Clara 9 months!

Clara 9 Months!! 

Weight 14.77 lbs (2%)

Height: 26.38 in. (14%)

Head: 17.1 in. (35%)

-Shortly after Clara turned 8 months she started crawling.  Throughout the month she picked up on it fast and is now a pro!  She can really move quick when she wants to get to something!

-Still no teeth

-Said her first words "hi da da".  We go to visit Robby on Wednesdays for lunch and when we got there I said "Clara say hi dad" like I usually do when we see him after we haven't for a while.  Right after I said it, Clara clearly said 3 syllables that sounded just like "hi da da".  We even had one of Robby's co-workers there who heard it and agreed.  We left it as a coincidence, because she didn't do it for a while, but then she started doing it again and I got her on video doing it December 15th.

-She also babbles "momomomom" but I haven't decided if there is any meaning behind it when she says it. 

-Her pickiness in eating is really starting to come out.  Before I just thought it was because she wasn't great at actually eating the food, but now she is really showing that she does not want certain things.  She purses her lips together and does a little scrunch face/head shake to show that she does not want it.

-Because of her above picky behavior we took to having a Clara eating cheering squad.  Every time she took a bite we'd cheer and get all excited about her eating.  This worked best when Dad was around and it also led to her learning how to clap!

-She loves cheering (holds her hand up and shakes it and does a little yea yea yea sound) and is a clapping pro.

-Wants to be down on the ground when we are outside and be a part of the action.  It's hard though cause it's cold and wet so I don't want her to get down and crawl around.  It's times like that that I'm excited for her to be walking.

-She still loves Calin and gets so excited to see him in the morning and after their naps.  She wants to play with the toys that he has (much to his dismay) and be apart of everything he does.  Calin also likes to have whatever Clara does and she is quite good at expressing her frustration when he takes something away from her.   

-She is a picky eater, but does have foods that she likes to eat.  Her favorites are bananas and sweet potatoes.  Even when she is really not in a mood to eat I can usually always get her to eat these two foods.  She also LOVES puffs and will gobble those up.

-Over Thanksgiving I started giving her little bits of table food (roll, mashed potatoes, etc)  and she really liked that.  We have slowly been adding little bits and bites of things we are eating and she seems to be really liking that.

-She still wakes up once or twice in the night.  I can usually feed her and she'll go right back to sleep.  Then she'll wake up around 6 or 7 to eat.  Sometimes she''ll go back to sleep after that for another hour or so and sometimes she is up for the day.  

-She is still taking 2-3 naps.  Her evening nap is still happening, but usually it is when we go somewhere at evening or right before dinner.  She still doesn't seem quite ready to give it up so I'll keep letting her take it!  If she doesn't get it she goes to sleep early, but then wakes up and it takes her a while to get back to sleep.  

-She still does not love books, but sometimes when she is in the right mood she will sit and read a book with me.  She doesn't have any particular favorites, but she likes the "BabyBug" magazines that my mom ordered for Calin.  We did get a book from the library that had a bunch of pictures of babies and she really liked reading that book.  

-She likes to look at our animal flash cards and the sheep seems to be her favorite.  Those cards helped us a lot in our drive up to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving! 

-She is out of most of her 3-6 month clothes but mostly because it got too cold to wear them so we had to pull out all her 6-9 month stuff that was warmer.  They are pretty big on her, but she will grow! 

-She is still wearing size 2 diapers.  

-She really likes to be standing up and when we put her down she makes her way to the edges of the room and pulls herself up on anything she can. 

We love our little Clara and have mixed emotions about her growing up so fast! I love to see her grow and learn new things, but am sad that she is not going to stay little forever. 

 Hopefully I remembered most of everything about our 9 month Clara since I am completing this post in January (December was busy and I got behind).  

Calin's Accident

Riding in the dirt track the day before his accident. 

The Tuesday after we got back from Thanksgiving, Calin and Clara and I set out on a usual walk around the block so Calin could ride his bike.  We often do this in the afternoon because Calin and Clara both love to be outside and it helps kill time waiting for Dad to come home.  Thankfully I made sure Calin put his helmet on before we left.  

We headed on our way and got to the corner above where we visit a goat.  From that corner down to the goat the street is downhill.  Calin has been getting really good at balancing and we get super excited when he lifts up his feet and rides.  So when he started down the hill with his feet up my first reaction was excitement cause he was cruising.  However, about 2 seconds later I realized he was not putting his feet back down. I started to panic as he kept going and picking up speed.  I started off with the stroller running behind him yelling for him to put his feet down and stop, but at that point I already knew he was going down.  I watched him fall and hit the pavement as I ran after him as the bike wobbled and he fell.  

