8 Months

Clarke is now 8 months old. I know it is cliche, but time really has flown by. Clarke is getting so big and learns a new skill (or 'trick', as we like to call it) every day. Here are his latest accomplishments.

• he has 4 teeth
• can crawl (all over the place)
  
• can pull up - we have lowered the mattress since the picture above was taken
  
• eats anything but meat
• talks constantly - but no words yet
• is getting more and more vocal about what he wants
• likes to stand up on the backdoor and watch the dog
• loves his bath time
• hates getting dressed
  
• is very strong - you see that mobile in the picture attached? he broke that thing in half last week by pulling on it. no one was injured :).
  

we still love our time with clarke and can't wait to see what he learns in the next month!

Halloween and 7 Month Update

Halloween was so fun. Clarke kept his costume on for at least 30 minutes. he was a cowboy. he had chaps, boots and a hat...so cute. i actually felt like a real mom. his chaps were super long, so i stayed up late the night before halloween and cut the bottoms off and actually hemmed them up. they didn't look great, but they weren't terrible either. we just went to my parents' house and handed out candy with them. it was pretty fun. here are a couple of pictures.





Clarke also turned 7 months on the 7th. He is getting so big. He still is not full-on crawling yet, but he does get to things he wants i.e. my cell phone and the remote. here is a list of some of his latest talents:

• sit up unsupported
• sit himself up
• eat whole bananas PLUS his bottle at dinner time
• has two teeth
• talk alot- still saying "a-da-da-da"
• get on his toes and his head like he's going to do a summersault
• grab everything around him
• laugh a lot

we've started to do this thing where we shake our heads and say 'crazy crazy crazy'. he loves it. sometimes he'll even start to shake his head with us. he thinks it is the funniest thing ever. that's about it for now.

contest

i like to enter contests. check out this blog and you could win a really cute tote. ps. i don't even know this blogger but she seems really nice.

Life Update

This is our new couch to go in our new house. we found it at this great consignment store. it was brand new. now, we need to get a loveseat or chair and a half. we'll be doing more consignment store shopping this weekend!
Here is the finished product of our new house. we love it so far. it is such a blessing. our house is always open for visitors :). come see us.
Clarke flew for the fist time. as you can see he's pretty relaxed. he didn't mind it at all.
Clarke driving the tractor at the pumpkin patch in little rock
and finally, here is clarke with a couple of pumpkins. he doesn't really sit up without support yet, but he sure looks cute while he tries.

We've been so busy lately, but i think life will slow down for us for a little while. i sure hope so.

6.5 Month Update

Sorry that i missed the 6 month update. between moving and going to little rock for a wedding, we haven't had a lot of time for blogging. So here is the update:

• Clarke weighs somewhere around 18.5 pounds
• he is still only rocking on his hands and knees and sometimes on his feet and hands - no crawling yet - he is moving around though
  
• he has a tooth coming in. we can see and feel a little white spot on the bottom right of his mouth
• he says "a-da-da-da-da" (but he is not saying it to daniel)
• he likes to play pickaboo. he'll pull the blanket off of his face, but he has not figured out how to get it back over his face
• he eats all kinds of veggies and fruits. and we have been giving him stuff from our plates every now and again. (no meats yet.)
• loves to watch tv
• is still the cutest kid i have ever seen
  

Tagged

So, here is the rule:
List 7 weird or random things about me and then tag others at the end. So, here it goes!!

1. I love the way icees and planters cheeseballs feel in my mouth (not at the same time)
2. I do not like to run, but wish i could run faster and further
3. I love the smell of simple green. it reminds me of cleaning boats at camp
4. I think God made the pinky finger for nose picking (i know you are all sticking your pinky in your nose to make sure your's is a perfect fit too.) :)
5. It drives me crazy when i order a beverage at a drive through window, and they fill it so full that when I put the straw in, the drink comes out and gets everywhere.
6. Even though i don't like to be tied down to a schedule, i usually am more productive if i make myself stick to a schedule.
7. Clarke is the cutest kid i have ever seen and i really think he needs to be on tv or in advertisements.

I tag Rachel and Casey

Some recent videos of Clarke

This video was taken on Tuesday night at like 10pm. Keep in mind that he usually goes to bed around 9pm. Let's just say he was a bit hyper that night. Laura Catherine has nicknamed Clarke 'the Pterodactyl' because of his squealing.



This is clarke trying his very best to crawl. he's doing pretty well, but he cannot figure out his hands. we try putting toys in front of him to reach for, but he just falls on his tummy to grab them. any other tricks to get his arms working right?

