A Cheerful Giver?!?!?!

I know that I just posted a bunch of Clayton stories, but yesterday he came up with another zinger. This one had me laughing so hard that I was crying.

For about the last six months or so we have been giving Clayton a quarter to take to church with him. He immediately gives it to his teacher and says, "Here's my money for Jesus." It is our attempt at teaching the concept of giving and offering/tithe.

Fastforward to last night: Before Clayton went to bed I told him that I needed to clip his fingernails. He asked me why. I said, "Because we want to look our best tomorrow when we go to Jesus' house." He said, "Who is Jesus?" I was shocked because we say our prayers throughout the day, tell Bible stories, take him to church every Sunday, etc. I said, "Clayton, you know who Jesus is." He said (in that matter of fact tone), "Yep, he's that man who takes all my money."

I couldn't help myself - I burst into laughter. I guess that the preschool version of Theology 101 will start tomorrow!

My Sweetheart

Clayton was such a good baby. He was a great sleeper, ate well, and smiled all day long. Parenting him was so easy... and then he turned two. Oh my goodness, the 2's were hard! He got into things constantly and didn't really seem to grasp discipline. The 3's started off a little rocky as well, but he has started to show such a sweet spirit that I am totally in love with. Don't get me wrong - I still feel like I am constantly correcting his behavior and getting on to him. But... his sweet moments are quickly outnumbering the naughty ones. Here are some examples:

* Whenever I come out of my room after doing my hair and makeup, Clayton immediately says, "Oooh Mama, you look so pretty!" It melts my heart every time he says it. Some days it is just what this preggo needs to hear.

* I always tell Clayton, "I love you more than any Mommy has ever loved her little boy." The other day at Hobby Lobby (out of nowhere) he said, "I love you more than any Clayton has ever loved his Mommy." I almost burst into tears right in the middle of the clearance section.

* Today I was mopping the kitchen. Clayton was watching me and said, "When I'm a daddy, I am going to clean your floors for you. I will say 'Ta-da! Your floors are clean and shiny!'" Once again - I had to fight back tears.

I can almost guarantee you that my little angel will do something horribly rotten as soon as I publish this post. But... I want to remember the sweet things that he says, so I'll take my chances. :)

PS Just to balance out this mushy post, I will expose some of his latest pranks. :)

* All the bedrooms in our house have locks on the doors. Clayton has started locking the door and then closing it, thus preventing anyone (including himself) from entering the room. He has done this not once, not twice, but three times over the last two weeks. I am now a pro at unscrewing the doorknob and jimmying the lock. I think my best time so far is about 3 minutes!

* Clayton wanted me to repair one of his toys for him (can't remember which one). He asked me to fix it non-stop for at least 30 minutes. I was in the middle of making dinner, so I told him it would have to wait. He went upstairs and was completely silent for a few minutes. That's never a good sign... I went up to investigate only to find that the door to my craft room/guestroom was closed. I opened it to find the childproof outlet cover on the floor with my glue gun plugged in and laying on the carpet. Clayton then proudly explained to me that he was only getting my "goo gun" ready so that I could fix his toy. He honestly thought that he was being helpful. Luckily, his "helpfulness" didn't burn our house down!

Oh well, you take the good with the bad I guess. They're only little once, right?

Baby Drew Update

I think that we have finally decided on a name for Baby Boy #2..... da da da da da da da dum.... (that was supposed to be a drum roll).... Andrew Michael Carpenter. We will call him Drew, though. What do you think? I think that we are about 95% sure that will be his name. You may want to hold off on the monogramming, though. I reserve the right to change my mind. :)

I went to my 25 week appointment today. I can't even tell you how much I love my doctor. He's a kind, Christian, family man. I am so grateful to have found him. He is funny and great about answering all of my questions. But, the best part about him is that he does a sonogram at every appointment. I'm not quite sure why, but that is his preference. So, as of today, I have seen this sweet little pumpkin 8 times!!! Each time he just gets more precious. Today Clayton and Wade went with me to my appointment. Clayton gets so excited about hearing the baby's heartbeat. Today Wade held him up right next to the screen and he waved his little hand as hard as he could. Then he looked disappointed and said, "He's not waving back at me." My doctor quickly found Drew's little hand and said, "Look, there's his hand and he is waving back." Clayton grinned really big and was perfectly content.

We also saw the very prominent boy parts again - no doubt about that one! My doctor said, "You can go right ahead and paint the room. I'm sure about this one." Wade has been itching to start on the nursery, so I am sure that he will be painting by the end of the week. :) We bought Baby Safari bedding - isn't it cute?




Wade is planning another mural, so stay tuned for pictures of the room...

The one thing about this baby that I just cannot get over is how much he moves and kicks. He is a crazy man! I could feel him kicking at 17 weeks (I didn't feel Clayton until 20-21 weeks) and Wade could feel him kicking at 20 weeks (he didn't feel Clayton until 23 weeks). Today at my appointment, Drew was moving around like crazy in the waiting room. Wade said, "Oh my gosh, you can see your shirt moving!" So weird...

