Clara Love

Can I take a moment to totally brag about my beautiful girl? I hope you don't mind, because right now I just can't help it.

Clara is an absolute joy. We love her to pieces. There's seriously no other way to say it, because she has turned into the sweetest (almost) 7 month old. One of my favorite things is to watch her when Jordan walks in the room. Her eyes follow him everywhere and she looks at him with this expression like he is the best thing in the whole world. I say to him, "Look, she loving you!" because that's exactly what it looks like when she stares at him.
I love to hear her make her sweet sounds. While she's busy exploring everywhere she is talking to herself in these beautiful coos. I try to capture them on video, and it never quite gets it right.

She LOVES other people. Whenever we go out, all I hear is "Wow! What a good baby!" She has never, ever cried in public. As a matter of fact, when she is starting to get fussy, but I don't want to quite put her to bed, we go to the store, because #1- she LIKES car rides and #2- She loves going around in the store. When the old ladies talk to her, she smiles right back. She likes looking at people as much as they like looking at her.

Yesterday during church it became especially apparent that she was special (in the same way all babies are special, don't get me wrong). All I heard all day was how cute she is, I even had people come up to me from across the room to inform me of her adorableness. And she, of course, lives up to her cuteness by smiling at all the nice people and making sweet coos at them. When I handed her off so that I could go play the piano, not a sound of sadness. Not a single complaint, she was happy to be with whomever.


I feel so blessed to have her in my life. I love it when she wears yellow because she's like a ray of sunshine.

Day Twenty-One: Another Moment

Alrighty, another moment, huh? Well, I guess I'll just take this moment to talk about my favorite television shows!

So, here's the deal: I actually prefer watching television season as opposed to movies. I like that I have less of a time commitment. I can sit down for less than an hour rather than committing to sit around for as long as 2 hours for a movie. I also prefer the longer, more intricate story lines that can come out of a good television show (note: GOOD television, I find I'm kinda picky now), simply because things can play out over a longer period of time. So, without further ado, my top five television shows:



5. The Office: Who doesn't love The Office? It's awesome! I particularly love Season1 and 2 when the awkwardness was at an all-time high.



4. House: How could such a depressing show be so funny? And so interesting?



3. Stargate SG1: This probably makes me a major nerd. I actually resisted when Jordan suggested it in the beginning because it was so nerdy, but shortly before Clara was born I reluctantly gave in. And I have been addicted ever since. (I also thoroughly enjoyed Stargate Atlantis).



2. LOST: I. Love. Lost. Even with the questionable ending. Jordan and I are STILL talking about it. We had a big realization recently about the relationship between Jacob and Ben the other day that... well, I won't bore you but this television genius.

And finally, my favorite:



1. Scrubs: I can watch an episode three times and still laugh out loud every time. It's just so funny to me! I can understand how other people don't appreciate it, it's pretty silly. But personally I think Zach Braff is hilarious. Internet Five!

Any other suggestions?

(P.S. all of these shows can be found on Netflix Streaming)

EDIT! I totally forgot about Gilmore Girls! Quick and witty gilmore girls! Throw them in there between Lost and House (I forgot about them because you can't watch the episodes on Netflix. Yet.)

Day Twenty: This Month

So, this last month has been spent trying to figure out my life here in Arizona. Jordan's no longer home with me, it's just Clara and I. Which usually isn't bad at all. She's a good, easy baby. I spend some time playing with her, and then let her play with her toys and figure out how to crawl while I try to get some cleaning done.

Really, the last month has just been dealing with loneliness. I think this is something every new mom goes through, usually just earlier than I did. But now, I'm home alone in a new city and I'm just trying to figure out what to do with my time! It's not that I don't have stuff to do, but a lot of this last month has been finding ways to structure my days so I'm not going crazy.

For the most part, I feel like I'm starting to get my daily rhythm. My house is relatively neat, I keep up on the dishes, do those weekly cleaning things that need to get done. I've managed not to spend my days eating bon-bons and watching soaps (by "bon-bons" I mean anything chocolate and by "soaps" I mean Netflix). Clara's on a flexible schedule, and I try to get out every now and then. Going for walks is going to get more difficult into the summer, though...