5 Month Update

Clarke is now 5 months old. It's kind of crazy how he hit 5 months and all of a sudden he learns something new everyday. Very fun. Here is a list of all of the things he is doing now:

• rolling from front to back
• rolling from back to front
• getting up on all fours and rocking
• grabbing everything in sight
• saying 'agoo'
• shreeking
• giggling
• cackling
• he loves to be thrown in the air
• he loves his bouncy seat
• he loves to watch tv (he is truly our child)
• he loves anything red
• eating fruits and vegetables
• doing raspberries while eating fruits and veggies
  
• chewing on anything that he can get to his mouth

i'm sure there is more, but that is all that i can think of right now. we are so thankful for such a healthy baby.

ps. he's still the cutest baby we know :).

Destin

We got to spend a whole week in Destin, Fl. with our good friends the Fosters and the Harrells. it was so much fun to be with them. actually, it was one of the most relaxing trips. on sunday, daniel and i were talking about how we didn't even feel like we needed to recover like we usually do from our vacations.

shannon foster found an increadible house for us to stay. it was brand new and super nice. it had 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, big dining table and a private pool. we would go to the beach in the mornings and come back to the house for the afternoons. most of the kids would nap in the afternoons so we took our monitors to the pool and sipped on fruity drinks and read books while we baked in the sun. ahhh....so nice! :).

the water was actually closed for two days due to the hurricane in the gulf. we only got 1/2 a day of rain, but apparently those storms churn the water pretty good for a long way. the waves on those days were huge. other than that, the water was fun. here a couple of pictures of our trip.

one of our fun nights out.
clarke being a beach bum and aunt cat teaching him to go under the water. the whole group.

some recent pictures

clarke asleep in his jumparoo...he wears himself out bouncing

word to your mother...clarke and i had a photo shoot on our way to little rock a couple of weeks ago...is he not the cutest gangsta you've ever seen???

our house...we came back from little rock and all of this had been done...they say we'll get to move in next month...i sure hope so!

Bored Yet???

"don't you think you'll get bored?" i think that was one of the most asked questions when we decided that i would stay home with clarke. the answer....a resounding NO. there is always something to do. whether it is cleaning, making dinner, running errands or playing with clarke, i'm not bored. you can probably tell by my lack of blogging that we stay pretty busy.

clarke had his 4 month shots and check up last week. he is on the upper end of average in all of his measurements. he weighed 16.1 lbs and was 25 3/4 inches long. he did ok with his shots. he did cry, but was asleep by the time we got to the car.

while we were in little rock, clarke had a couple of days where he cried for an hour or so for reasons that we could not figure out. we think he might be cutting a few teeth. since we got home, he has been back to his super sweet self. very content. smiling and 'talking' to us all day long.

clarke's new favorite toy is his jumperoo. while i was at my moms' group last week, i mentioned that we had a jumperoo that clarke was not long enough for. (his feet would just dangle.) one the other girls suggested that we put a pillow under his feet. brilliant. why can't i think of things like that??? well. it was perfect. he loves his jumperoo. he jumps around and wears himself out. he's fallen asleep in the jumperoo several times...that is just about the cutest thing i've ever seen. i'll post a picture soon. --thanks aunt cat and uncle adam, for the the jumperoo.

he does have a couple of new tricks. clarke can now roll over both directions. he is not very good at either direction and he really doesn't realize what he's doing. but as soon as he does, i'm sure that will be the end of our stationary baby.

we leave tomorrow for a vacation. we are excited. we're going to destin, fl. we are making a quick pit stop in MS to visit with daniel's family. say a prayer that gustav doesn't ruin our plan of laying out on the beach all day.

we are off to run some errands and do some laundry! pics to come.

4 Months & Little Rock

we've been blessed to be able to spend two whole weeks in little rock with daniel's family. daniel's job requires him to do some training on a particular jet. they happened to be having the training in little rock so he jumped at that chance. it's been so fun to get to unwind and see some great friends. we have not gotten to see everyone yet, but we still have over a week left here.

clarke turns 4 months old today. it really does go by quickly. he is still so sweet and so good. he is starting to show lots of his personality. he doesn't jump at the chance to play with all of his toys. he likes to sit back and look at them a minute before he decides to try to grab them. i guess he's trying to figure them out. he does put anything that he can in his mouth. we think he may be cutting a couple of teeth??? he's been extra drooly and he's even had a couple of non-characteristic crying spells. we've been told by several people to try some homeopathic teething drops or tablets. we got some of those yesterday and they seem to work pretty well.

we have some pretty recent pictures of clarke that i need to download and get posted. maybe we'll have a 4 month old photo shoot.

