8 months (and a little bit)

I finally got around to taking Jonathan's 8 month pictures today (just two weeks late), and this is probably the best one I got. He wasn't too interested in sitting still for the picture. I may have to start doing monthly slideshows. I swear this kid does not know how to stay still, unless he's sleeping.

He may not be crawling yet (any day now I'd say), but he's definitely mobile. I'll put him in the floor to play and the next thing you know he's across the room. He rolls like a champ. One minute he's at the fireplace, the next he's at the coffee table, then over at the entertainment center. This boy's wearing a momma out! LOL

This is such a wonderful age. His personality is really starting to come through, and he's just the sweetest thing ever! Yes, I'm biased, but still. I will say, he is going through a little separation anxiety phase, and honestly I could do without it. I can hardly walk out of the room without him having a fit. I should probably take advantage of it while he still wants me around, but it can be hard to get stuff done when you have to stay within the vision of a little boy.

Well, I'm heading to bed. We're leaving tomorrow for a family reunion in North Carolina and I still have quite a lot to do, so I need my sleep. Until next time...

turn.it.off

I have to turn off this stinking internet. I have spent the last 45+ minutes hitting "next blog" at the top of the page & just reading random peoples blogs. People I don't know. There is some interesting, and sometimes wierd stuff that people blog about. I'm facsinated. But I should be sleeping.

Now, I'm going to.

Welcome to the world!

Meet the littlest Clavell!

Elizabeth Shae Clavell
June 22, 2007 ~ 10:14 am
7 lbs 0 oz ~ 19 1/2 inches




Isn't she beautiful!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

After taking a different route home than we're used to (that seemed to take FOREVER), we made it home safe & sound a little before 9:00 tonight. We had thought about staying the night at my parents house tonight, but decided we'd like to get home to our own beds as soon as we could. Tomorrow will be a fun day filled with laundry & unpacking all of our stuff. I'll try and take a couple of pictures tomorrow of the things we bought in Lead Mine, a.k.a. "Amish Country". Although we think most of the homes we visited might have actually been Mennonite families, we're not 100% sure.

Speaking of my own bed, I'm going to head to it. I want to make sure and get enough sleep in case Jonathan decides to get up early in the morning.

History

Here are a couple more pictures from our trip.

Jonathan & my Grandpa Porter. They hit it off right away. Jonathan is my grandpa's 3rd great grandchild.


This is the one room schoolhouse that my great-grandmother attended. It's hard to believe that they taught children from grade one through 12 in one room.


This trip is mostly about spending time with family, and we've been having a wonderful time doing it. Everyone is of course absolutely enjoying Jonathan. He's been learning a lot of new "tricks" over the last week or so. Last Monday he started waving, and today he started clapping his hands. It's the cutest thing! I'm going to try and get it on video so I can post it here. Speaking of video, we bought a new camcorder before we left for our trip and we used it for the first time today. Chris took Jonathan swimming in the hotel pool & I got some video of it. If I can figure out how to get it on the computer, I'll post it when we get home.

Well, it's getting late, so I think I'm going to hit the sack. Tomorrow morning we're taking a drive out to the Amish country. I'd like to buy a quilt or something that we can keep for Jonathan as an heirloom. Then, once we have more children we can buy one for each of them as well.

Until next time...

A couple of pics

Safe and sound

We have arrived safe and sound at our destination; Lebanon, Missouri. Even though we stopped every couple of hours for a stretch & diaper change, it still only took right about 12 hours. Jonathan did so good! He just played & slept, slept & played. Oh, and of course ate a few times. He didn't really fuss much at all, which we were very thankful for, of course. We are all extremely tired, seeing as how in the 5 hours since we've been here we've already been to three different family members homes.

Speaking of tired, I'm going to sleep now. Stay tuned for pictures... if I can get some uploaded to the laptop that is. Night all.

Finishing up

We're leaving in the morning for our road trip to Missouri, so I've been finishing up preparations. Goodness there's a lot to bring when you have a little person. I haven't gone to look at the "trunk" of the Jeep, but I know it's full. Chris packed it last night so I wouldn't have to do it today. Thanks honey! I'm going to pick him up from work today and then we're heading to my parents house. We'll leave from there EARLY tomorrow morning; probably somewhere between 4-6 am. Thank goodness I can just go back to sleep. Hopefully Jonathan will do well on the trip. He likes riding in his carseat, so that's a step in the right direction. He's obviously not been in it for 12 hours straight before, but we're planning to take a lot of breaks so he can get out & stretch.

