Clara at 10 Months

Clara hit the 10-month mark today, and she needed to use the quiet day at home to recuperate from 2,000 miles spent in the car seat over the past week. We love Christmas and visits with family, but all the road time can be testing even for the most patient of children.

(The hero of that story is Kate. Paul played chauffeur while Kate did a stand-up job in the backseat of keeping Clara entertained for more than 30 hours of driving!)

In her tenth month, Clara had clearly mastered the art of crawling and is now turning her attention back to walking. We're going to prognosticate a bit here: our little one will take her first steps before she hits 11 months.

Given that she can stand on her own (usually unaware of the fact when her attention is on something in her hands, but still...) for nearly 30 seconds in a row; given the fact that she circles the house, her hands in ours, kicking a ball around like baby Pele; and given that she cruises around the coffee table with gazelle-like grace and speed...this probably isn't a Joe Namath bold "we'll-win-that-super-bowl" prediction, but we are going on record so that should count for something.

The tenth month also brought Clara's first illnesses. She had a case of thrush early in the month (as noted in this earlier blog entry) and a cold that followed. And she's just getting over a second cold that brought a couple days of fever. The congestion has had her snoring like a Banshee. Seriously, she's rattling the rafters with the snorts and wheezes. Which would be tolerable if she were in her crib in another room, but...Well, that's our family project for month eleven.

Clara is discovering new skills every day. Some recent additions to her repertoire: waving 'hello' (not just 'bye-bye'), attempting to feed her parents as we feed her (messy), holding a calculator to her ear as if it were a phone (and babbling into it), throwing a ball under the dresser and reaching her arm underneath to fetch it, playing catch, opening child-proof pill bottles (um, those will no longer be rattle substitutes), and giving her kitty gentle pats on the back while hugging it.

Christmas After (Drydens)

We spent Christmas day driving from Pennsylvania to Raleigh, crashed in our own bed for one night, and got up early the next morning for the trip down to Atlanta. Auntie Angela was kind (brave? foolish?) enough to host the entire Dryden clan for our annual Christmas get together.

Clara didn't even flinch at the flurry of pinches, kisses, and hugs from her grandparents, 15 or so aunts/uncles, and the 21 cousins that greeted her once we stepped out of the car. Her natural gregarious style will prove a real survival asset in these gatherings.

Among the highlights was Clara playing with Colin, her cousin born just six weeks after her. She crawled straight to his car seat when Julie brought him in. Not to be put off by his nap, Clara immediately tapped Colin gently on the belly to wake him. She has no patience for playmates that aren't ready to play.

Thanks again to Angela for being the hostess supreme.

Christmas Eve Day (McKnights)

Behold, the baby! Her grandparents call her blessed. And they shall bestow upon her a richness of Christmas gifts known only to first grandchildren.

And the mother shall ponder why she only remembers getting socks and underwear when young.

And the father wonders how he will ever load the car after a Christmas (Eve) morn that requires two acts -- with a brief intermission for napping -- to unwrap all the gifts.

Clara Meets Santa Claus

Twas the night before the night before Christmas, and since Santa had nothing more pressing to do, he suited up one day early to meet little Clara Dryden for the first time.

It would seem Clara can expect special exception status on a regular basis from jolly Saint Nick. Not only did he schedule a special drop-in this night, but he would also load up the sleigh (and load up he did!) one day early for the Drydens to celebrate with the McKnights in Lock Haven on Christmas Eve. Clara's doing something right in these first 10 months...she has Santa eating out of her tiny hand.

Christmas Eve Eve (Bowes)

The Bowes side of the family came into Lock Haven this afternoon. Clara spread her own Christmas cheer among Jim, Bets, Becca, and Jeannie. She loved spending time with her extended family.

Our Christmas Before Christmas

We'll drive about 2,000 miles in the next nine days, meeting up with the McKnights in Pennsylvania and then the Drydens in Georgia. So tonight we relax and work on our own Christmas traditions.

Clara was slow to warm up to the Christmas Tree, but she's since grown accustomed to it. Each morning her ritual includes crawling into the living room and sitting upright until someone plugs in the tree lights. To which she responds with applause and an ear-to-ear grin.

Pandora streams Christmas music through the house during all waking hours, and Clara has selected Jingle Bells as her preferred tune. She jingles a bell rattle with the chorus.

And then for our Christmas celebration at home. Clara was delighted with the bath magnets in her stocking, immediately putting as many in her mouth as would fit. Paul scored big with a new set of multi-vitamins and a pair of Target brand house slippers. Kate finally got her dream gift...a 10-piece set of Pyrex bowls. Ahhh...the good life!

