Christmas in Ponca

We had a very relaxing holiday with my parents in Ponca City. Thanks Mom and Dad for hosting us! Here are highlights from our trip (in very random order):

Claire spent most of her time crawling through the coffee table; a trick her grandpa taught her and which her own father found amusing also.

When it came time to open gifts, Claire was most preoccupied with the bows.

She was all tuckered out after opening gifts on Christmas day!

One of her favorite toys was a "laptop" that played music.

Claire also spent alot of time under the kitchen table. Here she is playing with wrapping paper.

We ventured outside so Claire could see and feel the snow.

Claire enjoyed her chocolates indirectly, as in playing with the packaging.

Part of Christmas dinner was "green stuff", a pistachio pudding salad. You can tell Brian is a huge fan.

Claire helped Grandma clean up after dinner.

We got to see Auntie Jane, who came in handy with entertaining Claire.

Daddy was also good for entertainment...

Here are some of the cardinals that we saw at Grandma and Grandpa's feeders.

Claire helped us identify some of the birds.

Here she is pushing her new stroller from Santa!

More bird-watching with Daddy.

Breakfast was more exciting with the proper attire.

Claire met her 2nd cousin, Brody, and she followed him around like a puppy.

Somebody discovered floor lamps...

And clocks.

Grandma helped show Claire how to unwrap her gifts.

We hope all of you had a wonderful holiday also!

Thanks grandma!

Grandma Karen sent Claire a really cool yookidoo bath toy. She's fascinated with the stream of water and loves grabbing the cups. Wouldn't be surprised if she figures out the on/off button really soon!

This week's palate development: tofu

Thank goodness Claire likes tofu! It's a staple in our household, plus it's easy to prepare for her as a finger food. She carefully and deliberately picked up each little cube and seemed to enjoy chewing them. She chased them down with gulps of water from a big girl cup. It's hilarious to see how enthusiastic Claire is about drinking from a cup! Most of it dribbled down her frontside.

The green stuff is curried lentils -- I know it looks gross but she loves it.

Santa!

I've always had mixed feelings about children's portraits with Santa, because half the time the kid in the photo is screaming their head off. Curiosity got the best of me though, and today Claire and I went to the mall to see the big man himself. Can you believe it...there was no line at all! Santa actually looked bored and he waved us in! Claire sat with him for a few minutes and just stared. She gave us one genuine smile when I hopped up and down and clapped like a santa cheerleader (anything for a smile!). Then she lifted her arms and leaned toward me -- her signal that we were done. Once she was back in my arms, she was all smiles again and Santa just laughed.

Where did the weekend go?

Somewhere between all the errands and holiday preparations I managed to get some cute shots of Claire this weekend. I'm organizing the toy/food donation drive at work, and Claire thought the bags of food were perfect playthings!


While I worked on typing up our annual holiday letter, Claire climbed through the end tables. Fortunately she didn't bump her head this time. Don't know if you can tell but she's got a good scrape on her forehead from an unfortunate face-plant earlier in the weekend.

This is how I was greeted this morning: the perfect start to my day! Claire stands in her crib in the morning and babbles a bit. Then she's all smiles when we open her bedroom door.

Claire really likes her glow-worm that Grandma Karen gave her. In this video you can see how she dances when she hears music, and I'm pretty sure she dances with the glowworm for a brief moment too. This bopping that she does is new and super-cute! She's also started swinging her head side-to-side like Stevie Wonder. I think Claire likes the dizzy sensation or something. It's very amusing!

Claire just got a jack-in-the-box from her Uncle Tony and Aunt Katie. Almost every time she is startled when the jester pops out! Claire's starting to laugh whenever it happens, but initially she was definitely on the fence.

Daddy is up to his usual sillyness. The only problem is he likes to do it right before she goes to bed:

Does anybody else think this is odd?

Most of you probably know that Brian LOVES carbs and has somewhat of a finicky palate. I get questioned all the time "so what do you cook at home?" since he doesn't really eat dairy, meat, or seafood. Well I gotta say in all actuality Brian is pretty low maintenance in the mealtime arena. He can whip up a dinner for himself in one minute, leaving me free to cook what I want most of the time. For example, here he is enjoying a "burrito" that he made: flour tortilla wrapped around cheerios and corn chips.

Brian is yet to convince me that this actually tastes good. I'm under the impression that it is very dry and that I might gag on it. Anyway, as Claire continues to transition more and more towards sharing "real" meals with us, I am developing a few concerns. She and I will be eating a variety of things that Brian will not eat, and I'm worried that his diet is going to take a turn for the worse as he skips out on the prepared meals and substitutes his carb creations. Cheerio and corn chip burritos 3-4 times per week! He will be in heaven but I will be worried about his nutritional health. What I would really like is an in-home chef who can cook up two dinners every evening. Anyone want to volunteer?

