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.