Hello

Wow, I can't tell you how many times I have started and stopped writing this post. It seems like there is always something going on around here-- a baby to feed, a dog to let out or a bathroom to clean. How is it possible that I had so much time to sit on the sofa and watch TV before and now I can't even check my spam email?

Anyway, here is about 3 weeks worth of happenings--which is like an eternity in baby weeks

Clark got a Halloween card in the mail from his Great Grandma this past week. He was very intrigued by the picture and the colors. I love seeing his expression when he sees something for the very first time, he studies it, gives it the once over and then will decide if it is worthy of his attention by giving it a smile. If he disapproves he sticks out his bottom lip and expects it to be disposed of immediately. Not saying for sure, but I think he gets his patience from me. The card also came with his fist dolla dolla bill ya'll...two of them actually. Keep savin', Buddy, I can't imagine how much beer college is going to cost in the future.

Clark has mastered his Gangsta Lean. I keep telling him if he wants the gangsters to take him serious he can't always have that big goofy grin on his face. He says it makes him look trustworthy. I don't think he knows what a gangster is. 

We just realized that Clark is 4 and a half months old and we had zero of those adorable baby in the bathtub pictures. Sure, we have Baby leaning up against the dog, Baby holding onto Daddy's beer can, and Baby with food all of his face pictures, but none in the tub. Then I realized why....



Frazier LOVES the bathtub, it is an unnatural love really-- The dog jumps in the shower with us! We don't have any baby in the tub pictures because Frazier is constantly trying to jump in the tub with him and we are having to fend him off. It just occurred  to me as I type this that I could shut the bathroom door. Genius.

Clark has retired his Colts t-shirt, he claimed that he out grew it, but I know he is just embarrassed with their 0-6 record. Emily W. sent him a pair of football babylegs so he can still celebrate Football Sundays in style.

Happy Sunday. Hope you have a good week!

Colie



Going Cold Turkey at 4 Months

Hello

Clark turned 4 months today. I thought it was high time the boy started to earn his keep around here.



He can press and fold better than anyone

Clark lives a pretty pure life, he doesn't smoke or drink, he doesn't cuss and goes to church every Sunday, but he does have one vice. Swaddling. The baby loves to be swaddled morning, noon and night. This hadn't been a problem until recently, he has grown out of his swaddle-me sleep sack and is starting to almost roll from back to belly--can you say suffocation risk? Last night we took the swaddle away without any preparation or warning. The kid went down like a sack of potatoes, but woke up at 1:30, 3:30 and 5:30, which we expected to happen. His arms have a tendency to get away from him and it wakes him up. Good news is, all it took was putting my hand on his chest and rocking him back and forth in the crib to get him to go back to sleep. Hopefully he can self soothe back to sleep within the new few nights. I'm so proud of the big boy.

Speaking of being a big boy, guess who started rice cereal today...



Gimme the spoon, seriously, I can do it

He was more interested in the spoon then he was the cereal, but he managed to keep some of it in his mouth. 

I finally just gave up and let him take control of the spoon. Up next, learning how to do the dishes.

He had his 4 month doctor's appointment today, he only gained 3 ounces, but he grew an inch! He also got another round of shots, they were the same ones he got at 2 months, but this time he had a nasty emotional reaction to them. The poor guy has been crying all night--its a painful, pull at your heart kind of cry and he wont eat. He keeps whimpering in his crib as I am typing this, but when I go check on him his eyes are closed and he is sleeping. My heart is breaking. Frazier is upstairs laying outside of his room--what a sweet boy. Frazier is very open about his feelings toward Clark.





Check out the faux-hawk in this next picture...he totally rocks it...kinda...well, at least he has the self confidence to pull it off.





Have a good rest of the week!
Colie

How Can He Grow so Fast?

Hello!

I don't know what I expected having a baby to be like, but this isn't it. It is so much more fun, eventful, entertaining and exciting than I would have ever imagined. Even if someone were to have described it in detail to me, it would still surpass anything I could have possibly thought it would be like. The amount that a baby learns in just a week's time is amazing! Last week he started to reach out for things, granted he looked slightly inebriated when he did it. This week he reaches for things directly and grabs them on the first try. Then he brings them to his mouth and squeals with joy as he burrows his face in them. We now have to travel with toys in the car because he gets bored. Boredom causes shrill monkey screams to emanate from the backseat causing me to swerve across center lines, its not good for anyone.

Hello, Monkey. I haven't seen you around here before, come here often?



Is this guy for real? He doesn't say much.

We went to the zoo again this weekend. Clark made it just past Oceans before he fell asleep--Oceans is the first world that you enter at the zoo. Last time he didn't even make it though Oceans so we are making some progress. Once again, he gets super pumped to be someplace new, he just can't maintain this level of excitment for extended periods of time.

Another progressive achievement this week has been with books. He used to be mesmerized by the pages and touch the books as we read. Now he reads out loud along with us, however, his version is slightly different. He tries to turn pages and uses different inflections on his vowel laden gibberish as he reads through them with us. He cracks himself up so I know his version is much more entertaining than the one I am reading--- "Who's behind the busy farm tractor? Oh, its Cuddly Cow. Mooo." Last time I checked cows weren’t cuddly, they were delicious.

This is just a normal day at Casa del Williams--Krum practicing awkward yoga positions in the background and Frazier is snooping around for anything that might be new or out of place.

A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to make a monogrammed picture using buttons, I had no idea what kind of ripple effect it would have on the household. I made the monogrammed W and bought a sweet little frame for it. I hung it above the fireplace.

The starburst mirror that was above the fireplace needed a new place to be hung, so I put it where the antique window frame used to be, but that looked funny next to the plant. So I moved the plant to the kitchen's breakfast nook. Then I had an empty space where the giant man-eating plant was so I moved the chair and ottoman over there. Which caused an empty space on the OTHER side of the living room so I moved the antique apple ladder that we use as a blanket hanger over there. I wasn't fully happy so I told Matt we needed to move the pie safe (huge piece of furniture) up from the basement. This caused yet another empty space that will need to be filled by a large piece of furniture we have yet to acquire  Then all the knick-knacks were off and it caused the whole room to look wonky. So operation knick knack shuffle was engaged. Long story short, the house is in complete feng-shui disarray and I'm crabby. Damn buttons.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and your feng-shui is in working order
Colie



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