7 weeks

It's hard to believe that my maternity leave is almost over. Claire is 7 weeks old today and I'm going to start back to work for a couple of days next week. I've been trying to enjoy every minute I've had with her this week which explains why the house is still a disaster and she's sleeping on my lap while I type this. I suppose I could put her down, but what fun would that be.

Here is another big gummy grin and the increadible shrinking bear!



We also played photo shoot this afternoon. I'm still having a hard time getting what I think are "good" picture, but this was one of my favorites from this afternoon.


Tomorrow I go back to the doctor and Claire is going to stay with "Aunt" Ria and "Uncle" Mike for a little while. Trever is preaching again on Sunday and we are looking forward to a low key weekend before we try to get in to a back to work/babysitter routine next week! Wish us luck!

Our weekend

As usual, we crammed as much in to one weekend as possible. Here is a run down of what last weekend was all about.

• Friday night was our "low key" night in. I tried to get to bed early and Trever worked on his sermon. It was also my night off from baby duty. Trever got up with Claire in the middle of the night and I got to sleep! Woo hoo!


• Saturday morning we ran up to Trever's work for a little bit and then headed to Kankakee. You may remember that a few weeks ago our car had some pretty serious hail damage. After some shopping around we decided that we would rather spend a little extra money and upgrade instead of getting our car repaired. Saturday afternoon we came home with this.

A 2010 Chevy Equinox. It's still full of baby stuff, but it's a little bit bigger than our car and we are really enjoying the way it drives and we're still getting pretty good gas mileage.

• From Kankakee we headed to visit with Aunt Kyla, Uncle Ron and Cousin Maddison. As soon as Claire and Maddi saw each other they held hands! They're going to be the best of friends!

• Claire looks a little goofy in this picture but she had a big ol' gummy grin on her face! We didn't get a lot of good pictures since the girls seemed to be sleeping or cranky at opposite times.

• After dinner Trever headed to Piper City for Gospel Night in the park and Claire and I stayed to play with Maddison.
• Sunday morning we went to 2 church services. Trever put his Lay Speaking skills to use and preached in Onarga and Piper City.
• After church we had another photo op at home. Trever has become quite the gardener. He found a zuchini bigger than Claire in the garden.

• After lunch and naps, we headed to the Guth's for Claire's meet and greet. We got to introduce her to many friends of our family and got some very nice gifts. Unfortunately I did not take a single picture to document the night.

This is my last full week at home before I go back to work. I'm starting to dread sending Claire to the babysitter but I'm sure she will do great for Miss Mary. We've spent some time picking up around the house the last couple of days but have been sure to squeeze in a nap. Tomorrow, Grandma Marge is going to go to Kankakee with us to do a little shopping while the car gets remote start put on it. Then we are looking forward to relaxing the rest of the week. The only thing on the schedule the rest of the week is my appointment with Dr. H on Friday and probably a visit to Aunt Ria!

6 weeks!

We've had a great week this week! Not only did we have a wonderful weekend, but we've enjoyed a week that's been a little slower!

Whoever told me that it takes 6 weeks for mom and baby to figure each other out was right. For this reason I took 8 weeks off of work and I'm sure glad I did! It really took us about 5 weeks to get things a little more under control. We've finally got this girl eating well and she's outgrowing her bottles and her clothes. She's eating 4 ounces or more every 1 1/2 hours or so. She still sleeps pretty well at night. She goes down around 9, sleeps until about 2 a.m. and has a snack and then sleeps again until around 5 a.m. when it's time for us to get up and get ready for the day. Because of her new found love for her breastmilk/formula smoothie, she has really started growing like a weed! We weighed her at the vet clinic yesterday and she weighed a whopping 10 pounds!!!

Her other new talent is smiling! I have yet to get a good picture of it, but she is definitely starting to react to people. She has such a big gummy grin!

In other news, we have a babysitter! She is in Piper City and is super convenient for pick up and drop off by both mom and dad! Claire will go part time the first week of August and will start going full-time on August 10th.

And for those of you enjoying the shrinking bear pictures, here is week 6! Notice how much happier she is in her Illini PJs than she was next to Bucky Badger!

A big weekend!

We have been on the go go go for the last week so we have a lot to blog about! Claire and I are finally getting each other figured out and seem to have conquered the food situation. She is growing like a weed! On July 10th she weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces (just 2 ounces more than her birth weight a month earlier). Trever weighed her on the bathroom scale and she weighed 10 pounds! We don't take her back to the doctor for a couple of weeks but I'll be anxious to see what she weighs at her 2 month apointment.



Here is the last week or so in pictures!


