Our First Ever Ear Infection :(

So we got our first ear infection, and the unlucky winner was Clayton! He woke up early and restless from his nap Monday afternoon. He said that his left ear was ouchy and asked for it to be kissed and I could never get him to go back down for his nap although he did rest a little longer. I assumed that it was his teeth making his jaw sore and he was just having referred pain and was just saying "ear" because he doesn't know the word "jaw". (His two-year-old molars are finally coming in on the bottom I noticed a few days ago). Well Tuesday morning he woke up and utterly refused to eat breakfast and had a temperature of 100.4. I figured since he was still saying that his ear hurt I better take him in to have them checked just in case I was wrong about it being his teeth. Well, unfortunately, I was wrong about the teeth (although maybe they do hurt and are just compounding his miserableness) and the doctor said that his left ear was pretty angry red and got him on some antibiotics. So hopefully he will be feeling better later this afternoon as we hit the 24-hour mark.

It was pretty obvious yesterday evening that Clayton was not feeling well. It was Mommy's birthday so we tried to party a little bit. . .  The track meet was cancelled so it turns out Daddy got to be home after all so we went to Chances R for supper with Grandma and Grandpa Branz, too and Clayton just cuddled with Grandma most of the time. Later, when we got home, the suggestion of cake and ice cream didn't even get him excited, he just wanted to "lay down on couch" and watch The Lorax (the new favorite movie). He did manage to lick a little frosting off of his cake though. Plus Clayton and Reese got Mommy this really cute birthday card:

They even signed it themselves! (Never mind that it is in Daddy's handwriting!)

Coffee Table Fort

It's amazing how the simple act of throwing a blanket over the coffee table can change the course of the entire next 30 minutes of your children's lives!

Mere moments after that last picture was taken, Reese, took a head-first dive into the diaper box you see off to the left filled with toy train tracks. . .  whoops! To be fair I had instructed him to get down several times, but he was being so cute up there!

And here are some of Clayton being so stinkin' cute!

"Ooooh!" 

My new ALL TIME favorite picture of Clayton!

Reminds me of something his Daddy would do for a picture!

Stuck in the Chair

Reese got stuck in a chair the other night. . . he was surprisingly calm and cool about it, so since he got in to it, I figured he could find a way to get out on his own too.

And now for his escape!

He did it!

Sweet success! In the chair correctly!

Cloud Dough

So in my adventures of surfing the internet this past Tuesday, I discovered tales of a mystical substance called "Cloud Dough" and decided that it was something we needed to try since we are now stuck in the house with this winter-like weather in the midst of April. The boys are stir crazy (and mommy too) from having been teased with a few nice days outside. One blog I found promised that it wasn't that messy, so I decided to give it a go. I was running lower on flour than I thought was, so 8 parts flour and one part oil, I used 8 Tbls. of flour and 1 Tbls. of Olive Oil. I did not want to use baby oil since I assumed (and correctly) that the boys would try to eat it. I ended up making a 2nd batch of it though too because the one small one just wasn't enough. As you will see it did create quite a mess, but nothing the vacuum and washing machine couldn't handle and it kept the boys occupied for probably about an hour from the time we started making it until it was cleaned up.

It does have a "wet sand" type texture that was fascinating although I wonder if I should have added more oil or mixed it longer since it didn't seem as mold-able as described online. The boys mostly scooped it and dumped it in and out of containers, much the same way they play with dirt outside. Reese enjoyed grabbing handfuls of it and throwing it on the floor and it all went down hill from there! It was a good time though.

His clothes were covered! 

Here is the final mess!

And I do have to say that maybe vacuuming it up was a mistake (should have swept maybe?) since the oil and flour seemed to separate in the vacuum canister. We'll have to see what happens with the vacuum I guess!

Expressing Emotions

This is a tough one for toddlers, and Clayton has thrown his fair share of temper tantrums to be sure! Of course as he learns to express his emotions in a healthy way the tantrums will decrease, so we do try to help him identify and name his emotions as much as we can. Sad, for example; we have talked about certain scenes in a movie being sad, and when Clayton is having a hard time and we think he is sad we try our best to explain the word "sad" and how to handle it properly. Well, Clayton took a huge step today that makes me so proud of him that he is learning this concept and can apply it! After saying goodbye to Daddy after lunch, the boys were at our big living room window watching him drive away, Clayton, without any sort of prompting from me says "That's sad, daddy drive away. Go to work, in car, that sad." He was very calm, he just sounded sad, and he came and asked me for a kiss. We talked about how it was OK to be sad when daddy leaves and I thanked him for telling me and asking nicely for a kiss to help him feel better. He then happily went about his 2.5 year old business. This is the first time he has ever spontaneously named an emotion he felt. As heartbreaking as it must be for Daddy that Clayton is sad when he leaves, it is still a proud moment that Clayton can express it in such a healthy way.

