Claire’s airplane adventure

Colleen | September 26, 2007 | Claire, Family | 1542 words and 954 views | no comments

Sunday Claire turned 12 weeks old. Matt says now I have to start saying 3 months. We’ll see… She is getting so heavy! I hold her in my arms like when she was a new born, and she doesn’t like it anymore. She lifts her head up and sticks out her neck like she is trying to sit up. I am sure that she is thinking, “Stop holding me like a baby! I’m not a baby anymore.” But she’s still my lil babe. This week Claire took her first airplane trip to Kansas City. We almost got delayed 5 hours on Friday night, but then Jennifer did her super stealth Amazing-Race-Inspired moves and got us on an earlier flight. Thanks Jenn! Claire did great on the plane and everywhere we went, people were watching her, and asking about her. She put on her cute face and everyone thought she was the best baby in the world. I agree. We watched Jeff’s game Saturday, and hung out with Rick and Vicki who drove up from Bartlesville for the day. She amazed them with her baby tricks and we took lots of pictures. Other than that, Claire is working hard everyday on her baby exercises and impressing us with her genius and cuteness.
On Frontier Airlines you have a tv on the back of every seat. Claire couldn’t help but take a peak as we were waiting to take off on Friday night. The OU game was on!This is Claire. She is a drool machine. It won’t stop. No matter what we do.Rick and Claire were finally able to hang out once the sun went behind the stadium. It was pretty sunny, so Claire had to stay in her carseat for a lot of the game. You can see she is really interested in what is going on around her.Here is Claire hanging out on the field after the game. She was waiting in line (practically!) to get a shot with Uncle Jeff, the star of the game!Sitting on Jeff’s shoulders. He was pretty sweaty, but we decided it was worth it to get a good picture of her with the big guy.Ok, not the best picture, but Claire has her eyes closed and you can see how long her lashes are getting. So long and pretty! And for you fashion experts, the hat doesn’t “go” with the cheerleading outfit, but we just had to keep the sun off of her pretty little white head!After a long day at the game, we were hanging out in the our hotel room and Claire just couldn’t stay awake another minute. Apparently Jeff makes a good pillow!We had a little while to wait at the airport before our Sunday afternoon flight, so we sat by the big windows and watched the airplanes take off. Claire really liked this, and no matter which way we turned her, she kept looking back through the big windows. If only we knew what she was thinking!Claire was starting to get tired of waiting for our flight! At least this gave her a chance to cuddle with Grandma.Recovered from her rest, now she is ready to watch airplanes again!Grandma tells funny jokes!Is this the cutest girl or what?Everyone asks where Claire gets her blue eyes from? Matt and I both have green eyes. Well, Great Grandma on my side, and Grandpa on Matt’s side have blue eyes- so that’s where. I am starting to think they won’t change. They are really blue!This is what you call “the Esser mouth”. It’s all Matt.Hanging with Sooner. We had a friend’s daughter over a couple weeks ago, and instead of calling our dog Sooner, she simplified it in kid language and called her Soo-Soo. I think this is cute, so I have been trying to tell Claire that Soo-Soo wants to play on the floor with her.

Forest Lakes

Matt | September 23, 2007 | Climbing, Trip Report | 833 words and 1,431 views | 1 comment

This weekend while Colleen was off at Jeff’s football game in Kansas with Claire, I took the opportunity to go backpacking with some people from church. We left Boulder around 2:30pm and arrived up at near the top of Moffat Road where the Needles Eye Tunnel is around 4pm.

A quick (and I mean quick) hike down to Forest Lakes provided a great spot for an overnight camp. There was nobody around and the view was fantastic. It’s only half a mile in from the start, but it’s all downhill.

The next morning I woke up early to take some pictures and wonder up to the upper lake to see the view.

Since we parked one car at the top and one car down below at the East Entrance of the tunnel, we were hiking one-way downhill and make quick work of the 4 mile trip. One highlight of the trip was Fred printed off a Geocache in the area and we happened to find it during our hike. Cool!

