Claire's Birthday Weekend

I know this is way overdue, but work and packing just take up my time these days. So I wanted to write about our fun weekend for Claire's birthday. I had taken Friday the 20th off of work, and we went to the Rainforest Cafe for an early dinner. We had taken both Curtis and Lauren there for their first birthday's, but we weren't able to go last year for Claire's first birthday, so we made it this year. Curtis and Claire loved it, but Lauren was petrified...she hid under the table the whole time. (We were by the gorillas and she didn't want any part of it!) I ended up feeding her under the table. (You would've thought we were feeding a dog!) Claire had a blast and enjoyed having "Happy Birthday" sung to her.

On Saturday (which was her birthday), we went to Como Town and Como Zoo for our PBS station's Family Fun Day. We have never been there before and the zoo is free, so it was a no brainer. Unfortunately it rained that day, but let up enough to head over there. The rain let up for about an hour, then it started pouring and we had thunder and lightening. We ended up hanging out in the animal buildings until the rain let up. Then we ate lunch outside under the overhangs (the kids thought it was fun and had a blast!) Around 1 p.m. the rain finally let up and we went to Como Town to ride some rides. The kids had so much fun...they still talk about it! We do have to go back when the weather is better to see the animals in their habitats and ride more rides without being soaked. So here are some pictures of our wild birthday weekend.

Here is Claire's birthday cake. I originally wanted a Tinkerbell cake, since Claire loves Tinkerbell, but Target has discontinued the cake I wanted, so Hello Kitty was the next best thing. I think it fit her personality very well.

The pony cart ride at Como Town.

Claire had so much fun, even though she didn't want to sit with her brother.

The girls thought is was cool to drive Curtis around.

This is a Moray eel that was right next to our table at The Rainforest Cafe. I've never seen an eel that big before.

Claire is digging in to her volcano cake. She wasn't waiting for anyone!

2 Years

My dear Claire, I can't believe we celebrated your second birthday yesterday! These last two years have gone by so fast and you have grown so much! It just seems like yesterday you went breech at the last minute and gave us a good scare, only to turn the right way a week and a half later. I wonder what you thought as we were calling you by the boy name we picked out, since you tricked us into thinking you were a boy. You have definitely kept us on our toes! Once you were born, the nurses scared us into thinking that you were going to have trouble walking because of the dimple on your bottom, but you proved them wrong and walked at 10 months! You've done just about everything early: got your first tooth at 4 months, crawled at 7 months, and your vocabulary amazes us (you are giving Curtis a run for his money). Just this morning, you counted to 15, what!?! You know your shapes and quite a bit of the colors. You are so sure of yourself and have an amazing sense of humor. I love it when you make us laugh! You also have this cute lisp that adds to your charm. I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for you, my sweet little Claire Bear!

14 Months

I can't believe that our youngest is 14 months old. My baby is gone and toddlerhood is in full swing. She runs all over the place and climbs on everything. She is our little monkey. She is a little spitfire and loves to throw tantrums with the best. She is also so sure of herself and will walk around with her hands behind her back like she is inspecting things. She loves to talk and I think we have another Curtis on our hands. She has an amazing sense of humor that keeps Kevin and I laughing. We look forward to watching her grow. Here are some of her 1 year pictures that I haven't had a chance to post yet, so enjoy!

Claire's Birthday Weekend

So, our Claire Bear celebrated her 1st birthday on Friday and we had a Care Bears party for her on Saturday. She didn't really understand what was going on but she sure did enjoy the cake and ice cream! Here are some pictures from her birthday weekend.

Here is Claire eating her birthday cupcake on Friday. She stuffed her cheeks, it was so cute!

Here is her invitation that I made. I think they came out real good.

Her Care Bears birthday cake that was strawberry flavored, yum!

Her is Claire wearing Lauren's old birthday dress and enjoying her balloon.

My friend Myra bought the hat for Claire's birthday. As you can see, she wasn't too impressed.

It was a fun, but busy weekend and I'm glad everything turned out so well. Now I can sit back and enjoy what this next year is going to unfold.

Happy Birthday Claire!!

It's hard to believe that our Miss Claire Bear will be a year old tomorrow. This past year has gone by so fast! In honor of her birthday, I will be writing about the day she was born, so be warned that there is gross girlie talk about to happen.



