Rain, Rain Go Away!

The following photos were taken on Friday morning (May 30th). We definitely had lake front property.
Nearly covering the railroad tracks -- the water had by this time already receded somewhat so at some point during the night the tracks may have been covered.

Looking East from our driveway. Looking West from our driveway.
No matter what direction we looked there was water over the road. We count our blessings that although we did have some water in the basement it wasn't much and didn't do any damage. Saturday evening through Monday afternoon we were without water. We believe the rural water system we are with must have had contamination hit the line somewhere so they had to shut the lines down and flush everything out.

All is back to normal again -- although the weather forecast is calling for more rain every day for the rest of the week. Hopefully not as much as fast this go around.

Walk This Way

That's right -- Clark's walking!

He took his first steps on May 22nd going back and forth between mom and dad (again and again and again)! We will now find him up and about and willing to try walking on his own without mom or dad. If he wants to get somewhere fast though crawling or reaching for mom or dad's hand is still the better option.

His favorite walking activity is taking mom's finger than leading her to the kitchen door (which he can open since it doesn't quite latch), pointing to the entry door -- which when opened than heads toward the screen door and then we are OUTSIDE! He has had to work on first we need shoes -- now putting on shoes means OUTSIDE! We also have worked on putting sun screen on before we go out -- amazingly he laughs when you spray the sunscreen on -- I'll take that over the other option!

Once outside we go and visit Indy so he can come walk with us, then we're off. Clark really likes heading to the driveway where we spend a lot of time looking at and picking up rocks. He also likes to try to pet the duck (which means chasing the duck around the yard) and laughing at the goose (somehow not scared of the goose but also not willing to try to pet the goose).

Recently due to all of the rain we haven't been able to go out as often as Clark would like -- so, we are working on perfecting our run (holding mom's hand) around the house.

Clark's 1st Year

This is just a look back over Clark's first year.

Each month on the 16th (or as close to it as we could get) we took a picture of Clark with his Teddy in armchair -- so now we can see how much he grew over that time:

1st Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARK!

Clark's 1st Birthday was May 16th, 2008. Since we were in Atlanta at that time for the International Science Fair we celebrated at home with friends and family on Sunday, May 25th.

Clark's party had a farm theme. The first picture shows his farm cake complete with a big red barn, haystacks and lots of piped animals!

The white cake turned out much better than the chocolate cake this year not sure why exactly but it was all good and we had a good time with everyone who came to help us celebrate.

Clark, however; wasn't feeling very good -- between a cold that probably had the beginning of his ear infection that we saw the doctor for later that week and the MMR shot kicking in with an actual little rash he did pretty good throughout the day -- so he took a nap pretty much right after we sang Happy Birthday.

After his nap, he opened his presents with his parents and grandparents.

He received many great gifts and we thank everyone who brought or sent him something. He really didn't get the concept of ripping open paper yet but I would bet by Christmas that will be different! He did however enjoy all the goodies that he opened. The books he received (especially the F is for Farm Book) are read over and over at nap and bed times. He also received some bathtub toys that have been a huge hit. Along with loving bubbles from his bubble machine (he and the cat are both very intrigued by the bubbles), his Winnie the Pooh airplane that he loves to push around the house and his new wooden train -- all have become big hits.

We have some new outfits, too! The UV swim shirt and shorts are waiting for a hot day. With some of the money Clark received we also bought a little wading pool for the back yard. Can't wait to use it. Yes, we do have a stock tank but we figure that is a little to deep for him the first couple of years. The main hurdle in the whole backyard wading pool thing may be keeping the dog, goose and duck out of it. (Duck and goose have their own swimming pool but they like to explore all their options).



Clark's new puppy Indy even helped out with the unwrapping of presents. This is a picture of Indy pulling away a sheet of wrapping paper. Indy is a black Cocker Spaniel and he is full of energy! I think Jack the cat is still Clark's favorite for now (they do have a lot of history) but he also enjoys having dad run around the back yard holding him with Indy chasing after.
As Clark becomes more adept at running himself I believe he and the puppy will be able to run off some steam together -- I also believe they are both looking forward to that day!

Finally, for supper that night Clark ate a small scoop of ice cream. His face says it all -- he is definitely a fan!