Clark Quotes

If you're just now tuning in, I published a post updating about baby Evie. I'll write the birth story soon. But for now, I wanted to record some of the fun things that Clark is saying these days.

"Okay, let's do it!" (said with immense enthusiasm whenever we suggest something he wants to do)

"I can't like it/I can't want it anymore." (whenever you suggest something he doesn't want to do/eat/play in that moment)

"Okay, sure." (usually he says this after he has suggested something like "Play cars?" and you respond, "You want to play cars?" and he'll reply as if it were your idea the whole time, "Okay, sure.")

"Waps." (we have an abundance of wasps around our new house)

"What does that thing look like?" (he says this probably 3,000 times a day with slight variations - "What does that train look like?" "What does that tree look like?" etc. I don't know exactly what he is trying to get at with this question because he generally knows what it is he's asking about. I've started describing the said thing, but it's a tedious game. "It looks like a white train." "It looks like a tree with leaves.")

"What happened?" (again, 3,000 times a day, and even if nothing happened, you can't ignore him because he'll keep asking it with increasing volume until you recognize his question)

"Oh, that's so cute!" (said in a high pitched voice, usually about dogs--even if they are growling)

"Hold you!" (when he wants to be held)

"I want applesauce greasy couch!" (greasy couch = squeezy pouch)

"Probably"

Baby Evie at One Month

Time to end the year and a half long hiatus and start up the blog again because...we had another baby!!! And I want her first year of life to be documented at least half as well as her brother's was. So here is the one month update on Evie.

-Nursing: Still not my favorite activity on the planet (actually it falls somewhere between having dental work done and scrubbing cafeteria dishes), but Evie is a much better nurser than Clark ever was. Remember how Clark used to scream at me every time he nursed? Remember how he was so impatient and wouldn't stay latched? Well, I do. Evie just cries when she is hungry and stops once she starts eating. It's amazing! Sure, nursing still hurts. Sure, it's still a pain to do it every 2-3 hours. But I'll take this improvement!

-Sleeping: She's a cuddler. She sleeps the best if someone is holding her, but the swing has become a life saver. She does okay in there most of the time. We probably should start teaching her to sleep on a flat surface like a bassinet or a crib, but I don't want to go back to getting any less sleep than I am currently. Also, when she was first born, her nose was so tiny and probably still swollen from birth that she had a really hard time breathing--lots of snorting and coughing. It seemed like it was actually easier for her to breath if she slept with her head at a bit of an incline. She still snorts when she gets really upset, and it's adorable. She also does a lot of grunting in her sleep. I'm starting to think that she has some gas troubles, but she rarely ever gets fussy so it's hard to tell.

-Sibling: I'm happy to report that Clark has welcomed Evie into the family. And by welcomed I mean he hasn't tried to hurt her. He is mostly ambivalent towards her, but sometimes he'll be very sweet with her. When she's sleeping sometimes he'll look at her and say, "Oh, she's so tiny!" or "Oh, she's so cute!" in a cute high voice. He likes to rub her head or hold her arm or toes. It's pretty cute.

-Miscellaneous: Since she's so tiny, there isn't a whole lot more to update. She is a small, skinny little sweetheart, but very long. She's got long, thin fingers, toes, and feet. I think she's going to be a tall one. She is pretty calm and content most of the time, although she doesn't really like to hang out anywhere without being held. She maybe lasts 10 minutes before she wants to be swaddled and cuddled. She's a sweet thing and I can't wait to get to know her more as she grows. I'm so happy she's healthy and well.

Clark Turns One!

Well, if ever a day deserved a blog post, it would be our sweet little boy's birthday. I remember trying to explain parenthood to my little brother and sister-in-law, and I think I said something like, "It's exhausting, but every time you are away from them for even 10 minutes and then you see your baby again, your heart just almost explodes because of how cute and sweet and wonderful they are." That's how I feel about Clark. He's just the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful, delightful little boy, and he keeps getting more fun and interesting as he grows.

For his actual birthday celebration, we just had a small party in the afternoon. Dan, Angie, and Mark came down from Houston, we had some new friends from church and their little boy over, and Grandpa Wiese flew all the way from Utah to be with Clark on his birthday. Mostly, the adults snacked on bean dip, chicken salad sandwiches, and cupcakes while the babies played around.

