Just July

First thing first, Baby Finlee is home from the hospital and is doing wonderful!! Thank you for your prayers. She is already such a sweet blessing!

We are just having a typical July...hot, hot, hot!! We celebrated the 4th by swimming and eating lots of food and swimming some more; of course, all in the good company of family and friends.

The most amazing little girl

Meet our daughter...Miss Independent and she so super sweet!!
Freeze...Time I demand you to Stop for just a little while...she is growing too fast!

Swimming by herself...on the steps of course

Such the water bug...swim, swim, swim

With Daddy out at the farm; he was cutting a tree and when Claire saw it fall she started crying...Own a Pine Tree Farm + Cutting Trees = Crying Little Girl...not a good equation:) Maybe when she realizes that is where we get our furniture and how we get to buy her toys she might not cry anymore. All we heard (and are still hearing) is "tree fall, tree fall" and she sounds so upset.

Mimi and Aunt Elizabeth took Claire to the zoo while I visited Megan and Baby Finlee, she loved it!

Claire and the Lion....eye to eye. Mimi said they just watched each other and it was so neat!

My big girl doing her favorite chore...watering her flowers....she looks so big here:(

I love hearing all the new things she says, she is so much fun!

Random Thoughts by Claire's Momma

As I type this post, I have a 25 pound little girl with very blond hair growing longer everyday sitting to my left. She is attentively watching Baby Einstein MacDonald or "Cow" as she refers to it. She has experienced a relapse of the Baby Einstein movies in the last couple of weeks...If I had a nickle for every time I have heard "Shapes Momma, Shapes Momma" Watch Shapes Momma...for those of you that do not live in the Baby Einstein world just imagine a movie all about shapes as classical music plays in the background....just fill the excitement:) Bottom line - Miss Claire loves shapes so we watch shapes every night. I am just excited tonight she wanted to watch Cow...and there is always "Turtle" the underwater adventure.

We just had an argument because she was making a mess with her snack and I tried to clean her hands, only she wanted to "help" which meant do it herself. I won, cleaned her hands as she protested, then she got to "help" and clean them herself.

Miss Claire will be 21 months old next week and is becoming more and more independent everyday. She went through a little funk at school because her bestie "Ty Ty" transferred to another school but she is doing better now. Today one of the teachers asked me if Claire was doing some baby reading programs....I guess like the infomericals on TV....because Claire was so smart, the answer is no she is not on any program. And given that she is my first child I have no way of comparing her to another child or knowing what she should or should not be able to do. But I will take what her teacher said as a compliment. She knows her animals, points to her body parts, counts along with you to 10, knows several colors, talks in nearly sentences, answers yes or no to questions, sings along to certain songs, and even has tackled the potty many many times. She recognizes people and calls them by name....sorry, I am just a rambling proud Momma!

Given that her Momma has no fashion sense it would only make sense for her to be near obsessed with shoes and always double checking to see if I put her hair bow in. She plays in my shoes as if it is the funniest activity in the world....oh to the simple joys!!

Claire's nickname at school is "Claire Claire" so guess what....if you ask Claire her name "Claire Claire Wade" or "Claw Claw Wade" as it sounds most of the time. Last week I asked her my name "Momma Wade" and Nick was "Dada Wade".

"Claw Claw boo boo, hiss it Momma".......it can be the tiniest scratch but it gets kissed 100 times over.

Currently, getting a dish towel put on my head, the one I used to clean her hands and my hair pushed all in my face....

Since summer is here and we have been swimming, jumping off the side of the pool and diving board; jumping has become a new sport. Miss Claire wants to "jum jum jum"...even it is standing on a book on the floor we must "jum" off the book.

"I wuv you, Momma; I wuv you, Daddy"........she says them both several times a day without even being told "I love you" first.....absolutely melts my heart every time.

Claire Quote of the Week:
Last night I said....."Claire, where is Mae? (the doll)"....at church. "At church, for what?".....pray

....."read read Momma read read" have someone climbing in my lap with a book in hand, that's my little bookworm!

We can Officially say.....

WE CAN OFFICIALLY SAY...............BYE BYE Northwest Arkansas!!!!

After 18 trying, hard, months learning tons of lessons the Lord wanted us to learn we have finally sold and closed on our house in NWA!!!! I am still a little in shock to think this journey is over, it has not been fun. Even the last few months where we had a buyer and a contract has been very stressful; the contract signed on March 31 and closed on June 16, 2010. How glorious the Lord is for this prayer to be answered. Thank you for praying for us all these months!!!

It might take me a little time to shed all the "weight"...aka anxiety I have carried around all this time; its hard to lose weight over night, but I hope to be back to normal in no time!!!!!

