Wordy Wednesday: Little Cowgirl

In our neck of the woods, Stock Show is a big deal.  Before kids, going to stock show really meant a couple of hours actually at stock show, with the rest of the night getting caught up with friends at the bar.  These days, most of our friends go to the rodeo, do a little shopping, and rarely make it to the bar.  Even though we won't be going this year, Claire couldn't resist showing off her cowgirl attire.

And yes, that is dust all over Darren's hat and food all over Claire's shirt.  :)

The First Big Change of the New Year...

...is Claire's! 

Today she started her new daycare.  For the past 8 months or so we've had a sweet Grandma type gal watching her and one other little guy.  It has been a perfect situation.  The other mom and I have been friends for years, and the kids are 1 week apart in age.  Since it's always been just the 2 kids they've gotten lots of love and snuggle time.

This winter our daycare Grandma decided to take a 2 month vacation.  Which meant that we needed to find someplace new for the kids.  Living in a small town means that there aren't too many choices for daycare, and all the in-home day cares where I would want her to be, were full.  There is one daycare center in town that has both an infant and toddler room.  And it just happened to work out that they had 2 infant openings right at the time we needed them.  So, the kids were able to stay together!

There are some benefits to the new center that I'm really excited about.  Claire hasn't eaten any baby food for about 3 months, and it's been hard to send table food to the old daycare for her.  Since the new place serves lunch she is able to eat with the toddler room.  While she's been growing well, I think this will help put a little more weight on her as we transition her off the bottle.

I'm also excited about the interaction with the new kids and the staff.  While I loved our daycare Grandma, she didn't spend a lot of time on the floor playing with the kids.  There are a couple of kids who are just learning to crawl too, and I think having kids at, as well as above, her gross motor level will be beneficial.

This morning when I dropped Claire off, she did perfect.  She doesn't have any separation or stranger anxiety, so I know for sure I was more nervous than she was!  I talked to the director just a few minutes ago, and all is well, just as I knew it would be!

Reflections

First of all Happy New Year!    We had a quiet New Year's Eve at home last night.  Winter finally made it to Colorado.  We had snow, wind and bitterly cold temperatures.  We had planned an evening with friends, but Claire came down with an awful sounding cough Thursday night, and we didn't want to take her out.  We spent the evening curled up on the couch, staying warm, and just enjoying our time together. 

And 2010?  Wow, what a year!

This time last year I was 8 months pregnant.  We were getting so close to meeting our baby, and while there was excitement, there was also fear.  Fear of the known and the unknown.  We knew she had a heart defect.  We knew she would need open heart surgery before she was 6 months old.  The unknown was Down syndrome.

And to top it all off, I was nervous about having a baby, ANY baby.  Growing up, I'd always said I didn't want kids. And now, here I was, just weeks away from having a baby.  The first time mom nerves went into high gear...what was I going to do with a baby?  what if I was a terrible mom?  what if I wasn't ready?  what was I going to do if my baby really did have Ds?

When I got pregnant, my constant, never ending prayer was for my baby to be healthy, happy and whole.  I didn't think that was too much to ask for.  People have healthy kids all the time.  Instead, my child had health issues and a disability.  I felt cheated.  Surely there was someone else more qualified to have a child with special needs.

And then she was born.  And I was in love.  Totally, completely in love.  She was here, beautiful and perfect.  My fears were calmed.  I could do this.

Just doing this, turned into loving this. 

Loving each and every accomplishment, celebrating every milestone.  Cherishing the tight hugs and the open-mouthed, slobbery kisses.  Laughing with my daredevil as we fly through the house, and hang upside down.  Loving every bedtime book.  Setting up the tower of blocks, just to happily knock them over again and again.  Each smile brightening my day.

The last year has had some challenges.  Days have been busy, the house has gone uncleaned.  Therapy and doctors appointments pile up.  Finding balance between work and home has been hard at times.

But through it all, I wouldn't change a thing.  I wouldn't change the friends I've met, the things I've learned.  Most importantly, I wouldn't change Claire.

Christmas Pictures

Starting in on presents

Discovering how delicious wrapping paper is

Excited to find there really is something under all that wrapping paper

and then distracted by more paper to chew on.

This one is just the right size!

And it's yummy too

Snuggling with the new toys

Playing with dad

Bows are the best crawling motivator ever!  I think I'm going to leave some out...

The Fam at my sis's house

Mimi and the girls

My niece Ali turned 1 a couple of days before Christmas so we also celebrated her first birthday

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all have have a wonderful time with friends and family over the holiday weekend!

Yesterday, we finally got Claire into see Santa...and she was fairly unimpressed.  We plopped her on his lap and she was quite content to just hang out.  I was a little afraid she would start pulling on his beard, but she didn't even try.

Today we've spent the day doing odds and ends around the house.  We had lunch with friends, and will be going to church tonight.  We will spend Claire's first Christmas morning at home, then will start making the rounds to see the grandparents.  It will be a long weekend of traveling, but we are thankful our family lives close enough that we are able to see them all.

To Tide You Over...

I've been a blog slacker lately.  Things have been quiet, so I don't have much to blog about.  But thats not a bad thing...

The only update I have is that Claire is actually getting not 1, but 2 teeth!  We joke that she is going to be a jack-o-lantern because one is in the usual spot in the lower center, but the other appears to be an upper eye tooth.

And to tide you over until I have more to say, one of my favorite recent pictures.