Claire is 3 months!

Our precious Claire Lucille is 3 months old! She is more alert these days and so enjoys it when people are talking to her and holding her. Oh, it's such fun!  

Her eyes still look gray to me, her hair is lighting up, but still dark, and she looks so much like Kate! She's wearing mostly 3-6 months clothing now and size 2 diapers. 

She still wakes about 2 times a night to eat and usually will go back to sleep afterwards. Her morning swing nap is usually her longest stretch of sleep. All of this varies quite a bit so we don't have much of a predictable routine yet, but that's okay because I'm not very good at keeping up predictable routines anyways! 

She loves to smile! She's mostly a pretty happy baby but the evening times can bring their woes. She also has been struggling with sensitivities through my milk so right now I've cut out dairy and soy. We are still waiting to see if that alone will do the trick. Hopefully at 4 months we might have some more answers! In general she seems to be doing better but occasionally there are repeating signs. She also been fighting a very long cold with her sister but hopefully the congestion will pass soon.

Claire went to church for the first time this month! She does pretty good! It's fun to be at worship service as a family again! 

Claire also had her first Halloween! What a cutie! 

She also got to meet her great grandparents! We choose to continue on the family middle name of Lucille with Claire after her great grandma and great great grandma so that makes this 4 generation photo extra special to me! 

She loves to kick and talk and make little bubbles! She enjoy looking at the pictures in books and following the lights from screens. Her favorite to look at though is people! She is usually her happiest right after eating! 

Her big sister loves her so so much. Even though it's hard to share the attention of mommy and daddy, it's still pretty fun to have a little sister. :) 

It's not easy, and it's a lot different for me as well to share my attention. At the end of the day though,  no matter how hard it was, I still love my girls so much. 

I'm so thankful to be their momma! 

October Days

October definitely has a way of showing off. The weather is just wonderful! Sure there are some warm days mixed in with very windy days but usually the weather is amazing. We have loved playing outside. We've taken lots of walks and visited the park quite a bit. 

  

There is always something interesting to discover outside. Mushrooms after a rain, piecing acorns back together, or finding a fun stick or leaf. We even took our toy rake to the park to rake some leaves! Kate has also officially graduated to the regular swing and it's been exciting to watch her grow stronger and more coordinated. 

There was lots to learn in our October books. We learned about bats as we read Setellaluna, and that owls stay awake during the night from Sam and the Firefly. We practiced expressing different emotions as we read It's Pumpkin Day Mouse! We learned about team work as we listened along to the audio to one of my childhood favorites, Big Pumpkin. Kate is memorizing a sweet rhyming book A Pumpkin Prayer. Of course my most favorite lesson comes from The Pumpkin Patch Parable. We learn not only how the pumpkin grows but also are reminded that Jesus fills us with joy to share with others. There are other stories, not pictured, but reading is always lots of fun around here and our favorite way to learn!

We got in a few fun crafts as well! A jack-o-lantern, a pretty fall tree, a pumpkin, a bat (that was made brown because we didn't have black paint- oops!), and a spider web, which is the water color picture. (The web didn't show up super great but we still had fun.) One thing I try to do is choose crafts that Kate can mostly do herself and that don't require off materials. I also try to mix it up so that sometimes she needs to follow instructions and other times she can use more of her own ideas. 

We had all kinds of fun in October! Kate worked on all kinds of important skills as she played and helped with chores. We even made a pumpkin pie! We took a trip to Orr Family Farm, which was an overpriced adventure, but still lots of fun. Kate got to feed baby animals, ride a train, jump on a huge bouncy pillow, and pick out a pumpkin that we took home to decorate. 

Of course, for Halloween we had to carve a jack-o-lantern! Even though Kate has seen the inside of a pumpkin before it all felt new to her. She was definitely not impressed with the smell or texture!! Thankfully we had daddy to help us out because it's not my favorite thing to do either! Oh how fun it was though to turn out the lights and see his smiling face and sing "This Little Light of Mine"! 

Such a fun month, fall is great!