So Long Sea Turtles...

Clayton has spent the last two weeks in swimming lessons at the community pool by our house. For the first few days, I must admit that I was pretty sure that it was a total waste of $75. Clayton and one other little boy were the only two kids in the Sea Turtle class. I thought that he would get a lot of one on one attention from the teacher. Not so much...

The other little boy was absolutely terrified of the water and screamed nonstop for the first two lessons. Poor Miss Angie had to deal with a crier and my crazy fish that was constantly in her face saying, "What's next, Miss Angie?" and "Watch this, Miss Angie!" It really made me appreciate teachers. It must be so hard to teach a classroom full of kids that are all on different levels. God bless all you sweet teachers out there!

By the third day, the other little boy was no longer screaming and things got better. Clayton has been a pretty good swimmer, so he was really bored with blowing bubbles and sitting on the side practicing kicking. Miss Angie realized that and starting working with him on his strokes. He ended up LOVING lessons and actually learned a lot. Today was the last day and Miss Angie taught him how to do a cannonball. He thinks that he is big stuff now! We also got his evaluation form. Miss Angie said that he was ready to promote to the Otter class next summer. Yea!


Check out that form!

Blowing bubbles and kicking

How did I end up with such a skinny child?!?!? You can count every rib on that little monkey!

Riding on the sea turtle float

Working on his cannonball

Parenting at it's finest!

I have blogged recently about Clayton's new superhero stage. I am completely and totally clueless about all of that. I grew up surrounded by girls, so raising a little boy is proving to be a whole different ballgame. Wade recently explained the superhero thing to me really well. He made me realize that girls typically play with baby dolls. They play house and tea party, etc. That is how they grow their imagination. Apparently, action figures are the same principal for little boys. It is how they become creative and imaginative. That put it more on a level that I could understand.

So, I have come around to the superheros and action figures (minus the violent TV shows, of course).

Last week Clayton learned how to completely dress himself (shirt, underwear, shorts - the whole nine yards). He dresses himself in the mornings and usually does a good job of choosing appropriate outfits. Lately, however, he ALWAYS comes down the stairs in his Batman shirt. I seriously wash it every 3 days for him to wear. If it doesn't happen to be clean, he will dig it out of the dirty clothes and put it on - there's no shame in his game. After fighting the battle of the Batman shirt on a daily basis, I decided that we needed a couple of more options for our little wannabe superhero. We went to Target and Kohl's last night to look for superhero shirts. We happened upon some Batman pajamas (complete with Velcro attached cape). Clayton was stoked! We came home (at 6:00pm) and he immediately wanted to bathe and put on his new found pj's. As soon as he got them on, he completely transformed into Batman himself. He would ask me, "Mommy, is your baby lost? Is he up in that tree? I'll save him!!!" He would then proceed to save my "baby" from the top of the stairs. He was lovin' life.

When 8:30 rolled around, we explained that we had to take the cape off for bedtime and that he could have it back in the morning. He layed down fine and all was well. However, we could hear him on the monitor for the next hour playing in his bed and talking to his "guys" about being Batman. He was just so excited! He eventually fell asleep and Wade and I went to bed.

At 12:30 I was awakened by a pint sized Batman inquiring about his cape. What the heck?!?!? I was too tired to be a "good" parent so I consented to letting him sleep on the floor on his napmat in our room. Whatever...

At 12:45 he woke me up again to ask about the stinkin' cape. I scolded him again and told him to go back to sleep.

At 1:00 I woke up and realized that my closet light was on. That little turkey had gotten his stool, gone into my closet, turned on the light, and was searching for his cape. Wade had had enough at that point. Wade is one of the most patient people that I have ever met - it is extremely rare for him to raise his voice. But, in this situation he raised his voice. He gave a stern warning and Clayton finally went to sleep for the night.

Who knew that a pair of pajamas could cause such a hoopla! On one hand, I think that it is absolutely precious that he was so excited. I remember being that excited about certain things as a child. I remember not being able to sleep on Christmas Eve or the night before vacation. And I remember being really excited about my first Cabbage Patch doll. I love that my little boy now feels that way. It is rare to have that feeling as an adult, so I want for him to relish every second of his childhood.

On the other hand, Mama needs to get her sleep! I am seriously contemplating getting rid of the stinkin' pajamas so that we will never have a night like that again. Clayton normally sleeps really well and it is extremely rare for him to wake up in the night. Today he was exhausted and grouchy this morning and took a 3.5 hour nap this afternoon. Not a fun day. What's a parent to do...

Here's some pictures of the troublesome pajamas. He was seriously so thrilled about them! (Too bad that he may never get to wear them again!!!)

A Weekend with our favorite Tar Heels

This weekend our sweet friends, Leslie and Will, came in from North Carolina for a visit. It was so fun to spend some time with them. We also got to meet their sweet baby girl, Anna. She was absolutely precious - a true joy to be around. Such a good baby...

