five months

january 2, 2011

about 17 pounds

26 inches

Dearest Carson,

You continue to be an absolute joy in our lives! You grow and learn new things everyday! In the mornings, when I hear you wake up, I unzip you and sing “Good Morning” and “This is the Day”. You nap every couple of hours during the day. You usually take four naps that are about 45 minutes each, however many days one of your naps is longer, but we never know which one it will be. You nurse about eight times per day. You get up once or twice in the night to eat, and still sleep in your woombie. At bedtime, most nights you take a bath, you eat one more time, then Daddy and I say a prayer with you and sing “We love you with the Love of the Lord” while we tuck you in. It is a special time for our family! You’ve really started enjoying your bath, which has made it one of our favorite parts of the day. Your bath seems to be relaxing, and it’s fun to play with you while you lay back and enjoy the warm water. You still wear size two diapers and 3-6 month clothing. You’ve filled out and gotten chunkier this month, especially your belly and legs, and it is super cute! It’s made you even more kissable! You love belly and leg kisses. You still like to look around and seem very interested in everything that’s going on around you. Sometimes we wish we knew what you are thinking! You continue to enjoy putting your hands in your mouth, but this month you’ve also started putting your feet in your mouth. In fact, it has become a little tricky to change your diaper, because as soon as we lay you on your back, you put your feet straight in your mouth! We’re impressed with how flexible you are as you suck on your toes! You’ve started reaching for and grabbing stuff a lot this month, and of course, as soon as you get a hold of something, it goes straight to your mouth. Putting things in your mouth seems to be your way of exploring and learning about new things. We have lots of fun playing with you. You love zurberts, peek-a-boo, and airplane. All three of these little games are sure ways to get a smile from you! This month you’ve even initiated peek-a-boo a few times when you’re in your floor gym and we start talking to you, and it is precious! We’ve heard you laugh out loud a few more times this month and it’s absolutely wonderful! Tickling your chin and neck with kisses is one way we’ve gotten you to laugh. You’re still enjoying tummy time. When we lay you on your tummy and leave the room, by the time we come back a few minutes later, you’ve almost always scooted around so that you’re facing the opposite direction. You enjoying sitting upright too, that way you can see what’s going on. When you sit in your bumbo, you always pull one leg up, and it looks kind of like you’re trying to escape! The bumbo is a great place to sit in the kitchen while Mama cooks. If you’re awake while we’re eating dinner, you sit in your high chair. It’s pretty funny, because the last eight or nine times you’ve sat in your high chair, you’ve filled your diaper. We’re not sure if it’s the highchair or our dinner that’s been causing this, but it’s given us a good chuckle!

One of the most special things this month was celebrating your first Christmas! You enjoyed looking at the lights and ornaments on the tree and had fun grabbing the ornaments and branches if we held you close enough. You really seem to like music, so we had fun singing Christmas carols this month. Your favorite is “Jingle Bells,” and you smile every time we sing it to you! If you’re fussy, we can always count on “Jingle Bells” to cheer you up, so we may be singing it all year long! Other songs you like are “Bears” and “Tractor Tractor”. Pops, Granny, and Aunt Misty got to come and stay for a whole week of Christmas fun! What a blessing it was to have them visit! Aunt Misty taught you to open your Christmas gifts. I thought you were too little, but she knew you could do it! You had fun pulling ribbon and tearing paper. You received some fun new toys, books, clothes, and your first Bible. You also got some special ornaments for our tree. We’ll have fun remembering your first Christmas as we pull them out to decorate the tree each year. Pops and Granny got you a jumperoo, and you have loved playing in it! It’s been fun to watch you discover the colors, lights, and sounds while you bounce and play.

You are an amazing blessing from God, and we are honored that God is trusting us to love and care for you! Thank you for being you! We can’t imagine a more perfect addition to our family! We love you, Wee One!

Mama and Daddy

Happy New Year!!!

These are a few of my favorite things.

2010 edition.

Hearing a healthy heartbeat.

Feeling baby kicks inside me.

Planning. Preparing. Praying.

Buying blue.

Walking. Talking.

Watermelon. Peanut butter.

Family. Friends. Church.

Anticipation.

Childbirth.

Baby snuggles.

Breast feeding.

Seeing my dear husband become an amazing daddy.

Baby bath time.

Chunky baby legs.

Kissing my baby.

Footie pajamas.

Baby smiles.

Baby laughter.

Carson Robert Clark!!!!

What a BLESSING 2010 has been for our family.

We anxiously wait to see what 2011 brings.