But really, my biggest struggle has been to make friends. I like socializing. I really do. But how do you actually make friends when you're a mostly home-bound mom? Usually I meet peoplethrough church, but our ward is different. Clara's the youngest baby there (for now), and there are very few small children. So no mother's groups and very few other women in my situation. I did find out that my downstairs neighbor also has a baby... but I have to be brave enough to go introduce myself. This whole friends thing used to happen naturally: I went to class, met people, we ended up doing more and more together and ta-da! I have friends.

So, the trick is I have to go find somewhere to socialize. There's no playgrounds close (and Clara really is too small). I'm working on the whole church thing. Even though there aren't women who are in my exact situations doesn't mean I can't make friends. So there's some hope there. Really, the truth is that it's just going to take time. Until then? Maybe I'll just have to be a little lonely. And I think I'm ok with that.

Clara at 6 Months

I'm in total and utter shock that she's already been alive for half a year. I mean, when I think that we're halfway to toddlerhood... well, I can't think about it or it'll make me crazy.

She had her 6 month appointment last Tuesday. She's 17 pounds 8 oz and 25 inches long, which puts her somewhere in the 90th percentile. That's my big girl! She's still chubby-ish, but really she's just more muscular. Her little round face is adorable!

She's about thisclose to true crawling, although she gets around just fine.



One day I went in the other room as I was cleaning and talking to Jordan on the phone, and she followed me in there from the living room! She had to go all the way down the hallway, turn right and then go a couple more feet pass the laundry room. I was thoroughly impressed. She's loves to grab and eat everything. Mostly because she has a tooth! A little lower front one that is VERY sharp, and she loves to use it (yes, ouch).

She basically hates solids. I haven't been very diligent because it's still just easier to nurse her, but hates everything, even sweet things! We gave her a sweet potato, and she made a sour face. The best luck I had was I gave her a strawberry to munch on, and she went at it, but when she got halfway she started making the sour face again! Because I don't pump much I haven't mixed them with breastmilk yet, so I'm going to try that with our sweet peas tonight. We're going to try some butternut squash here tomorrow and see how that goes as well.



She LOVES to blow raspberries. It's the funniest thing. She'll just be playing and start making lip buzzes (my little singer is already learning her warm-ups....). She also does it when she's really sad and angry, she lip buzzes at me. I'm still trying to figure out what it means...



She is quite the charmer. In Provo, everyone had babies. No big deal. In Scottsdale, babies are a big deal. Every grandma has to coo at them. All the little kids point, "That' s a baby, mama!" And everyone must squish her thighs. Because they are THAT delicious. And she is so good. I have never had her melt down in public, she just smiles and goes with the flow, even if she's been awake for 4 hours (this DID happen one day and she was a total rock star). She just likes to get out and see things and she's so easy.


She's just wonderful. Jordan and I are totally smitten with her. People ask us all the time, "Don't you just spend the whole day kissing her chubby cheeks?" Yes. Yes we do. I mean, come on! Look at those things! They're just begging to be kissed!

Our New Apartment

What a great post for a ton catchup I need to get done. I"ll try to be brief:

We moved! We're in Scottsdale, in our beautiful new apartment and getting into regular life. Our apartment is just great. I love my kitchen (complete with dishwasher... *love*). I have never, ever had a walk-in closet or a bathroom attached to my bedroom. Small things, but I feel like I'm living in the lap of luxury. It has big of windows that let lots of light in (a bit of a bittersweet thing here in Arizona) that make it feel very light and open, which I really like.

I also LOVE the location. We're three minutes from Jordan's work. There's a Safeway a block away. I have never, even in my life been closer to a Target than to a Walmart, but I LOVE it (Target is next to Jordan's work, about 3 minutes away, Walmart is across the freeway, about 5 minutes away). We've got a pool and a exercise room (which thank-you-very-much I use everyday).

Overall, we're pretty happy. We're looking at MAYBE getting a house in the next year or so. The problem is that we just love being so close to Jordan's work, and the houses around here are rather expensive. I could I stand apartment life longer than a year? I'm not sure. I really do want a backyard for Clara to play in as she becomes a toddler. The point being that it's the perfect place for us now.

Day 19: Something You Regret

I honestly regret ever being mean. Don't get me wrong, I'm not perfect now and I'm sure that I come off as mean sometimes to someone, and I totally regret that. I can think of this one time in high school I said something really mean to another girl. I still think about it and regret it.

Other than that, I have a pretty happy life and I'm happy with where I am now! Let's end this on a happy note....