Smarty Pants

As I was driving down I-95 going 70 miles an hour when suddenly the window behind me started to roll down. At first it startled me because the wind at that speed is so loud and it was so unexpected. As I turned my head around to see what had happened I saw Clark's toe on the automatic window button. The clever little kid had figured out how to roll down the window!

This got me to thinking about how much he had learned and grown in the last year. This time last year he was just mastering holding up his head, smiling and laughing. That was about it. He couldn't feed himself, communicate his needs, play games, makes jokes or move himself around. He couldn't even coordinate the movement of his own hands and feet and would often hit himself in the face trying to figure out how to get his arms to do what he wanted.

Yet today, not only can he feed himself, communicate (with a lot of guessing from me) some of his basic needs, play games (patow and peek-a-boo being his favorites), run around, climb stairs, splash and kick in the pool, climb out of the pool, open every cabinet and door that isn't secured, bark at Hank, help dress himself, but now he can roll down the window with his foot. Sometimes it feels like it takes him a while to catch onto things, but when I think how far he has come and all the new things his little brain has learned in the last year it amazes me.

This weekend when we were in Atlanta, Meredith started coughing. She just had a tickle in her throat, but it wouldn't go away, so she coughed for a few minutes. Seeing her, Clark started fake coughing and putting his hand over his mouth. It wasn't very nice to mock someone who was coughing, but it sure was hilarious! I'm glad he caught onto covering his mouth too. It always surprises me when he picks up on little things that I don't think he's even paying attention to. It seems to help that he's so social and loves to watch other people.

He's such a joy and a blessing to us. I praise God for him every day and thank him that Clark is a growing, healthy, strong little boy. We couldn't have asked for a better gift!

Here are a few pictures of recent skills Clark has acquired.

Climbing the air conditioner at the hotel in Atlanta.

He did it all by himself and then knocked on the window when he got up there.

Then turned around and sat down looking pleased with himself.

This trash can (I assure you it was empty) looked tiny, but Clark figured he could fit him whole body in it. He didn't succeed, but he came very close.