Thanksgiving pictures

Thanksgiving is Claire's favorite holiday. She gave thanks for: plenty of food, plenty of sleep and plenty of doting relatives - Grandma Hoyer, Aunt Ellen, Uncle Greg, Grandma and Grandpa Cooper, Great-grandma and -grandpa Koch and of course, Maddie (the rabbit).

Pretty in pink

Claire's first cousin once-removed (or something like that), Matt Hoyer, stopped by on his way "home" for Thanksgiving. (He travels a lot around the world working jobs in nuclear power plants. Technically his address is still in Minnesota.) He thinks his mom will be jealous that he got to hold Claire before she did!

And because everyone likes pictures, there's also a new one of Claire, dressed in pink and in classic 'fencer' pose. Dad never thought he'd have a daughter who would look good in pink, but she does. (Do not take that as incentive to send more pink clothes, however.)

WH

A busy weekend

Beginning with a Friday late-afternoon trip to the doctor Claire had a busy weekend. She was given a clean bill of health from the doc and was up to 8 lbs 15.5 oz. Without the pre-weighing diaper change she surely would have been 9 lbs!

Saturday she had her first-ever play date with Levi, who is a little more than a month older than her.

This weekend was also her first ever tub bath. While I'm no expert in interpreting her screaming yet, I would have to say that she was not a big fan of the bath.

All in all Claire is still doing very well and looking forward to a trip to Dubuque for her first Turkey (or Tofurkey, if you prefer) Day.

Bigger (and better?)

Claire seems to be getting bigger everyday and filling out some of her clothes that had seemed a bit loose. We'll find out how big she is tomorrow at her two week doctor's appointment.

This week Grandma Cooper has been entertaining Claire, cleaning, letting mom sleep and cooking for us. In return she gets to hold Claire. It seems like a good deal for all involved. Grandpa C. was also around a bit and returns tonight.

Claire is actually spending large chunks of time awake now and is sleeping for longer stretches at night. (Ed. note: Thanks, Claire!) She also sleeps when she gets bored with what Dad is reading (see picture).

Tonight, assuming Claire cooperates, she will be going out for a night on the town, or at least out to hear about her dad's graduate work this summer at his group's final public presentation on improving Monona Bay. Their work was above the fold on the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal yesterday.

WH

For more photos...

If any of you are interested in getting access to our Kodak Gallery online so you can print out photos of Claire and haven't gotten a link to it, shoot one of us an email and we'll get back to you with access. Apologies to those who haven't gotten the link from one of us...

More photos

Now that Claire is over a week old you all deserve some more pictures. Here are a few.

Among the things we've learned about her so far... she likes to sleep, she rarely burps, she gets the hiccups a lot, she is not fussy and rarely cries (knock on some wood for us!), and likes the sound of running water. Washing her hair with the water running is like a relaxing trip to the spa for her!

Clean bill of health

Claire went in for a checkup this afternoon and is already almost back up to her birth weight after losing almost half a pound in the first day. The nurse also re-measured her. Either Claire's already grown almost 2 inches or the initial measurement was off, but Claire was 21 inches tall today. Dr. Schumacher gave her a clean bill of health.

WH

The littlest voter

Claire voted today. How 'bout you? She's eagerly awaiting the results tonight and may decide she wants to keep mom and dad up late so she can see if the right people won.

Okay, here she really is...

(For those who don't know... the picture in our first blog entry was NOT Claire. That was our rabbit, Teaser, testing out some baby stuff to make sure it's safe.)

Announcing Claire!

Claire Ann Hoyer entered the world Friday, November 3 at 5:43 pm. Mom and Claire did great through the whole thing - from Tuesday when contractions started being consistently 5-7 minutes apart, to the first trip to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon, through a full Thursday at home full of more contractions and on into Friday when the main event started.

Claire is so beautiful (an unbiased perspective) and is doing great - eating, sleeping, and pooping.

The three of us are now home and loving some family time without doctors or nurses around.