Why You Will Never Win an Argument with Claire

The following conversation took place last night...

Claire: Stop doing that, AR-DEN!
Arden (doing her best bobble head): You're a baby, Clay-yer.
Claire: No, I'm not! MOM!! Arden called me a baby!
Me (to myself): She also called you poo poo but you apparently didn't hear that part.
Me (to Claire): Remember what Little Bill says when someone calls him a name? So?
Claire: Yeah. So, Arden? So?
Arden (head still bobbling): So? So?
Claire: Stop copying me! You're not a big kid!
Jason: Relative to the second graders at your school, you're not a big kid either, Claire.
Claire: Well, I'm almost a first and second grader.
Me: I don't think a month of kindergarten qualifies you as almost a second grader.
Claire: Yes, it does. And I'm almost six.
Me: Uh, yeah, like in SIX months.
Claire: I'm almost six. We just have December then January then ha! MY BIRTHDAY!
Me: Also all of October, November and half of February.
Claire: No we don't. Just December then January.
Me: Claire. Seriously. We have October, November, December, January and half of February before it's your birthday.
Claire: See! You said December and January! I told you so!
Me: I didn't--oh never mind.

All About Amelia

I've done a horrible job documenting sweet Amelia's life on this blog. At least I've got her baby book all up to date. No wait. That's a lie. I only have her name written in it. Well, there's always those thousands of pictures I've taken. No wait. That's a lie, too. Video? Not so much.

I know it's lame, but here is my attempt to catch up...

Milestones.....
*She rolled over for the first time at three months, started the army crawl at five months, sat up on her own at six months, mastered the "real" crawl at seven months, pulled up at seven months and started cruising at eight months.

*Her first "word" was mama and she's been saying it pretty consistently since around five months. Now, ya'll know I'm not one of those crazy moms who think their babies know how to read or solve quadratic equations or make a creme brule at three months old, but come on! "Mama" at five months? That's pretty impressive, right? No? Your baby could speak in sentences at three weeks? In French? Oh. Well, she also says "Bababababa" and "Dada," if that helps.

*She had her first taste of baby food at six months old. She was not impressed (and who can blame her--have you tried rice cereal?). She loves green beans and is not a big fan of fruit.

*She loves to feed herself. Puffs, yogurt melts, tiny tiny tiny microscopic pieces of bread that are actually more like crumbs than bread but she loves them just the same and it makes me freak out less about choking hazards.

*She got her first (and only, so far) tooth at seven months.

Favorite Things
*Bathtime is a big hit with Miss A. Especially since she gets to share the tub with her big sisters. She gets so excited when I turn on the water and starts yelling until I put her in.

*All toys that are not approved for children under age 3. If it is a baby toy, you might as well put it away.

*Paci. In our quest to fund the retirement accounts of all the local orthodontists, it looks like we're raising another gal who loooooves her paci.

*Mommy, or you know, "Mama".

Eye Update
*After months of trying to find a contact that would fit her eye, we finally have one that is a perfect fit. The only bad news is that it doesn't come in her prescription (of course). So now Amelia wears a contact AND glasses. I know I'm her mom, but I have to tell you that you've probably never seen anything cuter than my baby in her pink glasses. Seriously. Much cuteness.

*We continue to love Amelia's eye doctor. He has given her a level of care that we never could have expected. House calls, text messages, writing appeal letters to the evil insurance company that wants to deny coverage of A's contacts... We are thankful to have Amelia in his care and have complete faith that he is doing everything possible to help our sweet girl see.

*Because Amelia's "bad" eye doesn't see much, it has a tendency to turn inward (aka: lazy eye). This will probably require a muscle surgery later on, but first, her doctor wants to try botox on the eye muscle. Yeah, you read that right. Botox. Would it be inappropriate to see if he could touch up my forehead while he's at it?


General
*Amelia is still just as sweet and mellow as she's been since day one. I'm not sure if this is her personality or just a function of being forced to go with the flow, but I'm really holding out hope that this is her personality because, well, goodness knows I need ONE laid back kid.