Kiawah 1/2 Marathon

Another year of our trek down to Kiawah to meet up with George & Katie (and Emma), Michael & Beth (and Mary Hall) and run the half-marathon. Well, except for George. He pushed through for the full 26.2 miles. Crazy man.

We grabbed our traditional post-race drinks at the Sanctuary, spent the afternoon complaining about soreness, and enjoyed a laid back dinner that evening. We also spent a few minutes with Kate & Harris, in from Concord, NC.

Our thanks, as always, to Wayne for letting us crash at his Island pad!

Stairmaster

Clara is intent on mastering the craft of climbing. Up and down, chairs and stairs, assisted and alone. But always followed by applause.

Clara the Climber

Clara surprised us this evening with this new found skill: the rocking chair climb, pivot, and sit down. Shortly after she tried to scale her "lovey" box and ascend the little bookcase in her nursery. We think she might be entering a climbing fascination phase which, given her tendencies toward obsessing over new tricks, has us re-thinking how well we've baby-proofed this house.

9 Months

Clara has been out about as long as she was in. We welcomed our little girl into this world 9 months ago, and she's been our greatest joy ever since.

And it took her the full 9 months before Clara had her first bona fide illness. Last night we noticed some curd-looking substance on her tongue and felt her running a fever. So, for two hours this afternoon, we spent some quality time with the pediatrician (thank you for having Sunday hours). It didn't take long for the thrush diagnosis to come down.

Despite all our attempts to bubble in our little girl from the sick, sick world, it all caught up with us. We can't complain too much. The fever broke tonight after only one dose of Motrin. And the tongue curds are supposed to clear up pretty quickly, too.

The doctor visit did give us a chance to measure Clara's stats. She's weighing in at 17 lbs 12 ounces and 27 3/4 inches tall. Clearly the most athletic, brilliant, and beautiful child ever, said the pediatrician.

Thanksgiving & Our Christmas Tree

Given all the traveling we'll do in December (Paul on the road for business, Kiawah Half-Marathon, Pennsylvania for McKnight Christmas, and Georgia for Dryden Christmas...whew!), we decided to take it slow for Thanksgiving. It's been our little tradition now for three years of marriage.

We lounged in bed late into the morning, watched some football games, cooked up a 14-pound turkey (delicious after a nice brining bath before it hit the oven) and the headed out to get a Christmas tree.

For both Paul and Kate, this is the earliest -- by far -- we've ever seen a Christmas tree in the house. In fact, we haven't even had one for the past two years (what a bother, we said). But we couldn't be more eager to put one in the living room for Clara's viewing pleasure.

So we erected this modest six foot Douglas Fir, purchased at Lowes, adorned it with simple white lights and the six ornaments in our possession. Paul did his best Clark Griswold impersonation at the lighting (drum roll please) in hopes of a dramatic smile and giddy laugh from our daughter for whom we had accelerated this Christmas tree ceremony to November.

Alas, no. Clara responded as if we had pulled out the oldest, dullest toy from her toy box. It was the baby equivalent of a shrug and "ehh, what else you got?"

Well, maybe next year we'll get that excited, breathless approval we so desperately need from our child.

What's New Pussycat?

A little taste of unadulterated joy from Clara as she opens an early, early Christmas present from her grandparents (who seem to take much glee in encouraging an interest in cats).

Mirror, Mirror

Clara's greatest fascination continues to be...Clara. Not too hard to understand why.

Age of Aquarium

Pine Knoll hosts one of three North Carolina aquariums, and (being only six miles from our rustic pad on Emerald Isle) we brought Clara for a visit on Wednesday.

We were certain our daughter would be in awe of the majesty of these sea dwelling creatures...fish, turtles, otters, sharks, oh my. But we're proving over and again that we're no experts on the mind or attention span of an 8-month old.

Clara was far more interested in being the roaming exhibit for a small pack of retired women, "ah-cuting" at her every move. Even while three otters were putting out their best display of water gymnastics, desperate for her attention, Clara was dropping coy smiles over her shoulder. Prompting, of course, even more swooning from her audience.

To satisfy her father, she did feign brief interest in a couple fresh water turtles (both of which returned the favor). But we think we might have to wait another year or two before we'll see any genuine intrigue with the wildlife at the aquarium.

Some Time In the Sun

We managed our first vacation as a small family, going to Emerald Isle on the coast of North Carolina. (Our thanks to Jeni and Shayne Miller for the gift of Camp Cottage for a full week!) It gave us a lot of concentrated daddy-mama-baby time, and Clara (with no allergy to attention) ate it up.

