Claire and new things with wheels

What is it about a Friday afternoon that makes it so hard to buckle down and work -- whether you're in an office trapped by a time clock or on a couch with an ear to the sounds of a waking baby? It's been a really good couple of weeks since I blogged (oops). Claire continues to get more and more alert and adorable. She has also developed into a phenomenal sleeper (which is phenomenal for me and Matt as well). Most nights she sleeps 12 or 13 hours, interrupted by a 20-minute eating session usually around 6 a.m.

I know how lucky we are and believe me, it is total luck. I only wish we could take some credit because then we could be confident all of our kids will sleep this well. Instead, I have a feeling in 10 years we'll be those parents saying "If we'd had [the colicky baby] first, the others never would have been born!"

Claire also loves her food, as evidenced by her eight-week weight of 11 pounds 6 ounces, up from 7 pounds 9 ounces at birth. I finally have enough milk stored for us to leave Claire and attend Todd and Rhonda's wedding in Baltimore in a few weeks. Way more than enough, probably, but I don't want to be worrying about whether she's hungry while we're gone. Mom and Dad have very generously agreed to keep Claire at our house all that weekend and since we know she'll be in the best possible hands we are so excited to get away by ourselves. Sometimes I literally miss Claire during the course of a long nap, so I'm sure leaving her will be hard, but way worth it.

(Check out Dad's blog for lots of Claire pictures, and another great post starring Bri.)

Non-Claire related, I got a new car last week! We had decided that even with Cash for Clunkers it didn't make sense for us to get a brand new car, so I figured the search was off for a while. But then Matt found a 2007 Toyota Camry on AutoTrader.com that was exactly what I wanted -- an LE with no upgrades except leather and a sunroof, which are the only upgrades I care about, and only 35,000 miles. It happened to be my preferred color (a metallic gray) and had been meticulously maintained, inside and out.

Most importantly, after negotiations, the price was about half what we would have paid for a new Camry. I love it. This is not my actual car, but it's the same year and color:


My 1999 Acura 3.2 TL, therefore, is for sale. We're asking $4,500. If anyone's interested, contact me and I'll get you all the details and all the pictures you want.

Finally, and I'll shut up and try to do some real work after this, I have a running stroller! Loretta walked up to me in church on Sunday and said, "There's a jogging stroller waiting for you on my front porch." Awesome! I picked it up on Tuesday but we've had obligations every morning and afternoon since, so today will be my first chance to use it.

Claire and I are very excited. She loves being outside and she's already used to running, since we did so much of it together while I was pregnant with her. A thousand thank-yous, Loretta (and Nate)!