Happy half-birthday to Claire

Happy New Year, day two! I thought yesterday was going to be a day of bumming, but it turned out Jacob and Carrie and Stephen and Matt and I spent about five hours at a house we built that's closing on Monday, cleaning and spreading pinestraw and generally getting it move-in ready.

Since it was a last-minute thing I brought Claire along and she napped in the master bedroom closet for a couple of hours and then cleaned with me (in the Bjorn) for the rest of the day. I couldn't believe she was so content doing that, but she didn't make a peep. At the end of the day we decided to let the company buy us dinner and drinks with some of the money we saved by doing all that work ourselves. We went to Tripp's, which was surprisingly empty for a Friday night, and Claire fell asleep. Sometimes I can't believe how good she is, and other times the opposite.

Today is her six-month birthday! It's so strange, but time has seemed to slow down since she was born, which is the opposite of what everyone says and I'm glad. It seems like she's been in our life forever -- I can't believe it's been only half a year.