Roly Poly

Caleb started rolling over from his back to his stomach yesterday. He is quite unhappy when he ends up on his belly, but it keeps happening. He hasn't really done any stomach to back rolling yet.

Nathan Reads "Brown Bear Brown Bear"

Nathan enjoys reading these days. Here is a small video of him reading one of his favorite books.

Rough-housing (SP?)

Here is a video of Nathan doing what he loves to do with his daddy -- play rough. You can even catch a glimpse of Caleb in his jumper in the background.

Cowboy Nathan

Nathan's current favorite video of himself. Aunt Katie gave him this hat recently and Nathan thinks it is pretty darn cool.

Sweet Video of Caleb

From 2012-01-21

Here is Caleb at 10 weeks. All smiles. Nathan loves his brother dearly. I keep finding Nathan hugging Caleb which means he is straddled over him hugging and kissing him. Mommy always has to intervene. Caleb doesn't seem to mind. When Nathan gets off he says, "Awe, that is so sweeeeet."

New Baby Caleb

Caleb Mitchell was born in November 12, 2011. My goal was to deliver him vaginally and that was achieved. My other goal was to forego the epidural and that was also achieved. YAHOO! Caleb weighed in at 7lbs 5oz, a bit smaller than his brother, Nathan.

At his two month visit he weighed 11lb 11.8oz. That is from all the ice cream, spinache, sweet potatoes and steak I've been eating.

I am pretty much just posting so that I don't lose this blog like the previous one.

Nathan's Sudden New Talent

Shortly after Cameron got home from work today, Nathan began rummaging through his toy bin and found the harmonica that we received at an Astro's game last fall. Cameron showed him how to use it and Nathan has had tons of fun with it ever since.

January Birthdays!

For as long as I can remember, January has been a month for birthdays. Mine is January, 29th, my dad's is the 11th, my Mimi's is the 6th. There are also a few other Reynolds celebrating in January. Well it only multiplied when I became a Clark. Lynne's birthday is on January 10th, Cameron and John both celebrate on January 12th and now my newest brother-in-law, Matt, also has a January birthday, January 11th! So sometime in the month of January the Clarks always make a point of celebrating all the January birthdays. We celebrated today at John and Lynne's and here are a few of the pictures I took. We spent some time this evening looking at old photos. Nathan was very interested in the photos of his dad and aunties. In the photos you'll see Nathan opening a birthday card with delight. Sarah gave Cameron a singing birthday card that played the Chicken Dance:) Last year she sent Cameron a card that played "Dayo" and Nathan still has not lost interest in this card. (She knew she was really getting the card for Nathan:) The batteries in those cards definitely last a long time. I used to think that they probably wouldn't last long from all the card brousers listening to the songs. I won't have to worry about that anymore.

Fun Pics at Nanna and Grandad's

Typical Evenings

Last fall Cameron bought a keyboard. Ever since then he has been working hard to be able to play classics such as "Midnight Train", "Piano Man", "Tiny Dancer" and a few others that I can't remember. Nathan often likes to jump in during the practice sessions.

 

Post Cruise Pics

The night we cruised back into the Chesapeae Bay Cameron received an email from Southwest informing us that our flight was CANCELLED! Apparently there was a huge snowstorm heading up the east coas that was expected to postpone/delay and cancel lots of flights. Southwest tried to do the prudent thing and cancel certain flights ahead of time so that people wouldn't be stranded at the airport. It turned out that the snowstorm didn't really hit Baltimore and there was no snow to be seen at the time of our expected departure. We made the best of things by staying at the Hyatt at the Inner Harbor, the place to stay if you are in Baltimore. Our flight was rescheduled 28 hours later than the first flight so we had almost 2 days to kill. The first day was very cold and did snow a little bit. The highlight was that we got to see my lovely cousin Kate who could not make the cruise because of her demanding nursing schedule at the famous Johns Hopkins Hospital. What a joy to visit with her!
The next day we headed to the Children's Museum in Baltimore. The toddler section was undergoing renovation so we couldn't play there. Nathan did find tons of enjoyment in the Diner. He spent loads of time making scrambled eggs, waffles, burgers, and serving up fruit.

Post Cruise Pics

Last Evening of the Cruise Pictures

I tried to get a bunch of photos before we all parted ways.

Last Evening of the 2010 Cruise

How to entertain a 19 month old on a cruise ship...

Cruise ships aren't really designed for the really little guys. In order to take advantage of the Camp Carnival or equivalent activity the children have to be over 2 years old. One of the better places to let him run around was in the hallways on the cabin levels. It was carpeted and was a pretty contained area except for the 3 elevator/stairwells on every level. I lost him to the stairs almost every time we ran past them. Lots of time was spent going up and down the stairs. The main lobby levels had lots of room to run, though you did have lots of people as obstacles. The ground was also very hard and his head did come in contact with it once or twice. (Nathan pretty much has a permanent bruise on his forehead from always falling). The big "No children with diapers" sign in front of the pool pretty much left that area off limits. The one area where Nathan was able to truly feel comfortable was at the put-put course. We only went up there once partially because we hadn't thought about it until the last day and because it was often cold and windy on the deck. He played and had a great time. He LOVES golf clubs. Though he takes his golf very seriously. I took many photos and you can see that he never cracks a smile. Very serious golfer:)

Put-Put on the Ship

The other great form of entertainment for Nathan were his cousins! They were so much fun and made sure Nathan had a good experience on his first cruise. Here is a video of what happened on dinner one night.

