Happy 3rd Birthday Clay!!!

So, today is my sweet Baby Clay's 3rd birthday and I decided to take a walk down memory lane... probably not a good thing because I'm about to burst into tears!

How did my little baby go from this...

 To this...

 And then to this...

 And now... you are such a handsome little man!

So what have you been up to this month?

You are still into coloring and LOVE to color anything. You've gotten much better in the last few weeks. At first you would just do a couple of scribbles on every page and now I think it's your goal to use every color on one page and make sure the entire page is filled up (including the back of the page). I can tell your favorite color is red... every red crayon you have has definitely seen its fair share of use.

You've also been introduced to Happy Meals and love them. I was trying to hold off as long as possible, but while I was out of town recently, Daddy thought it would be a good idea to get you one (or two). It was mainly because they had Smurfs in them... but now when we ask you what you want for dinner, you always ask for a Happy Meal.

You are still a very picky eater... I can't get you to eat any kind of noodle or tortilla. You will eat chicken nuggets, fries, pizza, and peanut butter sandwiches. You LOVE fruit and any kind of snack food. You especially love jellybeans ("beans" as you call them).

We're still slowly working on the potty training thing. You will go when we ask you to get on the potty, but you will not tell us when you need to go. This weekend we are doing potty training bootcamp! Nothing too stressful... we are just staying around the house so you can wear your big boy underpants. I've been gearing you up for it and you act like you're pretty excited about it. Hopefully, it will be a success! If not, no big deal... I'm trying not to stress about it.

You are also very inquisitive... you ask countless questions - what are you doing, why are you doing that, where are you going, what was that... the questions NEVER end! It's cute, though. Hopefully you're soaking up all the answers we are giving you.

You are such a loving little boy. You love to give me kisses and hugs. You are definitely a mama's boy and I LOVE it! You rarely need to go to time-out, but when you do, you are NOT a happy camper! We make you sit in the corner and sing your ABC's for 2 minutes. Guess now that you're 3 we're going to have to go up to 3 minutes!

I could go on and on about everything you are doing now! It amazes me how much you've grown up just this last year. I am truly blessed to be your mommy and you have made my entire world a much happier place (and I know your Daddy will agree with me)! I love you my sweet, little Clay! You will always be Baby Clay to me!

Big Boy Bed!

A couple of weeks ago we decided to FINALLY convert Clay's crib into his "Big Boy Bed". He was so excited when he saw it!! 

The first night was a little rocky... he realized pretty quick that he could easily get out of the bed and gain access to all his toys. Little did he know that we were watching him on the camera the whole time... we had to tell him a few times to get back in the bed.

He got used to the big boy bed pretty quickly, though! We did wake up to find him trashing his room a little... clothes pulled out of his drawers, books and trains everywhere... but after we talked (ok, threatened) he's been a good boy! He'll wake up in the morning, turn on his light and sits in his bed and reads until we come and get him up! We did end up changing the door knob around so that we can lock him in... for safety reasons, of course! He sleeps upstairs and I have a fear that he will somehow manage to climb over the gate and tumble down the stairs.

This past weekend we had the big 3 year Birthday Bash! I was a crappy photographer, but luckily my friend Beth took some pictures for me! I'm going to hold off posting about the birthday party until I have them! Can't wait!

35 Months - Only one more month to go!!

Well, this little guy is very excited about turning 3! His mommy... not so much! I can't believe he's going to be 3 years old in less that a month! Actually, it's 20 days to be exact! I don't know why 3 is so hard for me! Maybe it's because there is absolutely no resemblance of a little baby anymore and if you ask him, he's a BIG BOY now!

So what has he been up to this month?

He’s all of a sudden taken a huge liking to coloring. He used to never like to color! I’d try over and over to get him to color, but he’d never want to. I was a little worried that he’d turn out to be very un-artistic like his mommy, but now all he wants to do is color! He’s still mostly left-handed, but occasionally I’ll look over and he’s using his right hand. I still have no clue where he gets the left-handedness from.

