A Day in the Life of The Sidwells: April 2012

April Showers bring.....May babies in the Sidwell house! I love May, I really do, but we are about to embark in the craziest month of our year. I'm not complaining at all, just breathing in the calm before the storm! Here is a basic breakdown of our month....

May 3rd-Makayla's b-day party at school
May 4th-Makayla's birthday and meeting kindergarten for lunch during the field trip
May 5th-Girls cheer competition

May 11th-Hannah's kindergarten
May 12th- Olivia's 2nd birthday and girls State cheer meet
May 13th-Mother's day
May 15th-Field trip with Makayla's class to Decatur Zoo

May 16th-Last day of school for Makayla
May 19th-Bean Day! (annual family gathering)
May 20th-Big girls b-day party

May 23rd-Hannah's B-day, Hannah's last day of preschool + school party + school picnic
May 27th-Hannah's Frog Pond graduation
May 28th-probably a parade in there somewhere

.......AND this is why I may not be the best at answering calls/texts/emails for the next month AND if I do not see you after looking right at you in the store (this happens on occassion!) you will know why!! I'm sure I am leaving something out and this is in addition to our normal routine.

If I had one word to describe little Claire, it would be DIVA! I used to hate when moms referred to their little girls as divas.....then I had a Claire! Wowser, this sweet little happy girl can go from smiley to meltdown in .00001 seconds. I've never seen a baby so...colorful....she's fitting right into that rainbow role :) To say I am behind on Claire's updates would be an understatement but I will try to fill in the last 3 months. Claire at 7 months (with Hannah)

What is she doing??? *She is eating lots of foods. Pretty much anything we eat, she will eat in smaller pieces. She loves pancakes, tomatoes, carrot chunks, olives and cheerios. *We are working on a sippy cup but have a long way to go on that one. If her drink is not coming directly from my chest, she has little to no interest in it. *She can sit up completely unassisted, move onto belly comfortably, get on hands and knees, rock back and forth but no crawling yet. She will pull up to her knees and slowly walk if we are holding her up. *She has added baba, dada and gobbob to her vocabulary (she said mummom first months ago!) *She sleeps in her own room now (tear!) but it's so nice to have our room 90% back (we occassionally wake up to others that have snuck in!) Claire at 8 months, in big girl PJs

What she loves?? *Peek a Boo *Swinging at the park *Other babies, I have to watch her because she wants to eat them *Eating grass, flowers and any other part of nature she can get in her mouth What she doesn't love??? *Bounceroo *Strollers without a snack or toy *Mommy and Daddy stopping her from grabbing things she shouldn't have Claire 9 months after getting ahold of a marker

Other updates??? *Claire is still 100% a cloth baby, I am amazed at the fact I even like doing it and it's always a great conversation starter. Now that we have moved into One Size, I do not have to buy diapers.....at all! *Breastfeeding is going great, I have stopped the extra pumping for no reason other than I was tired of it. When I do pump however, it's like a dam breaking and the milk is flowing! *We have moved into mostly 12 month clothes, I'm ready for the nice weather to stay for good so she can wear her cute summer gear *At the 9 month checkup she is 27 inches (24%) and 19lbs 11oz (73%) I do not think she will stay such a shorty but we will see. Greg and I are both tall and her big sisters are tall for their age, I guess we will see if she pulls the short genes from my family tree! I have a ton of pictures that are on our camera, just not uploaded. Hopefully I will be on top of that before the next post! That's all for this month, I'm sure I will think of other facts later but this is good for now :)