January - family and friends

Like I mentioned in my last post, Claire got a double ear infection over our Christmas vacation. She not only was still getting better by the time we got home, but she also got used to sleeping with me at night. When she was feeling so miserable, she wouldn't stay in her crib for long. When we got home, she still wasn't feeling well and got used to this. As I waited for the antibiotic to do its magic, I slept with her for a few nights as it was the only way to get her to sleep. Unfortunately, once I determined that she was feeling better, we had to break her of that habit. Ironically, she never had this problem as a baby and has always been a great sleeper. We never really had to let her cry it out. It took about a week after she was feeling better, but she finally got used to sleeping on her own again. Up until recently she was getting up in the middle of the night 1-3 times a night. I had to go in and rock her to sleep. Thankfully this has been much less frequent lately. Here is a picture of the first nap time we decided to let Claire cry it out, and this is how she fell asleep.



As much as we love our "home" and family on the east coast, we are making the most of this west coast experience. Chris had another 4-day weekend in January, so we took a little trip to San Francisco. We LOVE this place! We had beautiful weather (mid 60s and sunny)! We enjoyed some yummy seafood from Joe's Crab Shack (and I don't even really like seafood usually.) We also walked on the Fisherman's Wharf, rode a trolley to Chinatown, walked around Chinatown where Chris practiced his Chinese, and walked to the farmer's market, which was HUGE! Here are some of our pictures from our fun weekend. :)

Chris and Claire on a historic trolley, waiting for our trip.

The view of the Bay Bridge (I think) from Chinatown

A view of the farmer's market area

A view of the bridge from the farmer's market

On the drive home, we saw the most beautiful sunset. It just happened that we passed a look out point right as it was getting good, so we stopped and got some pictures. The pictures don't quite do the beauty of it all justice, but I tried.




On Monday of that 4-day weekend, it was such a beautiful day that we decided to go paddle boating again. It is so peaceful and relaxing. We paid for an hour, so there is nothing else to do but relax, ride around, and talk. Though, we did find something else we could do while paddle boating - lose our keys! Our car keys (which incuded the keys and keyless entries for both cars, as well as the house and mail keys) fell out of Chris's pocket right into the water. Since they are heavy of course, there's no chance to grab them once they fell. Thankfully, our wonderful neighbor saved us by driving our other set of car keys to us that were in our house to us so we could drive home. Ooops! We still had a fun time together as a family though. :)

Of course Claire loves to steal her daddy's hat and my sunglasses. I love those chubby cheeks!

One nice thing about being back to our west coast home was to see our wonderful friends again, especially our neighbors, the Stone family. Jaxson, of course, is Claire's best friend. It is so sweet to watch the two of them play together and have their own little conversations. I overheard Claire telling Jaxson, who was looking at her sheet of stickers, about how she gets a sticker when she pees in the potty. It was really cute. They also love to race each other, play jumping games, dance, and of course, get into trouble.




At the beginning of February, my brother, John, was in San Jose for work. We took full advantage of having him in town. He drove down to our house on Wednesday night for dinner. I spoiled him with deviled eggs (which didn't really go with dinner, but he LOVES them), salad, moussaka (which took hours to make but was oh so good), and a home made supreme carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (his favorite.) Then on Thursday, we drove up to San Jose and met him at an Ethiopian restaurant. We have had many Ethiopian food experiences with him (the third restaurant we've tried, but more than the third time eating it together), and since we are the only ones who will enjoy it with him, it was his requested cuisine. Afterwards, we went to my aunt and uncle's house to visit for a little bit and enjoyed some dessert.



On Friday, he lost his voice and therefore got done with work early. (It's hard to teach when you have no voice.) That allowed him to drive back down to Monterey so I could take him to the aquarium. We have an AWESOME aquarium here which Claire loves. John really enjoyed the trip and loved how Claire held his hand the whole time we were there. We also took a walk on the Fisherman's Wharf and sampled about seven types of clam chowder before deciding which one we liked best. Then we at dinner together there. We had an awesome time together. Claire still talks about her Uncle John. In fact we were reading about John the Baptist during our scripture reading one night, and she kept saying, "Uncle John!" I'm not sure she understood that though they have the same name, that they are different people. She has Uncle John on the brain. :)

At the aquarium

On the Fisherman's Wharf at sunset

I feel blessed that I have a full schedule, but not so busy that I can't take care of the house as well as have time to do fun things with Claire. We often go to a play group, the playground, play with friends, sewing group, the library, and swimming. There is a fun indoor pool that we have been to a few times. Claire LOVES it!

Claire also loves to read her book that her Oma got her for Christmas. Oma recorded it with a digital recorder and sent it to my via e-mail. Now whenever Claire wants to have Oma read her a story, I just have to push play on my computer and give her the book. She has done this countless times and LOVES it. :)