Baby Genius?

Or maybe just over excited parents. Have you ever thought that your child must be a whizkid of some sort? We think it all the time. We seem to think that he is ahead of the game in just about every category. Clay has been extra chatty the last couple of days - talking up a storm even in the car when he usually falls asleep. He's just figured out that his lips and tongue can make different noises other than "A-Goo".

Poor daddy still hasn't seen Clay roll over. We haven't had a repeat of the impressive skills so maybe it was just a fluke and he was positioned just right on the couch to help him roll over. Hopefully he will do it again someday while daddy is watching.

Clay and mommy had their first weekend without daddy (really only a day and a half) as he was fortunate enough to have Ryder Cup tickets for the final round - AWESOME! I was so happy that he was able to go even though we missed him. Here's a picture of us watching for daddy...

The Swinter clan came down to keep us company for the weekend. I love watching Grandpa Swinter with Clay - he always lets the girls have him whenever they want but takes him ever chance he gets if someone needs to go do something. He's such a big softy (but shhhhh... don't tell anybody).

Clay's Highchair came in! Yeah! He looks like such a big boy sitting in it and likes being up at the table with us while we eat. Oh the messes that will be made in that chair - its going to be so much fun when we starts eating solid foods.

Brian was very glad that the USA won the Ryder Cup because we also had Cubs tickets for the same weekend and it ended up being the game that they clinched the division. Clay is getting into the playoff spirit as well. Thank you Laura and Mike for this adorable Cubs sleeper - its super cute.

On a Roll

Today was an exciting day as Clay rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time. We am so glad that it was front to back first as we could imagine lots of crying in the middle of the night if it had gone the other way and he could not get back to his back yet. Poor Brian hasn't gotten to see him roll yet though. Hopefully he will see it sometime soon though. It really makes me feel so blessed to be a stay at home mom and be able to witness all the new and exciting things first hand.

We are also pretty sure that the early stages of teething have begun (exciting and horrifying all at the same time for a breastfeeding mom). Clay has been extra drooling lately, fussy without reason, chewing on everything, and having a hard time sleeping - supposedly all symptoms of teething. I really hope that it does not hurt him too much.

Brian is heading out of town for the weekend and away from Clay for the first time - We will miss our daddy while he is gone.

Here's a bunch of pictures of our little bundle of fun...

Working on those big muscles


Clay and his monkey friend (he has a lot of animal friends)


Clay riding the Giraffe from his room


Truck Butt

ABC's Video

As promised, video of Clay grunting along with the ABCs. Believe it or not, this was one of his less vocal versions...

Fashion Show and the ABC's

We are starting the growing up pictures now that Clay is 3 months. Brian thought that maybe he wanted to take Clay to a more formal portrait studio until some research was done. It is amazing how expensive some studios are. $125 just for a sitting! that doesn't even include any pictures- just 1/2 hour of the photographer's time. $49 for a 5x7! We need to get into the photography business. We settled on JCPenny for the pictures and we'll just hope for some good pictures- how hard is it to make a baby look cute though? We thought it would be a good idea to try on some possible outfits to make sure they fit and would look good in the pics. Of course Clay spit up on each of the outfits he tried on so its a good thing we did things in advance with time to do laundry.

Sitting up like a big boy- notice the nice line of spit up on this outfit already


Green is a great color for Clay. This outfit just happens to be one of Daddy's from when he was a baby.


Clay has been super cute "singing" along with the ABC's - or more like grunting along with every couple of letters. After several attempts it was finally caught on film. (Brian will have to put it on here though because I am not sure how to edit the video to make it shorter)

The Blogging Slackers Strike Again

It has been mentioned that we have not been doing a very good job keeping up with the blogging lately. Clay's adoring fans have missed getting new info with the long stretch with no post and especially no pictures so let's try to catch up on the happenings.

We were pretty low key for a couple of weeks and have no ventured too far from home. Clay and mommy are settling into much more of a daytime routine which seems to be working for both of them. Clay is also getting much more playful which is so much fun as he grabs onto things and attempts to "sing" along with the ABC's and other little songs. He has moved on to form a great friendship with a new toy that has a black and white puppy on it so that he is not exclusive to the pig anymore. This toy also rattles and it has been a blast watching him figure out that he can cause the sounds by shaking it.

We had another successful trip to the lake and slept a little better with a piece of dense foam as the mattress that didn't sink in quite as much as the mattress we have for the pack n play. Still being out of our crib throws our sleep cycle way out of whack and Clay was up several times each night. We think that Clay was playing tricks on daddy one night as he would fuss enough to get daddy out of bed then stop fussing and be asleep as soon as he was sitting on the edge of the bed ready to pick him up. Once daddy would lay down the fussing would begin again. It began to get comical after it happened so many times in a row... poor daddy. It was still a great time though.

Clay's new friend Maverick was born this past week on Tuesday! They are 3 months and a half hour apart. We went to visit Kurt and Sawyer and their new little boy on Thursday and all 3 are doing great. We can't wait to go for walks and play and have another mommy/ son duo to run around with during the week.

This past weekend was sure to be an exciting one as mommy and daddy were going to have their first nice dinner out together since their anniversary (June 12th), and this time mommy was much more comfortable with the thought of being away for a couple of hours. We were also going to the Illinois football game as a family on Saturday to see the Illini play Eastern. Friday morning at 4 am mommy was out of bed with a headache and was freezing cold for the rest of the night unable to warm up (not a common thing for the woman known as a space heater). Woke up in the morning feeling pretty crappy still and had a fever of 101. She thought she was ok for Brian to go to work but soon found out that wasn't going to go well. With no energy to play with Clay and just wanting to sleep it off Holly finally gave up and called Brian around 11am and he was able to come home for the rest of the day to take care of mommy and Clay. Holly slept all day, had to cancel dinner plans for Friday night and after a good nights rest still had a fever the next morning meaning no Illinois game either. Luckily she was feeling well enough to take care of Clay and sent Brian and Brad off to Illinois to enjoy the game (Daddy even came home with presents!) Finally by the end of Saturday the fever was gone and we are back to normal.

Grandma Swinter is now here for a couple of days to visit so I am sure we will have more adventures to tell of later.

Stay tuned for pictures and videos......