Manger!

Claire is an enthusiastic eater- she eats three times a day now and is loving rice cereal mixed with banana, peas, carrots, potatos, beets (well, sort of), avacado and another cereal mix of barley, oats and wheat. Sometimes she gets a little over-enthusiastic and spits the food back at you with pursed lips and a big smile or laugh, but usually that is only when she is feeling full. I am still breastfeeding her, so she is definitely putting on the pounds and getting longer. I forgot to pay attention at her 6.5 month visit last week, but I think that she is somewhere between 16 and 17 lbs. FYI- its the flash not fatigue that makes her eyes close.

She's six months and a real cheeky monkey

All cheeks

Already following in her Dad's footsteps

A Sunday afternoon attempt at nap time

Sitting & Eating!

She's sitting by herself now!

Bitter carrots.....we'll have to find sweeter ones next time,
but she LOVES rice cereal

Pink rebel

The five month mark

Claire hit the five month mark on the 19th of April. She has grown so much since we arrived- 2.5 lbs between the beginning of March and mid April, so that now she is weighing in at 14 lbs. Claire is talking/razzing her lips/smiling with squeals/screaming at everyone she interacts with and mouthing everything she can get her hands on. She is also a very solid member of the roll-over club and is working towards her badge in sitting up. She is pretty good at siting, but after a minute or so always end up tipping over.

This past week Claire, Becca and Comfort travelled to Ada in eastern Ghana so that her mom could facilitate a conference for Peace Corps. The conference was in a pretty little town that is situated right where the Volta River enters the sea. Claire wasn't very impressed with the ocean.

Check out the "faux hawk" as Chris calls it

Richard says that she looks like a priestess in this nightgown. She never wears it, except for dress up with Comfort

Reading with Akosua

Early morning girl

Richard has been in Nigeria this week, so Claire and I have been enjoying all of the space in the bed. Her new 'trick' is waking up around 4. We finally get up at 5, and the morning progresses from there, as you can see from the pictures.

Pounding fufu

Claire gets her first fufu pounding lesson with Mary (Aunt somehow removed) and Kojo (second cousin). She also met her Uncle Amos (Bra Yaw), Richard's older brother, for the first time.

Sunday at the pool

One of the highlights of the past couple weeks was last Sunday at the pool. One of Richard's best friends and his three boys met us there and it was a great day. Claire LOVED being in the water. Of course there are no pictures of that because I was both the photographer and the one holding her in the pool (Richard was very busy throwing a football with the boys), but she and Junior also enjoyed hanging out under the umbrella.