Chicken bread!

Look mom! I made Chicken Bread all by myself with no receipe! To all those non-Averills out there Chicken bread is homemade bread stuffed with a mixture of chicken, pasta sauce and motzerella! It is delicious when mom makes it, hopefully will be this time too. I had some extra dough so I added rosemary and olive oil for a special treat!
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Chosing battles

After saying, " no we can't go outside, it's raining" all week, I finally gave in. I got his raincoat and showed him how to use an umbrella. We went outside, he was timid at first, listening to the rain drops from inside the umbrella. Then he grew in confidence and headed down the driveway. Then! He found the river flowing in the gutter and took off, in it. He walked down the gutter. After we rounded the corner, gutters disappeared. Don't worry, he found and splashed in every puddle along the way.
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The Cutest Thing -TCT

Tom and I have been having a nightly conversation about "The Cutest Thing" that Clark did that day. While these stories are usually really short, they are the darling type of memories we like to keep. I thought that maybe I could start sharing The Cutest Thing on the blog in just a few sentences with you so that you too can benefit from our darling son.

Today I went to a meeting and Clark came along. As we were leaving, Clark found a muffin and started eating it. I let him take the muffin with him into the car seat. He ate the muffin while we slowly moved through traffic. I didn't realize the muffin was almost gone, but Clark let me know. He threw the muffin wrapper over my chair (he sits right behind me). It hit me in the back of the head and splattered muffin bits all over the car. I was on the phone at the time, and said, "CLARK! NO! THATS VERY NAUGHTY!!!" Tom (who I was talking to) wanted to know what happened, so I told him. We both laughed, because it was pretty funny, although very very naughty.

Later in the same car ride, I gave Clark a book to read, because he kept demaning more food and I didn't have any. He was happy to receive the book, but started looking out of the window. A few minutes later, I looked back to see how he was doing. He had been gazing out of the window, but saw me check on him. He quickly buried his face in the book like he thought he was supposed to be reading and not looking out. I laughed, he looked up and smiled his sneaky grin. That was the cutest thing... so far.

Sillies

I've got two very silly sillies in my house. Clark is quite the mimicker lately. Here Tom and Clark do some pelvic rocks to get ready for to have their babies.

Inspired by a recent visit to the Houston Averills, Tom has taken to making hats for Clark out of food boxes. This fuzzy picture shows Clark as "Pizza Box Head". Clark played with the box for a week, repeatedly bring it to me to put on his head.

Another gift fromt the Houston Averills was a carseat toy - a Lion, wearing board shorts who makes music. Clark LOVES the music and started dancing to it. We couldn't help but get it on video for all eternity. This video is cute.


But this video is cuter. You only need to watch the first half - it gets boring after tom says, "put it on the blog" I was just hoping that Clark would come back and dance again instead of throwing the lion around the room.

By the time I shot this, Clark was more interested in the camera - but it does highlight his Hellen Keller speech, and the lion. and how he is annoyed that I won't give him the camera. and how he fell and busted his lip earlier, and how Tom doesn't want me to film him. oh well!

25 weeks

Hey! Here I am 25 weeks along. I feel massive, but when I look at the photo I think, "thats not as big as I feel" oh well. Baby Joy is pretty happy in there and getting stronger every day. I get lots of punches and kicks. Its a fun time.

Clark is a tremendous cutie. see? He loves being outside, pens, cups and anything else he can get his hands on! He says "hel-lo" "bye bye" and "thank you" at the appropriate times, with mostly no promting. He can also say some other words like Cracker, make animals noises, and is picking up new sounds every day. Yesterday we walked in Rock Creek and I was trying to get him to say "river" and he sounded like Hellen Keller when he responded, "roh roh" but we get the idea, and its beyond the "ga ga" he makes for most other words he can't sound out.

Here are Clark and Bernadette checking out the turtle at the nature center. I've finished watching Bernadette and she's in daycare now. Lauren and I hope we can still get together once a week or so. As I type this, Clark is pointing at Bernadette and saying "Ba dat" he's excited to see her, but doesn't realize she wont be coming today.

Clark is a sneaky boy and often does things we think are really funny, such as hide things under the sink, or line up favorite toys at the door in the hopes that we might let him outside. Here he is looking sneaky with his alphabet fridge thing. He has some blue makeup on his eye from a fun trip to the mall and the makeup store Sephora where he and Beradette kept reaching for the makeup samples. The one they got their fingers in was this crazy blue.