She also used the week to introduce some new tricks to her repertoire. Clara now knows how to chase her parents around the house in a simple game of hide-and-seek. She is making kissy faces, complete with a lip smack at the end (though one might easily mistake it for a fish face). She experienced a verbal explosion of new sounds: a lot more da's, ma's, and even some multi-syllabic babbling. Clara saw how much we enjoyed her clapping her hands together and that's becoming her new attention getting ploy. And she's working hard on taking her first steps, mustering enough courage to stand on her own a few times for several seconds straight.

In all, it was a relaxing week and wonderful time together for our little troop.

Happy Halloween From Clara Belle the Cow

Kate found this Clarabelle the cow outfit for the little one, and we watched her ham it up with Jason and Sarah's son, Davis (who was Puff the Magic Dragon) before a neighborhood get together this evening.

Clara liked the attention but had little patience for the huge cow face atop her noggin. She was glad when the evening came to an end and the bovine suit was packed away. But, of course, we snapped plenty of pictures.

Blah, Blah, Blah

Quite the conversationalists, these two. Clara has been much more vocal over the past week and seems to imagine that she's an active part of conversations going on around her. Interspersed among the squeaks and squeals, we get plenty of "ba" sounds and the occasional "da." But she's often amused by yelling loudly, especially at other children.

Auntie MJM Pays a Visit

Clara delivered her well rehearsed adorable performance when Melissa Jakeman Mitchell came to visit on Wednesday. Paul and Melissa have been close friends since high school, and we were glad she made the trip up from Gastonia to meet Clara for the first time.

Whose Child Is This?

Katherine Caldwell McKnight circa 1979...

Clara Katherine Dryden 2009...

8 Months - Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Clara came into the world during a cold, rainy February. Through these eight months she has seen her first spring, summer, and we're working through autumn now. For the most part, this time is passing far more quickly than we anticipated.

Clara is doing so much so rapidly, we wish we could press "pause" for a few brief moments to take it all in. It's becoming clear that's not how it works. Everything just seems to be accelerating.

But every once in a while we have the video camera handy and capture something like this belly laugh below. It's as close as we get to a "pause" button.

Those Six Little Teeth...

Those six little teeth...two on bottom, two broken through up top, and those two bucktooth candidates slicing against the gum line causing Clara a world of pain and her parents night after night of insomnia.

Still, you gotta care for the teeth you want to keep. To that end we're establishing good dental hygiene habits early. Clara loves the electric toothbrush.

Our Pumpkin In the Pumpkin Patch

We joined four other Davidson couples yesterday for a jaunt through Durham's favorite autumn pumpkin patch. Clara demonstrates her extrovert tendencies, babbling away with the older kids and inserting herself into all their fun activities.

No Slowing Down

October Upon Us

Clara is prepping for Halloween in these pictures from early-October, sporting some PJ's that come courtesy of Uncle Brent & Aunt Deidra (reading "I'm So Cute, It's Scary!"). Also, the Grandparents McKnight give their granddaughter her first pumpkin.

All of which seems perfectly normal. Things get odd with cats. Neither Paul nor Kate have an interest in the feline variety of animal (quite the opposite, in fact), yet Clara lights up anytime one of these neighborhood beasts stops by. And in her animal picture book, she lingers at the kitten page to laugh and kiss the tiny creature.

Whether she likes it or not (and whether it's truthful or not), Clara will find out soon enough she is severely allergic to cats and can never, ever have one.

Mordecai Friends

The Mordecai neighborhood is a cornucopia of young families, easing the social changes that come with having small children. For example, Carter and Laura (with their 3-month old Olive) host us last night for a dinner that starts promptly at 4.30 and breaks when the clock chimes 7. When thinking back to our former selves (pre-baby), there is a surreal element to it all. Who might have thought we would all be content sitting around the table at 5.30, infants in lap, animated in discussion about pureeing sweet potato for homemade baby food? Life comes at you fast.

Clara and Adah (daughter of Debra and Skully) are only five days apart and pace each other through each development milestone. Clara, still groggy from a nap last night, was thoroughly bored with her parents prior to walking down the street for dinner. Once she saw Adah, the social animal came raging from its cage. They squeal in delight at first sight of each other.

Morning Eyes & The Child Stands Alone

Friday may have been the night with the least parental sleep outside of those first two weeks home from the hospital. Clara has made her way back into the bed, but it does little to calm her OCD-drive to crawl and climb. Funny how a queen-sized bed that has seemed so spacious through three years of marriage is shriveled smaller than a kindergarten mat with Clara's addition. A father and mother are sequestered to opposite edges of the mattress, while a 17 pound child sprawls herself spread eagle in the middle.

Yet she wakes us each morning, oblivious to the helter-skelter of the night, and tosses us these doe-eyed smiles.

Also, Clara takes a brave (albeit reluctant) stab at standing alone.