Sloppy Spoons and Joes

Hello

Much to Clark's joy, we broke out the Bumbo Seat this week.

Every time I said the word Bumbo he would crack up. Not just smile with his whole body crack up, but deep down, from the belly laugh while tossing his head so far back he had a hard time getting it back upright crack up.

The Bumbo-- insert adorable baby laugh-- has been all over the house, it travels easily and can be placed in numerous locations. For instants, the dinner table.

This picture serves 3 functions. 1.) To illustrate the ease of placing the Bumbo on the table so Clark can participate in dinner conversation. 2.) To prove that Matt tried-- and quite enjoyed-- the Sloppy Joe Neat and Tidy Matt. 3.) To show how observant I am as a mother. Notice anything missing? I didn't. For hours. He lost a sock at nap time, we played on the jungle gym playmat, I made dinner, took this picture and only noticed the missing sock when I checked to see how the picture turned out.

Experts say that if an infant is making tongue trusts and staring at your food when you eat they may be ready to start solids. He definitely does both of those things. He also has started to purposefully grasp things this last week so I held a spoon out to him to see what he would do with it.

Straight in the eye. He had such determination on his face, you know he wanted that spoon in his mouth. Try again, Buddy.

Yeaaaaa. Which, by the way, is exactly what I excitedly screamed out to him while clapping my hands. Never do that to a baby, it scares them to death. Just smile big and say good job.

Colie

A long, Emotional Weekend

It has been a long, emotional and eventful weekend. On Thursday we packed what seemed like the whole entire house into the Ol' Mitsubishi (AKA Mitch) and headed north. The day started out as usual, the car needed an oil change because I forgot to do it earlier in the week, a screw impaled itself into the front tire which required immediate repair, the garage door stopped working (again) as we were trying to leave the driveway and Clark started to scream bloody murder as we were leaving the neighborhood. However, 30 seconds into the car ride both dogs and the baby were passed out...and stayed that way for the entire 3 hour car ride. Everyone looks comfy--except poor Krum.

Grandpa Towner passed away this week. The funeral was a very bittersweet day for us, emotions were all over the place, high and low. Grandpa Towner is no longer with us and Grandma lost her life partner, it makes us both cry just thinking about it. On the brightside, Grandpa Towner went to heaven without having to make amends with a single person or with a single ill feeling in his heart because he lead such an honest and kindhearted life. It was hard to see everyone so sad because they had just lost a spouse/dad/grandpa, but at the same time we were so happy to just see everyone. This was the first time Clark was introduced to the family--we didn't know the photo protocol for funerals so all the memories are preserved in our heads. We would like to give a warm Worcestershire shoutout to cousin Kelly! Matt has agreed to try a Sloppy Joe, but only if it is renamed The Neat and Tidy Matt.

After socializing and saying the usual extremely long Towner Goodbye--which cracks me up everytime--we all packed back into Mitch and went to celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday. I told you this weekend was full of emotional ups and downs--a funeral followed by a birthday celebration. We started the Birthday Extravaganza at my grandparents' house where we took advantage of one of my Papa's old cars.

We then went to Tree-Mendus Fruit Farms to pick apples. We picked so many apples that we will be eating apples in every meal until February. Today's Menu: Warm Apple Cinnamon Pancakes with Maple Syrup for breakfast, Honey Ham on Wheat with Apple Slices on the side for lunch and Apple Infused Pork Chops grilled to perfection with a side of warm Applesauce and Apple Pie for dessert!

Apples as far as the eye can see



The Apple of my Eye--Come on, you saw that lame pun coming!

We also hit up a million garage/barn sales and antique stores. I came away with some dishes, a shelf and candle sticks. Matt used his awesome bargaining powers to score me 2 antique D-handle Jadeite coffee mugs for 5 bucks--the for pair!!!!!. 99.9% of you have no idea what those are, but they retail for 45 bucks a piece. The lady wanted 30 dollars for the set--which was a steal in itself-- but Matt said he would give her 5 big ones for the set, I actually laughed out loud when we said it and looked at him like he was a nut job, but the lady said SOLD. I grabbed them and took off running before she could realize the loss she just took. Sucker.

Sunday we went on a carousel ride downtown St. Joe, those things go a lot faster than I remember! Notice Clark in his carseat in the background, the kid falls asleep whenever we go to do cool stuff.

Happy 50th Birthday Mom. 50 is the new 40, which is like the new 30 and 30 is really the new 21. So to celebrate your youth I got you this clown. Enjoy.

