back with our next to last Helen Claire weekly!