Concentrating very hard on his coloring... And look... he's switched to his right hand... At least he's holding the crayon correctly!
He's even learned to do nifty tricks with his crayons... Now that's talent, I tell ya! Here's a close up... Lately, he's upped his number of crayons to 3 per foot! Just think of how many he could do if he wasn't using the jumbo crayons!

And I know everyone thinks their kid is the smartest… so of course, I think mine is the smartest! He can spell his name and I can ask him what some words start with and he can tell me the letter! He loves for me to write a word down and then he’ll go get the letter magnets off the fridge that match up to the word. He can tell you what state and city he lives in and he just learned the name of the street we live on – that’s a pretty difficult feat in itself since it’s a pretty hard word for a 2 year old to say!

A couple of weeks ago he moved up to his new class at school and he LOVES it! I picked him up from daycare one day and he said he wanted to stay there FOREVER! We've been told by the teachers that he is their entertainment and keeps them laughing. I think we've got the class clown on our hands! This is the year they start their curriculum so I can’t wait to hear all about what he’s learning! He also gets to go to chapel and music class this year. I know he’s going to love music class! He’s got this uncanny musical sense… he can hear a song once and pretty much know the words to it. He also can tell you the song by just hearing a few notes of it. He loves the drums and guitar! I want to start teaching him piano soon because I really think he’s got the knack for music. He likes all kinds of music. He enjoys listening to mommy’s dance music and daddy’s country music. The other day we got in the car and Mark had his country station on. Elvira by the Oak Ridge Boys was on and Clay said, “I love this song”!
He’s still into McQueen and he loves Pooh. I recorded the Muppets Take Manhattan movie the other day and he’s been watching it non-stop the last few days. I had a few of the Muppet characters up in my hope chest that I think were stocking stuffers from my mom a while back and we got them out for him to play with. He LOVES them!
His hair is a MESS! It’s a weird mixture of my straight hair and Mark’s thick, curly hair -when he was little ;o). I can’t get it to do anything but look a mess! If it was all curly or all straight, that would be perfect! I’m thinking a buzz cut may be in his future.
We're still working on the potty training thing. I'm not pushing it too much right now and just letting him learn at his own pace. He's gotten better, but I don't get a sense that he's really ready just yet. They say that he will go at school, but not all of the time. I'm sure it will happen on his own time!

This year for his party, he's requested a Disney Cars party (of course)! I feel like a BAD mommy! I've not done much with the party planning... I did manage to get the invitations out this week. I've got ideas in my head and know what I want to do, I just have to get to the store and get everything. I've got the cutest idea for cupcakes that involve fondant... I'm thinking I may have to enlist my sister's help with them because she's the artistic one in the family and I've never worked with fondant before! A trial run is a definite for these cupcakes!

This year has just flown by! It feels like just yesterday I was getting ready for his Elmopalooza birthday! He's grown so much and has turned into this sweet little boy that I love more than anything!

1st Dentist Trip & Mommy and Clay Day

Last Friday was Clay's first trip to the dentist! I was a little nervous as to how he'd react to someone trying to look at his teeth since he's not super-cooperative when I try to brush his teeth at night. Thank goodness for this thing in the waiting room...

So the waiting room experience was really good! Clay was being an angel and playing sweetly. Then the hygienist called us back and I thought we were going to have a melt-down because he didn't want to leave the cool trains! But the hygienist saved the day and encouraged him with stickers... which if you know Clay, stickers are the way to his heart! While back in the room the hygienist went over everything... when to brush his teeth, how many times, how we need to floss (yeah, right!) and how they are on-call 24-7. She was really nice and obviously had kids of her own because she didn't skip a beat as Clay dumped out all 500 stickers onto the exam table and rearranged every single one of the drawers in the exam room. They had about 75 of these turtles that Clay insisted on dumping out all over the place... but whatever keeps him occupied!
Finally, the dentist came in and took a look at Clay's teeth. Clay was not a willing participant, but did open his mouth up enough for the dentist to notice that his bite is completely off because he sucks his thumb. Looks like we're going to have to work with him on that! The dentist said not to worry about it too much, but if he's still sucking his thumb by his next 6 month appointment we may have to use the nasty-tasting nail stuff!

