The Rottman Family Adventures

Clara is 10 months old! We are starting to realize that she is becoming more and more of a toddler and less of a baby.  One recent development is Clara standing independently for up to a minute or so.  She will even swing her arms or play with a toy while standing. Her balance is pretty amazing.  She could likely take a few steps with some motivation.  Crawling is just so efficient… and she is super fast. She continues to get into everything.  She is curious and definitely not tentative. A favorite thing is to take things out, like laundry out of the washer and onto the floor, or diapers off of the clothesline, or toys out of a basket. Maybe next month she will enjoy putting things back in. Clara is very social.  This was very evident during our recent trip to Spain as she made friends with anyone we met.  She seems to know how to get people’s attention by making noises and then just beaming.  This continues as we run errands around town.  Home Depot has been a huge hit lately.  We walk down the aisle, and she seems to get everyone we pass to notice and give her a smile back. Clara is still on the small side and is just now getting too big for her 6 month clothes (even with her big cloth diaper bottom).  We are starting to see her 3rd tooth poking through on the top.  Clara is clearly understanding more of what we say and is babbling often.  She is saying “mamama” regularly and even “dada” sometimes now.  She is attempting to repeat words after we say them.  She still loves books and now turns the pages with us.  She has now started crying when the book is over… not something we promote.  I am glad that she likes books!

Clara helping with the laundry…

Clara has become quite the messy eater

A new favorite thing is to do raspberries with food in her mouth… in this case, beets went everywhere

This month, Clara got in the pool for the first time.  She was not too sure about it but did ok as long as one of us held her.

Our house remains in flux with continued projects.  Clara loves all of the wayward boxes and construction supplies.

It is very hard to believe that Clara is 9 months old.  She seems like such a big kid now.  We really do have a lot of fun.  She thinks Jeff and I are hilarious.  We decided that we need to soak that in as much as possible now as it won’t last too much longer.  Clara continues to crawl everywhere and pull up on anything.  We have started to see more of her moving around the furniture, going from one thing to another, and wonder if walking might happen soon. At her 9 month checkup, she weighed just over 15 lbs and was in the 10th percentile.  She still is a petite little girl. “Mama” is officially her first word. I’m thrilled. She will say “Dada” too but we just aren’t sure she has put it together with Jeff yet. Walcott even gets a “Wa” occasionally.  This past month, she has started to enjoy playing in her room– sometimes even on her own for a short time.  Her fisher price dollhouse is a favorite.

We have had two recent visitors checking out our pool… ducks! They have frequented casa de Rottman a few times so far. Clara and Walcott are checking them out below.

Clara is 8 months old now… as of 3/28. This post is a little delayed.  She continues to amaze us. She is into everything now and crawls faster than I can imagine.  I leave the room for a minute, and she has already moved on to another place.  She is pulling up on furniture and toys any chance she can get. Before we left the condo, she was crawling up the stairs with ease.  We are thankful we have no stairs in our new home!  Bath time is a favorite now.  Clara is no longer content to hang out in her seat but crawls around the bathtub splashing and pulls up on the faucet and sides of the tub.  She is noticing emotions and now laughs just because we are laughing– so much fun!  Her babbling has really increased, and she seems to now recognize words like milk, eat, and book. When playing peek-a-boo a few days ago, I was hiding behind Jeff and saying, “where’s mama?” and Clara clearly said “ma.”  Jeff said I could claim it as her first word if she does it again… come on Clara!  Nevertheless, she is growing and changing rapidly!

So… a lot has happened in the last month! Clara started crawling shortly after her 6 month birthday and is now all over the place.  She is even pulling up on toys and furniture.  She has two bottom teeth and has started eating solid food. We are even starting to hear more babbling. Whew… what a big kid she is.  She seems to love being around people and just out and about.  We are very close to the Phoenix zoo in this rental, so we take advantage of that regularly! We also frequent the park to get all of us out of the house, particularly Walcott as he traded his yard for a small patio.  Clara’s interest in books has greatly increased with Brown Bear and Goodnight Moon being favorites right now. She really is a joy!

Someone was a little upset towards the end…