Here are the boys last night watching Daddy mow the lawn from our big living room window. They love to look out this window!

Reese and Daddy with a Hat

So cute! Reese kept taking Daddy's hat off. Looks like he didn't want to really wear it either!

The Pictures I Took Yesterday

I took a few pictures yesterday since Clayton was 2 1/2, but I just wanted to focus on those three I put in the post, one from each April he's been around. But there are some more cute ones and good ones of Reese too, so here they are!

Reading a book or Watching TV, he can't decide!

Being a goof and closing his eyes!

On purpose I think, too!

I like this one but iti seems so washed out - darn April Snow!

Here's a close up of the goof ball!

And here are some of Reese

This one is actually from a few days ago...

Two and a Half

As of yesterday, Clayton is officially two and a half years old! One of the biggest new things that he does now is singing! Earlier this week he sang along with me while I sang Jesus Loves Me and it was so sweet, he knows maybe just over half of the words. He can sing the last part of the Alphabet song too. He loves to sing along to the video for Green Eggs and Ham, and will even sing parts of it at other random times, like it's stuck in his head. He picks up a new song that I sing for him and Reese really quickly too, it only took one afternoon for him to mostly learn "If You're Happy and You Know It." We are also working on Happy Birthday" so he can sing that to Mommy in less than two weeks! He also likes to quote his favorite lines from movies and will say them along with the character as he is watching. I think this is a bad habit he picked up from Mom and Dad . . . whoops! But it does show that he has a really great memory! He can also "read" Green Eggs and Ham as we have read it so many times he apparently has it memorized!

Clayton may be ready to hit a growth spurt since he just went up to size 8 shoes, but today he is 35.5 inches tall and his weight has been hovering between 26 and 27 lbs for the last 6 months. He fits nicely into most 3T sized shirts but pants are a different story and the only pair of jeans that works for him right now are still 18 month size although they are starting to get a little short he still needs a belt to hold them up! I hope he out grows them in time for Reese to wear them! Besides that one particular pair of jeans most 24 month or 2T pants fit him well.

He is still missing his 2nd set of molars (the "2 year old molars") but otherwise has all his teeth. We still struggle with his eating habits, especially at supper time, although he gets a huge percentage of his calorie requirements from lunch (usually an entire Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich and half a cup of whole milk) and he has a healthy breakfast (either oatmeal with applesauce and cinnamon mixed in or peanut butter toast). He has a serious sweet tooth though and would probably live on chocolate pudding and M&Ms if we let him! He did try a new food recently, homemade pear sauce, and has eaten it twice! He likes to eat raw baby carrots dipped in Ranch dressing otherwise he doesn't really touch vegetables. Luckily he does like most varieties of the baby food pouches and so he sucks a down some pureed vegetables like sweet potatoes, squash and even some peas hidden by a serving of fruit. Since I started planning a weekly menu and then tracking what he eats a few weeks ago I realized he was eating much more than I thought he was, so it's easier for me to not stress about him refusing supper so often. It's necessary to just step back and look at the big picture - the entire day or even a week - and not just that one meal. It is just a work in progress!

I'm sorry if this got too long, but it's nice to have a check-in like this even if it's just for me to look back on months or even years from now to remember where his progress was when he was 2 1/2.

April 2011

April 2012

April 2013

Diggin' in the Dirt

That is the new favorite outdoor pastime around here for sure!!

Easter Egg Hunt!

It didn't take the boys long to figure out the concept of Easter Egg hunts this year! Things like that aren't hard to learn when the eggs have candy inside! This would be the 1st time for both boys!

First we got Trucks and Books from Grandma Ann Branz in their Easter Baskets!

Then the hunt was on for all the eggs in the back yard. Don't worry they weren't very hidden - mostly just scattered around in the grass. Maybe next year some can actually be "hidden" for Clayton at least!

Chocolate Face!

Shake shake! Anything in there, Reese?

More eggs?

CRASH!

On Easter Sunday we invited, well, pretty much everyone (both sets of grandparents, great-grandparents and Aunt Amy were there) over to our house for Easter Dinner. The weather was great and so we had a lot of fun playing with the boys outside. From some reason Clayton got the idea to crash his Trike into the back of the car and fall off. In slow motion! Ha! I know most everyone who checks the blog was probably THERE and saw it in real life - but just in case you want to watch it over and over again. Enjoy!!

There will be more Easter stuff, pictures and the Easter Egg Hunt video to come!