Happy Halloween!

Halloween '09 was definitely the best ever! Clayton dressed up as an elephant, and we walked to several of the neighbors to give him a feel for Trick-or-Treating. My mom, dad, and sister my, Lara, were able to join us in the festivities. At first, Clayton refused to wear his elephant head but by the end we were able to distract him enough to get it on him. He looked soooo cute! He also learned how to say "Trick-or-Treat." At one point, I was carrying him in my arms and one of our neighbors was handing out smarties. I picked a piece for him and he said "more." It was so funny! My parents definitely enjoyed spending time with Clayton on Halloween. Lara, of course, took some great pictures so definitely check out her blog, too. Happy Halloween!!

Sweet Berry Farm

This morning, Lara, Chad, Clayton, and I drove to Marble Falls to pick out our pumpkins at Sweet Berry Farm. It was a quite a different experience from last year! When we went last October Chad and I carried Clayton around the entire time and set him down where we wanted him for a picture. This year, as usual, he was our energetic, funny man. He was definitely the life of the party for the three of us. Here are a few pictures from our fun outing.

Cute Pictures

Here are two cute pictures that I recently took of Clayton. In the first one, Chad and I had planned to SHARE our popsicles with Clay after dinner one night last week. He decided that he wanted to hold BOTH popsicles. It was really funny! In the second photo, he is eating an apple on the way home yesterday. Enjoy!

Clayton's Second Haircut

After dinner tonight, Chad and I decided to take Clayton for his second haircut. It was getting a little long in the back. We went for a shorter look this time. Here are some pictures of him and his new haircut.

Before

After

Learning Fast

It has been awhile since my last update, and I couldn't pass up sharing some of the cute things that Clayton is doing at almost 20 months. To start, he is still such a verbal kid! He is finally saying Mommy - hallelujah! I have been waiting since he started saying "da-da" at around 8 months. He is also saying Lala, boo boo, ouch, ew, and uh-oh (while covering his mouth). He can count to 5 and say other numbers randomly (see below). He can say his ABC's, hot, cold, up, down, on, and off. He is using more gestures with his talking, too. For example, he directs people around by pointing, and if he wants you to sit by him he pats the ground. He blows kisses, makes animal sounds, knows his facial features (mainly nose and eyes), and sings the clean-up song in the evenings. We have been working with him on cleaning up and he is finally initiating it on his own before bed. He is in his second semester at the Little Gym and is independently doing forward rolls and kicking/ throwing a ball. Clayton is also obsessed with toothbrushes and will brush his teeth as often as he can convince us. He LOVES his Sherbie doll and pacifier. He calls them both "pappy." His imagination is beginning to take off and he often uses objects around the house to play pretend. Recently, he used a measuring cup and a big serving spoon to feed Lala and me "bites." With all of these new developments, Chad and I have also had to start working with him on making good choices. He has had to sit in "time-out" more frequently lately as we teach him our 3 main rules. He can't hurt himself, others, or throw things out of anger. Last Sunday, after several time-outs, he even walked into his room and initiated a time-out with only a verbal warning. He is so funny! I am really enjoying this stage in his development. He grows in so many cute ways everyday. Stay tuned for more updates...

Clayton's First Haircut

On Friday, Chad and I took Clayton to "Cool Cuts 4 Kids" for his very first haircut. It was long overdue - no pun intended. We were planning to take him on Saturday morning but decided to drop by the hair salon after dinner the night before to scope it out and make an appointment. He seemed to feel at ease right when we walked in. It was later in the evening so they only had one other little client (he, he) getting a haircut. We went for it, and Clayton was SOOOOO good! He didn't get upset at all. Luckily, they had a high interest fire engine for him to sit in and Barney was playing on their TV. It was the perfect scenario. The salon had a list of haircuts to choose from and we opted for the "layered" cut. It isn't that much different from what he had but it looks a lot more uniform and stylish. Here are some pictures from our fun evening.

A side view of Clayton's hair before his haircut.

A front view of Clayton's hair.

Getting comfortable. The stylist had to deal with a little "wiggle worm." Watching Barney.

Putting on his smock.

At this point, he had to lean over to still see Barney. So funny!

"Lady, you're making this really difficult"

Summer Gymnastics

For anyone who is around Clayton often, you know that he is a ball of energy. He is constantly on the go: climbing, running, dancing, etc. He's extremely inquisitive, likes to figure out how things work, and enjoys entertaining other people. I heard from a friend about the Little Gym and decided that it would be a perfect outlet to release some of Clay's energy. At the moment, he is in the "bird" group with kids ranging from 10 to 19 months. So far, he has learned how to forward roll, donkey kick, follow one step directions (this is sporadic), and can almost hang from the parallel bars. It has been such fun watching him interact with the other children (it is mostly parallel play) and entertain the adults in the room. Today, I signed him up for a class in the fall. He will be joining the "beast" group which will have kids ranging from 19 months to 2.5 years. He will be a little young in this group, but his current instructor thinks that he is on the upper spectrum of the bird group and wouldn't get much out of another semester. His class in the fall will be on Saturdays which will make it possible for Chad to attend. Here are some pictures from his class today.

At the beginning of class we always start in a circle for a group activity. Here is Clayton picking his bell.

After group time, the kiddos spend time exploring the equipment. The instructor will stop the music periodically to teach a skill and then we are encouraged to try it with our little bird. Clayton's favorite free exploration activity is definitely climbing!

We did a few forward rolls on this cheese mat. Giving Mommy a cute, "fake" little smile. For some reason he loves to put his mouth on the bars - yuck!

He found these little yellow cones and spent a lot of his free time today stacking them. Other children would come by and take some to other areas of the room and he would collect them to stack again. It was pretty funny.

During our group time at the end of class, Clayton really enjoys the bubbles!