It’s hard to think that something this nice exists only an hour and a half from Boulder, and yet it wasn’t hardly mentioned in any of my guidebooks except for a paragraph or two.

My only regret is since the hike is relatively easy I wish I would have brought more comforts, not to mention my fly rod!

East Entrance of the Moffat Tunnel. Photo by M. EsserJames Peak in the distance taken from start of trailhead. Photo by M. EsserSign at top of Moffat Road. Photo by M. EsserTrailhead Marker. Photo by M. Esser

John and Mike setup camp. Photo by M. EsserPanorama of Forest Lake from where we camped. Photo by M. Esser

View back down to camp from upper lake. Photo by M. EsserThe upper Forest Lake. Photo by M. EsserI believe that this is the lower Forest Lake, it’s about a mile hike in. Photo by M. EsserAction Photo of the gang. Photo by M. Esser

Aspens changing color near the entrance to the tunnel. Photo by M. EsserI wish I took this picture before the clouds moved in as the sky got blurred out. Still pretty though. Photo by M. Esser

Princess Claire… and don’t you forget it!

Colleen | September 17, 2007 | Claire, Family | 2017 words and 8,056 views | 2 comments

We had a busy week. Claire came with us to the infamous Casa Bonita for her first time. We didn’t really plan on going, except that it was a friend’s birthday, and really…who can resist? At least I resisted the enchiladas I was forced to buy upon entrance. Bleh! We had more lunch dates with friends, and met some more new babies at MOPS and Bible Study. Claire is really intrigued with other little people. Soon I am sure she will be ready for play dates, but for now it is Mommy who gets down and plays all day on the floor with her. Even my sister says- you really do this all day? Yep. All day. Play, eat, nap, play. It’s a hard life. And now that Claire is 11 weeks old, we finally left her with her first “baby sitter” which was not Matt or myself. We dropped her off at Aunt Jenn’s house while we headed to a couple’s group on Sunday night, and it didn’t go as smoothly as Auntie had hoped, but when we got back Claire wasn’t crying (anymore) and it seems like she did okay. It’s just hard to tell someone exactly how to tell what your baby wants, and sometimes that doesn’t even work. Oh well! I am sure that Jenn will still babysit again (right, Jenn?) Claire has decided recently that she will not be taking naps. Nope. She still sleeps 8-10 hours a night, but she will only nap for about 20-30 minutes during the day, and then she wants to get up. Those are some baby power naps, because I sure thought she should still be sleeping a lot more for almost 3 months old. But since she has been sleeping through the night since 6 weeks, I can’t complain. It’s just a lil hard to get other things done without those nap times. I am sure next week, it will be something else. Well, enjoy the pics. There are a lot this week. And the reason for the title…Claire has a new onesie that is purple and says PRINCESS. It just seemed appropriate.