Todd made a beautiful homemade yellow cake with homemade chocolate frosting for Clark's cake. It was the perfect small size for Clark, but we didn't want him to get completely disgusting messy when all the guests were there and we couldn't just deposit him directly into the bath, so he had a cupcake instead. We put him in his high chair and everyone gathered around and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He was not so sure about that. He looked a little afraid of all the weird attention.

At first he wouldn't touch the cupcake. It seemed like he was thinking, "Why are you putting this giant thing in front of me? Don't you know I only eat tiny bites?" I broke a few pieces off, and he seemed to warm up to it a little, but it was slow going, so I got distracted talking to someone. When I turned back, he had the entire frosted top of the cupcake in his mouth. He shoved the whole thing in. Guess he liked it.

He wasn't very interested in his presents, even the wrapping paper. He was a little overwhelmed by all the people in our house and all the attention on him. The other two little boys there sure got a kick out of the presents though! Although, Clark was immediately in love with the Sesame Street cell phone toy. Thanks Dangie and Mark!

And the big news for his birthday week - he started taking steps! He's still very wobbly, but he can get about 5 steps in before he tumbles. We love our sweet boy!!

11 Month Update

Pictures to follow...

Eating: Clark is a champion eater. He has been ever since he discovered solids. His first love was sweet potatoes, but now he'll enjoy pretty much anything, except green beans (and even those he'll eat as long as they aren't pureed). He seems to really like bananas and he loves to eat whatever we are eating. It's a lot of fun to have him at the dinner table with us now and have a family dinner.

This also marks the end of an era - no more nursing. I'm FREE!!!! Seriously, best day of my life. I know it's early. He's supposed to have formula or breast milk until 12 months. So sue me. He's doing great on whole milk. And I'm doing great too. :)

Sleeping: Clark is also a great sleeper these days. He will sleep through the night several days a week and the other days, he usually will just cry out and need one of us to give him his binky or rock him for a few minutes and he'll go right back to bed. Sometimes he'll wake up too early, like at 5:30am and we can give him a bottle and he'll go back to sleep for another hour or two. It's been so nice to get good sleep again. He also naps well - two naps a day for 1-2 hours.

Brief history of our sleep training: We never did cry it out. Clark still uses a binky and a fuzzy blankie to go to sleep. We waited until about 6 months or later to do sleep training. We sort of did a modified cry it out. We would give him a bottle or I would nurse him and then we would lay him down in his crib sleepy. He would usually make noises and/or cry, so we would go back in after 5 or 10 minutes and lay him back down with his blanket. We would maybe do that twice and if he was still crying we would rock him to sleep. It wasn't an exact science, but now he will generally fall asleep on his own. Sometimes we still have to go back in and rock him for a few minutes, but he will mostly put himself to bed every day. It's so nice!

Developing: Clark learned to fully crawl around 9 months. I was so worried that he was developmentally behind, but now I'm just not worrying about stuff like that. It seems like babies are so different and he's doing just fine. He crawls everywhere now and pulls up on everything. He can walk along the couch or if we hold his hands. He learned to climb up the stairs a few weeks ago, but he is completely oblivious about going down them. He will just dive head first unless we catch him. We finally switched Clark to a bigger car seat, one that doesn't pop in and out of the car.

Socializing: Clark has just recently realized that other people and little kids in general are a whole lot of fun. We've made some new friends with babies a few months older than Clark and he has been having a field day playing with them. He gets so excited that he squeals and screams in delight. He also clenches his fist and flexes all of his muscles until he shakes. Sometimes I worry that he is going to have a heart attack because he gets so excited. But it's fun to see him having so much fun.

Toys: He has a very short attention span, so he doesn't really play with one toy for more than a minute or two. He loves to open books and turn pages but refuses to sit still through one. Probably his favorite toys are cheap water bottles. He loves to shake them and chew on them and make them crinkle and crunch. He loves to rip paper. He loves to play with Daddy. Todd has started this annoying habit of putting Clark's toys in his mouth and shaking them, which Clark LOVES, but now Clark always tries to put his toys in my mouth and I don't love it. :)

The Big Pool

So, over the 4th of July weekend, Clark was exposed to a baby pool, but a few weeks ago, we finally got around to exposing him to the big pool in our neighborhood.

Like most things, he took it in stride - he didn't cry, he didn't laugh, just stared seriously.

With Mom

With Dad

Dry and Toasty

5 Months Flying By

I completely missed Clark's 4 month post, so we'll jump to Clark at 5 months.

