"Mom, why is that baby so cute?"

Its ok to gush.. its what moms do, right? So we were sitting in O'hare airport waiting for our flight back to Seattle and met the nicest family with two little girls - a 4 year old and a 7 year old. The 4 year old after playing with Claire and I for awhile turns to her mom and asks - "Mom, why is that baby so cute"... it was precious...What a weekend! Well Claire has been a little under the weather with all the running around we've been doing so we were a little worried about her first flight last Wednesday to Wisconsin. Claire was a champ - we had lots of options for her just in case.. but she just settled in for the ride, enjoyed what time she was awake with the other passengers around us but for the most part fell into a deep slumber with the sound of the jet engines lulling her to sleep.


We had a great but too short of a visit in Wisconsin. We saw lots of Grandma and Grandpa Herrman plus Aunt Michele and Cousin James. We went and visited some family on Pat's side - The partridge family - Chris, Shannon, Evan and Kate plus great uncle Wayne, great aunt Darlene and Lydia. And we had some very special visitors including great uncle Bill, The entire Flanner family! So So very good to see the Flanners! We sure miss being in Colorado and getting to see Mark and Katie. Our friends Nate and Brian came over - it was great to catch up with Nate now that he's living back in WI! and a good laugh is always guaranteed when Brian and Chris get together - it was fun all around. Even with seeing everyone there were a few that were missed...


When we returned from Wisconsin we headed out to Monroe for a Thanksgiving weekend breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa Z's with Cousin McKenzie, Uncle Matthew, Aunt Colleen, Auntie Anne and Patti. After a yummy breakfast we headed out for the big Christmas Tree adventure... and I really shouldn't say big here.. since space is tight(er) at our current location we again opted for the coffee table top "Charlie Brown" variety of a Christmas tree. Its a beautiful tree and perfect for Claire's first Christmas :)
Claire has been making more friends at her "school" and is learning a lot from her slightly more advanced "class mates" as she starts to get her knees under her and scoots around, rolls over and over to get places, sits up on her own (most of the time) and eats a wider variety of foods. (Mommy's been letting her feed herself even....)


We do have to be more careful though.. as Claire has become incredibly "helpful" and likes to pull everything towards here that Mommy might be carrying.. including her long board lager...

Claire turned 5 months old over the weekend and we also have two new teeth that came in a week or so ago!

It has been a fun fun time - Claire just really makes life so very exciting each and every day! We love each stage of development and are having a great time learning from our little bear. We have our last weekly PEPs group coming up and are super sad about that.. but the month will be filled with lots of holiday parties, Santa pictures and places to be. We're hoping to get a group going after the new year to stay in touch with our new friends of 5 month olds... The weather has been beautiful this winter in the Northwest. Here's hoping the sun keeps shining!