The morning of Thursday May 21, 2009 had started off with me not feeling very well. Not feeling well was the story of my whole pregnancy, but I had been up all night with really bad low back pain. Kevin could tell that I wasn't feeling well, so he decided to stay home, just in case. My back was hurting so bad that we decided to go to the hospital (I was already 3-4 cm dilated as of my appointment that Tuesday). I called my grandmother to let her know we were bringing the kids over. We got to the hospital around 8 a.m. and found out that my doctor was on vacation, so the on call doctor would be delivering our baby, bummer. As we were being escorted to our room, the nurse that would be taking care of me, walked out and exclaimed, "Kevin, is that you?" I looked at him like, who is that? He couldn't believe it, our nurse Katie, had worked with Kevin for 5 years at Disneyland, cool. So Katie got us settled and checked my cervix...4-5 cm...so she called the doctor. The doctor was in surgeries until 3:30, so I couldn't be induced until then, but we were also hoping that I wouldn't go into active labor until then. AAhhh, the waiting game. We did have her check to make sure that the baby was still head down, since Claire had decided to go breech at 37 weeks, but that is another story for another day. We also told her that we didn't know what we were having and wanted Kevin to call out the baby's sex when he/she was born. I cannot tell you how exciting it was to not know the sex of the baby, and the anticipation of is it a boy or girl (even though I swore we were having a boy and were calling it by the boy name). We had accidently found out with Curtis at 29 weeks and found out on purpose with Lauren. If we decide to have another one, we are definitely not finding out. Anyway, to combat the back pain, which we found out was because the baby was resting his/her head on my spine, Katie had me lay on my side, but partially on my belly for 15 min, then change sides. I did this for about 1 1/2 hours and it did help, so we decided to take a walk around the maternity ward to try and get things moving along. Around lunch time, Katie checked me again and I was only 5 cm with contractions every 7-8 min and my water bag was bulging, so Kevin went to get something to eat, while I had ice chips, lucky me. I did sneak a few bites of his burger since I was very hungry. After lunch, we just did more of the same, walking around, lying on my side, you get the idea. Since things weren't progressing very fast, the doctor decided that she was going to break my water at 3:30 after her last surgery, so at 2 p.m. I decided to get an epidural, since my back pain was getting really bad. The anesthesiologist came in at 2:30 to do the epidural, but low and behold blood started to go into the tube, so he had to pull it out and redo it...fun, fun, fun. The cool thing about this epidural was that I could still feel the contractions, but the back pain was gone...very nice. So 3:30 comes around and the doctor comes in to break my water...not so simple, the hook broke because my water bag was really thick, so she had to get another hook. Thankfully, this time it worked, so we wait some more. At 4 p.m. she checked me again and I was only 6 cm, so they decided to give me Pitocin. I told them that I didn't need it because once my water breaks, labor is very quick (Four hours with Curtis and two hours with Lauren). I argued with them on this, but they won out, so I got the Pitocin. Around 4:15 as I'm lying on my side, I feel a bunch of liquid coming out and it feels like something is sliding out, so I tell Kevin to run out and get Katie. He goes to the nurse station but she isn't there, so I press the nurse call button. A couple minutes later Katie comes in and I tell her what happened, so she goes to lift my leg to check me and quickly puts it down. She tells me that the baby's head is coming out and overhead pages the doctor... no answer... so she pages the doctor on her beeper and finds out that the doctor had gone to her office across the street...great, the baby's coming NOW and the doctor isn't here, so what does Katie tell me...don't push...that's a lot easier said than done. So I'm trying not to push, when all I really want to do is push, and finally the doctor arrives...yeah! Now I can push...first push, head is out...second push, I feel a lot of pressure and stretching, but baby's shoulders are stuck, so doctor is wiggling baby, very painful...third push, more tearing and I scream...fourth push, baby slides out...I look and the first thought that comes to mind, that doesn't look like a boy. So doctor looks to Kevin and says, "Okay dad, what is it?" and I hear him say, "It's......a girl!" No way, it can't be a girl, it supposed to be a boy. Kevin cuts the cord and they place her in my arms...and she is beautiful, all 8 lbs. 4 oz. of her. What a blessing!!

Claire moments after being born.

Claire today, no longer a baby, but now a toddler.

I love you Claire, Happy 1st Birthday!!

