Pink, Pink, Pink!!!

Claire has gotten a bit easier to dress, she doesn't object so much. But certain days she does like to dictate colors that we all need to wear. More days than not it is her favorite color...PINK!

Who's Bumbo is it anyway???

Grace - 2 months old

Grace's 2 month "birthday" has come and gone, but still wanted to capture it! She shared this special day with her aunt Emily's birthday. Grace continues to grow and grow and grow and had a good 2 month check up. She was 11 lbs and 7 ounces and 22 inches long. She is doing a good job holding up her head and makes you work hard to get a smile out of her. She loves her bath time and sitting up (with help of course) to check things out and has even rolled over a few times. Here are a few pics of Grace at 2 months!

Just for Fun...

I am way behind on blog posts and have every intention of catching up, just not tonight! In the mean time, the warmer weather has caused me to dig out some of Claire's clothing when she was a baby for Grace. It's been fun to think back when Claire wore the clothing. I was comparing pictures tonight and thought I would share. Here they both are in the same dress...I think about the same age.

Claire Spelling

We have been working on writing and spelling Claire's name, usually then followed by writing other names at her command. Here I caught her doing it on her own. I will translate as this was when she was sick last week and SO CONGESTED and coughing. Those she is "spelling", clearly in order of importantce....Sasha (jake's dog), Great Grandma, Aunt Emily, Uncle Brett, Mommy and Daddy. Before I got the camera I think she had already rolled through a few others!

Coming soon to a TV near you...

We are so proud that Mike will be in Ryan's new TV spot, not to mention all those really green lawns are his customers too! What a true testament to how successful he is even though he would never admit it!

Grace - 7 weeks old

Grace continues to change and grow. She is strong and holds her head well and enjoys pushing her self upright during tummy time. She has rolled over from her tummy to her back a couple of times, and Daddy likes to work on "her crawling". : ) She has blessed her mom with the gift of night time sleep for the past couple of weeks, many times not waking up until 3 or 4am for a feeding. All that night time sleep has caused her to struggle to take naps, but we are "working on it" everyday with the goal to make sure she gets enough sleep so she is not so cranky in the evenings. She smiles at us and has a few favorite toys. She also thinks her big sister Claire is pretty great, she just watches her whenever Claire sits still long enough to make it possible! Grace loves to sit up, and most bouncers are not upright enough to her liking so we dug out this chair to be her new hangout during dinner time, etc... Today, Claire decided she wanted to sit next to Grace...see below!

Thanks Nana and Grandad!

Claire loves her new robe!

Go Cats!

Grace sportin' her wildcats gear the day after the big win over KU!

Twinkle Twinkle...I wanna see!

Good Thing Claire was born in the age of digital cameras, she likes the instant gratification of seeing her picture as soon as you take it, " I wanna see!!". It has made taking videos quite a challenge though. We have been trying to capture her singing (including hand motions) Twinkle, Twinkle little star for about a week now...this is the best we have!

Grace 5 weeks old!

Here is a video of Grace at 5 weeks talking up a storm!

I think I figured out videos...

I think I figured out how to post videos....try this. This is one I would have posted a couple of weeks ago. It is through You Tube, so just ignore the stuff that comes up at the end of the video, their recommended other videos aren't ours! : )

Claire's headband

Claire is very proud of her new headband so I had to share this photo...by the way, what happened to my baby, she looks so grown up!

Grace - 5 weeks old!

My little angel is 5 weeks old and you can tell! She is sleeping long stretches at night (thank you reflux meds and the nap nanny), smiling and talking, and is a lot more alert and active during the day and likes to play. She still loves to snuggle and has chubby cheeks that I can't resist kissing all day long. At her 1 month doctor appointment she weighed in at 10 lbs, 1 oz and is 21 inches long, growing like a weed! Here are some pics!

Fun at G&G's

Claire and Ellen had a blast playing at Grandma's, maybe we should all spend some time rolling around and squealing in a pile of stuffed animals, it looks like fun! I have a video of this event, but I think blogger no lnger allows video posts...hmmmmmm.

Baby Hochberg

Here are pictures of both Claire and Grace in the "baby hochberg" onsie, do you know which one is which??

Prince of Peace EEC School Carnival

Claire had lots of fun at her first school carnival...Pizza + popcorn, lots of games and prizes and face painting! Mom and Dad had fun too!

Like Mother like Daughter

Claire is taking after her mom....girly girl who LOVES sports, time will tell if she is an athlete or not! Check out the fairy dress up outfit + Football combination.

The Big Dig

For the 2nd year in a row, KC got dumped on with snow. As the newscasters over dramatize it, they are calling it the Blizzard of 2011. Here is Mike digging us out, his snow piles from shoveling are shoulder high and have some pretty impressive drifts around the house! Our little family has had two snow days at home together this week!

Happy Half Birthday Claire

Claire turned two and a half this week, we made cupcakes to celebrate!

Sisters

Claire and Grace hanging out in jammies!

Grace's First Month

We are almost there, Grace will be one month on Friday! We have been a busy family over the last month and have loved watching Grace grow and do new things every day. She has met her Nana, Granddad and Aunt Beth and has "bonded" with her sister Claire, or should we say Claire has "bonded" with Grace. She continues to be a good baby and sleeper which her mom appreciates. Sure, she has the normal bad nights and goes a little nuts in the evenings but overall we can't complain. She still grunts in her sleep, sometimes for hours but we have gotten used to that. She really likes her tummy time and I think would prefer to sleep that way if we let her. She grunts and moves so much in her sleep she is already getting all over her crib! Grace is also growing like a week, having outgrown all her newborn clothes that were too big on her only 3 weeks ago! She likes her toys and the mobiles over her pack and play and in the play gym. Here are some pics from the last few weeks..... Grace - 3 Week "birthday"

Lovin Tummy time

Playing with her toys, she gets pretty excited and "talks" to them!

