Clara's a little teapot...

...short and stout. This is what Matt was singing to Clara after her doctor's appointment today. She is now in the 45th percentile for weight (up from the 25th) and the 5th percentile for length (down from 10th). At 15 1/2 pounds she has more than doubled her birth weight. So clearly she is eating very well these days! The doctor said everything looks good, and she seems to be right on track. We are so thankful for a healthy baby, and I hope we never forget what a blessing that is and never take it for granted.

Here's Clara in her Cora dress. Jessica McClenahan and her Mom are making these dresses in memory of Joel & Jess's baby girl, Cora, who died of cancer earlier this year at 10 months. They are using the money raised to build a playground at their church in honor of Cora. I think of them often and follow their blog. It's a constant reminder to me of how precious life is and has really challenged me to remain focused on what is most important in life and to cherish my time with my baby girl. We think and pray for them often and are happy that they will be welcoming another baby into their family in January.

Clara with her Great Aunt Debbie over at Great Grandma Oney's house

Along the lines of eating, we started Clara on veggies last weekend. I was so excited to feed her baby food! I couldn't wait that day until Matt got home from work, but I did because I knew he'd want to see the funny faces. She definitely made some faces, but not nearly as many as when we started cereal. Sometimes we mix the veggies with her rice cereal and other times we give them to her straight. Those are the funniest faces. So far she's tried squash and sweet potatoes and tomorrow we're going to introduce carrots. A few "rules" we just learned are--start with yellow veggies and work towards the green and give the baby one veggie for 3-4 days before starting another one (to let them get used to the new flavor and to help identify any food allergies). The doctor gave us very general guidelines for quantities of food by basically saying to let her determine how much food she eats at a time and to start giving her more solids than liquids during the next sixth months. The accountant in me wants to know exact amounts she should eat each day, but I guess we'll just figure it out as we go!

Seriously Daddy. Is this really necessary?

I love this bib (it's one of the few blue things Clara owns). It says "Monkey see, Monkey do." My Dad used to say this to us when we were kids. Probably when we got ourselves into trouble doing something ornery!