Friday, April 23, 2010

Look What I Found

And here he was a few days ago (April 19)... ready to go!

And this is how I have found him after every nap and night since. We tried taking the bumpers out and lowering the crib, but first time back in he was still up in less than 60 seconds. Oh well...

An Award?

My sister, Amy, tagged me as a "Sugar Doll Award" recipient... which basically means I'm supposed to write 7 things about myself that are true that have nothing to do with husband, kid, etc. so I'm going to do my best and then tag some more people to do it next. The key, I guess, is to write 7 things that are true, not necessarily things I would like to be true... so here we go:

1. I'm obsessed with efficiency. No matter how efficient something might already be by the time it is in my hands, I want to make it even more efficient :) I'm not defending this, but it is true. In fact, I think the word "efficiency" uses too many letters and takes too long to type and thus should be shortened.
2. I actually like being a mom... I never thought I'd say this 5 or 10 years ago, but it has been much more rewarding and worthwhile than I ever imagined it to be.
3. I long to be in Heaven, be with Jesus and have everything right again - no more pain, no more relational strain, no more having to apologize for every other thing I do or don't do :)
4. I'm a penny pincher, not just a dollar pincher, but an actual penny pincher (I'm sitting here now enjoying pinching a penny in my hand). My sister commented recently that I came out of the womb cheap. I was offended at first, but then realized she's probably right. I don't like to be perceived as cheap when everyone is chipping in for something, but I do find fulfillment in discovering new ways to save money and stretch the dollar to accomplish more.
5. I love to budget. I love creating budgets, maintaining budgets, reviewing budgets, changing budgets, anything to do with a budget - even the word "budget". Crazy, I know. I've always been a math nerd and this seems to be the only real life application for math that I've found so I cling to it :) True story: the night I met Graham, he brought up his budget (and we talked about it for a long time) and I was thinking the whole time, "hmmm... I might like to date this guy!").
6. I love discipleship/mentoring. I love to be a mentor and to be mentored. Individually, as a couple, etc. - one on one teaching and learning is an incredible joy that I hope I can do for all of my life.
7. When asked for a list of top ten places I like to spend time, prison actually ranks in there. For whatever reason, I just really enjoy being in a prison and interacting with the wonderful people I find there.

Okay, so here are my tags to do it next:
-- Jessica Smartt
-- Becky Darling
-- Marty Owen
-- Lauren Horton
-- Zoe Sandvig
-- Faith Brobst
I look forward to reading them!

Mobility and Motility

Just like the nurse said, Titus was right on track and barely missed a beat because of the broken leg. As previously reported (how formal does that sound?), Titus showcased his feat during the First Annual Clark Family Day program on Monday, April 12. We were all lying on the bed, relaxing from our grueling 2.5-mile hike at Lake Norman State Park, when Titus saw an opportunity occasioned by Katie putting a grape about 4-5 feet away from Titus on a pillow. He seized it, and I looked up at Kate: "Did he just crawl!? I think that's a first!"

So as any good father/family chronicler would do, I ran down the stairs to find a video camera (an old digital camera backup since we lost the Flip!), which I of course couldn't find. And we subsequently put Titus through a series of "let's-make-sure-this-is-the-real-thing" tests, which he passed. It was confirmed: our little man was now mobile!

And so he is. It has been remarkable in the days since how Titus has gone from 0 to 60 in under two weeks. Clearly an explorer, the kid is putting the Clark back into "Lewis & Clark." We're so proud. His favorite activity to engage in with his newfound mobility is to crawl over to the desk drawer and pull it in and out -- repeatedly.

While I am not-so-silently and reluctantly watching him grow out of infanthood and into toddlerhood -- missing the days of holding him and knowing that all he could do was look up and squirm a little bit -- I love the fact that he can now come to us. Up to now, it had always been us coming to him. It warmed my heart one day last week after coming home from work when I called him and he actually came to me. He's our little puppy. :)

Just one of the million little blessings that I never expected because you'd never read about them in a book. At least now, you can read about them on a blog. :)

P.S. In case you're wondering what "motility" is, I had to look it up too (dictionary.com): –adjective. Biology. moving or capable of moving spontaneously: motile cells; motile spores; motile infants (my addition).

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Broken Leg, Resolute Spirit

Admittedly we're catching up on posts here since this news is more than a month old now... But we just wanted to chronicle Titus' recent injury. One night back in March (Saturday, March 6, to be exact), Kate went out to have some personal time at Panera (a rare occasion these days), I was left home alone with Titus and I always bask in the opportunity to show Kate, "I've got it! You can go away and know that everything will be fine when you come back." Well, I failed miserably at that goal on this night...

I was walking down the stairs with him and somehow just lost my footing - not holding on to the railing - and slipped 6 or 7 steps down to the bottom, while Titus slipped with me. He obviously cried, which is to be expected, but after several hours of fussiness, we were getting concerned because you would think if he weren't injured, he'd be over it by now. We also thought, well, it must not be broken because he'd be in constant pain. The most troubling thing to me was that he wasn't his normal smiley self. As a parent (I'm sure many of you have gone through this), everything awful goes through your mind. "Did he hit his head? Does he have a bad head injury? Does he have brain damage? Is it permanent? Did he hurt his spine?" I felt awful. Definitely the most significant trial we've been through as parents.

Then, I was shocked to learn on the following Monday from Kate that he had broken his leg (more accurately, I broke his leg). Then some of the same awful questions go through your mind. "Will he be able to crawl and walk? Will he be normal like other little boys?" Oh man, what a rough piece of news to get. But I have to say that in the days since I've learned that there is so much more to be thankful for than there is to be concerned about.