The Price

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Easter morning the kids opened their Easter gifts from my Mom. We didn't have anywhere to go so we just went for a drive to find a park. When we found a park, we would stop and let the kids out to play. They had a blast! It would've been nice to spend Easter with family, but oh well we made the best of it.

Saturday night, Kevin and I watched The Passion. That is the most amazing movie ever made. It really brings home what Jesus did for us, for me, even though we don't deserve it. I love how it shows the relationship between Jesus and his mother Mary. Being the mother of a son it really effects me on a different level. I just can't imagine what she went through watching her son go through all of that. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. The whole movie just has me crying from start to finish, but the two parts that really speak to me, as a mom, are when Jesus is carrying the cross through Jerusalem and Mary asks John to get her closer to him. John takes her to a spot that is secluded and she waits for Jesus. Jesus comes into view and falls to the ground from the weight of the cross as Mary flashes back to when Jesus was a child and fell and scraped his knee, so she goes running to him, as any mother would, and embraces him. Jesus looks at her and says,"Look Mother, I make all things new." Wow! That is so powerful and just wrenches my heart. The other scene is when Jesus is hanging on the cross and Mary walks up to him and kisses the bloodied foot of Jesus. She then looks up at him and says,"Flesh of my flesh...heart of my heart...Son, I want to die with you." Ugh! that just send me into hysterics. (Those of you that know me well, know that I'm a very sensitive person and it doesn't take much to make me cry) That is the ultimate price of motherhood. I am just humbled at the price Jesus paid so that we (I) could have a relationship with God.**As I was writing this, Curtis starting crying out in his sleep, and of course I jump out of my chair and run to him.** It is unfathomable to think that the great creator of the universe would send his only son humbly to this earth to die a horrible death just because he loved us and wanted to have a relationship with us. Would any of you sacrifice your child in that way for love? Hmmm...something to think about.

On a lighter note, Claire is officially walking and she is good!! She went from taking a couple of steps to full out walking in a week. She didn't even want to have us hold her hand and she will squat down, pick something up, then stand back up and continue walking. What!?! I still can't believe that I have a walking 10 month old. Lauren was 13 months old and Curtis was just about 14 months when they started walking. I had a feeling that she would walk early because when she was a newborn, she would stand herself up when I would burp her. Superbaby!! Anyway, have a great rest of the week.

Six Months

Our sweet Claire bear turned six months on the 21st and she has grown by leaps and bounds! She loves being on the floor so that she can roll and scoot all over the place, and she's fast! She has now started to push up onto her knees and she rocks back and forth. It's only a matter of time before she is crawling all over the place. She has gotten two more teeth and it looks like there are four more just waiting to break the gum line. She is growing up way too fast! She had her check up yesterday and she weighs 17 lbs. 14 oz. and is 26 inches tall. I think she is going to be small like her sister. She is such a happy baby and she loves to laugh. She has learned to screech from her sister. I'm sure that's not the only thing Lauren will be teaching her. I'm going to have my hands full when they get older. She loves her cereal, especially the brown rice and tonight was her first time drinking out of a sippie cup. She did really well. That's all of our sweetie pie's accomplishments this month. Have a great rest of the week!

Five Months

Today Claire turns five months. It has gone by fast, but I've enjoyed every minute. Her two bottom teeth are really coming up now (I'm still trying to get a picture of them). Her top gums are swollen and it looks like the top ones could be poking through any time. I still can't believe that she has teeth already, but it doesn't really surprise me. When she was born, it looked like she was getting teeth. Kevin and I kept staring at her mouth saying, "No way!" Claire also likes to roll all over the floor and scoots backwards when she is on her tummy. So far she has gotten stuck under the couch and entertainment center. Her personality is starting to show. She is such a happy baby and LOVES to laugh! She is very ticklish on her knees, elbows, thighs, and armpits. Whenever we are in the car, she jabbers up a storm and laughs at Curtis. She loves rice cereal and I just introduced her to applesauce, but she doesn't care for it to much. She scrunches her face and spits it out. She still wakes up once, sometimes twice, during the night. She has been going to bed at 7:30 p.m. and waking up between 2:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.. I am so looking forward to her sleeping through the night. Here are some pictures of our big girl.

Waiting to eat.

Our happy girl!

Sitting in the big tub for the first time.