Pictures (and a video) from Yesterday plus Reese's new milestone

We actually made it to church yesterday (sort of monumental for summer time)! So I was sure to take some pictures of the boys in the afternoon in their coordinating outfits. They were watching Daddy mow the lawn of course. I actually played around with some of the settings on my camera and was able to get a a good shot even though there was too much light coming in through the window. I don't know why I never thought to play with that before!

See the difference? This one is on my "normal" setting

See the difference? This on is on a setting called "Macro" (and no, I have no clue what that means)

Here is me trying to get them to sit on their steps, face forward and smile. I think it's funny to watch it progress through each picture as they move around and only one boy will do as told at a time, ha ha.

Click on the picture to see it bigger

Here is Clayton's reaction when I told him to "say cheese!"

And here is Reese's reaction. . . just closed his eyes! Oh dear!

And here is the video. Reese was hauling his "blankey" (one of three of my shirts that he has attached to as a security blanket). I thought it was so cute!

If you didn't catch what happened there at the end, I did figure out that was crying because he was looking for his binky (pacifier). I guess at night his binky must get caught up in the shirt, so then he can shake it out and the binky will come out. I guess he was hoping that the same thing would happen here and so when the binky didn't fall out of the shirt after repeatedly shaking it he was kind of sad.

On another note, last night was the 3rd night in a row that Reese has not nursed before bed, so I guess he is officially weaned and I am done breastfeeding. The night before I started he only nursed for about a minute and wanted to be done, so I figured it was time to just take the plunge. It had already been a few nights in a row where he was able to make it all night with out nursing so he was down to just that one time per day (he still wakes up 1-3 times per night but we can just lay him right back down). He has been kind of upset about not nursing at night but doesn't cry when I put him down, just when he tries to get into my shirt and I have to tell him that mommy's milk is all gone. It's kind of bittersweet, but he will be 16 months old in 2 days and I have been ready to be done for a while. So the official total if you were wondering, is that I have been pregnant and/or nursing for 3 years and 5 months (give or take a few days) straight - no breaks!

Oh, and Reesee also has a new tooth popping up - the bottom left! :)

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!)

Messy Prunes

Reese really enjoyed making a mess of some pureed prunes today during his lunch. He did eat most of them, but he wore a lot and painted his tray with them as well! You might notice that he has 4 teeth now! Three came in all at the same time! There are two on each the top and bottom.

"Breaking" News

Well, Clayton's news that is that he has two molars that have "broken" (get my pun?) through! He still only has six regular teeth (four on top and two on the bottom) so I'm not sure why there is such a big gap, I assumed they would come in order. . .  But last Sunday Darrel noticed a molar on his top left side, and yesterday I noticed it's counterpart on the top right.

We have never gotten him interested in teething rings, he seems more interested in gnawing on his fingers, but last night we did get him to chew on one for a little bit while watching some of his favorite Sesame Street clips on YouTube!

Sick Kid, but Better Now

Wednesday afternoon Clayton started running a fever and tugging at his ears and throat. He hadn't had much of an appetite all day so I really wasn't surprised to figure out he just wasn't feeling well. He drank some Pedialyte (like, a lot actually! He must have been so thirsty I didn't realize until then he hadn't really drank all day either) and had some Children's Ibuprofen and was a pretty big trooper about everything even though he didn't feel well. I did take him into the Doctor's office on Thursday morning to rule out ear infection since he had been grabbing at them, but they were clear, thank goodness. The doctor thought it was just one of those 24hr flu bugs going around. He must have been right, because there has been no fever today and I could tell he was feeling so much better!

After his afternoon nap and snack, Clayton was being kind of crabby (out of boredom I figured), so I thought I could take some pictures to cheer him up. (Plus, I went "shopping" in our box of hand-me-downs for some winter clothes since it looks like that season may have finally arrived, and wanted to show off his new sweater. It's actually a 24 month size and fits pretty well!) At first he didn't want to cooperate for a picture because he wanted to see what I was doing with the camera. But then once he got going on the Buzz Light Year Truck he was fine and had fun during his photo shoot!

Half smile / Half cry

I don't even know what that is...

He cried when I sat him on the truck :'(

But then he realized he could have fun climbing in

Ok, this is pretty fun after all!

Climb out

Back in

Look at all those teeth!!

Clayton loves his Daddy

This was Clayton and Daddy at lunch today. I realized I hadn't taken a real good picture of Clayton at 15 months old yet, so it was time to get out the camera!

There's those teeth!

Cute Hat and . . . TEETH (finally)

So this post was supposed to go up on Friday, Sept 23, but for some reason it did not! : ( So here it is, pretend that it's last Friday. . .


Yesterday, I bought Clayton this adorable new hat for winter. I love that it will cover his ears and it is a cute little monster for my monster! I don't think it will be keeping his ears very warm though... I tried to take a picture and he can rip it off in RECORD TIME!

1st Attempt - too quick for the camera!

There it is! Mommy is holding it on though.

And he's not too happy about it....

"What is that horrible thing?!"

"Mommy...? Why?!""

And if you look REALLY close you can see his two bottom teeth!

First Little Tooth

I noticed yesterday a little white spot in Clayton's mouth! He is finally going to get a tooth! It is on his lower left side. I tried to take a picture, but he freaked out every time I tried to even look in his mouth. Nor more toothless baby! : )