Cruise Photos: Nassau

The second stop on our cruise was in Nassau. We spent the day at the British Colonial Nassau Hilton. The hotel and beach were a short walk from the cruise ship. The hotel and beach were pleasant enough, however we could have used a bit more sunlight and maybe a couple of extra degrees. The kids still had plenty of fun playing in the ocean and the swimming pool. I am certain that there are beautiful parts of the Bahamas, however I did not see them. I think you have to go to a less populated part of the island to get that beautiful and remote island experience.

Here are the photos from the beach:

Nassau Hilton

After the fun had worn out I tagged along with the girls to watch them get their hair braided. Nathan slept through the whole thing. They didn't get the normal island hair braiding experience that you would expect, partly my fault. I decided that we were on an island and that you didn't have to go to a special place to find the hair braiders. They were everywhere, right? I thought if we just asked at one of the straw markets if anyone did hair braiding that multiple people would just start braiding right there. We found the one person that insisted we follow her to her salon and she didn't want anyone to aid her in on the money making hair braiding party. We ended up in an initially sketchy salon/barbershop somewhat off the beaten track. It took a pretty long time so Aubrey and Anjie made the decision to leave and find someone else with hair braiding skills. Not a bad idea. I sat it out because the company was good and Nathan was asleep and I didn't want to interrupt his nap. We made it back to the boat safely before dark and the girls looked great!

Hair Braiding!

The final product!

Cruise Photos - Edition 1

Last week 23 members of the Reynolds Family cruised from Baltimore to the Bahamas in celebration of my Mimi's upcoming 95th birthday! We had a fabulous time. Nathan loved playing with his cousins from Oregon. We hope that we can see them again, next summer maybe??? In attendance were my dad's 3 brothers and their extended families. The kids ranged in age from 19 months to 11 years old.

This first round of photos is from the Jammie Party we had on the second night. My cousin's wife, Dana, bought all the kids adorable Christmas flannel pajamas. It was hard to get a photo of everyone together, but you get the idea.

2010-12-20

Lafayette Children's Museum

The Friday after Thanksgiving we headed to Lafayette for my 10 year high school reunion. It was really nice catching up with my old classmates. ESA does a good job of setting people up for a life of success. There were doctors, engineers, teachers, a counselor, geologist, lawyer, speach therapist, army captain, and nurses A very impressive class.

The next day Cameron and my brother headed out for their traditional golf game. After Nathan woke up from his 2.5 hour nap my parents and I took Nathan to the Children's Museum of Lafayette. The museum was nonstop fun for Nathan. It didn't take too long before I figured out Nathan's museum cycle. Every activity that he participated in was the best thing in the world to him - at that moment. If we pulled him away to a new activity he broke out in a mini temper tantrum that ended shortly after he realized what the next activity was all about. He had a blast and probably could have stayed there all day. I was very suprised at how the entire museum catered to an 18 month so well. We will have to continue to visit the museum when we are in town.

From childrens museum

Overdue Thanksgiving Pictures

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Cameron's Parent's home in Conroe. Just about everyone was in attendance (10/11). Dinner was wonderful and we worked off our big meal by playing at a nearby park and by chasing John while he was pulling the boys around in their new offroading wagon.

From Thanksgiving

Pictures from our Broussard visit

We had a great visit with my parents 3 weeks ago. We started our trip off with a visit to the zoo. I ran into two of my childhood teachers while we were there.
We had a visit from my high school friend, Lacie, and her husband, Scott. My mom also threw a little party and I got to see my friend Michelle and her little girl, Brianna. She is just a few months older than Nathan. We had a very good visit and will be heading up again there soon.

Also, Nanny Pam has been working with Nathan to identify his grandparents by their chosen names using pictures around the house. It worked! Tonight we saw my dad for dinner and Nathan kept saying, "Papa...Papa". It was too perfect

Broussard Photos

Pictures from the Fall

These are pictures I took a few months ago and never got around to posting. Life is good here. Nathan is busy learning new words all the time. Today he took me outside so that he could show me the moon. The moon of his favorite thing to point out in books such as "The Going To Bed Book" by Sandra Boynton. In "Goodnight Moon" where there are plenty of moons, he instead points out the mouse. He has also learned recently what an elephant is. If you ask him to make an elephant sound he will squeeze his lips together and try to squirt out a high pitch elephant sound. Cameron did a great job teaching him how to do that. I will post more recent pictures shortly:)

Good Pumpkin Photos

Awesome Fall!

 

 

We took photos at a pumpkin patch on Sunday. We were able to snap piles of photos of Nathan. I was quite impressed with a few family shots that we took using Cameron's tripod and remote clicker.

I am taking my Professional Engineering Exam at the end of October. I haven't blogged much recently because most of my free time has been spent studying for it these last few weekends. I am hoping for the best. Cameron passed his easily in the Spring with lots of studying. Cameron has been very helpful and supportive of me by taking care of Nathan and chores while I am studying. I can't wait to be done. The weather has been so great lately that it makes being stuck inside just awful.

Nathan asks for more little piggies

I am pretty sure this was Nathan's way of asking Cameron to do it again:)