This and That

* This weekend Wade and I went on our first real date night since Drew was born. We were looong overdue. I have no pictures to show for it, but we really enjoyed ourselves. Thank you Doug & Kelli for watching our boys! We really appreciate it!

* On Saturday, Wade took Clayton to the Colonial. One of our sweet friends had extra tickets and offered them to Wade. Wade LOVES golf and Clayton LOVES being with his Daddy, so they were both thrilled! I was really worried about how Clayton would do. I just knew that he would decide to act a total fool when the crowd was hushed waiting for one of the golfers to take his stroke. (Is "take his stroke" proper golf lingo? I have no idea what I'm talking about sometimes...)

Wade said that Clayton did "Awesome.", which shocked his proud Mama. Apparently, he shouted, "Good luck!" to all of the players as they passed by. Two of them even threw him signed golf balls. He was so excited when he told me about their day.

I am so grateful that Wade is such a hands on dad. Not many men would take their 4 year old to a golf tournament. He's so good to us!

Geico had some mini golf booth set up. At the end they took your picture with a big trophy. :)

Tim Herron & James Nitties were the 2 golfers that threw Clayton balls.

* This morning Wade, Drew, and Clayton all wore green to church. I just had to take their picture. The OCD part of me was so pleased that there was 1 solid, 1 stripe, and 1 check. Is it weird that I both noticed that, and that it made me so happy?

* We took Drew to the pool for the first time today! It was a huge undertaking, and I am quite certain that I will not be able to take both of them by myself any time soon. Whew - that was a lot of prep work for 1 1/2 hours of pool time! Floatation devices, sunglasses, goggles, swim diapers, beach towels, sunscreen, regular diapers, extra clothes etc. We were loaded down like pack mules!

Drew loved it, though. He kicked his little feet and people watched the whole time. I am sure that he will be a little fish just like his brother.

* You know that you are the mother of a 4 year old boy when you are minding your own business, making dinner for your family, when a Nerf dart flies past your face and lands in a pot of ravioli. Nice.

Incidentally, I made sauteed zucchini and cheese ravioli, which Clayton declared to be, "the bestest dinner in his whole life!" Perhaps it was the hint of melted plastic and foam... ;)

Memorial Day Week

One of my friends called yesterday to ask if everything was okay. I replied, "Yes. Why?" She said, "You haven't responded to emails or blogged in almost a week! I was worried that something was wrong." Ha!

Nothing is wrong - quite the contrary actually. I haven't touched a computer since Sunday and honestly didn't miss it at all. Don't get me wrong - I love blogging and email. But, sometimes it's nice to just have a little break from technology. That is exactly what we did this week. :)

Wade needed to visit a customer in Kilgore and another in Arkansas this week. He has had to travel quite a bit lately and we have really missed our Daddy. So... this week the boys and I spent some time in East Texas with Wade's parents. We left on Monday morning and came home yesterday. Wade was there for part of the time (when he wasn't working) also. It was nice to spend some time in the Piney Woods and have a few extra sets of hands. 3 adults to 2 children is much easier than 1 adult to 2 children. :)

Here are some pics from the week:

Drew in a flag hat.

Clayton's favorite thing to do at Grammie & Papaw's is to take golf cart rides. Drew got his first golf cart ride this trip and he LOVED it.

Papaw even took Clayton fishing on his boat one evening. I don't know what Clayton liked more - the depth finder or nautical bathrooming habits. He came back to tell me, "Mama, Papaw has a DVD player of all the fish in the ocean. And, I got to go tee-tee off the side of the boat! I didn't even have to flush!" Lovely. And to think that I always imagined myself raising little girls... ;)

Clayton caught a fish with Papaw.

Drew discovered Sydney....

and he loves her! I know that I tease often about how much that I dislike Sydney, but she really is a good dog. She just lays there and lets the boys pet her/pull her ears/yank on her tail/etc.

Drew even got a little taste of our beagle. YUCK-O! It took all that I had not to go into full germophobe mode!!!

Since we got home, Clayton has returned to his multiple costume wearing self. It's only 10am and he's already been "Officer James" and a race car driver. Somethings never change...

Drew is 7 months old!

Another month with our sweet Drew has come and gone. Where does the time go?

It's been a fun month with our little guy! Drew is changing and developing his little personality more and more each day. He seems so curious these days - his little brow is always furrowed. I wonder what he is thinking so hard about? Clayton used to do the same thing. He would concentrate so hard and wrinkle up his forehead. I would tease that he was going to need Botox for his first birthday! HA!

Some things about Drew at 7 months:

* He wears size 3 diapers and 12 month clothes. (He may even wear a few 18 month things. I am a little in denial about that, though. :) ) He's such a big boy!

* He sit up with his back straight for long periods of time while he plays with his toys.

* He rolls constantly! He rarely stays put these days. He will reach for a toy and topple over. Then he rolls and rolls until he gets stuck or bumps his noggin. I have a feeling that crawling is right around the corner. I'm hoping that he'll hold off for another month or so, though. I'm so not ready for him to be crawling!

* We have stopped swaddling {gasp!}. I know, I know, so sad... Drew had outgrown the Miracle Blanket, and it was just time to stop. So, it was a rough few days, but he learned to sleep without it. Now he sleeps on his tummy with some sort of lovie (he has several and hasn't really picked a favorite yet). He takes 2-3 two hour naps during the day and sleeps for 11 hours at night.