I met Kate at the ortho doctor's office and they gave him a splint and me a lot of reassurance, believing he would be fine. They said 2/3 of kids break bones. Crazy. Maybe Titus has officially gotten his out of the way? I hope so...

But praise God that he has healed so well the last few weeks. It was a rougher period, especially on Kate, both because he was higher maintenance emotionally and higher maintenance physically, by virtue of the fact that it was more difficult to place him somewhere, like in one of his toys where he sits up. He is an extremely resilient kid. After about a week, you would have had a tough time knowing he had a broken leg from the waist up. Towards the end, he was banging his splint on things, presumably because he liked the sound. He's a boy all right...

For those of you thinking that I'm still beating myself up, I'm mostly OK. I know God will take care of him. It's one of those things I'll relive again and again in my head. But I know these things just happen sometimes. And God has a great purpose in it all! One cool thing will be Titus telling the story years hence about how he broke his leg before he could even crawl, much less walk.

The splint is off now and the bone healed really, really. The nurse said she was less concerned about the fracture extending into the growth plate than she was when he first came in. So hopefully that won't be an issue.

Praise God for a happy, healthy little boy. We rejoice in the joy that he has been and is to us. What an incredible gift from our heavenly Father.

Here he is on the day he got his splint - two days after the fall: Monday, April 8, 2010. I mean, is that the cutest kid you've ever seen with a broken leg or what??



And here he is with me just before he got his splint off (March 29, 2010):

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Clark Family Day

So we've started our own new tradition/celebration day. While taking my mom's parenting class, Graham and I were working through an exercise that led us to the idea of having a family day each year to celebrate and thank the Lord for what he has given us. This will be much easier to accomplish in the early days before the kids realize how uncool it is to hang out with the family, but we hope to make it a fun memory and tradition for them nonetheless...

There are a few components that we'll do each year on Clark Family Day:

1. Have a family picnic and during the picnic we'll take time to give each of the kids a blessing and pray over them (idea taken from my parents who do this each year for all of us at Christmas) and write down in our family journal various ways the Lord has blessed us throughout the year and ways we've seen him at work so we can reflect back over the years and remember the great things He has done.



2. We will do a new activity the kids have never done before so they can try something new. this year was easy since Titus hasn't done much - so we went for a hike at Lake Norman State Park.







Titus got such a kick out of this - he giggled for about the first 20 minutes - I think he loved being able to travel on daddy's back like that.


3. We have a "feast" of celebration in the evening... this year's consisted of Graham's request of white chicken chili, salad, breadsticks and leftover German chocolate cake for dessert :)


And then we have our program in the evening before the kids go to bed - you can see below for details, but the major components are a talent show, a sing-along, family appreciation time and an awards ceremony for the kids.


Mommy's talent: playing "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" and "Minuet" (both by Bach) on the penny whistle:

Daddy's talent: playing a newly learned scale (from guitar lessons) and "Hosannah"
Titus' talents: Patty cake and.... Army Crawling! He learned about an hour before the talent show how to do it - just in time!! (another post on this later)

And then the awards - the Mommy's and the Daddy's - so Titus earned the Cuddlies Baby of the Year from Mommy:


And the Giggliest Baby of the Year from Daddy:

Talk about two peas in a pod! Of course, they were so excited, they couldn't get a shot of both of them and the award at the same time... so here is the award:


After Titus went to bed, Graham and I had some wine and danced in the living room - a great end to a great day! We're already looking forward to Clark Family Day 2011!

8 Months Old

Titus turned 8 months old about a week and a half ago... so here is our monthly chair shot and a couple other favorites of him that I've taken lately. He is such a joy. Were definitely in a stage where he wants to be with his mommy ALL of the time... so while I can't get anything done, I do treasure this stage as it will probably be the only time in his life that he'll want to be with me this much :) I think my favorite part of all are all of his hugs. He gives me hugs about 100 times a day... just to be sure I'm close by... he'll be playing or in a shopping cart or something and every couple of minutes he grabs on to me and pulls me in for a hug. I love it. At the same time, he's so curious and wanting to explore EVERYTHING he can find... he just wants me right beside him while he discovers it.


Getting to be a MUCH better eater :)

Getting some exercise on a hot day...

Patiently reading his book, waiting for us to be ready to go...

And just being cute in the mismatched outfit daddy gave him ;)

4 Generations

A little over a month ago, I had the chance to bring Titus to visit his MorMorMor and we had a great time. My mom and I traveled up and stayed with John and Keiko for a night on each end of the trip and two nights with MorMor and Grandpa in between. We had a blast. First Uncle Mark and Aunt Rita came for the day on Sunday.

Then MorMor and I went to her water aerobics class... I was on the younger side of the ladies and she was on the older side, but she still swims circles around all of us. I'm very proud to be her granddaughter - I hope to be as in shape as her when I'm her age!




Titus was a big hit - especially in his UVA outfit (which we brough in honor of my cousin Mike who is a student there right now - Uncle Mark's and Aunt Rita's son).








We also had a chance to watch some (very, very) old videos of MorMor and Mom from when they were growing up... even one of my mom when she was in the first couple of weeks of her life. It is interesting how much I see her in Titus' face now that I saw those videos!
And probably the absolute highlight for me was hearing lots of stories about my mom's dad from MorMor - how they met and all about their relationship. They sure were a pair - both were quite adventurous and daring.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip and one I hope we can repeat again soon!

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