Free To A Good Home

Boy...free to a good home. Must have high level of patience and handy-man on staff. We are kidding of course...BUT Clayton has been mighty busy this week helping out around the house.

Clayton decided that he didn't like where the cable jack was. So, he tore it out of the wall along with the faceplate...leaving (as you can see) a big hole in the wall. We can't seem to keep him away from the plugs. In fact, he has figures how to get the baby-proof plug covers off. He walked into the kitchen yesterday and handed me one that formerly belonged in the living room.

This piece of metal used to be at the bottom of our door until Clayton moved in. I am still baffled at how he could get it off in the first place.

• My flip flop was gone for days. I found it in a bucket, in the backyard, along with some sippy cups.
• I turned around and Clayton had climbed from Lightning Car, to the piano bench, and right up to the top of the piano.
• He empties the file cabinet daily.
• I even held him down and put him into time-out by making him sit for a few seconds. He thought that it was hilarious and went right back to the filing cabinet.

I can't complain too much though, he makes us laugh. He does something and turns around to look for approval with a huge grin on his face. How can we not grin back?

Sound Effects

Clayton got these really cool cars that are soft on top and really easy to hold, for his birthday. One day he just started making sound effects as he was scooting the cars across the carpet. I thought it might be blog-worthy...
Thanks Porter for picking out these "totally fast" sporty cars.

As you can see..no scar. This vrooming happened a week or so ago. We've just had a few other things come up to dely this blog.
Update: Everything is healing really well and all looks good!

Chicks Dig Scars

I knew it was coming....I just didn't know to what extent this excitement would be.... Clayton's first ER experience and it only took a total of 12 months to get there. After 4 hours, some 'delicious' hospital food and 5 stitches.. we are finally home.
Daddy has matching stitches.

3 days ago Chris got to experience the same ER thrill as he sliced his finger open cutting broccoli and received 5 stitches. Like father like son (I'm staying away from sharp edges and knifes for the next few months!)

Clayton was engrossed in his favorite activity...bath-time. When, all of a sudden he trips, I pick him up and his head is gushing from hitting the spout...OUCH! We ran to the hospital wearing only his birthday suit! I'm not sure what the hurry was, the ER takes quite a bit of time get you in. I think I was a bit more panicked than they were. All I remember is BLOOD! Chicks dig scars...or at least I hope they do because we have a few comin' up!

Clayton (and Chris) are doing great. The Docs must have given him some great meds because he is happy as a lark and running around like never before. I on the other hand need some meds to calm my nerves.

The "Fun House"

Life after summer break has come, and we're missing having Chris around all day. So, when he is home, we take full advantage of him! He's voluntarily doing the dishes for me (awesome!) and at beck and call for Clayton. What a man! You go Daddio!

Go USA!

Just a little glimps of the past week. We are such Olympic nerds...we brought our mattress into the living room and camped out so that we could stay up to watch gymnastics until midnight. Sad part...it didn't end at gymnastics. We finally had to move the mattress back when we had company coming over. We thought that might be a bit awkward!

Ready...Set...Go!

THANK YOU to all who contributed to the "Get-the-energy-OUT" fund for Clayton's birthday play gym. It is working perfectly!
Who Knew?: At the end of the summer...ALL the retailers are out of playgyms. So, trusty Wal-Mart sold us their display one. Once we killed the Black widow, dusted all the old dirt off and fought off one angry bee....

...We love this monstrosity of colors and fun! It's like Legos, you can set and rearrange everything on this gym.
Clayton is king of the castle of course. He has learned to go down the slide on his belly (and refuses any suggestions otherwise).

But prefers to go up the slide. Good thing the grass is extra long. He's taken a few spills and jumps right back up. Too much to do to take a 'hurt' break.
I think Clayton's favorite part of the gym is the door (open and close, in and out). Maybe we should've just gotten the door... we could've saved a lot of money... BUT...what would Chris play on?

Adios!!! (short and sweet-and a bit sideways)

It's Fun to Be 1 Party!

Warning: Brace yourselves: This is our First kid at his First Birthday=LOTS OF PICTURES!

August 8, 2008 we celebrated Clayton's first birthday by having an "It's fun to be 1" Pool party at David and Rene' Loftin's fantastic pool/hot tub in Bossier Louisiana!Clayton hangin' out in the hot tub with all the Chicks (his daddy is so proud)!All the guys played volley ball while Amency and I drove Clayton around the block to try and get his afternoon nap in. Clayton soon joined them in the festivities.I post this picture not to brag that I 'made' Clayton's beachball birthday cake...nope....I post this pict. as an official record that his picture is a picture of my 3rd cake attempt (although not perfect, the third time happened to be a charm!). One looked like a football, one looked like it had dropped in the bathtub....you get the point. It had to look good for the pictures, right?
And so, this is the long-awaited/favorite part of the party....cake destroying ritual. It took him a minute, or two, to realize that it really was for eating.
And the end result.
So, we made chocolate dessert for all the adults and not birthday cake. Apparently that is bad luck, so we all dove into the highly-sanitary once-a-beach ball cake (we can't tempt fate).
Presents are the best part. This one wasn't assembled until we got back home and boy what a hit. He just wants to climb in and out, in and out. Thanks to EVERYONE near and far who celebrated Clayton's birthday with us. We had a blast!