New BFF

Someone has a new best friend...

This past weekend I went on a MOPS retreat at Camp Sumatanga. Saturday evening, we decided to leave summer camp behind for a few hours and go to the mall and out to dinner. While at the mall I found Big Bird! Clay doesn't have any Big Bird's so I just knew I had to get it for him.

Sunday morning I got back and was very excited to give it to him! Mark and I always get him something when we go out of town... I usually get him clothes and Mark gets him the "fun stuff", so this time I was going to "one-up" him and get the best toy! I definitely was not ready for Clay's reaction when I showed him his present. I told him I got him something and as I'm pulling it out of the bag, he was jumping up and down all excited! When I showed him it was Big Bird... the first thing out of his mouth was "ELMO"... he was not very thrilled that I got him Big Bird and wanted Elmo instead. I had to take him over to his other 2 Elmo stuffed toys and explain to him that he already had Elmo and he needed a Big Bird. After that he was fine and now will not let Big Bird leave his side!

Here he is gathering up Cookie, Elmo and Big Bird to take with him in the car this morning to daycare.
I had a great time at the retreat! We ate good snacks (notice I didn't say food... the food there wasn't the best - but the snacks we all brought were fabulous!), had lots of good "girl talk", and were able to plan out the whole entire next year for MOPS! I'm definitely looking forward to all that we are going to do this next year!!

I'm So Proud!

Some of you know that I have a very strange collection... I collect Hippos. It started a while back when I first heard "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas". That became my favorite Christmas song and kind of an inside joke between my mom and I. She got me my first hippo that Christmas... it was a silver one and it started the whole hippo rage.

When I was pregnant with Clay, I was obsessed with buying any kid's book that had to do with Hippos. I even found some bedding with a safari theme that had a hippo on it. My sister also painted a picture of a hippo to go in Clay's nursery. I guess you could say I was trying to pass along my love of Hippos to my son.

Well... just his week he's started saying "Hippo"!! It actually kind of sounds like "apple"... but I know what he's really saying! He's also been wanting us to read him his Hippo books! It looks like all my subliminal signals are paying off!

It looks like he's also picked up another one of my loves... Chocolate! He LOVES a chocolate cookie! (or any cookie, really)

Fabulous Father's Day Weekend!

I've had a great weekend!! We did a lot of boating, cooked out with some good friends and celebrated Father's Day with the best daddy in the world!

Yesterday our good friends Emily and Jeremy and their son Wyatt came over to go out on the boat and then cook out. It was so HOT outside, so we did a lot of this... Clay loved his new float and stayed out in the water until both of us were nice and shrively.

Then, this morning we took the boat out again and dada taught Clay how to drive...

And he drank some of Mama's diet Pepsi...

And then he was POOPED from all the activity!

Then this afternoon we drove into town and took daddy out for Father's Day dinner!

We went to his favorite Wing Joint and ate WAY too much! Clay put on a show for the people at the next table and they told me we should video tape him and send it to Funniest Home Videos. This child LOVES attention!

We've had a wonderful weekend and I'm sad that tomorrow is Monday! Happy Father's Day to all the daddy's out there!!

Someone Stole my Sweet Baby...

And left me a crazy toddler in it's place!

I took this picture this morning before he went to daycare. As I was editing my pictures, I looked at this one and got a little sad... there is nothing "baby" about my baby anymore!

But I love this age! He's so funny and smart! The other day I was working with him on his letters and I would say something like "A is for Apple", "B is for Baby" and he'd repeat the word... I got to D and said "D is for Dada" and he said "Dada Work!". I guess he's picked this up since his dad a lot of the time leaves for work before he gets up and I always tell him that "Dada is at work".

Last night we came home from the local wing joint and I was changing his diaper. It wasn't wet, so I decided to slap a little diaper paste on his butt and put it back on. Just as I was about to take it off, he looked at me with this mischievious grin and started peeing! So I quickly covered "it" up with the diaper to let him finish and as soon as I took it off... he did it again... AND he's laughing hysterically about it! He's such a boy!

Not a lot else has happened this week... I've had LOTS of work... LOTS! I may even have to do a little work over the weekend... no fun! We are planning on going out on the boat a little, cooking out with some good friends and trying to stay cool! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

I feel as though I need to explain this picture... for some reason he wants to put all of his bibs on at the same time and always has to have the Hippo bib on top! Have no clue why he's all of a sudden decided to do this!

So Maybe it Won't Be Monkeys

Well, my dream of having a monkey themed birthday party for Clay may not come true! I had thought I was going to have to do a Sesame Street themed party... but he moved on to monkeys and Curious George. Now he's OBSESSED with Monsters, Inc. and refuses to watch his Curious George videos. All he wants to watch is Monsters, Inc.!