Merry Christmas!!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends. Carson's first Christmas made ours especially wonderful this year!! We were thankful that Pops, Granny, and Aunt Misty were able to visit us and that we were able to spend the week of Christmas with them!! See facebook for lots more pictures if you're interested:) Blessing to you and yours in 2011!!!

four months

december 2, 2010

15 pounds

25 ½ inches

Carson Robert,

You continue to grow and learn everyday! You are very interested in what is going on around you. You’re always looking around and seem to be taking it all in! You nurse seven or eight times per day. You get up once in the night to eat, and you’re still sleeping in your woombie. After you eat, and before you nap, we have lots of fun playing. You like to be held, but you have become quite the wiggle worm! You love to play with your hands! You look at them, hold them together, and chew on them a lot. You have lots of slobber! We talk, read books, and sing songs. You’ve had lots of fun in your floor gym this month. You’ve gotten really good at grabbing and pulling the toys that hang down. Your favorite toy seems to be the blue bird. You have fun playing by yourself for longer periods of time. You’ve stayed in your gym for as long as 30 minutes several times. It is lots of fun for us to watch you having fun! You actually enjoy tummy time now! You even prefer it to lying on your back sometimes. You’ve started to scoot and move your arms and legs while you’re on your tummy. We think you really want to crawl, because it kind of looks like you’re crawling in place. You’ve started sitting in your highchair or bumbo when we’re eating sometimes, and you’re usually happy, interested, and patient. When you are tired or upset, the best way to calm you down is to let you suck on one of our fingers. You love to suck our finger, but you will not suck on a pacifier. We’ve tried several different kinds, but you aren’t interested. You’ve just started grabbing our hair, ouch! You also grab Daddy’s glasses sometimes. On November 16, you laughed out loud for the first time, and it was music to our ears! You’ve only laughed a couple of times since then, but you make other sweet sounds and coos quite often. We love to hear you! You still wear size two diapers and 3-6 month clothing.

This has been a month full of grandparent love! Pops and Granny came to visit and got to stay for a week and half! Then, we traveled to St. Louis to visit Bobel and Reenie for the week of Thanksgiving. All four of your grandparents had lots of fun playing with and loving on you! You are blessed to have such loving grandparents. While we were in St. Louis, you had both your first Thanksgiving and your first snow!

It’s been another joyful month with you, Baby Boy. Being your mama and daddy is absolutely wonderful! You are a blessing to us and to everyone who meets you. We love you!

three months

november 2, 2010

about 13.5-14 pounds

25 1/2 inches

Sweet Carson,

You are growing and changing so quickly! This month you are maintaining eye contact for longer periods of time, smiling more and more in response to our talking and smiles, and “talking” and cooing lots more. You are such a joy! You still nurse eight times per day. You’ve slept through the night a couple of times, but you’ve also had several nights of waking up twice to eat. You are still a hungry boy and love to eat. Your swaddle me blanket got too small, so we got you a woombie. It was a nice next step, because it fits closely around you, but it’s stretchy, so you can move your arms and legs some without waking yourself up. You’re getting better and better at falling asleep on your own without much crying. After you eat, and before you nap, we have lots of fun playing. You love to chew on your hands! We talk, read books, and sing songs. You really enjoy your bouncy chair and floor gym, and you’re beginning to enjoy your swing, too. Your bouncy chair has an orange mushroom that plays “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” When you sit there, you focus, staring at the mushroom, and wanting to pull it so badly. We love to watch you learn and discover. At ten weeks old, you began hitting the toys on your floor gym and car seat. It’s cute to see you having so much fun! You’re getting better at tummy time, but it’s still not your favorite thing to do. In fact, we think that’s why you learned to roll over this month! You rolled from your tummy to your back on October 18, your eleven week birthday. Daddy and I both happened to be watching you and got to see it! We were so excited. You didn’t seem to understand why we got so excited. Since then, you’ve rolled over lots more times. You move around on your own a lot more, you even scooted over the boppy all by yourself one day. You’re getting stronger and are doing really well holding your head up. You don’t “head bang” as much as you used to. You like to be held on the shoulder or facing forward so that you can see what is going on. You really like the person holding you to stand up and bounce, sway, or walk. You don’t mind being passed around and letting lots of different people hold you. Your lungs work very well; we have been surprised that you can scream so loudly to be so little! Sometimes your cry sounds like a kitty cat. At eleven weeks old, you moved up to size two diapers and 3-6 month clothing. This month, you’ve gone out to eat a couple of times, gone to a middle school basketball game, gone to Hobby Lobby, and ridden in your stroller a few times. We are surprised how quickly you’re growing! Carson, you are a perfect gift from God! It is an honor to be your mama and daddy. We love you more than you know.

happy halloween

We had a fun trunk or treat celebration with our church family. Carson's sweet granny made his first Halloween costume!!! He was a precious little lamb! Thanks, Granny!!! The costume was perfect!! He looked so sweet, and I know we'll have fun looking back at these pictures for years to come!

aunts

In addition to four wonderful grandparents, Carson also has two fabulous aunts!!! Aunt Misty and Aunt Laura both love Carson so much!! We are thankful for two sweet, thoughtful, loving aunts!!! We know Carson will have lots and lots of fun with both of them through the years!!! Thanks, Misty and Laura for loving our boy!!!! We love you both!