Funny faces

Claire in her kiddy pool this summer. What a poser.

We are nicely settled into State College and enjoying life here. We'd enjoy it more if it were more permanent, or even if we knew what we were going to do next, but then where would the excitement in life be?? We have enjoyed reminiscing here as we dated and started our lives together here. It's the little things like $1 slices of pizza at late night Penn State, or walking downtown.

We've made use of things like the library more now that we have a little one. She loves to read books with me. I didn't know that a baby so young would pick up a book, hand it to me, and raise her arms to come up on my lap. It was so sweet! So I've grown a new appreciation for the library to add variety to the books that we own. As much as I love "Click Clack Moo", it's good to have something different. I just randomly picked books up at the library, and learned a valuable lesson - not all picture books are good. In fact, many of them are crappy. In the books that I signed out, there was one I would never read again; it was horrible! There was another that was very strange, and I didn't care for. There was one, however, that I love! It's called "Drat That Fat Cat!" I thought it was really cute. I would love to know what some of your favorite picture books are so I can avoid the duds and get straight to the good ones.

We have had a wonderful time together as a family. We went to the famous 150 year old Grange Fair near by. It's a very original fair with a long standing tradition, and we had a great time. We also went up to my parents' house for Labor Day. My mom got a bushel of peaches for $2.25 so we canned lots of them, made 3 double batches of raspberry freezer jam, and I also made a sour cream peach pecan pie. Mmm. It was a very productive and fun weekend. On Sunday, we went to my grandparents' house and had a lovely dinner with them, my parents, and aunt and uncle.

It's hard to believe, but Claire is almost 9 months old! She's been out as long as she was in. :) She is a busy girl and so much fun! A couple of days ago, she took her first step. She's been practicing standing without holding anything and is able to do it for quite a while now. After standing for a while a couple of days ago, she took a step to get to the couch. It won't be long time now until she starts walking. Oh boy. It's hard enough keeping up with her with how fast she crawls!

So, I've always had an expressive face. My family used to laugh at me, and my friends would too. Chris laughs at the expressions I make when I don't realize I'm making any expression or that anyone is looking. So, it's funny to see the funny faces and things Claire does. Here are a few funny expressions of her's.

This is Claire's "Popeye" face. I try to mimic it, and it's kind of hard to do. It's pretty funny, and she does it quite a bit. It still makes me laugh.


Here is the most recent strange thing Claire does. She makes a funny face, and then sucks in her tongue by breathing in and out really quickly. It's kind of hard to describe, so I tried hard to get it on video. Unfortunately, she stopped doing it every time I got the camera out. I was able to get a short clip of it, and she followed it with the scrunchy nose face when she breaths in and out of her nose quickly. It's pretty cute.



So, we have a park right across from the street from us. It would be a sin to not take advantage of that while we live here. Here are a few pictures from our trips to the park. Claire loves the swing.

What a sweet, sleeping baby. Mmm, gotta have that thumb.

So with the improvement with Claire's standing, the more to get into! I've given up on trying to imprison her in the highchair while I'm in the kitchen because she just doesn't have the patience for it. So, I let her play with the things on the bottom shelf of the pantry shelf which just has tubs of flour and potatoes. Unfortunately, now she wants to play with the things on the second shelf. She loves to chew the pudding boxes. I try not to let her play with that shelf. This is the look she gives me when I say, "Claire, no". She looks back as if to say "Who me? I'm not doing anything." And then she usually proceeds to do what she's doing until I take her away, though she is getting better at listening to "no".