Strawberry Picking

Both the boys love strawberries so much that it didn't take much convincing to get James to head out the strawberry patch and pick some ourselves this year.  So that's exactly what we did late in June with Grandma Dar Dar.  We could have picked all day - huge berries as it was early in the season, but with summer travels we knew they'd go to waste - but we still came home with some loot, strawberry stained hands and a few berries in our tummies!

 

 

 

James was a great helper and picked a lot of berries himself.  He made sure he was only picking the berries that were "all the way red."  Although he loved strawberry picking and was Momma and Grandma's little assistant that day, I think he might have gotten a bigger kick out of the fact that he got to take a tractor-trailer ride out to the picking field and back! :)

Camping ... Indoors?

So Mom and Dad aren't much the camping type.  Mom sure loves the outdoors and has gotten Papa to come around to enjoying it more and more but we'd rather spend the day in the sun, sand and boat and retreat to a cabin with a bed, running water, etc - you get the idea.  Unfortunately James is quite the opposite and since summer began has been asking us when it was time to go camping.  He spent one evening in a tent with our friend Rob and his son Elliot last summer and he still talks about it to this day.  Having hot dogs for supper, drinking soda on this rare occasion and of course roasting marshmallows - what's not to love?  Needless to say he's been asking to do this since the weather got warmer, so we thought, well we could potentially pitch a tent in the back yard (with what tent - since we don't own one) - so why not just build a fort indoors and call it camping - so that's just what we did!

 

 

James was so pumped all day and evening he hardly slept a wink.  He got to understand the use of the flashlight and we made s'mores in the oven that night.  Although Henry wanted to partake in the fun too we had him retreat to his crib for sleep ... and Momma did too!  Somehow Papa ended up on the dining room floor for several hours that night until James finally fell asleep, but he's a Clark boy and can sleep anywhere!

James enjoyed this so much we plan to do it again sometime soon - beats getting rained on and bitten by mosquitos - a win all around for everyone!

Henry's 15-month Stats

As Henry's 18-month well-child visit inches closer Mom has realized we're a bit behind on the blog!  Summer seems to have a way of never letting us catch up with travels, warmer weather and the never ending to do list!

That said we'll try our hardest to catch up in the coming month ... I think there's even a lengthy post forthcoming from Papa about an exciting trip the boys took over a year ago! :)

As you can imagine with Henry now on the move, life is moving a lot quicker these days at the Clark household with Henry trying to keep up with big brother James and attempting to outrun Mom and Papa too!  He continues to make us giggle and laugh and he's begun to play with James and his toys nicely.  Although he's not too interested in "sharing" all the time, he's beginning to understand his boundaries and expresses his frustrations frequently!"  Henry weighed in at 21 lbs 13 oz at his 15-month check-up and was 28.75 inches long.  James was a bit bigger at this age, but so far he's growing as he should be and we have definitely noticed our food bill increasing ... guess its a peek into our future of teenage boys raiding the refrigerator!

 

The biggest change since the 12-month update is that he is now in the toddler room at daycare.  This room has him sleeping on a cot for nap time, drinking out of a cup with no lid, participating in group time inside, playing out on the playground and sitting at a table to eat his meals.  He's adjusted just fine to this change and hasn't seemed to miss a beat - his dirty clothes and need for a nightly bath has been the only real change as a result :)

Henry at 15-months was just starting to use more words - "up please, milk, ball" and "puppy" are the most common ones these days.  He still continues to impress us with his sleeping skills - so no complaints on that front at the Clark household!

We can't believe he's almost 18-months and we'll share another update on his language progress then as there have been lots of firsts in recent days!