Hello Clara!

It has been an eventful month for the family- Clara Mae Flanagan was born on May 18th, weighing 6 pounds 9 ounces. Thanks to everyone for the cards and messages welcoming her! Everything went very smoothly at the hospital, although it took us a little while to finalize her name. I love the meaning of Clara (clear, bright)- and like that she shares an initial with a lot of the women in her family: both grandmothers, her aunt, and two great grandmothers. We like and use both the Canadian and UK pronunciations of Clara, though she'll likely hear "Clair-a" (like Sarah) most in Canada. 

We took a lot of photos in the first few days, and have posted some favourites. The first two were taken the day after Clara was born, when she first met her big brother. Ben has been very sweet, asking to "pat the baby" and reassuring her in times of "stress" (like Ben, Clara doesn't like the car, and Ben will say "It's OK baby, we'll be home soon").  

 

Clara looks like Ben did as a newborn, but with darker hair and eyes. She was little when she was born, but is growing out of her newborn clothes already! She has a red v-shaped birthmark on her forehead which should fade as she gets older (it's more visible when she's upset, which she is now, so I'll take a break to feed her!). So far, she is a relaxed little girl- she sleeps a lot, and as long as she isn't hungry, she happily perches on an adult's shoulder and watches the world go by. Often, instead of crying, she makes sweet bleating noises (Will calls her "lambikins"). 

 

Things are busy as we get used to being a family of four. Ben has just had another growth spurt, and his language skills are incredible these days (his favourite sentence is "I DO love my daddy!"). He can memorize whole pages of books, and likes to talk about the letters and their sounds. We can tell that it's a bit tough for him getting used to Clara, but hope that spring and summer adventures will ease the transition. Thinking of all of you- and hope to catch up soon!