We have had a busy last few days getting the house cleaned and everything ready for Reese's baptim and open house tomorrow. Clayton has been getting better at helping! Here are some things that he likes to do:
Entertain his brother
Multitasking with the vacuum and the swiffer!
Loading, shutting and "running" the dishwasher (and darn proud of it too!)
And, his vacuuming abilities have improved dramatically since the last time we caught it on video!
Clayton is 17 months old today, and we sure had a busy day! It never crossed my mind to try to weigh him, but maybe we'll do that tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure I got a good picture of him today, but he was kind of tired and crabby after breakfast - I thought maybe taking his picture would help him feel better. You can tell he was crying, but he was trying to smile like I told him too, and he was happy by the end!
After naps this afternoon, we went for a walk in our monstrosity of a double stroller. It's sure a work out to push it loaded down with two kids and the car seat, especially if you are unfortunate enough to be going up a slight hill and into the wind! I don't know what we would do with out it though!
Here is a better picture of Reese in the seat before we left the house (we are able to just use the car seat, it fits right into the stroller and is strapped on). Don't you love the cute Adidas outfit? That is something that Clayton had but only got to wear once or twice!
Cool Shades!
Darrel took a golf lesson the other day and so he had his putter out to practice and I guess Clayton thought he should show dad a few of his moves!
Good thing Daddy even thought to get the video camera out:
You'll notice that about half way through the clip that Clayton stops what he is doing to watch a car drive down the street. Too cute! I also love how he gently sets the club down when he is done with it. It's hard to believe that he was once as tiny as Reese is now, but that now he is a full blown toddler and learning and growing every day!
I'm sure that he wasn't really stuck at any point in time, he was just tired and being so goofy! Sorry it's so long - the original video is almost 6 minutes long and it was hard to trim stuff out because it was just so funny and cute. Mom and Dad wonder what they did for entertainment B.C. (either "before children" or "before Clayton", whichever you prefer).
Here is some cute video that I took of Reese playing on the play mat. It was his first time in there, and he seemed really excited about, I tried to get his whole body in at the end and you can see his little legs are really a going! He even made some cute little cooing sounds and batted at the toy once. That was the same toy that Clayton was first interested in!
Here is a link to my facebook video of Clayton, just 4 days shy of being 1 month old: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=583909758769
He seems more alert and active, but he was born closer to his due date than Reese was, two weeks makes a big difference when 2 weeks is half the time you have been around!!
Reese had his two week check up today (although he is more like 2.5 weeks old by now). He is up to 7lbs 12oz! He is 21 inches long. Here is how he has lost and gained weight so far:
I wanted to list it out more so I don't forget, but it is kind of interesting to see. I can't believe he gained a whole pound in 10 days!! And he grew a half an inch since he was born.
Also, Clayton seems to be warming up to Reese even more. For several days now, if Reese cries, Clayton says "Reese?" over and over until I go fix him. Last night, Reese was in his bouncy seat and after supper Clayton tried to give him hugs (laying his head down on him, the same way he does to the cats). I turned the video camera on, but I missed the best of it! Then today when I got home from Reese's Dr. appointment, Clayton was rubbing Reese's hair. It was really sweet! Then later this morning, Reese's pacifier fell out of his mouth (he didn't need it anymore, he was sleeping) and Clayton said Uh oh! Then he picked it up (and I figured it was to take it for himself) but he tried to put it back in Reese's mouth. It was so heart warming. Clayton is turning out to be such a caring big brother for being such a little guy himself, Mommy is so proud!
So I have washed Reese prior to yesterday, but I haven't submerged him in water. We turned on some soothing music, and he hardly even fussed (not at like Clayton's 1st bath, he screamed the whole time)!
Here is my little monkey climbing into his high chair (in the new monkey and banana PJs he got for Christmas on Sunday from his Petersen Grandparents). Normally he turns around and sits down, but his pacifier was on the table and it caught is eye so he decided to lunge for that instead!
Well, it's not technically his first snow, but the most interesting thing he saw last year when it snowed was probably the inside of his car seat cover!! Poor thing didn't really like it! Our guess is that he just didn't like being so cold, plus it's just different to see snow all over the ground instead of grass and leaves. Hopefully he'll get used to it and learn to enjoy it.
Lacey has been more willing to be around Clayton lately, and they find ways to play together. Sometimes Lacey will chase after jingle balls that he throws, but sometimes he won't. Clayton hardly ever resists an opportunity to pull his tail though! And Lacey loves to 'slap' him around for it too. It's extremely difficult to catch on video but I finally did!
Well I was so proud of my big boy this morning, who ate his oatmeal (with applesauce and cinnamon stirred in, yummy!) with a spoon all by himself. Darrel even got it on video. Clayton did such a good job, and while we have tried a little before this is the best he has done with it so far. Typically when I give him the spoon and the bowl he will alternate hands and never succeeds in scooping much onto the spoon on his own. Something clicked for him though this morning!
Clayton got a hold of Daddy's whistle one evening and we let him play with it and he got pretty close to being able to blow it. (This was the same night as the dishwasher-helper video too). There have been other times since then when he has swiped the whistle and was able to get a fairly loud sound out of it.
We had a great Thanksgiving Day with my folks yesterday, they came to our house and even though Clayton only took a one hour nap he still did pretty well with the holiday. My sister, Auntie Amy, is in a photo journalism class and took about 350 pictures (mostly of Clayton) yesterday for a project (she only needed 12 but they have to be good ones, ya know?) So hopefully soon she will get some to me and I will be able to have a big picture party for the blog. We've had dinner with Darrel's family today, but for now Clayton and I are back at our house so he can get a decent nap in. Hopefully we can head back over there after nap time for some good play time with his grandparents, aunt and uncles and cousin Kolby!
Clayton can be such a big helper! We have trained him to help us close the dishwasher since it is so tempting to just climb in it or start pulling random things out of it. If he sees the dishwasher door open we encourage him to help us close it and give him lots of praise. Also, he gets to help push the button to start if it is full and he thinks that is about the best part ever! This isn't the best example of him closing it, but you get the idea!