I think we're taking the laptop with us, so I'll try and post some while we're gone. Just in case I can't though... have a great week!

Before and after

I've been needing a haircut for a while now, so today was the day. I decided to do something kind of drastic & went short. It's going to be so much easier to take care of, not to mention I think it's pretty cute too. What do you think?

Pool party!!!

Yesterday Jonathan went to his first pool party. Rebecca had invited several of us over for the evening to have dinner & go swimming. Lisa, the kidlets and I arrived at around 3:00. The husbands and Laurel joined us after work. With all of the accessories needed for the kids; bathing suits, floaties, noodles, towels, sunscreen, etc., it looked like we were moving in for the weekend. We pretty much just took over the upstairs living room. Once we got everyone in their suits & lathered up with sunscreen, we headed for the pool. I was pretty sure Jonathan would like it, since he loves taking baths. I was right. Lisa was kind enough to let us use this neat floatie innertube thing, and as you can see, Jonathan just kicked back & relaxed. He was having a great time just floating around & watching the other kids swim & jump into the pool. He just about fell asleep at one point, and probably would have, but we had to get out & stand under the covering while it stormed. He slept during the whole thing.

After everyone else came & we ate dinner, back to the pool we went. This time Jonathan accidentally got dunked a couple of times, but it didn't seem to bother him too much. The first time kind of scared him a little, but he was fine after just a second or two. We took him out of the floatie & held him and let him splash. That was his favorite part, I think. It's just like a big bathtub. He would've stayed in all night I think, but he started acting like he was cold so I took him out & dried him off. We'll have to make sure & go swimming a few more times this summer. Next year will be even more fun, I bet.

Mini-album

You may remember me mentioning a couple of posts ago about the mini-album I made while on our scrapbooking retreat. Here it is.... well, most of it anyway. For some reason the computer didn't save months 8-12. Wierd. I'll get those scanned again soon. There aren't any pictures on them right now anyway.

I used coasters from Red Lobster to make the album, they turned out to be just the right size. I was inspired by Rebecca's Book Club Album; I think she used coasters from Chili's! I realized after I scanned them all that the pages are in the wrong order. The "title" pages should be on the left, but you get the idea.

Random stuff

Playing in the floor with Daddy.

I mean, seriously, could he be any cuter? I love this outfit! I don't know if you can read what the shirt says, but it says "Mane Man"! I just had to buy it when I saw it in the store.


Well, I took Jonathan to the doctor this morning as I suspected he had an ear infection. I was right. ;o( There were a few things that made me wonder, but there was a possible explanation for all of them. He'd been pulling at his ears, but since he mostly did it when he was sleepy, I didn't know if it meant anything. He's not been drinking as much of his bottles, but we'd started feeding him more solid foods, so maybe he just wasn't hungry. He'd been a little more fussy than usual, but he's not usually fussy at all, so any amount seems strange. Anyway, I decided that it would be better to have him checked out and it be nothing than not get it checked and it get really bad. I'm glad I took him in. He was NOT impressed with having his ears checked, especially when she had to use the little thing to get wax out. I think it might have just been the fact that I had to hold him down. Once she was finished he was fine. So, we have a prescription for an antibiotic & hopefully it will clear up soon.

We're going on a road trip up to Missouri to visit my family in a couple of weeks. It will be Jonathan's first trip out of state. Maybe we can stop at the "state" signs & take pictures. I wonder if I can convince Dad & Chris to stop for that? We're going to have a caravan on the way up there; Mom, Dad & Haley are all going too! I'm really looking forward to the visit. We haven't been up there in at least 5 years. All of my grandparents & an aunt, uncle & cousin all live in the same small town. One of the main reasons for the trip is so that Jonathan can meet my Grandpa Porter. I want to make sure Jonathan meets him while we still have the chance.

I guess I'd better try and be a least a little productive while Jonathan's napping... until next time!