WHAT WONDERFUL HAPPY DAY THE LORD HAS MADE!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

First ER Visit

Just a couple of pictures of my beloved little girl....she just makes my heart smile!

Let me start at the beginning. Tuesday night Claire went to bed around 8:30, I went to check on her and she was obviously running a fever, which was 102.8. I gave her tynelol and check on her several times throughout the night, fever goes down only to come back up. Wednesday morning fever is still acting like a roller coaster going up as high as 103.7 but we were always able to get it down, then the wheezing started. She saw her doctor around 2:00 that afternoon, received a breathing treatment at the office, which worked great and was given several different meds including an inhaler; being diagnosed with bronchitis. Nick and I both needed to work on Thursday so NeNe (Anna) came to keep Miss Claire on Thursday. Well as Wednesday went on the wheezing got worse so we set in the steaming bathroom, in hopes of helping her to breath easier, the inhaler was not helping. The fever kept rising and got up to 103.8...after taking two cold baths, more medicine, cool wash clothes, eating popsicles, drinking ice cold water, and even sitting in the baby pool outside (trying to make sitting in cold water fun) her fever went back down!!

Then around 1am we woke up to Miss Claire (she was in bed with me) breathing so hard and fast, her temperature was back up to 103.7....gave her more meds, tried the shower thing again to help her breath, but being very careful not to make her hotter. When Claire was 3 months old she had RSV and the doctor told me all the signs for when its time to go to the hospital...breathing fast and so hard the rib cage sticks out...well with every breath Claire took it looked like she was sucking in her tummy as much as possible. Then she threw up, temp was 103.9 about the time we got the throw up cleaned up, she threw up again. I told Nick and Anna it was time to go to the hospital...and out the door we went. They got us back immediately (there was no one else waiting) Claire's temp was 104.2 by now, they did a chest x-ray, a breathing treatment, and unsuccessfully attempted to draw blood...let me say the attempt to draw blood was a nightmare!!!! (4 adults trying to hold down a baby when a lab tech can't find a vein, thinks she does and then proceeds to sit there and dig around until Claire's arm was blue, Nick had to leave the room, me and Anna told the lab tech enough was enough and she had to stop)...all of this with my baby crying big huge tears, which led to a crying Momma! I know her fever got much higher during all this, she was so stressed. The respiratory threapist gave her a breathing treatment and compared her breathing to whooping cough. The x-ray showed her lungs were clear...thank you Lord....we feared full pneoumina had already set in. The doctor diagnosed her with a viral throat coop and bronchtis and said to continue all the medicine and sent us home. I borrowed a breathing treatment machine from a friend and we continued breathing treatments.


Fever finally went away midday Thursday and we have not done a breathing treatment since yesterday. Claire slept great last night and is wanting to play more today! Thank you Lord!


I am so thankful to have my healthy little girl back and I can't explain what a new found respect and compassion I have for the parents and grandparents of sick/special needs babies. Going through all those tests, sticks and pricks, and all along the baby not bring able to tell you what is wrong or where it hurts. My BIG prayer is that all the children's hospitals in the world will have to close there doors because there are no patients!!!! God tells us to pray BIG and that is my new BIG prayer....and of course all the workers will find jobs very easily because the Lord will provide:)

These boots were made for walking

Jump!

Miss Claire is fearless when it comes to swimming and the water. She is already jumping off the diving board...with assistance of course. I have a feeling we are going to be spending a lot of time in the pool this summer!...excuse the mismatch of her swim suit:) Ready set JUMP!

Hi Momma!

Cheese and ready to jump again!

Swimming to the steps

Taking a break from jumping

Eden Isle

Memorial Day weekend 2010 we made our way to the lake house at Eden Isle to join my family. Oh, how I love this place! I have so many memories of growing up on this lake and playing at this house and I hope to share all this with my Claire for a very long time. I will say the island is much more crowded than when I was a child and the houses are way "too big" for lake houses. Back in the day there were very strict code restrictions for the properties on the island well now, not so much.....I wish there were still restrictions. I am not one that wants this place to change. It's a little piece of heaven amidst the crazies of everyday life. I remember being the only "kids" riding around on golf carts and the security guard calling my grandfather because his grand kids were, well acting like kids I guess???.....now there are way more golf carts, mules, four-wheelers, than cars. Oh how the times are changing....guess I better go along for the ride! Miss Claire loves shades

Swimming in her pool...she decided she needed to take off her suit. Ha!

Mae even got to go for a walk around the block

The birds...and squirrels got fed

Enjoying the rough waves of the lake

Hanging out on the tube with Daddy

Cheesin' with Auntie Elizabeth

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day!