In 1997, my mom had her third daughter, Rennen. My mom never liked being in front of the camera much, but she always had a lot to do with making sure each of her kids had milestones and stages of growth documented. For years, Rennen thought we didn’t have very many baby photos of her because they were all in boxes somewhere, so as I unearthed them I decided they warranted their own post.

Here she is, pregnant with Rennen, in front of her new Audi.

Rennen was a super grouchy newborn. She seemed to scream incessantly for no real reason.

With big sister Hilary.

At a music lesson at the elementary school Hilary and I went to.

In the doorway at our yellow house in Newhall.

In the back of the racing truck.

Of all of my mom’s kids, Rennen looked the most like her when she was a baby. Looking at some baby photos of my mom, I could hardly tell the difference between them. See these photos of baby Claire (the two below) compared to the ones in this post:

Baby Claire in 1970 (above and below)

Rennen became a super spunky little girl. She was always cracking us up!

Rennen would visit my dads’ house and ask for honeycomb cereal.

I like how we put Rennen in reindeer antlers.

Some other things about Rennnen and my mom:

• Rennen’s hands and nail beds are the most like my mom’s. One of the things we loved about little Rennen was how petite she was, and for how long. She was always the tiniest and most adorable.
• When Rennen was about three years old, she and my mom were driving. From the back seat, Rennen politely requested that my mom refer to her as “Snowball” instead of Rennen. My mom obliged, and for years she called her youngest daughter Snowball.
• Rennen was the little princess of hangry. Whenever she started to get hungry, a meltdown was imminent and predictable. My mom always knew when a meltdown was looming and always  brought snacks and patience for her grouchiest hangry child.
• Of all the kids, Rennen lived the most consistently with our mom. She also got shlepped around the most and taken along on the most tedious road trips. My mom was also able to homeschool Rennen for some years of her elementary and middle school education.