Teeth Definitely Arriving

P.S. -- Lisa would like me to point out that, despite my initial skepticism, there is now no debate on Clay's teeth. If you have the misfortune of receiving a good bite from him on one of your fingers, you too will have no doubt in your mind.

He's got two front teeth pretty well cut on the bottom of his mouth. This evening was the first time I could see them clearly. I'm not sure how long until they fully pop, but it should be soon.

He's also using them to dig into the spoon, making it a little tougher to get it back from him after each bite. The good news, however, is that he seems to be doing a better job of cleaning the spoon while he holds on.

Plus, Lisa's visit to the dentist today reminded us why we're praying he gets my teeth genes . . .

Bananas are Good

Clay's definitely digging the bananas. We mix them up with rice cereal and there's very little effort required to get him to the bottom of the bowl.

His very first mouthful was straight bananas. He kind of puckered a little bit and just stared at me for several moments -- as if it say, "What have you done to me?"

Tonight was the third of his three day cycle for bananas. We're supposed to try him on something new twice a day for three days to make sure he isn't allergic -- then we can safely add it to the rotation.

What's tommorrow? Not sure -- maybe carrots or peas. Soon Clay will have a broader palate than his Uncle Matt.

Clay Brings Good Cheer to Bluefield

Like Bob Hope swooping into Korea, Clay visited Bluefield for Martha's birthday. He was accompanied by his lovely assistants, Oma and Lisa -- but clearly he was the main attraction.

View all photos from the trip

Latest Stats

Clay had his six-month checkup this morning and got the all-clear to start trying new foods. They're sure to have more color than rice cereal, making the input and output much more chromatic (and exciting!)

Clay's Stats:

Weight: 17lbs 1oz :: 50th Percentile

Height: 27" :: 75th Percentile

Head Circumference: 46cm :: 78th Percentile

Hitting the Bottle (Finally)

When Clay was about six weeks old, we decided it was time to try him on the bottle -- to make sure he would take it. After a little bit of fighting, he was willing to drink from the bottle. So we thought everything was copacetic and we didn't give him a bottle for weeks. Big mistake. Huge mistake.

When we tried to go out for the first time, we left my poor, unsuspecting parents alone with him. When it came time to feed, all they had was a very angry baby and a full bottle. Even help from Mary, our next-door neighbor and mother of two young children, did little to convince him to go back on the bottle. By the time we got home that evening, he was starving -- and I'm not sure who was more exhausted: Clay or poor Oma and Opa.

After a few more abortive attempts, we just gave up on the bottle, promising to do better next time. And that's how things were left for several months.Until a few weeks ago.

Either in blissful ignorance or impressive optimism, Grandma and Grandpa Hagen gave Clay a bottle of formula while he and Lisa were visiting in Florida. And he drank it. And then he drank again, and again, and a corner was turned.

This evening during small group, Clay was getting fussy so Lisa put together a 6oz bottle and he guzzled it. How nice it is to be able to feed him with a bottle instead of Lisa needing to either decamp to another room to feed -- or cover herself up in a tent while he kicks and fiddles under the drapery. And a baby with 6oz of warm formula in his stomach is a quiet and content baby -- which is a good thing to be during the middle of a bible study.

The bottle is definitely more than half-full at this point.

Child-Proofing

I was inspired (dare I say envious?) of Addy's latest accomplishment, crawling. It made me realize that we're just around the corner from having Clay getting into everything.

Tack on yesterday's scare in the pool and I was feeling the urge to overcompensate. I picked up some of these tot lok safety locks on the way home -- and then spent awhile this evening installing the first four. They work pretty well, staying out of sight when unneeded -- and you can even disable them easily when they're not necessary. I just picked up a pack of four at Lowe's to make sure they worked on our cabinets. They did, so I'll buy the rest of them for much, much cheaper on eBay.

I feel like my dad-karma is starting to mend. Now if I can just find a way to keep Lisa out of my bottle of Coke . . .

Clay Turns Six

... six months, that is.

To celebrate, we took Clay up to the pool with our neighbors Eric and Mary and their son and daughter, and then had a cook-out back at our place.

While at the pool, I wasn't being as careful as I should be and Clay got away from me for a moment, going under for a split second. Normally, we have a little countdown and I blow in his face to get him to hold his breath before putting his face in. This time, the training wheels were off and he went into the drink all by himself, sans warning. I had him back out in a split second and, short of a little snorting, he was fine -- but it scared the bejeebers out of me.

Clay's A Looker, and It's All Mom's Fault

Whenever I tell folks what a good looking baby Clay is, they invariably pronounce that he gets it from his mom. I have to agree.

Check out other comparisons between Scott, Lisa, and Clay's baby photos.

Clay's First Tooth (?)

Lisa swears that she can see his first tooth beginning to cut on the bottom. I'll have to take her word for it because I can't see it yet.

And we thought he wasn't sleeping well now?

Happy Clays Are Here Again

After a 2 1/2 month hiatus, Clay's finally back on the web. You can check out a bunch of recent photos on our flickr page. flickr is a free online photo hosting service, and it's pretty slick.

I'll be adding more blogs as we go along. Thanks for bearing with us during the downtime!