Since his appointment was on a Friday, I decided to take most of the day off and have a Mommy and Clay day! We had a blast! After his dentist appointment we went and ate lunch at a little Chinese place. Clay ate my wonton chips and a fortune cookie and played with his cars. Then after lunch, we went to Target to pick out his prize for being so good at the dentist! He's been asking for a McQueen backpack since he's moving up to a big boy class at school, so I told him we'd get him one if he was good at the dentist. He decided on one that had both Mater and McQueen. Then it was time to head home. I had so much fun on our Mommy and Clay day and so did he!

Now he's all excited about going to the dentist because he gets to play with the trains! Hopefully he'll stay this excited about the dentist all the time!

And before I forget... there's a couple of funny and cute things he's been doing lately.

I will ask him, "Who's the best mommy in the world?" or "Who's the best Daddy in the world?" and he'll point to me or Mark and say "That one!". It's so cute!!

The other day I went to pick him up from daycare and he was in the room next door to where his stuff was. I was gathering up his things and the door was open between the rooms so I could hear him talking. All of a sudden the teachers started laughing hysterically and saying "Say it again, Clay". Then my son proceeded to demand "Come on, WOMAN!" to Miss Lynn, one of his teachers. Oh... NO. HE. Didn't! So I marched over to the room and the teachers told him to say it again. Granted, it is pretty funny coming from a 2 year old, but I had to get on to his daddy who taught him to say that!

Oh, my child! The teachers in the class he's moving up to have told me they are excited that he is moving up to their class because he's their comic relief! Guess he's going to be the class clown!

34 Months!

Holy cow! Less than 2 months and my little baby is going to be a 3 year old! I have not even begun the party planning! Actually, that’s a lie… I do have the date and part of the entertainment! We are planning on doing it the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend… and I couldn’t be more excited about that!! I’ll have Saturday to get ready for it and then Monday to recover! Plus I don’t have to compete with football… and bless my child’s poor heart! He’s just got one of those birthdays where you are not going to make every football fan in the south happy because there is not a Saturday starting in September that doesn’t have one of our state’s teams playing.

So… what has he been up to lately?

The potty training is going quite well! He surprised me 4th of July weekend with how independent he already is with his potty training. We had our friends with young children over and I was suggesting to everyone to go potty before we went out on the boat. I went myself and when I came out, I couldn’t find Clay. I asked one of the girls and they said he had headed upstairs. So I went up there and found him sitting on the potty… all by himself!! Then this past weekend we started the whole wearing “big boy underpants” thing. The first session didn’t go so well… he got a little excited when his Nan came over and it was back to diapers. We probably did 5 sessions over the weekend and 2 out of the 5 he kept them dry and clean. He gets stickers when he goes on the potty and then if he keeps his big boy pants dry and clean, he gets a bigger prize! We’ll try again this weekend and see how he does! He’s even been going to the potty at school!! Such a big boy!

He’s OBSESSED with fruit snacks! He was only eating Cars fruit snacks, but now he’s not discriminating. If it’s a fruit snack, he’s going to eat it! I guess there are worse things to eat. At least they are made with “real fruit”. He’s also very fond of apples. He LOVES an apple! Some of his staples I think are starting to wear on him. He used to eat Nutri-grain bars like they were going out of style, but now he won’t eat them as much. Same with waffles and muffins. But if it has McQueen on it… he’ll eat it no matter what!

Last weekend we took Clay to see his first movie at the theater! I bet you can’t guess what it was… Cars 2! We went with our good friends, Emily and Jeremy, and their son Wyatt. Clay got to have his own bag of candy and was in heaven! Bless his heart… when the previews started he didn’t realize that they were just previews and wanted to know why we were not watching Cars. I explained to him what they were and he decided that every preview that came on he wanted to see that movie. He did better than I expected during the 2 hour movie! He stayed in his seat for most of the time and once it was over, he wanted to watch it again! We had to stay for the credits… he will not let you turn a movie off unless the credits are finished! I’m thinking our next movie will be the Winnie the Pooh movie coming out this weekend. He’s been asking to see that one!

