Clark learns to party

We had friends over Saturday and Clark was a pretty good host, except most hosts don't cry so much during their own parties. Here's everyone playing Ticket to Ride...I made it into the photo via reflection in the glass.



The girl holding him int he photo above, Kim, bought Clark his first Colts apparel (reinforcing our belief that the people of Indy give out Colts gear to recent transplants).



Sunday we went to a party for the Colts game - Clark's very first out-of-the-house kind of party. He's a big hit with the ladies:


Just another funny picture of Dave:


I made the comment "Oh they have a guy with the last name "Harrison". That's Clark's middle name. Then it was pointed out the Colts also had a guy with the last name Clark on the team too. How about that? If only they had a guy named Thomas:



Also, in house related news, we lit our very first fire in the fireplace. Moose enjoyed the ambiance and warmth.

Visitors Part Two

It was another week full of visitors for Clark. First, his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa visited with cousins Diane and Ryleigh.

Here Clark contemplates the story Great Grandma is telling him. "hmmm..."


"Woah, you're tall, Great Grandpa"


Ryleigh is the same baby that kissed my belly when I was 9 months pregnant and gave it a hug. (So adorable) Now that Clark's out of hibernation, Ryleigh was really excited to meet him. She kept laughing at the sight of him.


Which was all very nice and sweet until can't-control-my-own-motor-skills Clark punched her in the face. Sorry Ryliegh.


Dianey Bananey holding Clark Bar (you gotta have a nickname to fit in our family):


Cousins Mary, Jason and Jonah visited Sunday. Jonah's the only other baby boy int he family so he'll be happy to have a friend as they grow up. Here's mary holding Clark - he's hard to photograph when he's awake....always moving!


Jonah tested out Moose's ability to deal with a mobile baby boy. Moose did very well, but he was not amused.


Jason knocked a crabby Clark out with some expert baby techniques. The man's got skillz:


Great Aunt Linda came to visit all the way from Colorado. Se also had a calming effect on Clark's crankiness:


Lastly, Clark has begun to enjoy staring at things and spends some time every day on his colorful jungle gym mat.


The mat is currently on the living room rug, which is clearly Moose owned. But he's allowed Clark to sublet a space for his jungle mat. He keeps a close eye on him whenever he's on it...usually starting with a lick of Clark's head, then he settles down nearby, with at least one paw on the mat. It's as adorable as it seems:

Visitors

We've had nothing but visitors to see Clark (and also help my recovering butt out at home).

He was visited by Grandpa:



who made Clark these awesome shirts:



And one of his GREAT Grandmas (he has two):


Four generations!


He was also visited by Grandma:


I know he's going to hate me one day for making fun of his cross eyed stare but come on - it's funny. I call him cross eyed Pete. (Also, it's totally normal for all you non-baby folks.)


OK, OK here he is NON cross eyed:


Also, here's a photo I just love too much not to put on here. (I promise, the house renovation stuff is coming back very soon)



MOOSE TIME!
Moose still isn't enamored with Clark but he's started to understand that 1) it screams and 2) I make it stop screaming. If I fail at point #2, Moose is on the case. I was upstairs earlier this week, and Clark began crying in his swing. I looked out from the loft window and saw Moose running back and forth from the swing to the stairs. By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, Moose was there, very frantic and quickly walked me over to Clark's swing and stared at me like "hey - this thing's crying, make it stop, will ya?".

Clark's first days in this world

I realize I'm sort of backing up in time here but forgive me, I've been a little busy.

Shortly after Clark was born, he was treated like any other baby in the ward. Aunt Suzi and Uncle Dan came to visit the night after he was born and that's when the doctors started to notice he was lethargic and shaky. As awful as it sounds I didn't think anything of it - I assumed all babies were this sleepy right after birth.



Turns out his blood glucose numbers were really low and kept dropping all day. So they admitted him to the NICU and everything went from normal to weird for me. I wasn't feeling very mobile but I managed to shuffle to the NICU every 3 hours for 3 solid days. It wasn't easy nursing a baby with tubes all over him and a big cushiony barrel on his arm covering his IV.


Looking around at the other babies in the NICU, I realized that things really weren't so bad for Clark. I watched a mother come in and touch her baby through a hole in a plastic incubator and that was all she could do. By the last day, they allowed him to be wheeled to my room to nurse. Every time I'd wheel him back, I stared down at this sweet little face.


Sunday, I knew I was going to be released to go home but Clark's discharge was another story. I waited on pins and needles all night Saturday and all morning Sunday, waiting to hear if his test results were in. Thankfully, he was dong so much better and was good to go! We brought a monkey outfit to bring him home in just because it was funny to say we went to the hospital and came home with a monkey. He had to be checked in his car seat by the nurse and he didn't enjoy it one bit.
Angry monkey:




The hospital sent us home with a birthday cake for Clark so we had a little birthday party for him once we arrived home.


Here we are looking tired as heck:


Grandma and grandpa came to stay for a while and Clark had a great time sleeping in their arms:



My sister also came to visit her new nephew:


That week he had his first doctor's appointment which went very well. Dave's just excited because our doctor also likes ron paul (notice the shirt)


Clark did this pose all by himself, I swear. It makes me laugh.


And lastly, there was a very happy dog greeting us when we arrived home that needed some attention. Dave found he was a pretty good footrest: