Last Week's Happenings

This last week has probably been one of the more trying weeks that I can remember. Right up there with the start of the school year or parent teacher conferences. Blah! Anyways the week started pretty good with the opening of Clark's new birthday present.




He got a 3 in 1 riding Zebra that required some assembling. Clark thought that pieces were interesting, but has had even more fun being able to ride and push the Zebra that looks like a cow but makes Zebra sounds. :)

Then came Monday...

...and with Monday came a very high fever and throwing up and just an all around sick baby. For those of you that KNOW Clark, you know that he doesn't sit still unless he's asleep or sick. Monday was the being very sick that had him sleeping on my chest and screaming any time he left my arms. This made things very difficult when I needed to change clothes for both of us after Clark threw up on the both of us. I went upstairs, knocked on my mommy's door and said, "HELP!!!" Clark screamed when I handed him to my mom to hold so I could change my clothes and the rest of the day he pushed everyone else away who came near us. Even Clint got pushed away. :(
Clark was back to himself by Wednesday and ready for more playing. We even got the dog to participate...




And we even had some rough nights sleeping...

...since Clark decided to jump/climb out of his crib a few weeks ago, I had to take the bumpers out of his crib so that he couldn't use them to climb out. The first few nights/days Clark had a difficult time figuring out how to sleep without sticking his legs through the bars. He's doing much better now. :)

The week ended with a nice visit from Clint's Aunt Jody, Unckie Scott and their dog D'jengo. (Sorry if I didn't get your dog's name spelled correctly.) In fact I think I called him Jenga the first part of the weekend, but that doesn't mean I don't like him as much. He made us miss Reiner, and he was nice to have around along with the human company. :)


Unfortunately, Jody was in San Diego and I wasn't able to snap a photo with her, but it was wonderful to see them.
The last part that made this week a little more trying was the fact that we keep being told that we're going to close on our house and then more time goes by and nothing happens. We're waiting for the bank to write the documents and then we'll be done. It's "suppose" to happen tomorrow but we'll see just how moronic these people can be. I'll keep you posted!

Stressed

Either people don't tell you that buying a house is this stressful or we just didn't listen, because it's sucking right now.

Some days I feel like this...

...because I have pulled my hair out after hearing the words, "It will happen in the next day or two." The "it" is anything from the offer being accepted, to our loan being approved, or the house inspection going well, or the waiting to sign papers only to find our that the HOA needed to be approved by HUD, and therefore taking us past the 45 day escrow. Seriously people! This is YOUR job! This is what you do for a living and you didn't think, oh I don't know, maybe on the first week of escrow, to check if the HOA had the proper approval?
That leaves me/us feeling like this...

...and wanting to cry because after 45 days things still could go wrong. We're now on day 59 after we started our "escrow" process. And we keep getting the same, "It should happen today or tomorrow" crap from everyone.
I've tried really hard to keep myself as "Eeyore" as possible and not let my true excitement seep through so that I'm not disappointed when things go down the toilet. But then I do find myself buying towels, and a couch and thinking about how we're going to decorate. Or the thinking, I can't wait until we're in our own place so that we don't have to share a washer and dryer with 3 other people or worry about Clark falling through the stair rails, or just the simple act of Clark having his own room so that we can help teach him to sleep through the night.
The middle of the night screaming leaves us feeling like this...

...because you have just been woken up by your child, and you have to lay as still as possible but wait, your uncomfortable, so you move and then your child screams more and then you give up and bring him into bed with you.
And now there's the added stress of thinking about Thanksgiving coming in two weeks from today and you wanted to have Thanksgiving at your new house and you are now realizing after a visit to the good old storage unit, that there's no way your going to get all your "stuff" unpacked in that time.
Maybe I'll learn to listen next time. Oh and for the record, It's 4:08 on Thursday and we were told that we were going to sign papers Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday for sure, but nope it's now 4:08 on Thursday and we haven't signed papers yet, let alone wait the couple of days for the loan to pay the sellers and then the deed be recorded and then for us to finally get the keys so we can redo the garage floor, paint the kitchen cabinets, put up a kitty door to the garage, put up a back splash in the kitchen, redo the grout on the counters and hang curtains.
Wish us luck!

Things Clark has taught me over the last year.

1. LOVE. Not only how to love, but what love really consists of and having the feeling that you would do ANYTHING for that person because you love them more then you can imagine. Love so strong that you feel like your body is going to turn inside out because this love might just be too hard to contain.

2. Patience. Even before I got pregnant Clark taught me and Clint patience. We wanted to start our family shortly after we got married, but Heavenly Father had different plans for us and he didn't send Clark to us for what seemed like an eternity,for us anyways. Then there was the having to be patient to hear his heartbeat, find out if we were having a boy or a girl, discover that Clark was going to be a healthy baby. Then there was the waiting for the actual delivery of Clark. I was scheduled to be induced on the 29th of October, but then it was delayed until the 31st. Then I was told that the hospital didn't have any beds and that I was going to have to wait more. That's not to mention all the waiting we did and patience we had to have for the actual delivery. Clark has also taught us patience with sleep, and mood changes and all sources of child like behavior that can be irritating.

3. Kindness. Everyone has to have kindness and it's easy to be kind when you need to model it for your child.

4. The joy of laughing. Daily I get a kick out of something Clark does. Most of the time it is something funny he does, but lately it's been laughing WITH him. He will crack up doing something and then it will get me laughing. :)

5. Time management. I'm not always good at this because many times I find myself sitting down and checking my Facebook account or my email or blogging instead of doing laundry, but that's because sitting with the computer in your lap and watching your favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother, or House Hunters or Stargate Universe or Parenthood, just to name a few, is a lot more fun then doing laundry.

6. Believing what others say about parenthood. When I was pregnant someone told me that baby's make a lot more laundry. I so didn't believe them. Thought they were over dramatizing how much laundry they have to do. But now that we're living with my parents and there's only one washer and dryer and 6 people to do laundry for, it really adds up. That's when then stupid washing machine is working correctly!

7. Time with family. Not that I didn't miss my family when we lived 1500 miles away, but I really noticed it after Clark was born. It was REALLY hard for both my mom and I to have them leave after Clark's birth. So being back in Orange County near both of our families has brought so much joy to all of us.

8. Being needed. This can be a good and bad thing. As Mommy, I'm usually the only one that Clark really wants. This became even more apparent today because he was running a fever and threw up. He wanted to sleep on me, sit in my lap, and do not much more unless I was right there. The two times I left him with someone else to go to the bathroom he cried. In fact, tonight Clint had him and he cried so hard that Clint had to blow in his face to get him to breathe and when he did, he screamed as loud as he could. Poor baby.

9. Sleep is over rated. Well that's at least what I try to tell myself when Clark has been up too much and I just want to keep sleeping. Wish me luck tonight with a sick baby.

Videos of Clark's Birthday

Clark's stats from today's 1 year doctor's appointment:
Weight: 26lbs 88th%
Hight 32.2 cm 97th%
Head Circumference: 19 3/4 inches off the charts!

Here are some videos from last night too!
Clark playing hit the ballon with his daddy

Birthday Song

Clark eating cake.

Happy Birthday Clark

Today we celbrated Clark's First birthday! A year ago we welcomed Clark into our lives after a very long time waiting for him to get here. We are so happy to have spent the last year enjoying his company and character and today we got to celebrate the last year. Clark got to celbrate with friends, family and neighbors. We made a cake and cupcakes for everyong and had pizza. Here are some pictures of people that celebrated with us. His birthday loot: Pictures with family and present time! Clint's mad juggling skills Birthday cake time. And a kiss from mommmy. Here is a video of the night. Clark playing with his new toy:


I will post more videos later. Blogger is being slow...