* He still wakes up super happy. Both of my kids are morning people, which is strange since Wade & I are both total+ night owls.

* He LOVES to eat. (Big surprise, right?!?!) He nurses 4-5 times a day, and eats baby food 3 times a day. He eats oatmeal cereal and a fruit for breakfast, a fruit and vegetable for lunch, and a vegetable and mixed cereal at dinner. So far he has tried green beans, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, prunes, and applesauce. He has liked them all (even the green beans and peas!). Most of the time we can't shovel it in fast enough for him. Can you say linebacker? I don't even want to know what my grocery bill is going to be when both of my boys are teenagers. Oh my...

* He is still pretty flexible and used to being on the go. He doesn't seem to mind his carseat and even prefers it sometimes. However, that carrier is getting really heavy. A convertible carseat is in the not so distant future, it seems.

* When Drew is tired, he falls asleep no matter where he is. He has even fallen asleep in his highchair! I get a crick in my neck just looking at him.

* Drew LOVES bath time. He kicks and kicks and splashes in the water. He would stay in the water all day if I let him. I hoping that he enjoys the pool just as much. We'll see!

Sweet Drew,

You are growing and changing before my very eyes! It is such a joy to watch your personality blossom as you learn more things. You are still my sweet snugly baby - quite content to just sit in my lap. But you love playing independently, too. I love that about you! I hope that you will always be a good mix of both. You love your brother and still give him your biggest smiles. I have so enjoyed watching you two interact. I pray that you will grow to be the best of friends. You are such a blessing to our family and we all love you VERY much!

Love,

Mommy

Quack, Quack - Me & My Big Ideas

Yesterday I had the grand idea to walk to the duck pond near our house and feed the ducks. The duck pond is about a mile away, and it was a sunny day with a lovely breeze. I envisioned a nice leisurely walk while pushing Drew in the stroller. Clayton could get some exercise by riding his bike ahead of us.

Sounds downright dreamy, doesn't it?

As I was unfolding the stroller and getting Clayton's bike, Clayton informed me that he would rather ride in the stroller with Drew.

Uh, okay. Scratch the part about Clayton riding his bike ahead of us.

So I pushed my 56 pounds worth of kids in the sit & stand stroller all the way to the duck pond. When we finally arrived, I pulled out all of our stale bread from the basket under the stroller. I handed some to Clayton and started throwing a few bits towards the ducks. As I looked over at Clayton, I realized that the my little carbohydrate addict was stuffing fistfuls of stale bread into his mouth. Apparently he was on his third piece by the time that I caught him. Lovely.

The bread crook

Drew peeking out from under the pseudo-tent that I MacGyvered to protect his precious baby skin

The ducks seemed rather uninterested in our bread offerings, so we packed up and headed back home.

By this time, the breeze was gone and it was HOT, HOT, HOT. I was praying for a little air to blow my way. No such luck, though!

So, to recap, I sweated buckets as I pushed my two freeloaders (albeit cute freeloaders, but freeloaders nonetheless) two miles so that I could toss two measly pieces of bread at an uninterested duck and Clayton could snack on week old Mrs. Baird's. Not exactly what I had pictured in my head... ;)

Clayton the Builder and M&M Softball

One of our sweet friends, Tim, works as a Project Manager for a Construction company. He is overseeing a project near our house right now. He mentioned to Wade at church yesterday that he should bring Clayton by to see all the cranes/excavators/backhoes/bulldozer/whatever other construction equipment that would knock the socks off of a 4 year old boy. So... Wade gladly accepted his offer and took Clayton over there today during his lunch hour.

They had a ball! They haven't stopped talking about how cool it was (I think that Wade enjoyed it almost as much as our son did!). Mr. Tim got Clayton a hardhat with his name on it and gave him the grand tour of the construction site. One of the guys even let Clayton help him drive the backhoe! He was on cloud 9 when he got home. Thanks for such a fun experience, Mr. Tim! You have reached superhero status around our house. :)

Builder Clayton before he left for the construction site

In his personalized real hardhat

Driving the backhoe

After Daddy finished his work day, we headed out to watch my niece, Makinley, play softball. My other niece, Morgan, plays blastball, but we didn't get to see her play tonight. Next time, Miss Morgan!

Makinley plays catcher for her team. She does such a good job and seems to have really found her niche with softball. We are so proud of her!

Mak running from third base to home - YAY, Makinley!

A quick pep talk from her biggest fan!

All mine, people! Love that little man!

Makinley let Clayton try on her catcher's mask and batting helmet. Oh my, I feel another costume coming on...

M&M posing in their softball gear. My nieces are both such cuties!

The Three Musketeers

What a fun day!

Drew's First Fingerpainting

I, in my infinite motherly wisdom, decided to try skipping a dose of Drew's Zantac to see if he had outgrown his reflux.

This was the result.

Um, right. Something tells me that when your child is fingerpainting in his own spit up, he isn't ready to stop his meds. Gross.

So much for my motherly wisdom. :)

A Walk Down Memory Lane

I found some old videos of "Baby" Clayton. Oh my heavens, they brought back so many memories of my baby boy (sniff, sniff, happy tears). I thought that it would be fun to share them with my blogger buddies. :)

February 20th, 2006
Clayton's First Steps (11 months)

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

June 7th, 2006
Clayton talking - 14 months

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

August 9th, 2006
Clayton at 15 months

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing