New Activity/Music Table

Clayton sure loves it!

And look at that big grin, what a goober!

Swinging Video At Last!

From Johnson Lake a couple of weekends ago:

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Let it Be Known!

That Clayton wants to do it himself!

He didn't seem to want to eat lunch yesterday, so I handed him the spoon and took it from there... This is certainly the long way of doing it though! Oh well!

Helping...

Clayton tried to help daddy unload the dishwasher today...

On the Farm, and other things

Clayton and I took a tour of the farm Friday afternoon with daddy in the four wheeler thing (pictured below). He really enjoyed zooming around in the great outdoors!

Also, I wish I had the video camera as well, because after we were all done and taking these pictures, he grabbed the steering wheel and started blowing rasberries! It was like he was trying to go and make the same sound as the engine. He is all boy!

We got back to Kearney yesterday around 5:30pm, safe and sound. We have sure enjoyed having Darrel with us for such a long stretch of time. This is what happened this morning while Daddy supervised and Mommy tried to catch a few extra z's...

And one of Clayton's favorite things to do, pulling Chloe's tail! Luckily, she doesn't seem to mind too much!

Fun with Petersen Grandparents

Clayton and I spent the day in Lincoln so he could have a little time with his other grandparents. We went to the Sunken Gardens (but didn't take any pictures, whoops!) and had lunch at the Olive Garden. Clayton sure loved to crawl around and explore their house!

Clayton loves to "bonk" heads

BONK

Grandma Di, Grandpa Mark and Clayton

Also, here is a link to a photo album: Getting Up

More from Johnson Lake

Well, I was going to post a video of Clayton swinging at the cabin this weekend, but there must have been a problem uploading it on You Tube, because now it is not there : ( We are spending the week in York with Darrel, so I can't get it off my computer until this weekend. But here are some great photos that Ann had on her camera:

Enjoying the swing in the tree

Clayton loved relaxing on the water

yeah! lake!

Hello Grandma!

Best Buds

Happy Father's Day

Sorry for no posts, we spent the weekend at a cabin with Darrel's mom at Johnson Lake. Clayton very much enjoyed being outdoors so much and loved floating in the water in a special iner-tube type thing that we got for him. But he especially loved playing with his daddy!

More pictures and videos from Johnson Lake to come!

Hi to Dad!

As soon as I published that last post, I remembered that I took some really great video of Clayton  yesterday evening as well, and I have to share. Darrel, Clayton is saying hi to you! (among other things, he is also trying to eat the camera...)

Web Albums

I'm trying a new thing called Picasa Web Albums:  Clayton's 8 Month B-Day Pictures and click on "slideshow" if you want!

With all of his new found adventures, I find myself taking sooo many pictures, and I just want to share them all! But here are 4 of my favorites:

Look at the chubby tummy!!

He gets into EVERYTHING now

At least the cats enjoy the baby gate...

Here is the link to view more: He Sure Gets Around I'm sure I'll keep adding more!

Some more from yesterday

Happy Crawling yesterday morning - he sure had a lot to say about it! He is already much faster than that this morning!!

My grandparents also stopped by Campus Lutheran in the afternoon since they were in town for some appointments and running errands. Clayton sure enjoys them!

big smooch from Great Grandma Erna

Baby Proofing. . .

. . . Is going to be a process of trial and error! If you don't know, I take Clayton with me to work at Campus Lutheran where I am the administrator (secretary). Well, if he is in his walker, it's easy to block off the door to the store room/bath room area by placing his car seat in the door. So I sat him on the floor in the corner (so it would take him longer to get over to my chair where I am so afraid of running over his little fingers) and placed his car seat in the door as usual. He was kind of behind me as I sat at the computer desk, working away; I turned around to check on him and this is what I see:

Yikes! Mommy almost had a heart attack!!

So, after his nap, I went right out to get a baby gate for that door! We'll have to try that out tomorrow. He'll probably start cruising around on the furniture now soon too.

Clayton has had an AMAZING day. Last night he went to bed a little after 7pm like usual. He woke up one time at 10:30pm and all he needed was his pacifer back and then he slept until 4:30am, nursed and went back to sleep until 7:30am!! What a dream! I woke up at 6:30am feeling so rested - ate breakfast and had my coffee in peace. He has been in a great mood with all that sleep and has had fun experimenting with his new found mobility.

He Crawls!

So today, I was going to post about our weekend in Lincoln at my parents' house, but clearly this is more exciting! (maybe I'll add something later...) Clayton finally figured out that to crawl he has to move his arms! He did it much better before I got the video camera out, but we were getting close to nap time and he was getting cranky, but as you can see he has it just about figured out. I guess it's time to officially baby proof everything!!!

