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:

Endless Trenches

Dave rented a trencher rather then pay Comcast thousands of dollars to dig a long trench from the road to our house. Since he had it on hand that weekend, he dug a trench from the house to the barn to install new electric lines for the barn. Our barn's electric configuration was so poorly designed, every time it rained, the barnshorted out and blew fuses.

While digging that trench, he severed an electric line to the utility pole so he dug another trench from the barn trench to the utility pole. I went out and bought him the electric cable he needed and that Sunday (this was the last Sunday before the baby was born) we worked in the dark, refilling the trench with dirt. Then comcast showed up Saturday and said we needed yet ANOTHER trench from the utility pole to the house (the one we'd JUST filled in!) so Dave dug it up, laid conduit and we now sit waiting for Comcast to come back and FINALLY hook up our house to the internets!

Here's Dan and Dave working the trencher:


Our 2 month saga with Comcast will (supposedly) come to an end tomorrow when they show up, lay the cable in our newly unearthed trench and hook it up inside. I am not holding my breath though.

Dave works his butt off but has a really cute baby to unwind with:


Moose is not taking the new baby news so well. He's not interested in me or the baby, save for a few licks to the face. He's only known me as a pregnant lady so I wonder if he is unsure what happened to me now that I don't have a giant belly. He's not bothered by crying but he chooses to just stay the heck out of the way. On our very first day home I plopped down in the glider and he laid under me, unsure of what to make of our long absence and this new smelly thing we brought home with us.

the longest 2 days of my life were worth every second

Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment at 11am and as I sat in the waiting room, I felt my very first painful contraction. I told the doctor how I'd felt the baby moving around less and of course that bought me a one way ticket to a room where a machine was hooked up to my belly to monitor things. The contractions were causing the baby's heart rate to drop so I was told it was time to get the baby out.

I was given a drug at 3pm that would start moving things along and boy did it! I was walking around with tolerable contractions by midnight. At 3am, they stopped those drugs and started me on pitocin, the famous wonder drug that supposedly throws you into full blown labor. Well - it does.

From 3am-7:30am I endured the worst pain of my life in 30 second increments. I broke down at 7am and asked for an epidural. From 7:30am until 9pm, I made some progress in labor but I stalled out at 7cm. I also developed a fever of 102. At 9pm the doctor said if I developed another fever, they couldn't risk my health and I'd have to get a C section right away. As luck would have it, I got another fever at about 10pm and I knew what was coming next.

At 10:30, I was wheeled into a bright room with lots of masked people racing around and by 11:07 pm, with Dave by my side in a sterile outfit, I heard two things:

1. baby cries
2. Dave saying "It's a boy"

I may look calm in this photo that Dave took of me as we both sat waiting for me to be cut open, but I think this might be the most terrified I've ever been in my life. I'm a good actor I guess.



Right after I was sewn up and little Clark was handed to us, the doctor took our camera and shot our first family photo.



Our little man earns the last photo on the blog today, simply by being so darn cute.

A Giant Hole, Bathroom, Canoe and a Blow to the Head

When we had the bush hog guy come mow down half our property, I heard him yell "There's a hole over here big enough for a body!" Not sure why that's where his mind went but once I saw the hole I realized he was right. It's the size of a grave. So Dan brought over some dirt from his garden that he needed to get rid of and he and Dave tossed it in the hole. He had an entire truck bed full of dirt, and it still didn't come close to filling it up.



Dave filled in cracks in our chimney (I think he just likes climbing around on the roof). Our next project is to hire someone to sweep the inside of it so we can use it this winter.


Our contractors dug out the old fence post at our entrance for us and Dave attempted to break up the cement in order to get it down to a manageable size so he can haul it away. Unfortunately, a large piece flew up and cracked him in the head, requiring 3 stitches. Here's the way the post has been left since that day:


He poured a ton of concrete and set the new post and put up new fence with the help of his dad. The fence now holds back Mooses. Or is it Moosii? Whatever, we only have one so it's a moot point.



The entrance to our property is now totally cleared of weeds and brush, thanks to Dave and his trusty chainsaw. I helped him load up the trailer several times, until I got tired and walked back to the house to sleep. Doesn't take much to wear me out these days.



The tree on the right hand side of that photo above is pretty much dead, though it still has leaves, so go figure. Someone clearly tried to cut it down at one point and quit. Check it out:


We took a canoe trip own the White River this weekend using Dave's grandfather's old canoe. We first had to buy a roof rack for my car:


One thing that makes me laugh about the canoe is the water skiing girl decal on the front of the canoe. Water skiing. On a canoe. What the heck? I still love the decal though.


The river was very low because we've had very little rain. Dave had to get out and push us over a rock a few times. But all in all it was a nice ride. We saw lots of cranes and a couple deer families. Photos from our trip:



Just watching him lift the canoe all by himself makes my back hurt. But he swore it's not that heavy. I did help carry it down to the river and I can tell you it's HEAVY!


Lastly, our master bathroom is finally totally done! To remind you, here is BEFORE:





And now...some "in progress" photos



And now AFTER





Ending on a Moose note, here's just a nice distinguished photo of our handsome boy. He's gained some weight lately so he's now on a diet again (fatty). He and I had a "moment" today after he got a thorn in his paw and I had to wrestle our 90 pound dog to the ground to get it out.