In February, we bought a house in Madison. It's perfect for us. Even though we have lived in it for approximately four months, it is still (and probably will always be) referred to by Clark as "the new house." The transition was seamless and the move itself was a dadgum walk in the park and the only reason is because we hired a moving company. I hardly lifted a finger throughout the entire process. Call me lazy. Or call me smart. I don't care. We chose to move on the coldest and rainiest day of the year and I would have bellyached the entire day had we moved ourselves. It certainly would have put our marriage to the test. Griffin was about 10 weeks old at the time so I had better things to do than wrap a thousand wine glasses in newspaper. The little man snoozed his way through it all and Clark is completely smitten with the new house.
Let's talk about Aaron. Arnie still loves talking about the constitution. Last night we talked about it for almost an hour. Jealous? I didn't think so. The good news is that he doesn't carry his pocket sized constitution in his pocket anymore. I'm guessing it's because he probably has a constitution app on his iPhone. And just in case you didn't think he could get any nerdier, let me tell you this. He gets up at 5:45 and runs every morning before work. What a loser. He and Clark are having a grand old time together these day. Clark wants to be JUST like him in everything he does. He wants to brush his hair like his daddy, be strong like his daddy, etc. And Aaron has recently taken roughhousing with Clark to the highest extreme possible. As in, I would be mortified if any member of the public ever saw the way they wrestle and hit all over each other. But it works for them. No bones have been broken, yet. One of Clark's favorite things to do is call Aaron while he is at work. I'll put Aaron on speakerphone and give Clark the phone and let them have a nice little conversation in which Clark tells Aaron all about how he pooped in the potty. More on that later. Get ready for a long paragraph about Clark's potty training victories.
Several weeks ago Arnie and I dumped our two children off with Aaron's folks in Hattiesburg and spent a weekend in New Orleans. I don't know how many times I looked at Aaron and said these exact words: I'm having so much fun. Sounds cheesy and stupid, but it was the simple truth. That was one of the best weekends we have had in years. We ate delicious food that I didn't have to cook, walked around holding hands, went dancing like the good old days, met up with some wonderful friends, did a little bit of shopping, and we talked and talked and talked and not just about Clark and Griffin. It was wonderfully refreshing and a good reminder of how important it is have some Arnie and Kelly time together. I don't want to go overboard or anything, but I'm thinking I may have to plan Arnie and Kelly weekends at least four times a month.
Now it is time to talk about Clark. There is no way I can sum his little life up in just a couple of paragraphs, so I'll just hit the big points for now. He is two years and five months old now. We finally hooked him up with a big boy bed. Really all we did was take the front rail off of his crib and call it a big boy bed but he loves it. We implemented a strict "no get out" rule for his big boy bed that entails...wait for it..him not getting out of his big boy bed. The reason is because I do not want him wandering the house should he wake up at 3:00 in the morning. Also because if there was no discipline in this particular situation, I strongly believe Clark would stay up for an extra nine hours playing in his room after we put him to bed. So, he totally understands the "no get out" rule and we recite it about 10 times every night to make sure. If he does get out, he knows he'll get a spanking. Let me just tell you...he has never once gotten out of his bed after we put him down, except for that one time he fell out of it but didn't even wake up.
There are a lot of really cute things he is doing these days that make me so smile so big. One of them is when he confuses "I" and "my". He'll say, "My fixed it!" or "My really tired." It's just one of those toddler things that is unique to him and I love that he's actually trying to form real sentences. He's really getting very proficient in his communication level and he's very receptive when it comes to learning new things. He mispronounces a lot of words, but my favorite one is yogurt, or as Clark says, "ergert." I don't know why he can't get it right, but I never correct him because I love hearing it. Another thing that he loves to do is count anything he can but he always starts with the number two. He skips right over the number one every time. He'll say, "two, three, four, five, SIX!" with a wonderful exclamation on whatever number he finishes with. It's cute, I tell you.