Everyone told us that our romantic meal at the hospital would be the last quiet meal we had together. They were right! Somebody else seems to be hungry every time we sit down for dinner. She was really eyeing up some terriyake (sp) pork loin that "Aunt" Amy made for us.

On Friday, Trever took the day off and Claire attended her first Iroquois County Fair and her first cattle show outside of the womb. She got to meet lots of people and was a very good girl the entire day!


Friday night Trever had to go practice for "Aunt" Nicole & "Uncle" Kevin's wedding. Trever was a "bridesman" and escorted Megan the "groomsmaid" down the aisle.

Saturday we went back to the fair. We got to see Cousin Kelly and Uncle Russ ride their horses. Claire and Gammy Kuipers got their picture taken with Kelly and her horse before the race.

After the fair we hurried home and got prettied up for the wedding. Claire slept through the hairspray and perfume in the room with all the girls getting ready and woke up just in time for the wedding. Luckily she was well behaved during the ceremony.

Mr. & Mrs. Kevin & Nicole Wiltz!

Nicole and her daddy dancing together at the reception.

After the wedding we sent Claire to Gammy & Papa Kuipers house so that we could have a little fun. Trever was having a good time with his girls...April, Nicole and Molly!

After a late late night Saturday night, Claire decided she didn't want to be a very good sleeper for us. It could have been that she slept most of the day. But we still made it up and to church. We came home and took naps before heading to LeRoy so Claire could meet her Great Aunt Carol. She made Claire a wonderful quilt that matches her room perfectly.

This week has been a little calmer during the day. The nights are keeping us on the road though. We are back in the search for a new day care provider but we will be meeting with a lady in Piper City tonight. Keep your fingers crossed that it works out!

Good Helper!

Claire helped mommy do a little bit of laundry!

Monroe-Read Reunion

Last Friday we headed to Madison, Wisconsin for the Monroe-Read Reunion. This is my mom's side of the family and they get together every other year. It was a good time as always.

On Friday, Claire and I headed north with my parents and Trever came after work with Kirk. Claire was an amazing traveler and slept the entire trip up and back!

We made it to Madison and after a little bit of visiting headed out to dinner with Aunt Carol, Uncle Rog and mom's cousins Helen and Dwight from Minnesota.

Here is Claire and Grandma Marge at Claire's first Chinese Restaurant.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and hung out with our extended family and waited for the boys to arrive. Trever realized that Claire and her Great Aunt Carol were wearing the same outfit!

During the night we were woken up by a car alarm in the parking lot. We checked it out and realized that there was one heck of a storm going on outside. The next morning we found out that our car had some serious hail damage. I think there was only one car from our reunion that escaped without damage.

We had breakfast Saturday morning, visited with relatives, and then took Claire on her first college visit to the University of Wisconsin campus. I don't think she was a big fan! :) We went to the student union which is set on a very nice lake. We had lunch and ice cream and the rest of the crew had a couple of pitchers of beer (that doesn't happen on the U of I campus!) and checked out a little bit of campustown.
Saturday evening we enjoyed a nice cookout on the hotel patio with some amazing strawberry shortcake.

We had a great time catching up with relatives and meeting some new ones. Claire met her 3rd cousin, Ainsley Brown, and they really enjoyed each other. We look forward to taking Claire to the next reunion when she'll be old enough to play!

4 weeks

Claire is officially over one month old! She celebrated her 1 month birthday at a family reunion in Madison, WI. Before we took off for the reunion we went for our last appointment with Dr. H. We'll be meeting with a new doctor for her 2 month check up.

During Claire's 4th week of life she:

• Celebrated her first 4th of July
• Helped daddy bale hay
• met her Great Aunt Carol and Great Uncle Roger
• Got her first Ron Jon Surf Shop t-shirt
• And I'm sure there are lots of other first that she did, but it is easy to lose track of them all

Look for an update from the reunion soon!

3 weeks old!

Claire is 3 weeks old now! It's hard to believe how fast time is going by but how little we are getting accomplished around the house. She is still just a little thing, but as much as she eats she's gotta be packing on the pounds.

We haven't done too much this week. Yesterday we had lots of visitors. Maggie St. P came over in the afternoon and Barb M. and Kim R. came over in the evening.

Today we are having a lazy day at home. I did make it through the shower but just put on different pajamas. We aren't expecting any company so hopefully it stays that way or they at least call before they come!

Trever has been busy working, moving the carport, and baling hay. Hopefully he'll get a lot done tonight so we can spend Claire's first 4th of July together.

Time to tend to the little fussbutt on the floor!