11 Months – Quarantine

Well who would have thought we’d be here? 11 months old and quarantined!

I’m going to start with a bit of bummer news, we are going to cancel Claire’s birthday party, but never fear, we will still celebrate virtually. I haven’t figured out how yet, but keep an eye on your inbox and look for instructions on how to join a video party!

The Official 11 Month Photos

Once again, she won’t lay still for more than one photo.

Hold that plank, girl!

She got the letter “I”… and she’s chewing on it!

Mom, I’m not impressed.

I just want to stand and play!

And my doggy Ace, he’s my favorite!

Working from home

Well I started working from home on March 16th and I have kept Claire home for 3 weeks now. James is still teaching private lessons and keeping the shop open per the board of directors at his club.

Not gonna lie, it’s a little bit of a flashback to bedrest with regards to being stir crazy, except now I’m doing full time daycare and day job. Multitasking non-stop is hard. Really hard. I think when this is all done I’m going to really enjoy a little peace and quiet and a few minutes of not being responsible to anyone.

I asked Claire what she thought about staying home with mommy…

Just kidding. That’s a little dark for a baby. She just sticks anything in her mouth and mommy doesn’t have any toys other than the nerf gun in her bedroom. Don’t ask, I just literally don’t have another place for a nerf gun, so bedside table is where it lives.

Anyway, here are a few pics of me with my new coworker:

in case anyone is wondering I took the pic that is my desktop background on our honeymoon.

Learning microsoft PowerPoint.

And you can’t tell in this photo but she had just written her first excel formula, which I thought was very fitting for the times: “=?????”

You can’t make this stuff up.

I often work on the bar stools at my kitchen counter, and I get this type of “drop in visitor”

I’ve heard some people call their kids their coworkers, so that was pretty entertaining.

“My coworker would like me to slice her more blueberries”

”Sorry I was on mute because I had to get dog food out of my coworkers mouth“

”My coworker needs me to change her onesie because she smells like spoiled milk”

But we did just do something we said we never would… we bought a baby play pen. This week, Claire ate dirt from the succulents behind the couch, an unidentified organic object that blew in off the porch, grass and dog food. So, sorry kid, but you need containment.

And I thought I’d share one last video of what you might hear in the background of my conference calls. (But really, you could hear anything, she has farted, burped, hollered… my boss even thought her crying was a cat one time)

How we stay sane

…Well, if you can call it sane. We have been taking walks when the weather is nice, though we have had quite an unseasonable cold front this weekend.

We have been video chatting anyone who will answer us! Like Aunt Nancy

and Great grandma Ruth

Oh and we use lots of humor, especially with filters on the baby.

Here are a few… ok a lot… of my favs

Every girl needs her mask

Here is Claire as a roll of toilet paper… timely.

Here she is with freckles

Annnnd sometimes we make her dance to Space Jam when mommy and daddy indulge in netflix

Destructobaby

Well, as darling as she is, Claire is curious, and in the process, she is destructive. 3 things she speed crawls to: the pantry, the laundry room (where the dog food is) and the dishwasher.

She loves her toy that is the shape sorter, we just took the lid off and she loves to take the toys out.

Somehow, she has managed to figure out what she is not supposed to do and she LOVES to try to do them. The one that boggles my mind, there are some covers for the lugnuts on our toilets, they’re not attached it’s just for vanity, but they’re on the toilet…. I don’t really want them in my baby’s mouth. So naturally, she is allured to them, and she remembers whenever we go in the bathroom that she really wants to check those out!

Miscellaneous March Pics

Claire loves to feed herself, she gets jazzy in her high chair as I’m cutting up her fruit. Her favorite is blueberries, followed closely by clementines!

and sometimes it get messy!

and Ace loooooves to clean up after her

she is starting to get a little more hair on her noggin

And I have a bunch of cutie out fits that nobody gets to see right now!

And she lovessss to practice walking though she really isn’t ready to take steps on her own quite yet. (Though Mommy hopes she learns while we are home on quarantine so that we get to see the first steps!)

Alrighty folks, that’s all I’ve got! Hope you are all staying safe, sharing paper products with your neighbors, and enjoying the change of pace (even though it might be a challenge).

If you want to have a virtual dinner date with Claire, please reach out- she eats around 6 CST and she loves to see all her people from afar!