A little background on our relationship - Leslie and I met the day that we both interveiwed at Children's. We quickly realized that we are very much alike. We tease that God made us out of the same mold. It's scary how similar that we are... Over time our husbands have gotten to be very good friends as well, and Will has taken on the job of being our financial planner. It is so nice to have someone that we totally trust in charge of our finances. Will takes such good care of us! Even though this visit was totally for social purposes, Will brought our "portfolio" to go over. He patiently explained everything and was reassuring about this terrible economy that we are living in - yuck!

After the "business" portion of their visit, we proceeded with the social portion of the visit. Although most of the trip revolved around naptimes and mealtimes for the little ones, we still had a blast with our sweet friends. We ate, shopped, played, and swam while the kiddos were awake. After we put them down for bed, Leslie and I talked and laughed. I also introduced her to the wonderful world of the Cricut. Will and Wade played on the wii until the wii (get it?) hours of the night - long after Leslie and I turned in.

A fun time was had by all and our only regret is that the Hege family doesn't live closer. :(

Clayton got more practice with being a big brother. He LOVED baby Anna.

I made brownies for our guests and Clayton reaped the rewards. :) He was in hog heaven!

Doesn't that sweet face just melt your heart?!?! She definitely intensified my baby fever. I can't wait until October!!!

All the girls...

And the boys...


We miss you Hege family!!! Come back soon!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy (belated) 4th of July!

We started our holiday weekend out early by watching fireworks on the night of the 3rd. Clayton LOVED them. He kept saying, "Awesome!" "This is so neat!" and (my personal favorite) "How cool is that?!?!" We were in a really good spot to see them - they were right over our heads. Unfortunately, with the great view came really loud booms. Clayton and I spent much of the time covering our ears. Prior to the fireworks, there were all kinds of activities and things for kids to do. Clayton's favs were getting a sticker badge from a real policeman and getting to meet "Uncle Sam" (a man in patriotic gear walking on stilts). He kept saying, "That man was ginormous!"


Totally in awe..

It seemed to get louder as the show went on.


On Friday we headed to Houston to spend the weekend with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law. We watched more fireworks (Clayton just can't get enough), ate A LOT, swam, and played. It was a fun weekend!

Mr. Too Cool for School

Gran LOVED soaking in her Clayton-time

Papa D had fun lovin' on our little man, too.

Becca, Jeff, and "Batman" hangin' out

Super Clayton

Despite my resistance to the whole superhero thing, my little guy has caught the bug bad! He lives and breathes superheroes. Wade and I have settled our pro superhero vs. anti superhero debate by deciding to allow superhero paraphernalia but not allowing the movies/tv shows until he is older. It works for us...

We went to dinner with my long-time pal, Kati, and her hubby, Gordon, on Sunday night. Clayton hasn't seen Gordon in a long time. While we were getting ready to leave, I mentioned to Clayton that we were going to dinner with Kati and Gordon. Without missing a beat, his little eyes lit up and he said, "FLASH GORDON?!?!?!" I laughed and blew it off. Well, sweet Gordon was kind enough to humor our child and pretend that he was Flash Gordon throughout dinner. We referred to him as "Flash" and he told Clayton many tales of his adventures as a superhero. It was hysterical! I especially liked how he told Clayton that he "spanked the bad guys and sent them home to their mommies." So funny... Thanks, Gordon, for playing along. You're such a good sport. Flash's wife, Miss Kati, played along, too. She also taught us about Wiki Sticks. She even sculpted Clayton a little Superman (complete with cape) out of them. Can't wait to do dinner with you guys again! Clayton is anxious to spend some more time with Flash and Miss Kati!

(Please notice the Batman shirt. Clayton spotted it at the Gap right before we met up for dinner. He just had to have it! He couldn't bear to take it off when we left the dressing room. So, the saleswoman was kind enough to scan the tag while he was wearing it.)



Yesterday Clayton scored another wonderful addition to his superhero wardrobe - a REAL superman cape. He has been wearing his security blanket attached to his shirt with a chip clip for weeks now as a makeshift cape. He was so excited that his Aunt Leigh Ann got him the real deal! He kept saying, "Now I won't have to wear my nanny anymore!" He hasn't taken the cape off since he got it (except while sleeping - you know I'm paranoid about choking/strangulation hazards!). He proudly prances around the house in full superhero gear. What you can't see from the picture is his Spiderman phone and his Spiderman underwear. :)



Clayton slid around on the hardwood floor in his napmat. He was "driving" in his Batmobile. What an imagination...

How to spend a summer day...

Clayton is having so much fun this summer! Yesterday, we went swimming at his cousins' house in the morning. After is nap, he got to play in the sprinklers. Finally, he finished off the afternoon with a glass of lemonade and some sidewalk art. The cool star ice cubes as well as the 3D sidewalk chalk is courtesy of his Gran and Papa D. (Thanks for the package with all the fun goodies, Mom & Dad!!! Clayton LOVED it!) The orange longhorn is courtesy of his Daddy - BOO! HISS!!! Despite the UT graffiti, it was a great day!