8 Months Old

Clayton is already 8 months old today - I can't believe how much he has grown! I measured him this morning and he was 28 inches long and just over 18 pounds. I sure thought his belly looked rounder, and that would make sense since he hasn't even grown a quarter of an inch in the last month although he put on a whole pound. Sometimes he will really surprise me and eat quite a lot of solid food in one sitting, so that is probably where his extra bulk is coming from. Soon he will be crawling though I think and he will work it right off.

8 Months Old

He wasn't feeling well yesterday - I was at work and he felt a little warm after his "nap" (he didn't really sleep very well, probably because he didn't feel good) but I tried to feed him lunch. I put one bite of food in his mouth and BLAT! out came his breakfast - pretty much looking the same as when it went in... mashed bananas in oatmeal. So we went home to change (my jeans were soaked, eeeew) and he had a low fever of 100.4, so he took some baby ibuprofen and we cuddled on the couch and he dozed off and on. (If you know Clayton, you know this is strange - he HATES just sitting around on the couch and would never just fall asleep sitting there in my arms). He seems to be feeling better today and only ever threw up that once.

I was going through old videos the other day, and just thought I would share this one. It is from 7 months ago - hard to believe he was ever that tiny and helpless. He had rolled over from tummy to back the day before (twice! and not even a month old) and we were just trying to get him to do it again for the camera - of course he never did...

Videos!

My mom came Monday night and stayed all day yesterday to keep me company since Darrel is gone during the weeks. Here are a few clips of what Clayton was up to. In this one, he can get up out of his chair:

Here, he is seen opening and closing his laptop, over and over and over again!

As you can see, he was clearly finished with it at the end! Ha ha!

And last, but not least, here are some clips from his bath time tonight. This is especially for Darrel, who usually gives Clayton a bath:

Towards the end there, it really sounds like  he said "da da" (for the second time today) but it's really hard to tell if it was ga ga or da da...

French Fry!

I meant to post this yesterday, but found other busy, mommy things to do! Also from Sunday, we went to Ruby Tuesday's and I let Clayton try his first french fry. He seemed to like it, and the waitress sure got a kick out of seeing him like this with it just sticking out of his mouth. What a silly little boy!

New Swimming Pool

We bought a blow up swimming pool today for Clayton to play in. Well worth every penny! You can't really tell it from the pictures - but he had a blast. What fun relief on a hot hot day!

Decked out in his entire beach ensemble

Splash! Splash!

Picture Time

Having fun in my Walker

Mom, no pictures, please!

Clayton and Daddy on a Kitty hunt... They got one!

Upside down with excitement to have Daddy back

There are no words - just love in my heart for that precious grin

Clayton's Almost Crawl

WARNING: this extremely adorable video is 7 min. long!! Watch at your own risk of wasting time!!

As you can see, he has the leg movement part down, but can't figure out what to do with his arms! You'll also hear that he has recently figured out how to click his tongue.


And a special bonus clip:

Always, Sometimes, Almost and Never

Clayton can Always. . .
. . .call for me "mom-mom-mom"
. . .say "buh buh buh" and "ah goo guh" whatever that means...
. . .put himself to sleep now - no more nursing or rocking to sleep or sleeping in Mom and Dad's bed
. . .loves his bath

Sometimes Clayton. . .
. . .likes to give mommy kisses when I ask for them (it's more like he tries to suck on my check or chin and it is very moist, but I love every one) - but sometimes he won't.
. . .will pat me on the back when I pick him up, like he's trying to burp me. Probably because that is what I do to him! : )
. . .tries to clap his hands together (the motion is there, but no sound), but when I start to say "patty cake" he just stops and looks at me (this is something he just started doing in the last couple of days)
. . .will pull himself up from sitting to standing if he is positioned correctly with a sturdy object to grab
. . .entertains himself in his crib after we wakes up for 20-40 min. since I started leaving his monkey and a teething ring in there for him (this helps mommy get a lot of stuff done around the house!)

Clayton can Almost. . .
. . .CRAWL! He moves to all fours from a sitting position and rocks back and forth. One time he took one crawl "step" and it scared him so bad he fell on his face and started bawling.

Clayton Never. . .
. . .has said "dad" or any thing like it - the "duh" sound is one of the only common ones he does not make
. . .has pulled himself up in his crib (thank God!) since he hasn't figured out how to get from laying down to sitting up yet
. . .has cut a tooth!
. . .holds still while I try to trim his finger or toe nails

Phone Pictures

Here are two rather random pictures that I had on my phone. Sorry they might be kind of low quality!

In the tub last night

And one that I forgot that I had taken while we were camping last weekend of Clayton trying out the big boy lawn chair in his lion PJs

I hope that this update satisfies "some people" : )