things i love

non-shallow thing i love (in no particular order)
daniel
clarke
getting to stay home with clarke
a baby that sleeps well
good friends
making new friends
exercising (most of the time)
playing
family
Jesus
finding a good growing church
feeling accepted at our new small group

shallow things i love
baby monitors
getting to lay outside, read a book and bake in the sun while clarke takes a good nap and i'm listening to him on the baby monitor
pizza
splenda sweetened tea
taking cute pictures of clarke
the fact that clarke is the cutest baby i've ever seen
fitting into pre pregnancy clothes (they don't quite look the same, but hey, i'm in 'em.)
blogging/facebook
getting to go on vacation soon
weekends (which is weird since every day is a weekend now--i still love them
getting to eat giant cheese burgers and fries and drink real dr. pepper after a good long ride on my bike...that's always my meal of choice
being tan

shallow or not, i am grateful for all of the good things in my life. they are all blessings and i know that God has given it all to me so that i can glorify Him with it.

ps. if you guys want a baby announcement (yes it's late, but hey, it's getting done) please send me your address...this will also be our christmas card list.

bedding for sale

since jaci turned out to be a clarke, we have some girl bedding that we are trying to sell. here are some pictures. it is 4 pieces; skirt, sheet, bumper and quilt. it was custom made by pickles and ice cream in LR. if you guys know of anyone that might be interested in it, please have them contact me. you can also view our ad on craiglist.

busy weekend

we had a great weekend. busy, but great. saturday morning we got up early and went to a race. it was my first triathlon since we found out that we were pregnant with clarke. it was a good little booster for me. i got 2nd place...and last place. there were only 2 people in my age group. oh well. it was still fun. clarke had a great time. he loves being outside. there were a bunch of ladies that were making him laugh. so cute.
after that, i got cleaned up and went shopping with one of my good friends and roomates from a&m. it was fun to see and to catch up with allison. she's a busy girl and i'm glad we got to hang out. we went to the new outlets in round rock. i liked them alright. i was good. i only spent $9 on a polo for daniel. however, next weekend, we are going to the big outlets in san marcos. i might do more damage there! at least i hope i do :).
sunday, two of my good friends from high school came over for a little while. amber and casey live in dallas and were in town for the weekend so i got to catch up with them for a couple of hours on sunday. it's always good to see them. clarke was a big hit all weekend long.
we are so blessed to have an easy going kid. it's so fun to be able to just pack him up and take him with us wherever we go. it's pretty rare that he gets fussy. and even then, he's typically telling us that he's hungry or dirty. we fix that and he's a happy kid again. it's just so great.
we're gearing up for the edwards to come visit us this week. we can't wait. they come on wednesday. we are so excited to see them and to go play for the 4th of july weekend. it's been too long since we've seen them.

trial and error

do you ever wonder how the oldest kid in the family makes it past his/her 1st birthday? i feel sort of sorry for clarke. we have no idea what we are doing as parents. that is made clear to us all of the time. if it weren't for baby wise, i would not have known much about feeding. if it weren't for whattoexpect.com, i would not have known much about pregnancy or birth or breast feeding or parenting in general. seriously, i'm not sure how i'm even alive. being the oldest child, i know my parents didn't have the internet or books to teach them.







clarke has always been a huge eater. he weighed in at 13lbs at his 2 month check up, which is in the 75th percentile. a couple of weeks ago, he just started eating so slowly (like over an hour) and not finishing his bottles. this was a huge concern for us since he has taken 6oz every 3.5-4 hours during the day since he was like 5 weeks old. it just didn't seem right. so daniel and i just decided that he wasn't needing to eat as much. he was still sleeping through the night and he still had all of his other vital signs. i finally just got concerned enough to try some things out. so i got a different nipple for his bottle. one with higher flow. that was it! all he needed was a nipple that was easier to suck out of. he ate all 6oz in about 15 minutes. and he's continued to do this for the last week or so.







i'm glad that nothing really went wrong with him, but i'm also glad to know that the poor kid is now getting enough food...and sleeping better during his daytime naps. here's hoping we don't screw this kid up too much :).







we visited another church this weekend. it was ok, but we are really leading towards a church called the austin stone. http://www.austinstone.org/ it's a great church. since chris tomlin is the worship pastor, i really expected it to more of a concert. but it wasn't! it was great and very reverent. and the pastor went to a&m. that's always a good sign! chris tomlin is actually leaving to plant a church in atlanta. i'm not sure who will replace him, but i'm sure it will be good. we are excited to explore other opportunities to serve and to be involved with the austin stone.







that's all for now. here's a few recent pictures of clarke...he's the cutest kid i know!

and now i can't figure out how to get the pictures to post to the bottom of this blog...sheesh!

xanga or blogspot

i am going to post to both xanga and blogspot. however, i will simply post to one and copy and paste to the other.