In this particular stage in life, he is obsessed with trains. My mom bought him these cheap little trains from Target and I'm sure she had no idea it would be his all time favorite activity in all the land. If I let him, he would stay home all the live long day and play with these trains. He loves to count them, starting with the number two of course, and just drive them around our coffee table for hours. He's such a stud.
Clark was in a Mother's Morning Out program from September until just last week and he absolutely loved it. He loved going to "school,' or in his words, "cool." He made some good friends that he likes to pray for at night and he adored his teachers. It was two days a week for about five hours, so I did a lot of running around like a crazy person during that time. And if I wasn't driving all over this town running errands, I would stay at home and let the house stay a mess while I gave Griffin 100% of my attention. I don't get a lot of uninterrupted time with the little guy, so I have to take full advantage of those opportunities. Starting in September, Clark will be in an older class where he will get to do arts and crafts everyday. I am more excited about this than anything ever in my life. I'm already trying to figure out which wall in my house I'm going to use to proudly display all of his artwork. I can't wait to cover up my refrigerator with his little scribbles.
Potty training. We are doing it. So far, Clark the Dark Shark has mastered the art of peeing and pooping in his little Elmo potty. He will do it all day long and has yet to have even one single accident since we started. The problem is that I really don't think he can or will use a big potty, which means we pretty much can't leave the house unless I want to haul his Elmo potty everywhere I go. I haven't even tried to push it on him because I want him to get used to the feeling of having to go first, but I'm thinking one day in the very near future I'm going to have to plop him down and tell him to poop or get off the pot. When we are at home he walks around all day in some big boy undies. He likes to stick his bum in my face and show me the big Lightning McQueen plastered all over his hiney and say, "Look, Mama! Lightning's on my hiney!" I'm open to any and all advice from seasoned moms as to how to transition from little potty to big potty. Hook me up with a comment or facebook message if you please. But I'm so proud of my Clarkimus right now. Even though he is nowhere close to being potty trained, he has made the process so pleasant. I just love him to smithereens.
Old Grif is doing great as well. He is sleeping really well pretty consistently now and he is chowzering down on some solids. I'm going to get him eating on video soon so I can share it with the world because he is so so so very funny to watch while he eats. He quite literally attacks the spoon and gets severely impatient if I take too long to stuff the spoon in his mouth. He makes a glorious mess every time. I had forgotten how much fun it is to feed a 5 month old. It has become one of my favorite moments of the day.
As for me, I'm just enjoying staying home with two of the sweetest boys I've ever known. We stay pretty busy and that is a good thing. I've learned the hard way that if Clark stays in one place for too long he gets rowdy, so I make sure we get out and about several times each day. I'm trying my darndest to cook and keep a somewhat decent home. But dadgum, we have a lot of baby stuff that overwhelms the inside and outside of our house. It always looks like a hot mess around here. I'm glad Arnie doesn't judge me for that. But I am so grateful to be in the position to stay home with my boys everyday. They grow and learn new things before my very eyes and I don't think I thank God enough for that blessing. We have so much fun, the three of us, and the best part of the day is when Arnie come home from work and he and Clark get to reunite and run and wrestle all over the house. I always knew I wanted to be a mother, but I had no idea I would love the job as much as I do. I love this life.
That's pretty much all for now. I'm going to say this with much hesitation, but I'm going to start blogging more. These are the days I want to remember. Nothing exciting is on the agenda for quite some time now, but that doesn't mean the blog has to suffer, right? If nothing else, it's always really easy to blog about whatever nerdy thing Aaron did that morning, like running five miles and reading an entire book of the bible and spending quality time with his children all before he goes to work. I didn't know he would turn into such a lazy slob when I married him. Or maybe I can get him to be a guest blogger and he can tell you all about the Commerce Clause, a subject he lectured me about for seventeen hours the other day. All that said, I'll do better, I promise. Please don't go back and count the number of times I've said that in the past. That would be embarrassing.
1 comment:
It sounds like things are going well. Thats great news on the potty training we are hoping to be potty trained by the end of the summer but well see how that goes :)
What an adorable photo of your family
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