Haaaaaaappy New Year!

For having such a busy week, I don't have too many pictures to post ... but part of that is because of who came to see me. Mommy's family came to visit last week (Gong-Gong, Po-Po, Da-Jiu Zong, Auntie Melissa, Xiao-Jiu Dwo, Auntie Crystal, and Kirby)! With Xiao-Jiu Dwo and Gong-Gong there, they probably took enough pictures to last all of 2009! :D

This is how we efficient (not lazy!) people eat

Claire meet Kirby; Kirby meet Claire

Since both Daddy and Mommy had to work that week, the village stayed at home and watched me during the day -- Po-Po even watched me at night, too, so that Mommy could turn off the baby monitor! Besides playing with me, they took turns giving me my breathing treatments (I got sick again) and keeping me company when I was bored sitting at the dinner table after I was done eating.

Gong-Gong's after me!

Mommy's family is so much fun; they're quite ... rambunctious. We stay up really late, chase each other around (well, Kirby and I did after we decided that we were okay with one another), walk up and down the stairs together, and eat lots of food. This year, each couple also showed off their skills by taking turns hosting cooking extravaganzas each night!

No, no! Please no tickling!

On New Years Day, we celebrated our belated family Christmas (thank you all for everything! I love my gifts!).

Watching the Blu-Ray Planet Earth Da-Jiu Zong got us

The day after New Years is another important day: Gong-Gong's birthday! After that celebration, everyone had to go home. :( But I hope to see them all again in a month for my birthday!

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday, dear Gong-Gong

After everyone left, Mommy and I took advantage of the record-setting warm weather -- 80+ degrees in January?! -- by having lunch with Ms. Corrie and going to the lake in our neighborhood. After that, it was back to real life again. It was a little hard adjusting back, but then I remembered how much fun it was playing with everyone, and I'm back to usual.

Check out those ducks!

Another baby a couple of weeks younger than me in school is moving up to the next class now because she's eating lots of big people food and walking all over the place. Mommy says she's okay with me not moving up anytime soon and is quite happy where I am. I have taken my first couple of steps now at home. I'll go between people a few times before I get bored, but I'm still not terribly interested in this whole walking thing. Why bother when I can crawl so fast or just hold up my arms until someone comes by with their fingers for me to hold onto? Food-wise, I definitely know what I like ... and what I don't like ... so adjusting to school foods has been a little interesting for both us and them.

Trying out the new sippy cup that Sofia's mommy got me (thank you!).
These are what they use at school, so I need to practice.

My newest tricks include "look up!", "put your head down", and Mommy's pretty sure I located the number 1 (or at least looked and gestured in the general direction of where I knew my #1 card to be).

If you make me look up while I'm drinking, I might drool all over the place!

I'm having all the "typical" signs of teething right now: drooling something awful (it literally drips off my chin if you don't catch it), some loose diaper, scratchy ears, and general fussiness. Since I have all 8 front teeth, Mommy is guessing that my molars are coming in. Whatever it is, blech!

Sharing a secret with Pooh during my 11-month picture

In Pee news, I have a cousin! Woo-hoo! James De-Ji Pee was born to George Shu-Shu and Auntie Christina on Tuesday, January 6th around 10pm-ish. We're 11 months apart which means that we'll hopefully be playmates when he's bigger. He was 9 pounds, 22 inches, and has red hair! Nai-Nai and Gong-Gong are headed up to see him and will stay up there during the weekdays and come home for the weekends. I can't wait to meet him!

James De-Ji Pee

My January album has been created to start capturing moments throughout the month, and I'll keep adding to it to show you my many adventures! Hopefully I'll have links to Gong-Gong and Xiao-Jiu Dwo's albums to share soon as well. Happy 2009!