3 Months Old

I'm a little over due for this post, time seems to get away from me these days. Clark turned 3 months old on September 6th, he had his 3 month doctor's appointment on the 7th and watched his first Colts game on the 11th--now you're all caught up.

Clark is posing with the four books that hold his attention for longer than 30 seconds. He reaches out and touches their shiny cardboard pages and coos at them--which I thought was really sweet until I realized he was just trying to bring them to his mouth to eat them.

The 3 month photo shoot quickly progressed into this:

I'm kinda crabby, I want you to hold me.

That's better, what's this on my shirt?

Can I eat this?

Mmmm, I think this is going to be delish.

What do you mean we're done with the pictures? I just got this thing off my shirt and now I'm good to go.

At the 3 month doctor appointment Clark clocked in at 14.7 pounds and grew a half an inch, which puts him at 22.5 inches long. The doctor referred to him as a very social and alert baby--but still very short. He is becoming more aware of his surroundings and of who is holding him. It is funny to watch him study a person's face, figure out if he likes them and then give them the pouty lip or a full body smile.

**Milestone reached this month was he rolled from belly to back**

NFL Season is upon us once more.We made sure he got the full Colt's Game Day experience, we dressed him in Colt's gear and we did some online betting before the game--Clark bet on the coin toss. He made it though kickoff and fell asleep 3 football minutes into the game. Unfortunately, he got the Colie Game Day experience--1 small and safe online bet and a 3 hour nap.

--Colie

Irrational Fear? I Think Not

On any given night at half past 9 Frazier can be found in the middle of our king sized bed, legs stretched up into the air and head resting comfortably on a pillow. You can't move him or shake him from his slumber. If an intruder were to enter our house he wouldn't even raise an eye lid while they cleaned us out. Last night Frazier leaped from the bed and let out a low grumble of a growl. He started poking his nose around the armoire in our bedroom so Matt got out of bed to investigate. If something could wake up old Rip-VanBoxer it was worth at least checking into. Both Matt and Frazier were on the ground with their butts in the air looking underneath the armoire. By this time Frazier was getting pretty pumped up and insistent that there was something under the armoire. Matt said it was just a ball and started to come back to bed, but Frazier wouldn't let it go. Matt went to get the flashlight that we keep in our closet--in case the Boogey Man shows up-- and he did one more peek just for good measure.

I'm going to pause here and explain my two semi-irrational fears in life. Semi-irrational fear number 1 is a bird flying through my car window while I am driving--it happens, it happened to a girl I work with. Semi-irrational fear number 2 is a mouse building a house in my shoe.

Matt sat back up, looked me dead in the eye and said "Its a mouse". There was a mouse in my house and it was creepy close to where I keep my shoes.

Matt said he would be right back. In half hysterics that my semi-irrational fear was coming true--I said he couldn't leave me alone with a mouse. It took a lot of convincing from Matt that the mouse was tiny and actually kinda cute--he was described as soft and grey with a tiny button nose. I held on tight to Frazier while Matt went to gather Mouse Trappin' Materials. He returned with a plastic flower pot, 4 wood 2x4's and a metal hanger. He said the plan was to box him in, hook him out with the hanger and to trap him with the flower pot. He then started to hand me the flower pot--to do the trappin'--I said he had lost his mind and pulled the blanket up to my neck.

Matt did a looky-loo under the armoire to check on the mouse's position. He jumped back so fast I almost wet myself. He was nose to nose with the mouse, which startled everyone. The mouse took off out the back side and scurried along the baseboard and up the wall. I start screaming in a whisper--so as to not wake the baby--THERE IT IS, THERE IT IS. Matt, for some strange reason, thought it was crawling on him and started to do the heeby-jeeby dance all over the bedroom. Our 2x4 containing system worked and the mouse retreated back under the armoire. The small, grey, button nosed mouse was in fact a LARGE, BLACK, BEADY NOSED mouse. I married a liar.

Eventually Matt hooked the mouse out and flung it into the middle of the bedroom. They both ran in a few disoriented circles before it was trapped under the plastic flower pot. I stood on the bed jumping up and down shouting EEEEEEEEEE, Matt made a he-man AHHHH sound and baby Clark slept through it all. Matt slipped a hunk of cardboard under the pot so he could carry it out of the house, the mouse ran circles under the pot and I could hear its creepy little rodent feet scratching along the cardboard--gives me the whole body shakes.

The night ended with me peering through the window at a silhouette of Matt tossing the whole contraption into a dumpster. I saw the pot, the cardboard and the mouse all separate mid-air as they were humanely heaved into the dumpster.

And that's how a mouse nearly built a house in my shoe.

THE END