FIRST STEPS!

Clark is walking!!!! And we were both here to see it! There were high fives and family hugs and sloppy kisses all around, a few minutes ago, when Clark took his very first steps. He had just pulled something off a high shelf with such a clatter that I flew into to room to make sure he was ok. Daddy was in there with him already, and of course he was fine. But I watched him for a minute, and he watched me, and I had a feeling--so I crouched down, as I have many times over the past few weeks, and held my arms out and called him. He grinned, threw his arms open wide, and walked five steps until he fell into my arms!

After we threw a happy little party for him, we decided to catch it on film. Here are his sixth, seventh, eighth, and so on. The fun stuff's all in the first minute, but I kept filming just in case. He gets a bit overwhelmed toward the end, understandably.

Now, I'm sure you've noticed there are four or five other posts on the blog today as well. That's because I sat down last night and got busy, catching up several weeks' worth of happenings. I had spaced out their posting dates to last through the beginning of next week, you know, to make it more interesting. But today's events necessitated a hurryup in proceedings.

Tomorrow would have been his first birthday. He was due November 8, 2008, and we'd be having a birthday party today. I think seeing him walk for the first time, at 13 1/2 months, was a great way to celebrate. Love to you all!

Fall Afternoon

Friday evening we sat outside and had some fall afternoon fun. We watched cars go by, chatted with the neighbors, inspected leaves, and decided that the grass was really pretty prickly.

And Clark stood for about 1.5 seconds, a record for him. He's still so wobbly on his feet, but we just know he'll walk on his own soon!

This is where we decided that the grass was a little too rough. You can see him trying to hold his legs up above the level of the sharp blades. Nice core work, Clark!

Clark at Play, and at Rest

Part of his necessary pattern-building growth comes in the form of games. We are big on patty-cake, especially while waiting for food to be prepared. We have routines for everything, from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night, and that makes everyone a lot happier.

Our new favorite game is peekaboo. It took him quite a few tries to see the funniness of this game, but now he'll ask for it, and it even helps distract him during the struggle to change his diaper, which is a major hurdle these days. He'll even play it all by himself.

What's funny is that he doesn't really realize that his eyes should be covered. To him, the game is "put the thing on the head and then pull it off so Momma will grin and say Peekaboo!" Hence the costume on the head, the sock on the head, the candy bar on the head. Half the time I'm looking him in the eye, saying "wheeeere's Clark?"

More good fun. He and Daddy were playing ball. Clark astounds me with how well he understands actions and games and play, even so young. We also caught some video of him swaying and bopping to music, a very recent development, but it was very dark, so we'll have to try again later.

Now for Clark at Rest. He has been sleeping just fine (and waking at 5:30 or 6, precious darling child), thankfully. However, due to the current round of teething, he's been a drooly, snotty mess. The result of this, at nighttime, is snoring, and BOY can this kid snore. You can just hear it on this video. Unfortunately, he startles a bit after I open the door, necessitating a fast retreat.

All that hard work sure makes a guy sleep hard!

Clark at Work

Clark is hard at work. He is learning how to be a big boy! Part of that work is play, of course, and we will see some of that in the next post. But I thought I'd give you a bit of a progress report, so to speak.

He still gets one bottle per day, at bedtime, though we are reducing the volume nightly and working on weaning him from it. Other than that, he's all sippy-cups, with the occasional open cup, though that's definitely a work in progress. Here's a nice compromise:

He loves the straw. Most of his straw-based experiences have been very exciting (Orange Julius, Smoothie King, though very small sips), so he's a big fan. He's squinting at the redeye reduction light, not at me. Thanks Josh and Doug for the super-fun Chicago cup!

Clark's school sent these home a day or two after we'd had to keep him home with a fever (he's since cut his seventh tooth; we just discovered it tonight.) The school director wanted to reassure us he was feeling fine and back to his cheery self.

This picture is funny to me. It was before he had his hair cut, so it's in his eyes, and he's got all kinds of crazy stuff going on. Toy in mouth, socks pulled half off, he's off-balance in a pose that tells me he half-slid, half-rolled off that beanbag chair. Probably reaching for a toy on the shelf without paying attention to the fact that the rest of his body wasn't coming along for the ride. Goofy boy.

He runs cars up and down this windowsill. It's one of his favorite places to play, and I often peek in from the front walk to catch him playing. I mean, working. He's hard at work at school, loves being there. He gets a big grin on his face when we walk up in the morning. That could have something to do with the fact that there are always three or four young women at the front to take the older kids out of their cars (curbside service--you get what you pay for at these posh schools!). They all know him and call his name in the morning, smiling at him, I mean, he doesn't stand a chance. It's like a personal pep rally to start your day!

And now for the homework. I am dreading the day he starts walking, because I'm afraid he'll do it for his teachers first. I've already told them: just lie to me. Wait for me to come in all flushed and excited, announcing his first steps. And act like you're surprised.

So, we do a lot of practice at home. He's sooooo close. These (ahem) action shots were from a few days ago, with Daddy on the assist.
He loves the fridge. Mostly because it's home to magnets, yet another game. He knows that they click and which side sticks to the fridge, and even that they also stick to the dishwasher, where we occasionally find some.

Often he'll wrangle one of us by a pant leg and sort of cruise along that way. It's very cute, but when he's clinging on because he's hungry and I'm shuffling about the kitchen trying to assemble his dinner, it's a tiny bit less cute. And you can see him doing this big goose-stepping thing. He doesn't have much balance yet, and will trundle along with our fingers in his fists, flailing one leg after the other in the air like the Rockettes. Here he's trying out the feel of the wood. Is this good for stepping on? Why not? Oh, you mean all my weight's back here on my left foot? Huh...

I see us doing this for many years to come. And I remember clinging like this to my Dad. And sometimes getting picked up for a ride on top of his feet. Ahh, good times!

First Haircut

My sweet boy. I've been getting subtle and not-subtle-at-all comments about Clark's hair being too long. He's my little hippie baby, folks, leave him alone! After the caregivers at Montessori school said something, though, I decided to just give those sweet bangs a little trim. They were pretty far into his eyes. By the way: in this shot, to me, he looks exactly like Dustin's cousin Matalee's baby pictures.

Anyway, that was taken several weeks ago. He sits like that all the time, right knee up, left foot behind. It's the way he used to crawl (right foot flat-footed, left knee to the floor), and still sometimes does when he's tired.

So, again a couple of weeks ago (I wish I had more time to do this now!), Dustin had the bright idea of cutting his hair while he was eating dinner and totally preoccupied. I got my shiniest scissors.

What are you doing, Momma?

Hmph.

Better make this quick....

Holding still is not a priority for him. I had to cut it short. Sorry for that one!

And an "after" picture. Can't tell, can ya? I couldn't bear to take much off. I didn't even keep the hair, it was just a pile of fluff. Now, three or four years from now, when we finally cut those curls off, you can believe that I'll be keeping that.