First Hair Cut and Nekkid-ness

Last weekend, I got my very first hair cut. I have to admit, it wasn't TOO drastic, but it was time to get all the baby hairs off my neck and out of my eyes. Lupe, my stylist, asked if I wanted bangs, but we opted out and just got a trim. It's not too drastic, but everything's even now and I can see a lot better. Daddy and Mommy took me to a place where I got to sit in a car as my chair and wore a big apron. They even put "cookie dough" in my bangs afterwards! I got a little picture and pouch with all my baby hairs saved as a souvenier to take home with me.

Before

During

After

I've been giving everyone lots of trouble when they try to diaper me now. As soon as you put me on my back, I flip over back on my stomach. There are times that Mommy and Daddy just don't know what to do with me! I end up getting to play with all sorts of things I normally don't see: lotions, Q-tips, booger suckers, thermometers, and more! They have also tried diapering me while I'm standing and just braving nekkid butt time when they're too beat down or can't keep up. Hehe.

Toosh on the loose!

I'm in the big people's bathtub now. That little one just didn't cut it out for me anymore, plus there's something about getting the steam of the shower to loosen all my snot? Anywho, I have lots of toys that I get to play with, and one of my favorite activities is putting all my toys back into my bag at the end of the bath.

Rub-a-dub-dub

Whew! I snuck in this last posting in the year 2008 (a very fine year, if I say so myself). I needed to make sure I got these in since all of Mommy's family here now visiting including the newest addition: Kirby! She's Xiao-Jiu Dwo and Auntie Crystal's doggie that they got last month. We were a little scared of each other at first, but we get along well enough now. Look for pictures of this week to come!

Helping Daddy get ready for Kirby's visit

As always, take a look at my December photo album for even more pictures, and I'll see you next year!

Merry Christmas (Eve and Day)!

I just celebrated my first Christmas! I'm not sure I quite understand the whole spirit behind it yet, but I do enjoy all the lights and inflatable figures in everyone's yards. I think Mommy and Daddy enjoyed the days off in the middle of the week, too.

Quack, quack

On Christmas Eve, Daddy and Mommy gave themselves a gift by taking advantage of already-paid daycare and dropped me off at school for a couple of hours while they went on a date (lunch and grocery shopping). Surprisingly, there were other babies there too; maybe their mommies and daddies were thinking the same thing.

Ready for school to go play

Then, afterward I go home, we played and went on a walk. Instead of doing hot pot like we planned (it was just too darn warm), we had yummy pasta together before opening up our gifts. I liked the tissue paper best!

Corraled in my playroom

Ready for my walk

Look at all this wonderful tissue paper!

On Christmas morning, Daddy and Mommy made a big country breakfast. I liked the pancakes. Then we got MORE gifts ... this time from Santa! Since it was so nice out, I dressed up nice in a holiday outfit Po-Po got me, and we went on another walk before coming home to enjoy a snack. Mommy and Daddy tried out her gift to him: miracle berries? Then we took naps together before having Christmas dinner ... yummy tamales!

Traditional Christmas morning banana?

Castle Hills Christmas tree

Just two gals hanging out

Very Merry, Merry Christmas, everyone! I added my pictures to my December album so you can see all the details!

We're blessed to have so many wonderful friends; the best gift a gal can have.

Happy Holidays!

To all of my friends: sorry it's been so long since I've updated you on my latest adventures! It's been kind of busy around here, but don't worry, I have pictures galore!

Missed me, did you?

My Gong-Gong and Po-Po came to visit me for a weekend, so he took LOTS of pictures of me. Here's a link to the photo album of his pictures that he titled "Claire 10 months - many smiles". Hehe. My Po-Po also fed me lots of food like grapes and blackberries. Looks like I'm going to take after her with my love of fruit! I'm pretty much eating everything now except for shellfish, fish, nuts, egg whites, and cow's milk. I definitely have my likes and dislikes though! Just a tip ... if you don't like something, you can throw it off the side of the table and it just goes away! It's great!

Mmmm ... blackberries. Messy AND yummy!