So instead of finding something like these cute monkey cakes:


I may now be forced to finding something like this:

Or this (this one is actually pretty cute):

We had to watch the "monster" movie yesterday when we got home from daycare, after we got back from dinner, AND before we went to daycare this morning! I'm sure he'll be screaming for monsters when we get home from daycare today! You'd think it would scare him because there are some scary parts in the movie... but he's not afraid!
And he has to be in constant contact with the box the Monster's Inc. DVD comes in (which includes taking it in the car with him).
It looks like I may have to hold off until right before his party to decide on a theme! You never know what he's going to be obsessed with from day to day! We're trying to broaden his horizons and get some more Disney movies like Toy Story and Cars - so I'm sure he'll be obsessed with one of those next week!

21 Months!

Clay, today you are 21 months old! Only 3 more months of party planning for your 2nd birthday!

So, what have you been up to this past month??

We have now moved our obsession from Sesame Street to monkeys (or “moneys” as you call them). You LOVE Curious George and have only wanted to watch that. You’ve had a couple of instances where you requested Elmo, but for the last 2 weeks, it’s been nothing but “MONEYS”. This makes Mama very happy… I already have visions of what your monkey birthday invitations are going to look like! You’ve also taken a liking to the Disney movie, Monster’s, Inc. You’re saying something like “monsters” and then you growl like a monster… it’s very cute! You almost watched the whole entire movie this past weekend! You’ve even insisted on taking the Monster’s Inc. DVD box in the car with you the last few days! Wow! You really inherited the “obsessive” part of the OCD both your daddy and myself gave you.

Your vocabulary is continuing to increase. You say words like bubble, boat, dog, waffle, snack, ice cream… and many other words. You can count to 5 and you know A, B, C (we’re still working on the rest of the alphabet). You’re learning your colors and have gotten “yellow” down really well. Just the other day we were driving to daycare and you saw the delinquents picking up trash on the side of the road with their bright yellow vests on and you started yelling “Yellow, Yellow!”. I let you know that I better not EVER see you on the side of the street donning a pair of orange pants and a yellow vest picking up trash.

You still wear 18 -24 month clothes and we just had to buy you new tennis shoes. You’re feet are huge! You wear a 7 wide… and if I could’ve found an extra-wide in the cute New Balance shoes I got you, I probably would have had to go with those. I thought feet were supposed to get longer… not wider!

You are eating a little better these days. You’ve decided that you LOVE green beans from a can again and could probably eat the whole can in one sitting. Your forever constants that I know you will eat are waffles, mandarin oranges, pears, peaches, Nutri-Grain bars, French fries, cheese, fish sticks, and rice from the local Mexican restaurant. You’re starting to eat peanut butter better… you like it on Ritz crackers. You still won’t try anything new unless it’s a snack-type food. You refuse to eat anything with a pasta-like texture and I can’t get you to even try a tortilla. You do not look like you’ve missed a meal, so I guess you’re getting enough to eat!

We’ve had to pull out the time-out pack n play and it sits in the dining room away from all the action. You hate being in there and will SCREAM bloody murder when we put you in it. I do like it when I come and get you out of time out. You always give me a sweet kiss on the cheek when I ask you if you are going to be good and of course I can’t turn that down!

You are turning out to be such a sweet little boy and I can’t wait to see what next month brings!!

On the boat with Walker, Memorial Day weekend - doing what he does best... snacking!

I really wish I had the video of this - Mark had the music on and Clay was dancing with the boat console. He's got some rhythm!

Playing in his pool

He loves the waterfall in his pool!

He also loves mama's Dr. Pepper!

Really LOVES Dr. Pepper!

Having fun driving his car

Marshall's Memorial Day Mayhem 2010

At least that's what the past Memorial Day weekend was coined! And boy, was it mayhem! It was fun mayhem, though!

We had 2 families over from GA for the weekend. Both families had 2 boys... so we had 5 boys ages 4 and under running around this house! I'm not going to lie... I was expecting the worst, but it turned out to be a great time! Clay had fun meeting new friends! He even did good with sharing his toys. They watched lots of Sesame Street, Curious George, Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story. We took the boys out on the boat a couple of times and then the adults got to go out on the boat for some quiet time. Those poor babysitters... actually, the boys were great for them! Most of them slept almost the entire time! I put Clay down for a nap and then he was just getting up when we got home!

We had our 2nd annual Memorial Day Shrimp boil and had more boys come over (where's all the girls???). My nieces did come and were a big help with the little ones! Yeah, can't wait until they are babysitting age! Not too much longer!

It was a fun weekend of lots of eating, chasing boys around, good conversation and chaos (good chaos, that is!).

And I didn't get a SINGLE picture the whole entire weekend (did I happen to mention that I had 5 boys 4 and under running around my house???). We did manage to have one camera out and about every once in a while, so hopefully I'll get some pictures from her!

And now I'm off to Wisconsin! I'm NOT looking forward to it! I've got to do some training tomorrow for our clients up there. I HATE flying... especially by myself! And I HATE leaving my sweet little Clay! At least I'll be back in time to pick him up Friday afternoon! I'm sure daddy will spoil him and hopefully will take some pictures to send to me while I'm up there.