This was how he was most of the afternoon after falling. 

As I caught up to him he was grabbing his mouth and I could see that there was already a LOT of blood.  I had no idea where the blood was coming from in his mouth but I could see that he had chipped his front tooth.  I threw the bike up on the stroller, picked Calin up and started home as fast as I could carrying Calin, pushing Clara, and while trying to call Robby on the phone to see if he was home yet to come and help me get the kids home.   Calin was screaming and crying and yelling "my bike! my bike!"  Poor kid was still so worried about his bike.  He kept saying it all the way home.  

Occasionally though we would be able to distract him and get a little smile. 

As we made it into the circle approaching our house we got almost to the driveway where Robby saw us and came out to grab Calin and help me get the kids inside.  We ran inside to start cleaning up Calin and to see if we could figure out where the bleeding was coming from.  His lip was pretty swollen and banged up and his tooth was chipped and he was still bleeding quite a bit from the inside of his upper lip.  We decided it would be best to take him in because we didn't know if he would need stitches or not.  

We tried to take him to insta care first where a nurse came out and looked at him before admitting us and told us they did not do the inside of the mouth so we'd have to go to the ER.  Thankfully they are just right by each other and we headed over there.  During all of this Calin was very worked up and would not let anyone near him or his mouth.  It made it really hard to figure out exactly how bad the cut was.  He would not even stand on the scale for them to figure out how much he weighed.  Poor kid was just in pain and so scared of what was going to happen.  

They admitted us and the doctor said he would need a cat scan and some stitches in his lip.  They told us they would need to sedate him in order to do this though because he would not lay still otherwise.  He fought the sedation hard and did not want to give in.  The doctors even commented on how it took longer and that he fought it.  It was really weird to watch though since he was not totally out and his eyes were still open.  It was hard to watch.  Once down Robby went with him to get the cat scan while I fed Clara because it was dinner time and I knew it would be a while before we got any food.  

Once they brought him back the doctor came to do the stitches.  The cut was right up at the top of his lip on the inside and the doctor said it was good we got it stitched up because otherwise it might have kept opening back up.  

Watching him come back from the sedation was painful and also somewhat hilarious.  He kept trying to pull all the wires and everything that was hooked on him off.  He was also trying to talk but nothing came out coherent.  Robby gave him some cars to hold so he would not try to take anything off anymore.  He then kept trying to drive his cars on the railing of the bed and it was hilarious and sad to watch as he still did not have full control of his movements.  

Slowly he returned to his normal self and we headed home to get him taken care of and settled.  On our way home we stopped to get some food at KFC.  We got him some mashed potatoes so it would be easy to eat.  We got home and he ate a little but mostly just seemed miserable and tired.  We went to go and start getting him ready for bed and he was reading with us and threw up all over Robby and I.  Darn side effects of the sedation.  Poor kid.  

Robby was having to hold him up to keep him from falling over. 

The afternoon and evening was just so sad.  I felt so bad for our poor little boy and wished I could have gone back and stopped him from cruising down that hill.  

Sorry for the novel, but this afternoon is embedded in my brain and I remember every moment so well.  It is all so clear in my memory.  Especially the moments carrying Calin, pushing Clara and wiping blood off of his chin and mouth as he bled everywhere while I tried to walk/run as fast as I could home.  Mostly it made me realize how even though I may do all I can to help keep my kids safe (wear a helmet, tell him to slow down, teach him to be safe) things still happen.  So even though I can't keep things from happening I can be there for them and help them through everything.  So glad he was ok and so grateful for our little boy.  He healed quickly and was right back up on his bike again the next day!

Riding around the block again the next day. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

We headed up to Salt Lake City/Park City on Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving.  My parents had rented an apartment type place in Park City for us all to stay at and spend Thanksgiving all together.

The trip on Wednesday went smoothly with the kids.  We were not in a hurry, but still managed to make good time only stopping a couple of times for breaks and feedings.  We made our usual stop in Beaver to get some cheese.

I did have to spend some time entertaining in the back seat which is always fun for me...squished between two car seats is my favorite place to sit! ;) The kids did greta though and we made it up to Salt Lake where we met Becca, Erich, Allie, and Allie's sister Gabby at City Creek Town Center.  We ate a late lunch and then wandered around City Creek and also headed over to temple square to see the nativity and the temple.   We enjoyed being out of the car, walking around and spending time with family.  

