First off...Where do toddlers get their energy? Does it come from zero responsibility, no stress and someone always wiping their faces after they eat? Clark is like a giant pinball, bouncing off the walls and furniture. Only he has the emotional stability of a 15 year old girl in love and a rabid pit bull mixed together.

 This past week, I took my little ticking time bomb of destruction on a little road trip to visit our good friends in Valpo.  2 hours there meant 41 minutes of screaming in the carseat because he didn't want to be held down. I even pulled over to make sure he wasn't dying, then a cop pulled over with me to make sure I wasn't killing him. I've never seen a baby purple with anger. I think it scared the cop, because he quickly left once he "could see I had everything under control". Run, cop, run, you chicken!

My car, Mitch, has a third row pop up seat option which I was able to utilize this week. 3 car seats and 2 adults in one small SUV, the hardest part was being able to pass out Gold Fish Crackers to everyone.

All you can see of Clark is his right foot. I still have him facing backwards because he is so short his feet don't even touch the seat yet and I am terrified of another accident (he is safer this way)--- Oh yea, PS We were in an accident in July that totalled my car.---

We hung out on Lake Michigan for the afternoon.

He screamed for 2 hours on the way home. He was over tired and refused to sleep in his backwards facing carseat, sorry buddy, life is rough sometimes.

A mere 32 hours later, we packed up again, only this time we headed to Michigan to see Namma and Papa!

It is a Williams' boy trait to always blink during pictures, Clark is not immune.

Matt and Papa went fishing, they caught a few good ones. Frazier was impressed, that is all that really matters.

My sisters stopped by for the afternoon, which was really nice since we hadn't seen them in awhile. They hadn't seen Clark since he has been walking so they were surprised by the mass destruction he is capable of. Notice his scowl, it is because we momentarily stopped him from playing. 15 seconds is an eternity to a 15 month old.

Back at home, in my spare time, I have been working on this beat up old dresser I got at a garage sale for 7 bucks.

 



 

It was half dead and had mouse poop in the drawers. I sanded it down, pulled out all the yucky contact paper in the drawers and dumped the mouse pellets. Then I used some old paint we had from other projects, painted it up and got some porcelain knobs. One more piece of furniture given a new life!

 

 

Hope you all had a happy holiday weekend!

Colie



Cuz its the Freakin' Weekend

HELLO!

We are winding down after the best weekend either of us can remember having in a very long time. It all started with a phone call from me to Matt at 4:30pm Friday night....

Friday:
I called Matt at 4:30 to ask him if he could leave work early so we could all go out to dinner. I didn't feel like cooking and I had a mean craving for some sushi. --Side note: Clark still goes to bed around 6:15pm so going out to dinner means we have to get the early bird special. Matt took me to this PHENOMENAL place call Teppanyaki. It was slightly in the 'hood and I was actually scared to get out of my car, however, when we walked into this place it was like we were in another world. It was a huge, shiny, magnificent, all you can eat sushi/china buffet. The food was spectacular and Clark ate so much that I had to let out his carseat straps so he would fit in his seat on the way home. Clark went to bed right on time, Matt and I cleaned the house and watched a movie in the basement. It was a good day.

Saturday:
Saturday is going to be a hard day to beat. Clark woke up at 7am, I wasn't ready to wake up yet so I thought I would try an experiment. I went into his room, whispered sweetly that it was too early to wake up and then he went back to sleep for another 30 minutes. Just what I needed. To make it better, when I came downstairs the whole house was clean because we had cleaned it before bed the night before.

I put him down for a nap at 10am then went on the hunt for garage sales (its my addiction). I ended up finding a beautiful antique fireplace mantle for dirt cheep and met a really sweet lady that I talked to for an hour! On my way home I passed a guy who was cleaning out his garage. He was in a HORRIBLE mood and was putting items out on the curb for FREE. He just wanted the stuff gone. I got these two awesome, nothing wrong with them, bar stools *thanks pissed off dude*

We did some rearranging in the kitchen and we are pretty happy with the outcome.