Just plain cuteness.I just love the look on her face as she is playing with her Baby Einstein gym. I wish I knew what she was thinking!I put her in her bumbo chair for a better view of the toys!Mommy and Claire outside Casa Bonita. I think Claire is trying to smile! Hanging with Jenn outside Casa Bonita by the fountain. Claire really liked the sound of the running water… yet another sign she may be a lil swimmer!I have no idea why she makes this face… I call it: Elvis lip. ????Dancing on the tables already! You go lil girl!!Matt thought she was making the funniest faces as he was getting her ready to go to Target. I said, no honey! She always gets this excited when we go to Target!Claire watching her mobile after her bath one day. Without her onesie on, I can really tell how BIG she has gotten. Stop growing so fast, Claire!This is Claire’s Care Bear Stare! My intention with the Care Bear was to take her picture with it every week, so we could gage how fast she is growing. Well, this is pic #2 and believe me, she is a lot bigger than last time!Napping in Mommy’s arms before Relevance started. Again, she doesn’t like to take naps, so she didn’t fall asleep this night until about 6:30 pm. And then of course it was harder to get her to go to bed at 10 when we got home. Oh well. She’s the Princess.Playing on the floor with Aunt Jenn!Getting warmed up for the big game. Grandma Vicki bought her this outfit, and we dressed her up Saturday. Hopefully she doesn’t grow out of it too fast!Silly smile. SO cute.She’s blowing OU kisses to the camera. She is such a flirt!Matt held Claire up so she could do her OU dance. Her legs are so strong.OK, she’s strong, but not strong enough to stand by herself. Matt just let go of her hands real quick while I snapped a pic. She looks like she is doing some cheer poses though.I just had to add this one, because her lips look so funny. Who knew she could make so many faces?My sleeping angel.Bath time! She is almost longer than her tub!All sudsed-up! She really loves baths, and rarely cries unless she gets really cold. Her face is so cute as you pour the water over her head. Unfortunately I can’t do that and take pics at the same time.One of my baby books talked about letting Baby play after bath time, without a diaper to allow full range of motion because diapers really restrict leg movement. I couldn’t resist snapping a few pics as Claire was playing on the bed as I put her lotion on. Don’t tell her I put naked pictures of her on the internet…Enjoying naked time! She was loving it.

Claire Rolling Back to Stomach 10wks

Matt | September 12, 2007 | Claire, Family, Video | 99 words and 1,631 views | 4 comments

Update: According to this article on babycenter.com it usually takes a baby 5-6 months to roll over from back to stomach! Here’s to Claire the baby genius!

Well, you knew that we would put this up as soon as we actually caught it on video. So here it is…but this time, you get an added encore performance by Claire — she does it again. Video is 5 minutes long. Enjoy!

100% Babe

Colleen | September 11, 2007 | Claire, Family | 925 words and 1,009 views | no comments

We took Claire to the pediatrician on Weds. last week for her 2 month baby check-up. She was 12 pounds even, and 24 1/4 inches long. Her weight is in the 75th percentile, and her length… 97th percentile!! She is going to be taller than us in no time! A little amazon woman! But seriously- she is perfect. The doctor was very impressed with her strength- when we placed her on her stomach on the exam table, Claire moved her elbows under her body and lifted her head up tall. We also noticed that with her shirt off, she has got some serious muscles going on! Matt says- check out those traps! She was calm and relaxed, even when they put cold things in her ears, and shined the light in her eyes. That is, up until the shots. She got 3 shots and cried for only about 30 seconds. The nurse gave her pink barbie bandaids (note to self: pick some up at Target) and they let us stay in the exam room so I could nurse her and help her calm down. Claire slept most of the day and was better in no time! She was so well, that we even went and had a coffee date! We have realized now that she is growing out of 3 month clothes already and on to 6 month sizes. Of course, you can’t always judge by what the label says, but I think seeing her length at the doctor’s office made me realize I better get some of the 6 month outfits out of the closet! So many cute outfits, so little time. And she’s only 10 weeks old now.

Claire in the cutest outfit ever (thanks Jamie). She looks like a little sorority girl, so preppy.Some serious thinking going on here, people! So stinking cute…I wouldn’t normally take pics of my kid’s butt, but you just have to in this outfit. Jamie claims the “southern” ladies all wear monograms, and so she had Claire’s onesie monogrammed “CEE” (her initials) right on her butt!Um, I think she might be tired. This was her pre-OU game nap… she had to be ready to cheer!The shirt (thanks to Hazel) says it all- what a cutie!Our block has ONLY little boys, so needless to say that all the mommies were happy when we had Claire. This is Tyler aka candidate #1 for taking Claire to the prom. He just turned 9 months, and it’s crazy to think they will start school together in a few years.Hands off little man! She can’t date until she’s 16.Claire LOVES her Baby Einstein gym. She is so alert, watching the lights, and just hanging out listening to the music. Usually it’s her and Sooner chilling on the floor together for about an hour every morning. They’re buds!


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