Excited to see Aunt Becca once we got to the mall! 

Playing with Becca while we ate lunch.  A Nordy girl in the making! 

Checking out the fountains at City Creek with Becca. 

Fun with Uncle Erich

Found Moroni at the top of the temple! 

Calin was happy to have Aunt Becca as his buddy. 

Watching the dancing fountains with Dad. 

Calin would have ran right through these or jumped right in if we'd let him! 

Tender moment...or trying to steal some hair...

Checking out the nativity. 

Wish we'd been able to go and see temple square at night, but still glad we got to go.  

I love this picture of Calin.  He was so happy to be free and I love how this pic shows how he was just off and running! 

Obligatory picture in the alcoves of Salt Lake Temple

 After the mall and temple square we headed up to Park City to have dinner with the family and then did some Just Dance with everyone before we all headed to bed.  It was all kinds of fun and so nice to have some time for all of us to hang out together.

Calin getting ready to do some Just Dance with Becca and Erich! 

Robby and Clara getting in on the dancing too. 

Thanksgiving morning we all got up and headed to Becca's Burn/TRX/Circuit.  Everyone went except for my Dad and Robby who stayed and played with Clara and Calin in the snow in Park City.   We were all quite worn out after our hour and a half workout and ready to go and feast on some turkey! We rushed back to get ready and showered before heading back down into Salt Lake to go to our big Lundberg side Thanksgiving dinner. 

Josef and Summer left a little early so we missed having them in this pic with us! 

We met at a church building with all of the Lundberg side of the family.  It was fun to see everyone and hang out with all my side of the family.  We enjoyed a great meal, wiggle bikes, games, visiting and catching up.

Clara and Grandma doing some feasting. 

Hanging out with Aunt Allie. 

Robby won his bracket of the tape/nose game. 

Playing the states game.  

Erika and I and each others babies.  Jane is 10 days older than Clara.  It is fun to have babies close to the same age (although they are not close to the same size.)
Wish we were closer and so these two could play together! 

 After the big dinner we headed over to Beccas for a little bit before we all went to go and see the hunger games at the movie theater.   My parents took Clara and Calin up to Max and Karens to visit and babysit them while we went to the movie.

The next morning we lounged around a little, and then got ready for the day.  We headed on the bus to the main street in Park City and wandered around there for a bit.  After that we came back home and had leftover turkey dinner for lunch and then sadly had to say goodbye to Josef and Summer who had to head back so Summer could get to work.   Then we let the kids get a nap.  After naps we headed to the outlets to do some Black Friday shopping.  Thanks to my generous family my kids came away with some new cute clothes and coats.  After that we went for a quick dinner at zupas and then headed back to the house.

Reading books with Grandma and Grandpa Friday morning. 

Summer was awesome and played this hiding game with Calin for a while.  He loved it! 

A little Clara and Josef time! 

Riding the bus into town.  

We attempted to take some impromptu family pictures and this was one of them.  

Another picture of all of us.  Sorry Josef, Calin doesn't know how to pose.  

At this point Clara and Calin were both pretty tired from late nights and short naps and both had come down with some colds.  We had planned to head to the temple to see the lights but it was cold and getting late and I knew it would be rough with our poor sick tired kids.  So instead we did another night of Just Dance.

We headed home the next morning and it was a rough drive home.  We left Park City around 10 and Clara slept until we got to Provo.  Calin was having a major melt down being in the car so we decided to stop and do a little more shopping in Provo while we were up there. We went to Toys r Us and got a little of the kids Christmas shopping done.  Then we went and had lunch and after a 2 hour stop continued on our way.  Thankfully both kids fell asleep again and it was smooth driving until a little after Fillmore.  Calin woke up right after Fillmore and was crying and kept trying to itch his legs.  I pulled up his pants and he had hives everywhere.  So we stopped in Beaver to get some Benadryl to help with the itching and hopefully help him to feel better.  We also made a quick stop to get some more cheese since we were there.

Then we got back in the car and headed to Cedar where Robby's parents were meeting us to help us get a Christmas tree.  They were awesome enough to drive all the way up with the truck so that we could get a tree.  There was a nice lot in Cedar where a man has fresh cut trees off of Cedar mountain.   So we were able to get a nice fresh tree without having to hunt around the mountain for it.  Then we were on our way home for the last leg of the trip.  Finally 8 hours later we made it home.  It was a long day home but so nice to make the trip up to spend time with my family!  It was a great Thanksgiving and I'm so grateful for our families and all they do for us.

This is how Clara felt about our 8 hour long trip home.