Clark's nap lasted a whopping 4 hours! When he finally got up, we all went to a flea market which happened to be winding down for the day. It turned out to work in our favor, because people didn't want to pack their goods back up so they were pretty much giving things away for free.We got a chair and a bar sign.

Then we went to Starbucks. The lady said Clark was so cute she was going to give me my iced coffee for FREE.

I should have bought a scratchy loto ticket because it was just my lucky day.

We spent the evening painting and redoing furniture and having a beer while sitting by a bonfire.

Sunday:
We had a low key day, but everyone was in a happy mood.

The weather this weekend was beautiful, we could have to whole house open. It was so nice, we decided to spend the afternoon at the zoo.

Clark really enjoyed the flamingos this time. Last time it was the giraffes. He also really enjoyed the Dippin' Dots--how long is that going to be considered the 'Ice Cream of the Future' anyways?

Clark was ready for bed at 5:30 today. That is slightly ridiculous, but he only had an hour nap so I let it slide. Without a tiny person to entertain I had the whole evening free so I decided to cook a real meal. None of those 20 minute quick meals that we have been living off of for the last 14 months. I made lemon chicken in white wine with mushrooms and artichokes, carrot souffle--which takes an hour and a half on its own-- and a nice salad. While we enjoyed our dinner I had a peach cobbler cooking in the oven, which was magically done right as we finished eating. Matt asked me what the occation was for such a great meal...I said Cuz its the Freakin' Weekend.

And that was our lucky/easy/great/happy weekend

Colie 

Cupcakes and a Night Out

When I was a little kid, I thought I was going to marry Johnathan Taylor Thomas, live in a huge house and I was going to make so much money that I wouldn't know what to do with it all so I would donate half of it to charity. I also thought 30 was old. Fast forward to the present---------- I live in a modest home and I certainly don't make enough money to donate more than canned goods to charity. To top it all off... I'm married to someone who is 30!

30 certainly doesn't seem so old anymore, I feel like we are really just starting our life.

For Matt's 30th birthday I made Almond Joy cupcakes. They were so dense and so rich that I haven't craved anything sweet in over a week. My backwards rationale is that a 600 calorie cupcake has really saved me about 2000 calories over the course of a week. Totally justified.

 

Matt's parents came down for the weekend and took the whole family out to dinner. Maggie and Edwin are such good big cousins, they kept Clark entertained for the whole 2 hour dinner and Edwin even shared his ice cream. 

After dinner Grandma tucked Clark in so Matt and I could go out. We went to the Rathskeller, hung out with our good friends, drank ridiculously expensive beer and listened to a great 80's rock cover band. We also saw a fight between 2 dudes and got beer throw on us by a disgruntled girlfriend.

Good birthday. Even if is does mean he is legitimately old.

In Clark News: He uses a big boy fork now. And does it like he means business.

(I recorded the fork video using my camera and the blog wouldn't let me insert it so click on the link.)


Have a good week,
Colie

What We've Been Up to Lately

Hello

For Clark's birthday he got shark swim goggles. It wasn't until recently that he rediscovered them and continuously brings them to one of us exclaiming THIS, THIS, THIS! until we help him put them on. They stay firmly planted throughout the day.

It has been so hot outside the last few weeks that we very rarely get a chance to play outside so we have been keeping busy in the house.

Ice cubes were a big hit. This bowl of frozen water kept him entertained for about 45 minutes, which is unheard of in the world of toddlers!

Of course there were a few not so bright ideas before the genius struck.

Cheerios? What on Earth was I thinking? How could this have possibly been a good idea? Frazier would beg to differ.

I now realize that every move I make is being watched and analyzed. It is sweet and discerning at the same time. I now know I have to be on my best behavior at all times. My purse and glasses were on the kitchen table, he pulled them down and, by golly, he put them on just like me. Then walked over to show us. Purse over the shoulder (kind of) and sunglasses on (again, kinda). I usually wear pants when I go out though.

