Grrrr, I'm strong!

Amazing things have been happening around here in the past couple of weeks. Clark has grown so much. When Nana and Grampa were here, Clark was just taking his first crawling steps. Today, I left Clark in the middle of the floor and went into his closet to get some clothes for him. He crawled after me! A few weeks ago, Clark would pull up using our help. Today he can crawl over to a toy and pull up on it most of the time. Two days ago, Tom was saying "Say da da, Say da da" and Clark said "da" very clearly. Tom did it again, and we had another "da" from Clark. These are amazing days.

He got his fourth tooth last week. He can crawl, he can pull up, he said, "da".

We had Josh and Ashley and John Paul over for dinner last weekend and Clark watched John Paul (now 10 mos) crawl around, pull up and be walked around the room. Clark was inspired and can now do those things too (not as well, but he was inspired!)
Now Clark loves being walked around the room! We got a very dangerous walker for him to push around. He is wary of it, but can get it going and practice walking. Tom and I hover to catch him when he is doing it and as a result both of us have achy backs!

The other results of all of these advances are:
Dirt and grass stains!


And bumps and bruises like his first shiner here.


He falls alot and we aren't always there to catch him. He is a trooper though, and cries for a minute then tries again. It is nice to see him so determined. He is really inspiring to me. He has goals and sets out to do them. He doesn't give up.

Other things he can do now are: thumb-finger pincher grasp things, bang things together, he pants when excited (like Sophia used to do!)

Things he likes: blueberries mixed with rice cereal, being thrown into the air, being walked around the room, being surprised (extreme peak-a-boo).

Things he doesn't like: When the water turns on in the bathtub, this is terrifying. And vacuuming and the blow dryer terrify him sometimes, but not all of the time. If I watch him while doing these things then I think it makes him feel less afraid of them.