Grace's 1st Week

Grace is one week old today, what a sweetie she is. The first 36 hours at home were a bit rough as Mom hadn't figured her out yet. We think a combination of being hungry waiting for Mom's milk to come in and some tummy issues had our little angel a bit adgataded and wouldn't approve of sleeping anywhere but in mom's arms. Once she could eat all that she wanted and got some gas drops she relaxed and is sleeping just about anywhere, but mostly in her crib for naps and definitely at night. Whewwwwwwwwwwww, dodged one for now, but I am not so naive to know that I have about 1 more day until I get another curveball in the ever changing sleeping game. Grace went to the doc for a couple of weight checks and is overachieving and gaining 3 ounces a day and the doc said she looks great! Little nuances to Grace include: lots of grunting and "talking" as she puts herself to sleep in bed, sometimes lasting up to 45 minutes; she is a cuddle bug and would prefer to be curled up in a ball when snuggling; she HATES getting her diaper changed and lets us know it; she loves to play on the floor and gets excited for new sounds and will turn her head. Here a a few other pics from the week, including her first Teddy Bear that came with flowers from Great Grandma Fields!

Snow Days!

The only one of us who officially had snow days was Mike, but all of the schools were closed for 2 days. The first day was in the 20's so still bearable to play outside before the temps went south of ZERO! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Claire was so excited to go sledding with Mike, and loved every minute of it until the sled tipped, she got snow on her gloves (yes on, not in), and that was the end of it, tears and all. Daddy was a bit disappointed she didn't want to play longer, oh well! The last pic is of someone else who had fun playing in the snow and came back in with a face full!

Heading Home!

Here is Grace all bundled up for the trip home for the hospital, although it had snowed a bit the day we went home we got home just in time. The next 2 days it snowed somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 inches!

Welcome Miss Grace!

It's been almost a week that we were blessed with the arrival of a 2nd healthy baby girl, Grace Maren. Turns out she was on her way to joining the world before we even checked into the hospital for the induction Thursday. When I got hooked up to the baby monitors I was having contractions 6 min apart and had progressed since my last doctors appointment. The induction didn't exactly go as planned because before they could give me the cervidel drug they had to monitor Grace for 20 minutes, but someone was so dang active they couldn't keep her on the monitor for more than 5 minutes at a time. I had to lay in a million different positions, the nurse decided she was just going to sit next to me and hold the monitor and we FINALLY got her "monitored" around 11pm so I got the drugs. Of course the night went the same way, she kept moving so nurses were in constantly trying to "chase her down" and not much sleep was had. The good news was once the pitocen was given at 7:15am, things went really fast and our little angel arrived at 10:21am! We had a good couple of days in the hospital, Grace ate and slept well allowing mom to get caught up on some sleep before heading home. She got some good quality time with both Aunt Emily and Grandma and met Grandpa. We had a special 90 minutes of family time when Big Sister Claire came to visit with Daddy. Claire helped change a diaper and got to snuggle with Mommy while Grace and Daddy bonded. Here are a few pics from the hospital!

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year, our last as a family of three + Cali. Had a great time on Christmas Eve at Mom and Dad's with the Barkemeyers and Mere & Jake. Claire and Ellen had the time of their life sliding down the stairs on their tummies, so much so they both had red tummies from their shirts riding up! Christmas was low key with most of the day spent at home, just as we like it. We opened Santa presents, made brunch, opened more presents from the Hochberg side of the family. Claire had the time of her life, and squealed multiple time! We headed to church to tell Baby Jesus Happy Birthday and then had a light lunch at home before mom and Claire both took long naps. We stopped by Grandma Fields house to say hello for a couple of hours, but then headed home in time to play with all of Claire's toys again! I hope all had as special a holiday as we did! Click here for link to our photos on snapfish!

December!

Thought I should put a post on for the month of December, not knowing when I might be able to again. Time will tell if being at home with baby for the next 6 months will result in more or less posts...who knows! The Hochberg's are READY....ready for the holidays, ready for baby girl to arrive and I am especially ready to be done being pregnant. Presents are wrapped, diapers are purchased and I am one HUGE contraction with a lot of back pain. I have officially made it longer in this pregnancy, Claire was here at this point. I also think I will make it a couple more weeks, but you never know. : ) Blood pressure is hanging steady at an acceptable measure, not dialted at all and this was only my 2nd week without the progesterone shot to prevent labor. However, now that baby is head down (her birthday present for her mom), maybe that will be enough pressure to start something! Claire has been doing well, is liking school, getting more sassy by the day and is very obsessed with Santa at the moment. The sassiness has turned into flat out acting up, the usual 2 yr old behavior that you hear about.....deciding she doesn't want to walk and going limp in the middle of the parking lot, running away from us, hitting, etc....fun times! Good thing she is just so dang cute and I can't resist kissing her little cheecks! Daddy has also particulary enjoyed her new high pitched scream that she thinks is fun....she really is a girl! Here are a few recent pics of our little lady! Breakfast Pinic with Daddy Sporty Claire Excited for her Christmas party at school