Clayton is TWO!

My goodness, I can hardly believe it!

"Good morning, I'm 2 now!"

After a happy wake up and breakfast, he then decided to usher in the "terrible two's" in style today with marathon temper tantrums all morning, culminating in no lunch and a nap at 11:45 am (instead of the normal 1:00 pm). I guess he might have been just tired since we woke up before 7am and most mornings I have to wake him up closer to 8:30. Asking him to take off his pants (we were getting dressed) became a 20 min. fit. Not letting him have M&Ms right before lunch was another. Finally, telling him it was time for lunch was my next mistake and so I asked if he wanted to take a nap and immediately stopped his fit, ran to his room and asked for binky. Luckily he was too tired to care that blankey was still in the dryer and he slept until almost 2pm. He was a lot better after that, eating what would have been lunch and happily playing out side and with his new birthday present.

Grandpa and Grandma Branz came for supper and birthday cake and ice cream.  He got a Big Wheel and cool monster truck (and clothes, but Clayton doesn't know much about that). Reese enjoyed playing with the  wrapping paper immensely! I will have to make another post (hopefully for tomorrow) with all of the pictures and videos - I took too many to go through it all tonight.

But I will leave you with this:

Mommy got some cuddles!

And can you believe they were from Clayton?  He was just so tired when we got home on Saturday! We left from Lincoln after having family pictures taken, both boys fell right asleep in the car. When we got home Clayton asked to take another nap! I didn't let him take one then since it was getting so late in the afternoon, but I hold him like that and sang songs for a looong time before he was ready to get down and play. It was a sweet moment for sure!

8 Months!

I forgot that today was the 5th when I put up those three videos this morning, but Reese is 8 months old today! I measured him at 28 inches long and his weight at 17.2 lbs.

He is crawling all over the place now - taking off for all kinds of trouble. I have to put up a baby gate to block off the hallway if Reese is up and Clayton is napping, because Reese will crawl to the door and pull up and stand there banging on it if I let him! I think he loves his big brother and knows he is in there, I guess.

He gets more and more hair everyday, but he still looks bald because it is so blonde. It's mostly coming in on the top of his head and is often sticking up in little wisps. It's so cute!

No sign of any teeth, but he still enjoys his finger foods. He is starting to get good at picking up small pieces like Cheerios, and recently I discovered that he enjoys sucking pureed baby food out of a pouch. They sell it that way (it's quite expensive, usually about $1.50 for a 4 oz pouch), but we are getting some different nutrition in him that way.

I know, I know, what you really want are some pictures and videos, so here you go!

Three Videos that Need Posted

I took this video at my Grandparent's house last weekend but forgot to work it into that post. This is Clayton cuddling (gasp!) with my mom while she reads one of my childhood favorites, and Clayton's too Bears in the Night

This video I took last Friday afternoon, I was busy packing and found both boys playing in the kitchen by the back door. They had taken all the cans of pop out of the box and I think Clayton had stacked a tower of them 3 cans high at one point. (I'm just glad no one got a finger crushed). I couldn't believe what Clayton did though when he stood up to come check out the video camera:

And this is one of Clayton's favorite things to do. We sing "The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers" and he bounces his stuffed animal. We used to bounce it when we sang, but he took over that job. I tried playing a YouTube video of it so it wouldn't have to be a video of me signing, but when I turned the YouTube version on Clayton just gave it a blank stare and wouldn't bounce him.  So anyway, this is something Clayton loves to do!

Fall Leaves

This is what we were up to yesterday between lunch and nap time! Reese had his first time to play in a pile of leaves, and I think he really enjoyed it!

Of course I took a couple pictures too, but they were having too much fun to hold very still!

At My Grandparents' Farm

My grandparents are moving to town this fall, so the we all went to Holdrege this past weekend so we (Darrel) could help with moving and cleaning up. I will always remember the fun times I had there growing up. I wish Clayton and Reese could have known what it was like there but I guess that is the way things go. This was the first time Reese had been out there and Clayton hadn't been since his first Christmas in 2010. I know they won't remember, so I took some pictures.

In the House:

Clayton and his Grandma cuddling in the living room

Grandma and Reese in front of the wood burning stove in the family room

 Outside ~ My mom took this antique planter so it will always be out at their place, but I think it just belongs on this hill. A hill that I always remembered being a lot bigger, by the way!

View from the porch looking south (I'm pretty sure)

A close up with Clayton on the planter (we just told him it was a tractor though)

Looking west

 I have always loved their mailbox!

Clayton walking down the driveway to the mailbox

Anything in there? Nope. "All gone!"

View from walking back up the driveway of the garage and Darrel, my Dad and Grandpa taking a little break from all the packing

This swing was made by my Great-Grandpa Daniel (my Grandpa's dad) and has always been there in front (east side) of the house. You can see the garage and the garden in the background (behind the trailer!)

Clayton and Grandpa on the swing

Reese playing in his jumperoo on the sidewalk along the front of the house with a grain bin in the background (looking north)

Clayton checking out one of the hitching posts that were always on either side of the garage

Playing with a truck outside, the garden in the background

 It was an emotional weekend for me knowing I can never go back to my grandparents' farm, but I'm glad I was able to share it a little bit with my own children even if they can't remember.  The boys certainly had a fun vacation day since we spent Friday night in what Clayton calls the "too-tel" (a good ol' Super 8!) We stayed up late (until almost 10 by the time everyone was asleep!) swimming in the pool and then he got to have a sleep over in "Papa and Me-Ma's" adjoining room (sometimes we hear Me-Mo and sometimes it's Me-Ma - and I can't really do justice to the way he pronounces Papa, it's really very sweet)

Tired baby!

Reese fell asleep in the car on the way home from the store today, in the middle of playing it looks like. So cute!