One big event is that I had my first dentist appointment earlier this month. Mommy and Daddy were worried about my extra tooth (they must have been scared that I'm part-shark!), so they took me to a childrens' dentist. The TV built into the ceiling was neat, but I didn't like them sticking their fingers and x-rays and stuff into my mouth. The dentist even commented on how incredibly strong my mouth is! Good news is, it's not an extra tooth, just a weird tooth that's curved. Now I brush my teeth everyday with my toothpaste (okay, not EVERY day) so that I grow up with strong, healthy teeth.

Ho, ho, ho ... green giant

My playgroup had our holiday party at Logan's house. It was so good to see everyone from both halves; some of the babies have gotten so big since the last time I saw them!

Me and Juliet

Then I got sick. My ever-present daycare cold started moving into my lungs again, so Mommy took me to Dr. Frank who prescribed me breathing treatments. I DO NOT LIKE BREATHING TREATMENTS. The mask part was the worst to where the nurse finally said that I could do it without a mask; Mommy and Daddy just had to follow my face around with the hose. :) At least I got to watch lots of Noggin that week since that's what they used to distract me (Moose and Zee are my favorite), plus they stayed home with me most of that week, so that was nice even though I didn't feel good. I'm better now even though I still have a cough.

I felt a little yucky this day (my 10-month birthday)

*** There's a story here from the week I was sick, but it's too long to go into the details. You can ask Mommy about it; use the keyword "noesbleed". Blech. ***

Last weekend, Ms. Jenny (one of Mommy's best friends from high school) came to visit! I was so excited to finally meet her and went right into her arms to greet her. I also had lots and lots of fun with her sons, Wade and Alex. We played in my playroom, watched movies, and went to the park. I hope I get to see them more often because I sure had a good time.

Playing in the ballpit

Playing at the park

Sofia (my best friend from school) also had a holiday get together over the weekend, so we went over to her house to play. The two of us are going to get into so much trouble together, I can just tell!

Giggling together

I think that's pretty much it. Still working on the whole walking thing. I have to admit, I'm not that interested in walking by myself since I know that Mommy and Daddy are happy to walk me all around the house. I'm still working on all my sounds, but I seem to have picked up some extra consonants recently. Now if only I could put it all together!

So much padding, no way I'll get hurt!

Mommy gave a pretty long update on her blog too if you're curious, and I've posted my December pics. Happy Holidays and very Merry Christmas to everyone! Since we'll have some extra days at home, I'm sure I'll post again after Santa comes to visit ... because I know he will ... I was a very good girl this year!

Gobble, gobble

A whole family of pumpkins. We got them for free! I'm the little one.

I have lots to be thankful for this year. Well, of course, there's the whole "being born" back in February ... that was nice. :) I also have wonderful parents that love me very much, a great extended family that doesn't hesitate to spoil me everytime they visit, fun friends that make me laugh and from whom I learn from everytime we play, caring teachers that take good care of me during the week, a beautiful home that keeps me warm and safe, and good health of both mind and body. What else could a girl ask for?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Gobble, gobble.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day with some of Daddy and Mommy's work friends. They came over to eat lots of food and watch some football. I got to eat a little bit of just about everything, too! I am DEFINITELY not doing any of that bland baby stuff anymore when big people food is so good.

Sridevi lets me climb on the counters. We had so much fun, we forgot to take more pictures!

On Saturday, we went to T's wedding reception; she works with Daddy. She wore a pretty dress that was shiny and bright, and I couldn't stop staring. I wasn't scared of anyone and went from person to person so that they could cuddle and hug me all they wanted.

Pretty T. Congratulations!

Even the babies like to hold the babies!

Between trying new foods, watching movies (btw, "Cars" is great!), staying up late every night, going on los of walks, and just hanging out with Mommy and Daddy, this 4-day weekend sure was fun. I can't wait to do it again in a few weeks when we celebrate Christmas!

If you come visit me, we can play peek-a-boo! But this time I get to boo.

I guess that wraps up November. Hard to believe this year is almost up! I know it took us awhile to get my November album up, but it's there now and chock full of pictures. I'll see you in December!

I do believe it's snowing on me. I hope the real thing is better than this.