HAH!

I only lapsed two months this time!

Claire is back to sleeping like a champ! It happened only a few days after that last post. And we only changed two things...

First, I changed her crib sheet. I had a theory. Claire likes a paci to get to sleep. I usually put another one or two in her crib in case she wakes up in the night and feels the need to grab one. However, at the time she was having all this wake up trouble, she had a busily patterned crib sheet. There's a good chance that it was too dark and the pacis were camouflaged by the sheet pattern so she couldn't find one to get back to sleep with. Because seriously, as soon as I changed that sheet she slept almost all the way through the night that very next night!

Second, I realized one night (after a couple of good ones post-paci-incident where I could get some sleep and think more clearly) that we can't always rush right in there. I realized this because my pants were missing. Usually I keep a pair of pajama pants by the bed that I can throw on to stumble down the hall to the nursery in, because otherwise that rocking chair is a little cold and hard on the rear at 3 a.m. But one night I forgot to put them out. So Claire started crying, and I woke up. I realized I had no pants, so I tried to find them, but it was dark. After about 5 minutes of trying to scrounge around in the dark while not disturbing Craig I found a pair, put them on, and went out into the hall.

It was quiet.

That was almost MORE alarming than the crying, but I decided to wait a few minutes anyway. After I didn't hear anything more, I slipped into the nursery, and Baby Girl was completely sacked out.

So the next night she cried, I intentionally waited and watched the clock. I determined that I would let her cry no more than 5 minutes before I went in there, but I was going to give her a chance to work it out. At about 3 minutes, she started crying less. By 4 and a half she was just muttering to herself. And then she went to sleep! It's been like that ever since. She almost never cries more than a minute or two now!

I really think, in retrospect, that all the sleeping problems were also mostly teeth related. She now has 7 teeth showing! That's huge for just a few months.

What else exciting has happened?

SHE'S WALKING. I mean full-on walking. I mentioned that she started taking some steps around the time of my mom's birthday. Less than a month later she was pretty comfortably toddling from one piece of furniture in the room to another. And now, she's goood at it! She can even step over small things, and when she trips, she often recovers her balance without much trouble. I'm so proud!

On the other hand, that lends itself to a whole other slew of complications. A fully mobile child is just plain more difficult to manage than one who crawls to get to stuff. She's becoming a full-time job. It's about time Craig and I started looking for some help. A part-time nanny, or a sitter or someone like that. I don't think we're ready for day care yet. Claire would probably be fine; us, not so much.

Since Miss C has mastered walking, she's now burst forth with learning many other skills.

Words Claire recognizes and shows she understands when you use them:
water
eat
ball
dog
kitty
Desmond
daddy
blankie
paci
Night night
nap
and phrases like
Come here
Do you want...?
Where's...?

She's trying to say them too. Right around Father's Day, she conveniently learned to say "Daddy", which sometimes comes out like "Gah-ghee" or "da da da da" but we know that's what she's trying to say. "Kitty" is "yee-eee", and her new one, "blankie" is "bwah bee" or something similar.

And she's SIGNING. We've let her watch some of the Signing Time and Baby Signing Time videos at meal time, and she LOVES them. We also do the signs for her every chance we get to use the words. And it's amazing how fast she's picked it up! The first one she learned was "more", but she really didn't get the concept. (I think she's starting to now, though.) Then she got "milk" and "cheese" (which she performs close to the sign, but not exactly, though we know how to interpret it.) And now she's trying "bird" and "dog."

But the real kicker is that she learned a sign we didn't even try to teach her! In the theme song, Rachel repeats, "It's signing time with Alex and Leah" and does the signs for "signing time" while she sings. Claire picked up the "signing" sign (rolling your hands inward) and now it's her way to tell us she wants to watch the video while she eats!!!

Every day is something new and exciting with her. I love to call my mom and dad and tell them all about what she's done today and the new things she's experiencing.

And now someone is up from her nap, so I have to go, but I'll try to get in one more time before HER FIRST BIRTHDAY. (omg!)