My Boy

Being the third child, Clayton does not get nearly as much time and blog attention as he should.  Lately, he has been doing so many cute and funny things that I just want to record his daily life and play it back when he's a teenager.  I suppose writing about a few things will have to suffice...

First of all, his vocabulary and speech have improved quite a bit lately.  I don't know if it's the increase in television, (the same thing happened to Kallie when I got pregnant with Whitney), or if it's just the age.  He's been speaking in sentences for a while now, but I'm finally able to understand things he's saying.  Like, "Where's Kallie?" and "Ohhhh...at the bus."  My favorite advance in this area are his ending consonants.  He's starting to understand that there is a sound at the end of many words.  It ends up coming out with the last letter emphasized: miiil...K, buuu...SSS, etc.  I love to hear him talk!

Along these same lines, he has started asking to be involved in the family prayer rotation.  In the past, when it was time for prayer, he would raise his hand and say, "MEEEE!!" and then suggest that Kallie or Whitney say the prayer instead.  But now, he'll actually repeat phrases of the prayer when he volunteers.  He picks and chooses a word or 2 from each phrase, but it's so cute to hear him participating.

Now that Whitney is in preschool and Kallie is gone all day, Clayton and I have a little time three days a week just the two of us.  So far, it's been mainly me resting while Clayton watches PBS, climbs all over me, elbows me in the belly 15 times, snuggles for 2 seconds, then runs to play...and repeating that sequence over 2 hours.  But it has been fun to snuggle with him and have the time to just focus on him.

One of the games he likes to play while it's just the two of us is, "Bye, Mom!"  He'll climb off the couch, head over to his truck and put one leg in, then turn around and say, "Bye, Mom!"  I'll say, "Bye! I love you, have a good day!" and then he climbs into the truck and plays for a few minutes before joining me on the couch again.  This has evolved from earlier this year when he would put on a pair of someone else's shoes and/or put a toy or two in a bag and head for the garage door saying "Bye!"  Now, before he "leaves," he'll usually come back over and say, "Tiii...SS?"  Which means kiss.  I kiss him goodbye and he's off again. :)  I think he's been watching his daddy...

Speaking of, Clayton's daddy is his FAVORITE person in the world!  Last weekend, Ryan was planning to take the girls to participate in a project for the National Day of Service.  The plan was for Clayton to stay home with me...but we all knew how upset Clayton would be if he didn't get to go with his Dad.  So, Ryan took him along, too.  (I know--Clayton has an AMAZING example of what dads should be!)  If Ryan's working in the garage or the yard, Clayton has to be out there with him.  It seems that Clayton knows he's a boy and he just wanted to be doing boy things with dad than hanging out with the girls.

As for being ALL BOY, I don't worry too much about Clayton in this respect.  Sure, he plays with princess dollies and even wears the girls' dress up dresses.  BUT, then he'll do something ALL BOY and I don't worry.  For example, the other night at dinner, Clayton discovered that he has the ability to eek out long strings of spit and then suck them back in.  He started out with small strings, but progressed until he got one that was at least 6 inches long--and he sucked it right back up.  Pretty impressive for a 2 year old!  He's sure going to be ready for Scout Camp.

Another mark of Clayton's boy-ness is his fascination with bodliy noises.  A few months ago, he realized that blowing on his arms makes a very loud flatulence sound.  (I believe he discovered this in the middle of family prayer, as his arms were folded and he was resting his face on them...)  He now loves to make this sound as much as possible.

One more thing...one of Clayton's new words is "Cra...SH!"  He loves to vroom his little motorcycle up and down my arms and legs, (heads have been declared off limits), and then slam the motorcycle down and said, "Cra...SH!"  He's been doing this for a few weeks now, but it still makes me laugh.

In fact, we find ourselves laughing at our boy quite a bit.  He's always doing something cute and/or funny that draws the attention of everyone in the family.  He is so much fun and we're so glad he's part of our family!