He’s such a loving little guy. He loves to give me hugs and kisses and tells me he loves me! He still wants me to rock him before he goes to bed. He’s probably getting a little too old to be rocked, but I enjoy my snuggle-time with him too much to stop it. He’s a creature of habit – has to have everything in perfect order or he just can’t handle it! Hmmmm… OCD much? At bedtime we have to follow the same routine when I rock him… first we talk to Jesus, then I tell him a story of his choice, then we sing silly songs and then we rock. We can’t leave anything out or he will call you out on it!

He used to want to watch TV or movies all the time, but now he is just content to play with his cars. He’s spoiled rotten and has just about every one of the cars from Cars 2 and he knows them all. He’s got a carrying case that’s actually, Mack, the truck that hauls McQueen around. He LOVES Mack! Whenever we’re in the car, he loves to find all the big “Mack” trucks. We were in the Wal-Mart parking lot a couple of weeks ago and there were a couple of 18-wheelers there. Mark drove up really close to them so Clay could see them. You would have thought he had met his hero! He was so excited to get so close to them! It is so cute to watch him get excited over an every-day thing like an 18-wheeler!

So to end this post, I wanted to show off some pictures my friend Melissa took of Clay while they were here 4th of July weekend. This is the 2nd time she’s taken his pictures – the last time he was 10 months – and every time they end up being my favorite pictures! I didn’t do anything fancy with his outfit or make a fuss about how he looked… she just shot pictures of him playing in his room and outside and they turned out perfect! You should definitely check out her photography blog here: MG Photography

He's so serious in this one!

I LOVE this one! Melissa will do anything to get the shot... she had him pretending he was a dog and was throwing him goldfish as treats! Hey... whatever works!

Another one of my favorites!

Happy Birthday America!

Our 4th of July weekend was packed full of lots of fun! Our friends, Tony and Melissa, and their 3 adorable girls came over for the weekend. Saturday evening we headed out to the middle of nowhere for a friend’s huge 4th of July bash… and I mean HUGE! When the directions include “look for the roped off areas for parking and the porta-potties” you know it’s going to be big. Bad Mama here didn’t realize that Clay would not be allowed in the water for 5 days after his surgery so my poor baby had to miss out on the pool and huge water slide inflatable. He did manage to still soak himself in the baby pool and Spiderman sprinkler. “Technically” it was the 5th day, so I’m sure it there was no harm done. We ate until we were stuffed and sampled at least 5 different flavors of homemade ice cream. I’m pretty sure all Clay ate for dinner was goldfish and ice cream. Once it got dark, they had a huge firework show that rivals some of the big “professional” shows I’ve been to. There were so many fireworks that every time we thought they were done… they kept going… and going… and going!

The next day we spent it out on the lake. We rode around on the boat and then went to a cove to hang out and swim. Again… bad Mama! Clay is not allowed in the lake for at least until we go back for his post-op appointment in a few weeks due to possible infection from the nasty lake water. Thankfully my mother-in-law was able to come watch him that afternoon while he napped so we could take the girls swimming. That night we had my sister and her husband over for a yummy shrimp boil!

The next day our company left. Clay was sad to see his Caroline go! He had a lot of fun with the girls and has been asking when they are going to come back! That afternoon we went down the street to our neighbor’s house for another shrimp boil. While they were cooking it, a huge storm blew in… quickly! It was crazy! The winds were blowing chairs and tree branches all over the place. Then the power went out. We took the shrimp boil inside and ate by candlelight. All of a sudden there was a bright flash… lightening struck the tree right outside the house and ripped the bark right off of it! There were also a few trees that were ripped out of the ground at our marina… ripped out by the roots! It was a weird storm! Thankfully it cleared up in time for the big city fireworks show. We were able to see it from their back porch.

I was awful and didn’t take a whole lot of pictures. I did get some lessons from Melissa and she took some pictures of Clay for me. She’s given me a sneak peak of one of the pictures and it looks great! I can’t wait to see the rest of them!