I am seeing a trend with this child.

Check out the hail damage on that booty. I take it back, I am noticing a trend with this child WHEN HE HANGS OUT WITH HIS DADDY.  He never has pants on when he is under Matt's watch.

At least Matt wears pants.

We spent some time at the lake this weekend with the whole family. It was nice to see everyone, unfortunately it was because Matt's grandfather passed away. Sweet and sad all wrapped up into one weekend.  Matt managed to get in some water skiing while we were up there.

 Hope everyone is doing well and on their best behaviors-- You never know who is watching you.
Colie

Silly

Sometimes he just makes us laugh. And then he grosses us out.

I can't figure out how to flip the video right side up. Just tilt your head.

The other day we were all hanging out in the workout room, Clark climbed up on the treadmill and started to run in place. Now he runs on command and thinks he is so funny. I think once he figures out he can run and actually get places quickly we are all going to be in trouble.

Colie

One Year Pictures

Clark's One Year pictures are now ready for your viewing pleasure. He is such a ham! And always hungry for something sweet.

Anyone price balloons lately? Yeah, I hadn't either. The going rate these days is a buck a balloon. That's inflation for you (yup, I totally went there).

 I've never seen a kid move as fast as Clark did toward that cake. It's like he was honed in on it's sugary sweetness and was jonesin' for an frosting induced endorphin release.

Ahh, sweetly satisfied.

 To get him to look happy crawling we had him chase the cake.

Ham.

We are going to start a trend that every birthday he will hold a picture of the year before. I am actually surprised he held it appropriately and didn't try to either eat it or smash it.

We managed to get a family picture as well.

Thanks Katy from Audria Photography for doing such a nice job.

-Colie

Hello

It's been a little while since I've posted, its not because we have been busy doing anything awesome, I've just been slacking I guess. I suppose the fact that it has been over 100 degrees for the last few weeks hasn't helped my motivation any. I move a lot slower when I'm hot and my brain doesn't work as well.

We stayed in town for the 4th of July and had big plans on taking Clark to our downtown. They had music, games, face painting and fireworks. As we entered the downtown brick street area we were greeted with a ghost town. There was not one person to be seen. We were very confused and obviously the only people that didn't get this Memo:

I knew the fireworks were going to be a No Go since there was a burn ban in effect, but I had no idea the face painting was cancelled as well. We ended up going to Matt's brother's house for some outdoor yogurt eating, some swinging and good times with the cousins.

It was hotter than blue blazes out and all the kids were pretty much naked. Since I don't know the internet rules for posting pictures of other people's children without tops on you will just have to take my word that we had fun and everyone was adorable.

Everything lately to Clark has turned into a telephone. I don't know why because I spend approximately 15 minutes a week on the phone talking.

The remote control is often confused with a phone, he repeats HI, HI, HI, HI over and over, then the remote goes missing for the remainder of the day. Usually it is to be found in a pile of books or in his car's trunk.

His oatmeal bowl also has become a telephone. Messy but oh so cute.

Clark's diet consists of oatmeal, yogurt, lots of fruit and eggs. I'm going to call it a phase, but that's all the kid will eat. Every meal I try adding new foods and we always end up feeding him the good old standbys. He really is a product of me, breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and I can usually be found eating it 3x a day. Monkey see, Monkey do? I dress each item up a little differently each time so he gets a variety without realizing it, but I am running out of ideas. The other day I tried Floor with his oatmeal.

The bowl seriously jumped right out of my hand. I have no idea what happened, its like it had a mind of its own or I had a convulsion. It actually worked out because I had just mopped the floor and scrubbed the stainless steel appliances and I was really looking forward to doing it again (sarcasm).  Please notice Matt and Clark in the background completely oblivious to my loud crash and cuss words that followed.

Hope everyone is staying nice and cool, the last few days it has only been in the low 90's so it feels like a cold wave came through.

Colie