Sitting and Squirming

Claire's made great strides with sitting over the last few weeks and can now sit unsupported for a minute or two at a time. Of course, she tends to list a little, as you can see from the photos. But she's getting there. I'm so excited for her to be able to sit and play with toys on her own, and to sit facing forward in the stroller! It's her first big step in the transition from helpless blob to functional human being. : )

She's been moving around a bit more lately as well. This past weekend we saw her take her first few tentative hops in the Johnny Jump-Up, which was impressive considering that Elsa didn't really jump in that thing until she was at least six months old.

Claire also has been moving while lying on her back, strangely enough. She lifts her legs up in the air and then bangs them down onto the floor, and manages to move herself around by doing that. (And apparently she's not the only one in the family who does it—Tanya posted on her blog about cousin Tommy doing this too.) Obviously, I don't think it's intentional, but it's amazing how much distance Claire can get. Just today I put her in the play gym in the family room and then left to go get some laundry. In the five minutes or so that I was gone, not only did Claire scootch herself right out of the play gym, she actually ended up on the hard wood floor! She wasn't too happy about it, either.

Nights are going extremely well—Claire now usually has her final bottle at about 7 p.m., goes to bed immediately after the bottle, and we don't hear from her again until about 5 or 6 a.m. I give her a quick early breakfast, and then it's right back to bed! She generally sleeps until at least 7:30 a.m., and sometimes as late as 9. Unfortunately, Claire continues to refuse to nap in her crib. I just don't understand it—she falls asleep in the crib at night without a peep. During the day, it's a whole different story. I have repeatedly tried to get her to nap in that darn crib, because with Elsa running around and making noise, the swing is just not the ideal place for Claire to be napping. But to no avail—whether she's just drowsy or she's sound asleep, when I move her to the crib, those baby blues pop wide open and she's screaming in no time. On the few occasions when I have gotten her to fall asleep in the crib, she wakes up within a half an hour, and ends up in the swing for the rest of her nap. It seems like both the girls are just destined to be light daytime sleepers, but very good nighttime sleepers. I guess I can't complain about that. Hopefully Claire will learn to nap in the crib by the time she grows out of the swing!

And Claire and Elsa have continued to bond and have fun together—here's a video with Claire laughing and smiling while Elsa dances for her. It's so fun to watch the two of them together!