Down Dog!

While we were in North Carolina, Clark was taking lessons from his cousin Elliot on crawling. He started moving his body around trying to get from one place to another. My favorite thing he has done is what I call "Down Dog". When I first saw him do it, and I said "hey, he is doing down dog", my family looked at me all weird and said "What the heck is that?"

I have to back up here...my sister Melanie has told me that she is amazed by how much useless information I have stored in the recesses of my brain only to have it surface during really critical times like while playing trivial pursuit. So, naturally I feel the need to point out when my useless information actual IS useful...like in this instance. Down Dog is a Yoga position...I do not know how I know this since I do not do Yoga, but I picked it up somewhere and stored in neatly away in my brain, and as a result, I was able to immediately identify the new skill my child had just performed! Clark has since began scooting his away across the entire downstairs of the birdhouse (Note: I say scooting and not crawling because he hasn't been able to get his big belly off the floor yet), and can go from laying on his stomach to sitting up, and he usually manages a down dog in there somewhere. Clark is on the move!

Cousin Bonding

One of the best things about being in North Carolina was seeing all of the little cousins play together. Clark's new best buddy is Elliot, and they are so cute to watch. They play pass the pacie, and Elliot has been teaching Clark how to crawl. Clark also had fun at the neighborhood water park with his counsins, and since we have been back I think he has wondered where all of his little friends have gone.

Wallpaperer

We have spent the last week in North Carolina helping Tricia move into her new house, and preparing for baby Ella's arrival. I got recruited into wallpapering with my mom while we were there...and I actually enjoyed it...most of the time. First we tackled her kitchen. It is HUGE. It took us two solid days, only taking breaks for meals. I even got used to the wallpaper paste in my hair...hey, it functions just as well as gel! Then we took a few days break since after finishing the kitchen we thought our necks, backs, and hands might never recover. But then we did the really fun job, putting up baby Ella's fairy wallpaper in her bedroom. All in all, it was great bonding time with my mom AND I get to add wallpaperer to my resume of household skills! Bonus!

My days at the birdhouse

Playing with Papa in the morning

Playing dress up with my aunt Bonna

Watching my mom vacuum the floors...it makes such a cool noise!

Lounging by the lake watching everyone waterski

I am going to waterski someday.

The Splits

Look what I can do Mom!

Okay not quite the splits, but pretty close...

The Ride

My Papa has a big green tractor. I have wanted to ride on it since we came to the birdhouse.

Now that I am a big boy and can sit up all by myself, my papa says I can ride with him.

I got to go on my first ride today! It was very loud and very fun.


Maybe he will let me drive it someday.

Thank you for the ride Papa!

Clark's Twin

Clark LOVES the mirror. I think most kids do at his age, and it is fun to watch him smile at himself and grab his twin on the other side. I can't help but think about the movie Mary Poppins when she is doing her hair in the mirror when all of the sudden the Mary Poppins on the other side starts doing something else to show there are TWO Mary Poppins. I love that movie because there is so much in it that I would love to be real, i.e. clicking fingertips can clean up a messy room and laughing can make you fly...and how great would it be have TWO Clark's to play with!

Independence B-day

Today was Clark's first 4th of July AND his first experience seeing fireworks. I had a wonderful birthday that began with Tanner bringing me breakfast in bed. The house smelled like apple pie all day from mom's baking, and who could not help but dance and sing to patriotic favorites like Coming To America, American Storm, and Living in America. We spent some time down at the lake and had burgers and potato salad for dinner. Mom even tried to feed us sugarless apple pie (not on purpose), but we fixed that by putting dulce de leche all over it instead (yum!). Clark loved the fireworks, and after we came home we even had our own stock of fireworks that included lighting flashes, sparkling fountains, flowers, and sparklers. It was a great night...and from the look of my legs the next day, the mosquitos had a great night too!

Water Baby

Clark loves water. He has always enjoyed his bath times and also loves to drink it too. When we took him for his first beach experience a couple of weeks ago, the other women who had kids said that he was going to hate it. "All babies hate it the first time because of the salt". Tanner and I just looked at eachother and smiled...we knew Clark would love it. And he did. He got the most excited when the water would rush passed his legs when it was being pulled back into the ocean. and he didn't even seem to mind the salty taste of the water! We went to the beach again today and he still liked it. We love our water baby!

Sun Safe?

I hate Wal-Mart. But we go there on average about once a day. The only good part about it are the prices and that you can get your 30 minute workout for the day walking the entire length of the store just to get milk and diapers. And, if you feel like to need to work on increasing your level of patience, just go and stand in any one of the 3 check out lines that are open, even though they have 25 in the store. We thought Wal-Mart had everything, but I dare anyone who reads this to go and find a fly swatter there, because they don't have one. We walked the entire length of the store at least twice and asked 3 workers. No fly swatter. I only walked out happy thinking about the cool flotation device that I bought for Clark so that he could wade in the water down at the lake. My mom convinced me it was THE BEST because it had a sun blocker to shield my very fair child...and the brand was even called Sun Safe so it had to be good. We were somewhat excited, then we blew it up and put my 24 pound child in it...


So much for sun safe. Now I get to go back to Wal-Mart and stand in the return line...yippee.