Sleeping: We had a rough patch for a week or so where he was waking up every 2-3 hours, but thankfully he is back to sleeping a good 5-6 hour chunk at night. It makes such a difference in my sanity. His naps have also been a little off, just 45 minutes at a time, but now he usually takes at least one 1.5-2 hour nap a day.

Eating: We continue to have some struggles with nursing, but the big news this month is that Clark has started eating "solid" foods. Rice cereal, oatmeal, and pureed pears don't exactly seem solid, but judging by how his poop is changing, they are definitely solid enough :) I'll try to post a video to facebook or here of his first times trying cereal and pears. Even after he had tried pears once or twice, he would still give us this face like, "What the heck?" when he would take his first few bites. Poor little sweetheart. But he really does like to eat, for the most part. He has also now started eating sweet potatoes which he seems to prefer infinitely more to pears, though I think they taste like dirt.

Developing: Clark is starting to be able to roll himself over which is both good and bad news for him. He is now able to roll himself out of tummy time, which he has always despised. However, he also is increasingly rolling himself onto his stomach and then getting trapped there. He'll always look around like, "Who did this to me?" when he finds himself on his stomach. He's hilarious :) He is also always striving to sit up. He isn't content anymore to just lay under his little jungle and swing at toys. When we lay him down, he immediately lifts his head and neck up like he is doing crunches, trying to sit himself up. He still is completely wobble when we sit him up, but he's working on it.

Personality: When Clark is at home, he is usually a very smiley boy, however, when he goes out in public, he gets a little reserved. I'm not sure if he is shy or just observing all the new things around him, but he usually just gets wide-eyed and stares at everything. People at church or the grocery store will try interacting with him, but a lot of the time he will just keep looking around and avoid them. He even doesn't make eye contact with Todd or I sometimes when we are somewhere that's very busy. 

3 Months...and a few weeks

(Disclaimer: I've been working on this post for about a month, trying to get at the right computer with the right pictures that I want, but I haven't ever finished it with all the pictures. However, I figure I'd better post it now since this 3 month update is now a month out of date)

I've been wanting to do a post about Clark at 3 months, and I figure I better do it quick because his 4 month doctor appointment is coming up soon.

Clark is a great napper, most of the time. He will generally go down without much fuss if I catch him at the right time. He usually takes 4 naps a day. Two long ones in the morning and around noon, one shorter one in the afternoon, and usually a catnap in the evening before bedtime. However, lately he HATES going to bed at night. It usually takes about 3-4 tries to get him down for the night. A "try" includes a parent taking a turn of walking him, singing, holding him, trying different positions, laying him down and picking him up. Usually he is crying for most of this. It's getting really frustrating.

He still is a finicky eater, but it doesn't seem to be deterring his growth or his diaper output. He's recently been leaking most times he goes poop. Fun, fun, fun. I had to take a picture of this blowout because it was one of his record-breaking ones.

Clark is not a big fan of tummy time...which is mostly our fault because we didn't start him on it soon enough (but c'mon, give me a break, the hospital and all the books scare you to death about ever laying them on their tummies because of SIDS, sheesh). However, he's been doing better and getting a lot stronger. It's so adorable to see him perk up his little head like a prairie dog. :) Lately, he's started this new trick of getting out of tummy time by rolling over onto his back. It's mostly accidental and he seems surprised when he does it, but it's getting more frequent.

We can't really leave Clark unattended on the bed or the couch or any other high surfaces anymore. He has started to almost roll over. He can get onto his side, but usually doesn't get all the way to his belly. He also wiggles a lot and kicks his legs, which often results in his scooting himself around quite a lot for a baby that can't crawl.

This boy is a drool king. A slobber baby. A spit up champ. His favorite thing to do that causes the most moisture is to suck and chew on his fist and fingers. Because of this, his fingers, face, and chest all end up soaked after a while. Even when he is sucking on his binky, he tries to stick his fingers in his mouth. Another result of his constant saliva is a little cough. I think occasionally the drool ends up going down the wrong tube. Good thing his cough is the most adorable noise he makes. I really need to catch it on video some day.

He really likes bath time, especially since we swapped out the sling and he gets to sit in the tub now. We have some cute little clips of him in the tub, but I have to figure out how to upload videos first...it didn't work just now when I tried it.

These are pictures after the bath, which he doesn't always love so much. Thanks to Uncle Theron and Aunt Melissa for the adorable shark bathrobe!