New Pictures and Video!

We downloaded the camera and the results are in (drumroll, please):

Did you know that Coraline is part mountain goat? I was doing dishes while Jason was sweeping (hence the chair on the table) and turned around to this delightful tableau...

Cora has a couple of chairs and a table that were given to her by Nana and Grandad. She likes to push the chairs around to comvenient places. Here, she has pushed the chair over in front of the open door so that she can look out the screen door. Guess we have another people-watcher in the family...

Warning!!! Non-parents may not want to see the next image!!!! For that matter, parents may not want to see this either, since they see to much of it already in their own homes...

This is a moment from the day that I call Poopapalooza 2009 wherein I had to collect 4 bottles of stool sample from one of Cora's diapers. Later, I was out saying goodbye to a visiting friend trusting that Cora was hanging out inside the door like she usually does (see above pic). Imagine my surprise (dismay, laughter) when I opened the door to this and no child. Hmm, poopy diaper and no kid. Not good. Then, while I was running a bath for her, she pooped again all over the floor in her bedroom. Sure am glad we have hard surfaces in our house...

This is a sample of Cora's handiwork with TP -- too bad she couldn't have applied some of this talent during Poopapalooza 2009.....

Um, do you think I should tell her that she might be a little big for this stroller? Oh well, see picture number one...

One of Cora's new favorite activities (besides walking) is to climb up onto a stool at the end of the counter (mainly she spends the time wingeing for food) to see what's going on in the kitchen. Here we get to hear what she thinks about that...

Montana Fun

Here are some pictures and video of our time so far here in Thompson Falls Montana.  Cora and I are visiting my family (parents, grandma, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew John) while Jason toils away back in Portland.  We miss him, but this type of arrangement works well in that I can take nice leisurely visits with my family while not eating up his vacation days.

So far Cora has spent lots of good time with Grammy and Grampy.  They have been busy doing some big gardening/yardwork chores, so Cora has had plenty of fun playing in the dirt and trying to pull up flowers.  So far all the flowers (and the cats) have survived her attentions.  Cousin John spent the day with us today since his parents were busy.  Cora likes John and he is a super sweet kid but she doesn't quite know what to do with all his attention so she spent a good portion of the day crying.  Eh well.  When he was distracted, she would creep over close to him, hold out her hand, and say ticka-ticka-ticka at him.  She was also bummed when he took a nap and she was by herself.  She pushed his door open a couple of times to make sure he was there, then when we closed the door better, she sat right outside it eating her goldfish for quite some time.

After nap, she was in a better mood and both kids went for tractor and wagon rides with Grampy.  Uncle Jason came over for dinner , then after he took cousin John home, Cora went for a dip in the pool...this time with no crying, but plenty of pool water drinking -- in fact, I had to stop her for fear that I would have a sick kid on my hands later and she kept burping so loud that Grammy could hear her from clear over on the porch.  Good times!  Guess we'll have to see what tomorrow has for us in the way of adventure...

Pool and Jammie Time

I am up in Montana visiting family who have a computer in the main space of the house so I can watch Cora and still futz on the pooter.  So....I thought that I would take the time to update my blog a bit.  Tomorrow I will try to get some pics together from our trip to Wenatchee, WA.  Our friend Krista Herling took some amazing photos of our family (at least I really, really like them...).

First off is a cute picture of Cora eating apples before bed at our house, followed by a video of her first experience in our "family pool".  Hope you all enjoy!

The parts of this video that I like best are when Cora looks straight at me with that "how could you?"  look, and then just at the end when I suggest that Jason get in with her.  He got cut off so you don't hear him saying "heck no, it's cold in there"...I mean what kind of parents are we?! Whatever -- she survived, but she still doesn't like cool pool water....  It wasn't that the water was so cold (just not warm), but it was late in the day so it was cool and breezy outside and she was probably a bit on the tired side.  But dang it, that pool had been sitting out there all day warming up and crying out for appreciation... I just couldn't let it go to waste!

This one goes out to Grandad!

Hope you get feeling better soon!  

We love you lots and lots!!!!!