Time for a Change

Sorry sorry, once again I am tinkering around with our blog design. There's just something so enticing about these free blog backgrounds...this is my kind of scrapbooking!

Getting the hang of it

I went a little crazy with photos and video yesterday. I just think Claire's walking practice is so cute! She went around the living room and dining room, making stops along the way to see her favorite "toys" which include the christmas tree, her jumperoo, and the remote controls on the couch. We obviously have to help her steer the walker, otherwise she dead-ends and complains. Claire's time spent walking is a nice change of pace from her usual activity of pulling everything off the shelves or out of baskets.

Tree is up

We got our christmas tree this weekend! The good news is that it is still standing. Claire has been very gentle with it, only going so far as lightly pulling the bottom string of lights closer to her mouth a couple of times. She inspected all of Aunt Mary's ornaments before we put them on the tree, which means some of them got a little slobbery but overall no harm done!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're having a great time in Iowa City celebrating the holiday with Brian's parents. It's sooo cold outside but we're staying toasty indoors and Claire is our entertainment. She quickly discovered the stairs and climbed up all 16 of them, then turned around and was ready to go down head first except mommy intercepted her!


She had her first bath in a real bathtub too. (Our tub at home is in the bathroom that is being remodeled)

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner -- thanks to all of Karen's work! Claire had some turkey baby food and she tried pumpkin pie since it's a holiday. She loved it!

Claire's using the same highchair that her daddy sat in when he was a baby. It has held up remarkably well, as has the crib and playpen.

We hope you all had a super Thanksgiving too! We're definitely thankful to have such awesome family and friends!

Walking with Assistance

Claire has not joined a circus, but we think a mini person walking while pushing a mini cart is impressive and entertaining. Here she is showing off:

Oh yeah, and did I mention we paid $25 for this fancy toy. Claire doesn't care how much money we pay for the toys, she'll walk with anything she can find that will assist her.

High Five, Claire!

This is what you hear in our household all day now. When we parents observe a new "skill", we can't help ourselves and we repeat repeat repeat until it is ooooold news! Claire must be getting very tired of this.

Just give me the bottle I'll take it from there

Lately Claire's been taking matter into her own hands...at least when it comes to her bottle feedings. Brian and I find it remarkable that she can hold her bottle with one hand and whip it around as she pleases. At first we thought maybe her hand was sticky or something but that is not the case.

She is eating up a storm! A day at home goes like this:

6 am -- 6 oz bottle
8 am -- 5 oz baby food and 1/2 banana
10:30 am -- 4 oz bottle
1 pm -- 3 oz baby food and cheerios
3 pm -- 5 oz bottle
6 pm -- 4 oz baby food
8 pm -- 5 oz bottle

We made it through the week!

Oh what a week it has been! I (Sarah) have been sick as a dog, er pig, and it has taken me a full week to recover from possibly the worst head congestion I have ever experienced. Both Brian and Claire did not get this flu nearly as bad as I had it, thank goodness. I am finally starting to get my voice back, and I can breathe through my nose again! I am less excited about getting my sense of smell back, because now I can smell Claire's dirty diapers. For a while I felt invincible during diaper changes.

Claire is back to her usual antics around the house. It's so nice to have her in good health again.
She's playing "drums" with Mommy...
Helping Daddy put away pots and pans...

Crawling around under the crib (she likes to carry something in each hand)...

pulling her toys and books off the shelves...

and making a disaster zone in her room!

Thanks to Daddy for taking care of Claire and Mommy all week! Don't know where we'd be without him. He did a fantastic job, despite being sick himself.

Swine Flu?

The smell of pigs is in the air at the Sivitz household. The Doctor thinks that Claire and I(Brian) have now just gotten over Swine Flu and Sarah currently has a case of it. Unfortunately it appears to be hitting Sarah much harder than the rest of us. Poor Sarah! Oink Oink!

Happy Halloween!

We did all our Halloween festivities on Friday, and it was a good thing too because Mommy came down with a cold/flu that knocked her off her feet on Saturday. So unfortunately, no trick-or-treating for little Claire! Booooo...but here is a photo of the 3 of us on Friday at my work, where the costume theme was the 80's:


Brian brought Claire to his work and they the won "most original" costume prize. In case you can't tell in the picture, Brian is a banana tree. Anyway, yesterday I was in bed all day with a low fever, and Daddy and Claire handed out all the candy to trick-or-treaters. Today I am feeling better (at least I'm walking around the house), and certainly Claire's cute antics are helping. She helped Daddy with the laundry this morning:



Then she played in her room, dressed up as tinkerbell:


We had our cheerios snacktime in the backyard on a picnic blanket too. She and Daddy are napping right now...they're both getting over a cough, so none of us are feeling 100%! Hopefully next weekend will be better.