Even though our 4th of July weekend was crazy busy we had a blast!!

And here are my awful pictures! They were so bad, I had to fancy them up using some tricks Melissa taught me. (Melissa, you'd be so proud! I figured out how to use the Coffee Shop actions!!)

This was a cute Pirate Ship pool and Clay managed to take it completely apart - but he enjoyed every minute of it's destruction!

Or "Oops, I missed my kid's face as he swung by!"

Let's add cookies to the goldfish and ice cream he ate for dinner!

Soooo excited about the fireworks! This was his first show! I was afraid the noise would scare him, but he loved it!

Photo Friday

Woo Hoo! Posts 2 days in a row! I'm trying to do better!

These photos crack me up. He was just sitting on the couch reading his McQueen book and decided to oblige Mommy some funny faces.

I call these: The Many Faces of Clay

That kid definitely has some funny expressions!

We hope everyone has a fabulous 4th of July!!!

Surgery

This past Tuesday Clay had to have surgery on a problem he's had since he was born. It was just to repair a small hole in his abdomen that didn't seal up that could cause a hernia later on if not taken care of. It didn't really hit me until late last week that my baby was going to have surgery... and have to be put asleep! I think the whole "being put to sleep" part was the worst! We prepared Clay for the surgery - kept talking him through it all to where he was familiar with it all and how he was going to have to leave mommy and daddy and go with the doctor. I think he was only worried about getting the prize we promised him if he was brave! (Yes, we bribe our child WAY too much!)

The day of the surgery we had to wake up WAY too early! We had to be at the hospital at 6:30 and the hospital is 45 minutes away. So that meant a 4:30 wake up call for me! I tried to get a decent picture of Clay in the car, but he was having no part of it!

When we got there, we got all checked in and they took us back to a room. Clay got to put on his cute hospital gown and got to watch Mickey Mouse on his own personal TV. Each person invovled in the surgery came by to talk to us. Everyone was extremely nice - especially his pediatric nurse. She was so sweet to him! Before they took him back 2 cute girls came in to show Clay his mask that he had to wear when they put him to sleep. They showed him how to use it and they let him decorate it with Diego stickers. He is a sticker-holic so he LOVED that! They then brought him a "driver's license" so that he could drive the jeep to the surgery room. He loved it.

We waited a LONG time! About 2 1/2 hours! I think they do that on purpose... by then your baby is so restless you are READY to hand him over!
Finally Nurse Crystal came by and said that they were ready! She brought him the little Jeep and off he went!

As we were following him down the hall, Nurse Crystal told us that we would have to stop at the red line before the operating room door. Once we reached that line, Clay rolled right on through the doors and we quickly walked off. He didn't even realize that we had left! I didn't even cry!

The surgery didn't take but 30 minutes or so. They would call and let us know his status which was very comforting! After the surgery, they would only let one parent back in recovery. Of course it was going to be me! :o) Mark was nice enough to not even put up a fight because he knew I'd be devastated if I couldn't see him right after surgery.

When I went back to see him, he was HYSTERICAL! They couldn't get him calmed down. I'm sure it was the fact that he just woke up in a strange place, around a bunch of people he didn't know and Mommy and Daddy were not there! He latched onto me and wouldn't let go until we finally were able to leave. The surgery was a success and he shouldn't have any problems with it in the future!

On the way home, he conked out! Slept the entire way!

When we got home, I was hoping for some nice, quiet snuggle time in the bed while watching movies. Ummm... not so much! He was wired and all over the place! I could have sworn they put Red Bull in his IV! That little boy is resilient, though! He has not needed any of his strong pain medication. I gave him one dose before bed to help him sleep. When he woke up the next morning, he was still perfectly fine! I keep asking if his boo-boo hurt and he says "no". I only wish I bounced back that quickly from a surgery!

He's out of school for the rest of the week and hanging out with his Nana so mommy can get some work done. We have to go back to the doctor in 3 weeks for his post-op, but I have a feeling he will be 100% way before then! Thanks for all the kind words and prayers from all my wonderful friends and family! They definitely helped!