one month and counting!

Clark is now just over a month old. At my one month checkup, I had him weighed. He has already gained 2lbs and now weighs in at 11lbs 6oz. Holy smokes! I'm glad he is so strong and healthy, because then I don't worry about things so much. Its amazing how big he is though.

Clark is getting out and about (with our help) and seeing the world! This is the list of the many places he has been since we last posted here: post office, grocery store, dairy queen, the library, Rock Creek Park, Washington DC, Cherry Blossom Festival,Church, La Leche League meeting, Rockville City Hall, Chemonics (my work), National Arboretum. He also had his first metro ride!

He has also met many new people including: Tom's family: Monica, Ruby, and James, and friends: Anna, Bucca, Scott, Lishue, Meghan, Lili, Lindsey, Martha, Andie and everyone else at Chemonics.

We really, really, really love him. He is so incredibly precious and cute. He spends lots of time sleeping and most of the rest of his time eating. However, he is spending more and more time awake. When he is awake he looks around and smiles a little bit. Here is him smiling: and here is his daddy smiling at one month:


He can lift and maneuver his head quite well. He is starting to reposition his head on me when he is falling asleep which I find so precious!


The week before Easter & Easter was a whirlwind of excitement! We had Auntie Mo and Cousin Ruby staying at our house, Uncle James stayed with Auntie A, Uncle Jake and Cousin Sophia. We made lots of food, and ate out a bunch. The days were mostly busy and loud, punctuated by naps, which gave some parents a moments rest. Clark liked meeting everyone but it really wore him out.

He woke up long enough to snuggle with Uncle James.

Before passing out on the ride home:




Ruby seemed to have a fantastic time. She is really fun and energetic in addition to being absolutely adorable!!! She is an explorer and put our (sorry attempt at) baby proofing to the test. Luckily, her mom isn't that concerned about safety and is pretty quick on her feet!!!! =)

Sophia is getting really smart and can tell you lots of animal sounds and show you some of her body parts. I'm glad she lives nearby so Clark can learn things from her and benefit from having a local cousin.
For Easter we had breakfast of bacon, eggs, veggie sausage, chocolate croissants, french toast and mimosas. Then we went to mass. Then we came home and made Carne Asada, Pollo Asado, and Shrimp Fajitas. These were eaten in conjunction with a LAMB CAKE!!!
We ate our delicous Easter lunch in the back yard in the beautiful sunshine. It was a beautiful and relaxing time as all 3 kids were asleep at the same time. ( I don't know why this line is hyperlinked, there is no link, sorry).

The only sadness is that I ate something funny this weekend, most likely it was some incredibly spicy Thai food (which burned my lips). It ended up in my milk, and therefore in Clark. He was really unhappy as you can see below. I had to pump and dump my milk. We fed him a little bit of some I had pumped that morning (his first food not immediately from my body). He slept pretty well that night and by his next feeding seemed to tolerate the milk better. Poor little guy - but check out his cute outfit!
Nothing makes you feel so bad as pratically poisioning your baby with some food you ate. So, now I know I cannot eat Shrimp and I cannot eat food so hot that it burns my mouth. I should also lower that threshold and not eat anything that has visible peppers in it. bummer for me, but safer for the precious child. He was completely empting his stomach by vomiting. However, throwing up didn't seem to upset him. He felt pretty good from it. I'm just glad that it cleared out of my milk pretty quickly.

I had my one-month checkup and it looks like I'm almost healed up. I have another week left of "resting" before I am "recovered" from the birth. We did not do the triathlon (it was the same day we went to Cherry Blossom Fest). There is no way I could sit on a bike seat for 30 minutes. Its a bummer to have missed this once a year opportunity to do a mini-tri, but Clark was 2 weeks late. If he had been born on his due date, it would have been more possible. I would have been 6 weeks healed by then. Oh well, we will just have to try one that is a little bit longer and wait for next years mini-tri.

In other health news, I had a clogged milk duct that was giving me some problems, but thanks to the internet I figured out how to solve the problem. I am much more comfortable now.