Chilling with Nick~Nickerbocker~Nicholas

What a SUPER SATURDAY! We had the pleasure of hanging out with Nick today and Claire was SO excited! They played games, dress-up, hide-n-go seek, sand, soccer, lunch, naps, carnival, dinner and chalk drawings! I found it hysterical that for most of the day Nick was Nick or Nickerbocker.....except when he was doing something she thought he shouldn't or playing with something she wanted, then he became Nicolas!! Too cute!

All around a super day!!

"MOM"

I think she may be getting a bit sick of how much I

put the camera in her face.

Pushing the Barbie Jeep up the hill.

Contemplating if he wanted the rides.....

As soon as Claire saw the Carousel,

she was jumping up and down!!

Racing Motorcycles!

She LOVED these things.Each rotation had two small "hills"

I tried to catch her face on them but the camera was not quick enough.

Fishin' for Frogs!

Their Prizes!

Getting her face painted,

she wanted a kitty cat like her "Pit-cheese"

That is her special name for Patches.

"Mommy, I wanna drive the yellow one!"

I am truly thankful that no one else got to it before we did!

Poor Nick wanted to get in these trucks so bad,

but unfortunately they were just display.

Sporting their prizes from a "Shark" fishing game!

Fun in the sun and sand!

Happy Birthday Emma!

A couple weeks ago, we were lucky enough to help "Baby Emma" celebrate her FIRST birthday. Claire was super excited to be a part of Emma's special day and had a great time playing with the kids and adults!

Emma's BEAUTIFUL birthday cake!

Trying to get the kids to take a picture together.

Claire, Emma(post nap attitude) and Matthew

Sliding!

Sitting at Emma's ladybug bistro table

Birthday girl getting ready to open her gifts!

We are very grateful to Aunt Stacey

for letting Claire "help" Emma open her gifts.

CAKE TIME!

Spinning with Aunt Stacey!

She LOVED it!

Trying to recover her balance.

Stahl Look-alike Meter

I guess when people say she is a good mix of mom and dad......they are RIGHT :-)

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

What to feed a picky child......

It has been a LONG time since I have actually used this blog to well, blog. But I feel the need to vent some food frustrations. Lately, Claire has been somewhat of a challenge when it comes to eating. And by somewhat I mean HUGE pain in the tush. I realize that I am a reformed picky eater so I do know that she will likely grow out of this.....but until then I feel like I am hitting my head against a brick wall.

My princess does eat a variety of foods. For example: chicken nuggets, PB&J's, pirogies, ham and cheese, mac and cheese and that's pretty much it. Oh, I forgot hot dogs. Now she does also eat a wide variety of fruits and some veggies that kids her age HATE. So I guess we are pretty good there but we can never get her to try anything new.....EVER. So it's really hard to expand her horizons.

This eating challenge has also lead us on a sleeping challenge. For two whole weeks, Claire has been getting MULTIPLE times a night. I must give a HUGE shout out to her father though. He has taken the brunt of the midnight waker. After several battles of will and pure exhaustion, I finally complained to the right person. My BFF Chelle. During a recent dinner, we were chatting away about this and that when I decided to pick her brain. Turns out I should have picked it two weeks ago(her brain, that is). Claire being the non-eater that she is, was not eating really good dinners. And of course she was then going to bed without much nutrition. One would have thought that maybe we, being college and beyond educated individuals, would have figured out that maybe she should have been having a snack before bed BUT she wasn't complaining of being hungry so we left it go....

Not smart! Turns out that hunger might just have been our issue all along. Ever since my dearest friend suggested an evening snack....the night owl wakings have significantly decreased! Now I am not saying it is all over, but we have gone from 3-4 wakings a night down to ONE!! Super awesome in my book! I am hoping that this trend continues and that she also begins to see food as cool and awesome to try, instead of something that is "Too Tasty" Too spicy" or "I don't like that Mommy" (even when she has never tried it....:-(

Wish us luck on our continued food avoidance journey.

More Tales from Daycare

Words cannot express how much I LOVE getting a glimpse into Claire's day. It's really gonna be tough to give this up!! So grateful to Grandma Barbara!

For some strange reason, these two LOVE to hang out in Jack's cage :-)

Couldn't make it to her cot for nap.

What she sometimes does INSTEAD of sleep.

When there is no snow.....IMPROVISE!

Child labor at it's finest!

These two really could not get cuter if they tried!

Fun times at Storyville!

Just adorable!!

From Claire's point of view

SO we gave Claire our old camera after I got a new one. Here is a glimpse into her world from her perspective.

(obviously the time and date stamp is REALLY off :-)