Music at the park

We're at Cabin John Park today. Clark made some music by banging a stick on a bell. Its funny cause he wa kind of afraid of it.
I had a midwife appointment yesterday and I'm still pregnant, and getting pregnanter. I'm at about 25 weeks now, ending m 2nd trimester. I'm so happy with the way this pregnancy is going. I feel huge, but know I will laugh at that statement in 2 months.
My sister Katie will be having her little girl anyday now. Its very exciting that our family is getting bigger!
I just signed Clark up for swim lessons, so we'll be going to the pool weekly until mid- December. I got a really cute maternity swimsuit :-). We went to the pool this week. I swam laps with Clark perched on my tummy for the backstroke and him in the crook of my arm and sholder for side stroke. It was fun, but Mr skinny got cold fast.
Speaking of Mr skinny, at his 18 month checkup he was back in 25th percentile for weight! Yay! We really like our pediatrician, which is a huge blessing. We hope he's on duty when Joy comes so he gets to see him/her right away.
That's all for now! Love, V
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The Juliana Theory

Tom, Veronica and Brett Detar, lead singer and guitar for The Juliana Theory. We also met all of the band and told them Thank You for being the soundtrack to our relationship. Their songs, "Summer in Bethany" and "Top of the World" and "baby" and "Jewel to Sparkle" in addition to so many more have been playing in the background, either over speakers or in our heads in so many defining moments in our life. Our early courtship (Summer...) Our engagement (Top of the world) our wedding dance (top of the world) and now lullabies for our baby (Summer...). Thanks TJT and we look forward to hearing the new bands coming out of this group: Vesta and Brett Detar solo.
I thought Joy would be kicking along with the music, but s/he went right to sleep. This kid will be perfect for our noisy, music filled household. Congrats to Joy for attending his/her first concert! The Juliana Theory reunion tour final show ever: Emotion is Still Dead.
(Clark's first concert- attended at about the same gestational age- was Jimmy Eat World and Paramour @ American University).
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At the Altar Bar awaiting the show!

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Guess where we are!?!

We're in Pittsburg- and by we I mean Tom, Veronica and Joy. We've left Clark with a trusted friend for the night. This is our first overnight trip without him. We're going to a concert tonight! Yay!
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18 months

Can you believe only a year and a half ago, God sent us this wonderfully amazing gift?
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latest happenings

A few cool things have happened in the last couple of weeks, so I'll tell you about them.
1. I wrote an email to a community list serve asking if anyone would stand behind me regarding an issue I had with our local parks. The issues were: at one park, parents had to go down a very steep hill to get to the park, and then back up again to get out. It was slippery in the morning when the ground was dewey, and very difficult to do if you had a double stroller, and kids, and baggage. It was hard enough with one kid! The other issue was that the other local park had no sidewalk access to it, so a kid of walking age would have to walk in the street.
I just emailed the group to see if anyone else cared about this, before approaching the city about it. However, someone from the group forwarded my email to the city. I had city personnel emailing and calling me that afternoon. The very next day, I met with some managers from recreation and parks department. They heard my concerns, saw the ludicrious hill that I was talking about, and agreed that something needed to be done. So right now, they are doing some measurements, and looking into pre-fabricated ramps to see if they can't get some respite for poor caregivers out there who want to bring their kids to the park! Its very exciting. I hope they call it the "Veronica Greenwell cares about her community Ramp!" After they get info on cost of the ramp, then they'll present to the mayor and get a timeline for completion! It is very, very exciting!!! =)

2. This weekend I spent 10 whole hours away from Clark on both Saturday and Sunday. This was our longest separation to date. The reason was to attend a training by the organization DONA, Doulas of North America. I was trained to become a doula! A Doula is a labor support person who helps a mom and her partner through labor. I was really taking it to get more info to help the parents who take my Bradley classes, but now I want to attend births. I may have to wait a year or so, until baby Joy is big enough to not have me at her/his beck and call. But its something I am really looking forward to! I may offer my services to the parents in my current class, they will be giving birth in October.

3. Tom has been working on our garden and its beautiful. =)

4. Clark is learning a new word about every other day. This weekend, while I was gone, Tom taught him to say "spoon" and now when asked what a rooster says, he replies, "cock-a" so its an excellent start! He can follow some directions such as, "go get your shoes" and he'll bring a pair of his shoes to put on. He can "go get mommy's shoes" and he'll bring me two shoes, sometimes mine, sometimes Toms, but usually a pair. We are working on "get mommy's blue shoes" to get him to bring my sneekers. He knows that if he brings shoes, he might get to go outside. Its one way he tells us he wants to go out there. He also knows that we put bug lotion on him before going outside, so now he will bring shoes and point at the lotion indicating OUTSIDE!!!
He has been putting himself to sleep by singing and talking in his crib, its pretty cute. We have been giving him lots of balloons lately - they just happen to have them wherever we are shopping. Balloons are his favorite thing right now. So one day he played with the balloon all day long. When I put him to bed that night, I heard him exclaiming, "babooo, baboooo" (balloon, balloon). It was so cute.
He's simply a wonderful kid, he's got tons of energy which we burn off on walks, in parks, and mostly outside. I'm kind of dreading keeping him indoors this winter - but with a newborn, it will just have to be his new reality. I'm sure we'll make some outings, but not nearly as many as we have been. We'll have to limit museum visits and metro rides to reduce risk of RSV to Joy.

I'm enjoying this pregnancy and not worrying, whining or freaking out as I did last time. It is really nice. I'm looking forward to the third trimester and giving birth at one point. We just got mom's plane ticket out for January 7th and look forward to seeing her then!

The end!