Pre-toddling – 15 months!

We have been busy busy chasing little Claire around lately! Since her first birthday she has started walking, filled up a mouthful of teeth, and learned all kinds of toddler mischief.

Its been a hot hot summer so Claire and I took some swimming lessons and have been splashing around on our back patio. Swimming lessons were mostly playtime but we did learn a little bit about blowing bubbles and how relaxing the water can be. She laid her head back one day while I swooshed her through the water and let out a big “ahhhh” sigh.

I gave her a mohawk after every swim lesson 🙂 #punkrockbaby #doitwhileyoucan

All that swimming makes us hungry! Claire is eating basically everything now. I try to keep it healthy, for example, her favorite foods are blueberries, beets, broccoli tots and bananas (yep, alliterative food choices!) But I guess I surprise folks sometimes, like the daycare ladies were surprised she ate a ziplock full of uncooked white mushrooms. Here are an absurd number of smiley baby pictures in her high chair.

ohhhh look at that hair!

Can you spy any teeth?

And tiny toes!

At daycare they had a 4th of July “parade” around the front driveway. Daycare is wiping down all the toys every day, but according to a recent study children are much more efficient at spreading viruses than adults (hope they didn’t pay too much for that insight). Daycare also has a splash pad, which Claire HATED at first but finally this week I got a report that she actually had fun in the water for the first time.

Claire started standing up around Mother’s Day this year, then she LOVED to push her walkers around, and finally she took her first steps in June. During this time there was a lot of Bear crawling (no more knees) and it was really cute. By early July she was up to a good 10 steps, and by the end of July she was a fully independent walker. Here are a few videos of her walking progression.

First she started bear crawling. We took her outside a bunch to encourage her to be on her feet!

And she still loved to push her stroller

Then she started standing and thinking about those first steps.

Getting brave! First step I captured on camera!

Then it was just a few at a time.

And gaining confidence, she is persistent!

Still has a case of the weebles

And sometimes I slowed her down with shoes

And then she really had it!

I try to keep shoes on her because in our open concept, a tiny tot can disappear fast, but with shoes I can hear her stomping around.

All of that walking and she can get into trouble fast. As she explores the house, we can see her curiosity grow. Here are some of her more mischievous moments.

I am proud to report that after a few days of training she can now get DOWN off the fireplace and couch.

And some of my futile attempts to deter the mischief.

I think we have a climber…

I might have mentioned that I have really enjoyed a company called Mini and Mine that makes “mommy and me” t-shirts. Here are some of them!

Oh Yeah, James and I leveled up! For James’ birthday this year Grandpa Greg and Grandma Liz came over and we cooked on James’ fancy new Traeger grill. I don’t have any pictures… except for the cake that we had originally ordered for Claire’s birthday but decided to use for James and it was massive and decadent and James’ favorite Oreo!

But here’s a cute picture of Claire with her daddy, even though it wasn’t on his birthday 🙂

For my birthday, Grandma and Grandpa Burkert and Aunt Bri and Elyse came to visit. We had an “old fashioned greenhouse raising party” and cooked pizzas on the fancy grill.

The greenhouse located behind the shed but it will be fun to have this fall and winter to keep my gardening hobby going. Right now I have some pumpkins and carrots busy sprouting in there! Since I’ve been having so much fun with it, I thought I would share some of my latest gardening successes 🙂

I have a few pictures from visits with my family during the re-opening.

We have been FaceTiming and phone calling as much as we can to keep up with our far flung fam! We miss everyone so much, and are just reminded to treasure every moment in the presence of friends and family. So, since I haven’t been good about taking FaceTime screenshots, here’s a compilation of goofy Facebook filters I put on my kid.