First Christmas!

Lotus celebrated her first Christmas today! Mommy was supposed to work on Christmas Eve, but got canceled, so instead we got to wake up as a family for Christmas morning. We woke up to 6 inches of snow! We tried to get to Grammy and Pop Pop's house but were unable to get out of our block, because we got stuck. So, we waited a couple of hours and were able to make it there in one piece in the afternoon. Lotus opened a few presents, but was mostly interested in the wrapping paper, which Grammy wouldn't let her eat! We missed Aunt Becky, Uncle Wes & Ollie sooooo much that we set up Grammy & Pop Pop with a Skype account so we could video chat with them all the way in Oklahoma! We can't wait till they come back and we get to open more presents! We also skyped with Grandma Bo & Addy Christmas Eve!

P.S. Lotus has TWO teeth!

Dear Grammy & PopPop,

Feel better soon, so you can play with me! I made u a card:

Love,

Lotus (& mommy)

Wichita Pictures

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Lotus & Brody get "scared"

The Blizzard McClure's went to Wichita this weekend to visit Jeff's side of the family. Wichita is the halfway point for his family who live in Dodge City, Garden City, and various Oklahoma towns. Lotus got to meet her Great Grandpa Milton, Great Aunt Millie, and cousin Jennifer for the first time. She also got to see all of her other cousins/aunts/uncles and Grandma Bo! Below is a video from Grandma Bo's Blackberry (kinda fuzzy) of her cousin Brody and her getting "scared" by her Aunt Brenna. We hope that someday the babies learn that scary things are not supposed to be funny, for survival reasons! We had a great time, and pictures to come!

FIRST SNOW!

Kansas City got our first snow of the season last night, so Daddy came home on his lunch break, and we got Lotus in her snowsuit and introduced her to snow! She strongly disliked it. Here she is before she realized that snow is COLD!
Here she is beginning to realize this isn't all it's cracked up to be:

And here she is trying to make a snow angel:

And here is her baby snow angel:

Our 6 month old!

Lotus is SIX months old already! She is changing and learning new things every day. It is so fun to watch her play. She is now an expert roller- both ways. She is also very good at sitting up! She can sit up all by herself but still needs the boppy because she occasionally leans a bit. She LOVES food. She likes cereal, green beans, peas, carrots, pears, banannas, applesauce, but her favorite is Sweet potatoes. We thought she was getting just one tooth on the top, but when we went to the doctor for her well baby visit, we were told that she is getting teeth on the top AND bottom, and will likely be getting a whole lot of teeth at once. Yuck! Our new pediatrician, Dr. Hartman, who we absolutely loved (!), said that Lotus is perfectly awesome (we already knew that)! She weighed in at 18 lbs, 8 ounces (90th) and was 27.5 inches tall (97th). I was a little concerned because she has not doubled her birthweight, but Dr. Hartman said that because Lotus was a week overdue and weighed 10lbs at birth, she is right on target! She also said that Lotus if a very social baby (we already knew that too). Since mommy went part-time at work, Lotus has been spending a lot of time (1-2 days a week) at Grammy and Pop Pop's house, while mommy is sleeping for work. She loves spending time with her grandparents, but especially loves her cousin Ollie. He is very patient and kind with her, bringing her toys and not even crying when she pulls his hair! She is so lucky to have retired grandparents! We are so in love with Lotus!

6 Month Pictures!

We went and got Lotus' 6 month/Christmas pictures taken today. Somebody must have sent a memo to all KC area moms that today was the day to get your Christmas pics taken, because the place was packed! Lotus is (probably) getting a tooth, so was a bit fussy, but we still managed to get some good ones! Check out her 3 month pics to see how much she's grown!

First Thanksgiving!

Lotus had lots to be thankful for on her first Thanksgiving! She had so much fun playing with her cousins Logan & Ollie! Here are some pics:

QUACK QUACK!

If her Daddy has anything to do with it Lotus' first words will be Quack Quack! About halfway into this video it gets cute so ...wait for it! Also, I realize that Lotus is too big for this baby bathtub, but unfortunately her designated bather(daddy) loathes all of her other bathing equipment, so we're stuck with this thing.

Lotus is sleeping in her big girl bed now! She had been sleeping in a co-sleeper that was attached to our bed, but for a whole week now she has been sleeping in her crib! The transition was really easy, and I'm not sure if she even noticed. Also, she has developed an attachment to a teddy bear that Aunt Becky got her named "Harrison". She loves cuddling with him while she's falling asleep. It is so cute!

Sunday Funday!