XOXOXO

Active Girl

One of Cora's favorite activities of late is climbing.  In this video you can see her hanging out after she has used Big Bear as a stepping stool to get onto the couch.  Usually she is so excited when she is up there, that she just does laps back and forth with periodic rolling about and lots of giggles and panting.

This next vignette is from last weekend when we went down to Corvallis to celebrate birthdays with Jason's family.  Travis, Sarah and Kathy walked with us to the park for some summer time fun.  Hopefully next time Grandad will feel up to joining us at the park too.  It was a beautiful day just perfect for swinging and Cora's first trip down the slide...right into Nana's arms! 

Swinging with Daddy...

Cuddling with Nana!

Fun with Uncle Travis and Aunt Sarah...

Easter fun

It's been on my mind for quite a while that I really ought to post more often, or at least post pics of the kid (which is really what everyone is looking for anyways...).  So here you go.

First off are a couple of our most current propoganda pictures and a film on the beauty of pork:

The question is "who is the bigger ham"?:

...the answer: The pig outweighed Cora by a couple of pounds -- though she is definitely hamming it up for the camera!

In other fun, here is Cora with the dolly stroller that Nanna and Grandad got for her birthday.  Think she likes it?

Coraline's new trick

Happy Birthday Coraline!

... and Amber yesterday. The party was a huge success, as you can see from the photo below.


It's hard to believe it's been a year, that she's on the cusp of walking, that she's turned from such a little bundle of need into someone with personality and opinions of her own.

I hear it slows down from here, right? Right??!

Valentine's videos

All right, I admit it, this post has nothing to do with the holiday. But nobody can resist some cute videos of a baby eating, right?

First for the Valentine's meal, some green beans.


Next up, pears.


And finally, more green beans!

Grab-bag update

It's been far too long since I've uploaded photos, but today's your lucky day.



Before getting to the photo-sets, though, things have definitely been changing around the Clark household. A couple days before Christmas Coraline took her first forward crawl. She'd been pushing herself around backward--slowly and awkwardly--for quite a while. We knew she'd get it eventually, but once she did, wow it was a transformation. First day she crawled trying to get at the dog leashes on the floor, and by the next she was all over the place. When we got home from our Christmas travels, she climbed up the step from our family room to kitchen almost immediately (although coming down remains an issue.)

Every day she can reach something she hasn't before. We have done plenty of child-proofing, but continue to work as she points out for us "Hey, I can get into that!"

The dogs are rather nonplussed by this little mobile thing getting in their faces, sitting on their beds, swimming in their water and, yes, stealing their food. They have their own gated off area, but it's not perfectly sealed and Cora does her best to breach the barrier.

She's also started to get interested in feeding herself. She'll get grumpy about taking macaroni off a spoon from us, but will gladly pick it up in her grubby little hands. Makes rather a mess of which we'll need to get some photos soon.

We've had some of the cough/cold/sniffles running around, which has made sleep an issue. Since Amber's been sick too, that has made for some miserable nights all around. We do seem to be on the downhill side of that, though *crosses fingers*

So, on to the pictures!

• Christmas 2008 -- Mostly photos from before. Will update with more from the day-of when we get them from my folks
• Cousins -- Couple new photos in there from John's visit in January (oh yeah, with his parents of course.) A few are just Cora, but from the "naked" baby photo shoot with John.
  
• Fashion Plate -- New photos
• Froggie -- Photos with Coraline's favorite toy, Francine the Frog.
  
• Lee Farm -- Spent a fantastic afternoon with the Yue family at Lee Farms, buying pumpkins and so much more.
• Mobility -- Updates to this album, with more to follow as Coraline gets increasingly INTO EVERYTHING.
• Munchies -- New album for general eating
• Naptime -- Because everyone deserves a little more sleep.

That's all for now. Try to keep the next update from taking so long.

Premiere night!

So my lovely wife scored us tickets to the premiere of the Coraline movie that's coming out tomorrow. We are super excited about it--a night out, seeing the movie early, being in the same building as my hero Neil Gaiman. Even better, we just found out that the tickets to the premiere get you into the after party. Score!

Anyway, in celebration, I thought I'd post a nice family photo that I stumbled across the other day.


Anyway, we'll definitely post about the experience. Oh yeah, and get some more normal pictures up soon too.