Sunday the weather was so nice we wanted to do something outside...soooo we decided to take Lotus to the Zoo for the first time. We walked A LOT and saw lions, gorillas, elephants and seals. Lotus was totally disinterested in all of these things and instead enthralled by the human children. We think next time we'll just take her to a daycare to play :) Then we went to Grammy and Pop-Pop's for dinner and to take Christmas pictures. After much tribullation (2 babies, several dogs, 6 adults, and a new camera) we ended up with some pretty good pictures! Here's some of them in this new smilebox!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Lotus is 5 months old!

This is Lotus. I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to start blogging for myself. I turned 5 months old on November 3rd! I'm good at a lot of things like sitting up with just a little help, smiling/laughing... oh and pinching! I LOVE to pinch. I'm not sure where I learned that (Ollie?). Mom keeps feeding me this weird mushy stuff that tastes kinda good, and sometimes I actually swallow it. I'm getting kinda wiggly too. Mommy had trouble getting me to sit still for this picture. I just wanted to play with my shoes! I think pretty much everything is funny, unless I'm tired or hungry then NOTHING is funny. I still wake up at night to eat a bit and be cuddled, it's OK though, my mommy and daddy don't mind. Halloween was so much fun, I can't wait for Thanksgiving!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pictures of "Ladybug" Lotus and "Yoda" Ollie coming soon!

Lotus is 4 months old!

Lotus was 4 months old on October 3rd! This also happens to be her cousin Ollie's birthday. Happy first birthday Ollie! We went to Oklahoma for his party and had a lot of fun! We saw our nephew Mattheau in Tulsa before going to Ollie's party. Here are some pics:

Lotus also went to the doctor for her 4 month check up and shots. Here are her stats: 16lbs 2 oz - 94th percentile, 27 inches long - off the charts!, and 80th percentile for head circumference. The doctor couldn't believe how tall she is and made the nurse measure her twice! She has grown 3 inches in 2 months and is only 3 inches shorter than her 1 year old cousin! She is already in 9-12 month sized pants. I guess she is going to be tall! She tried cereal for the first time, and is still undecided if she likes it or not. She spits most of it back out after making a "this is weird, mom" face. She loves her Daddy! She is constantly staring at him waiting for him to do something interesting or funny. She loves getting her diaper changed and laughs spontaneously when she's on the changing table. She loves to cuddle with her Mommy before she goes to sleep. She also really likes her teachers at daycare! She has been OBSESSED with her pacifier lately, much to my delight :) We love our little bubba soooo much!

Professional pics!

Here are some of Lotus' 3 month professional pics. Better late than never!

3 Month Pictures

This week was my first back on the night shift, and therefore Lotus and Daddy's first nights without Mommy. Everyone did great and Daddy has reported that it wasn't too hard by himself! Here's a pic from before I left for my first night shift:

Lotus turned 3 months on 9/3! We can't believe how big she is! She is doing great! She loves to smile and laugh. She has started expanding her vocabulary and making some pretty funny cooing noises. She still loves bathtime which Daddy does with her every night! Her eyes are still blue and I swear her hair has a tint of red to it! She likes her bebe pod chair and excersaucer. She has really started reaching for toys and has even brought a rattle to her mouth a couple of times. She is still waking up about once a night to eat, which is just fine with us! Since I was so busy with work this week, Daddy took it upon himself to take Lotus' 3 month pictures. Some of them are pretty funny. Here's a few:

On Saturday, my mom and I are going to go get her pictures taken professionally for the first time. Wish us luck and stay tuned!

The laughing Lotus

Lotus has developed some mad laughing skills! She started what we couldn't really tell was a laugh last week (sometimes it sounded more like a cough). But today she started laughing when I was changing her diaper and singing "you are my sunshine." Then after her first daycare experience today she started laughing to my pathetic beat boxing. So cute!

What a weekend!!

This was mommy's last weekend of maternity leave and we sure did not let it go to waste! We drove to Wichita Friday night after Jeff got off work and stayed at a hotel with Grandma Bo. Saturday Lotus' Aunt Brenna, Uncle Bill, Aunt Jamie, and Cousins Ryan, Alex and Brody came to hang out at the hotel and meet Lotus for the first time. It was great to see everyone and here are some pictures from our gathering:

Here is Lotus with her cousin Brody who is exactly 3 weeks younger than her.

This is Aunt Jamie and Lotus having some "girl talk".

Uncle Bill and Aunt Brenna with the babes. I like how it looks like Brody and Lotus are looking at each other!

Grandma Bo and Lotus!

We got back from Wichita Saturday night. Sunday morning we decided to enjoy the nice weather by going to Powell Gardens in Kingsville. My friend had told me that they had Lotus flowers there, so we decided to go on a Lotus flower search! Here is a pic of mommy and Lotus with our sweet sunglasses:

Here's a family picture on the "island garden" where all of the Lotus flowers were in bloom. They were soooo pretty! I can't wait to take Lotus back here when she is old enough to appreciate them.

Here's daddy trying to get her as close as possible to the flowers. Good job daddy!