Play-Doh Lunch with Clayton

Clayton LOVES play-doh.  He just called me into the kitchen to check out the lunch he made.

Me: Ohhh, yum.  What is it?

Silence.

Me: Is it a salad?  Is this the lettuce, and are these the tomatoes?

Clayton (rolling eyes, in most annoyed 3 year old voice): No, Mommy.  It's a taco with lettuce!

Well, excuse me!  That has to be the most disgusting taco with lettuce I've ever seen.  It was slightly more appetizing as a salad.

I have to go now because according to Clayton, "Eli is makin' a big mess in my room!  Go check on him!"

Clayton's Valentines

Clayton's preschool class is not having a Valentine's party today, but they are bringing Valentines to exchange.  After briefly contemplating hand making all those Valentines, I decided that 2 and 3 year olds do not appreciate such things and would actually probably appreciate store bought ones more.  Clayton and I headed to the store last week, and he selected Cars, of course.  It was a close race between Cars and The Incredibles, but Cars won.  It wasn't until we got home that I realized the Mater card says "Eat my rust", and I'm really not so sure about that as a Valentine's message, but oh well.  It's done, and Clayton was so thrilled by the Mater cards, so hopefully no one is reading them too closely.

Clayton had a blast putting these together and thoughtfully choosing which chocolate he wanted taped to which Valentine.

In Clayton's class the children take turns bringing a snack to share each day.  We had the snack bag today, and Clayton was so excited to take these Valentine's treats to share with his classmates.  This morning he told me the hearts were so pretty.  Thank you, Clayton.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but I put a little red food coloring in the marshmallows, so the treats are pink.  I thought they looked so cute, and I hope the kids will be excited to eat them this morning.

Of course we had some leftover treats at home, and Eli wasted no time having a morning snack today.  Yes, these treats come with the Eli stamp of approval, which isn't really saying much, but they really were tasty (Ryan and I took care of the scraps last night, so we know).

You can take all the pictures you want, Mom, but don't even think about laying a finger on my rice krispie treat!

Science Museum

Why do we not come here more often?  The kids get in free, so it's not a bad deal.  Anyway, we made it over to the Children's Science Museum with our friends this morning.  The kids had a blast.  We have not been there since Eli was itty bitty, like "sleeping in the stroller the entire visit" itty bitty.  What I love about this museum is they have a dedicated small kids zone.  It's pretty well fenced off (important), and you can pretty much just let your little ones go.  There are lots of little kid friendly, hands-on stations and a variety of fun toys.  Thanks to our friends, we also found the gymnastics exhibit.  For some reason we'd never made it upstairs before.  The boys had an absolute blast rolling and tumbling all over the mats.

So here are a lot of pictures.  I've been feeling guilty about my lack of photography lately, and I was trying to get some good pictures of the boys.  Unfortunately, the lighting was not great, and the boys were completely uncooperative with looking at the camera, so that plan went out the window, but I did get some pictures that captured our trip.

The boys, especially Eli, loved the water table.

This is my favorite picture of the day.  The boys with their friend William.

Eli

Clayton

Face Painting

Driving the John Deere

Porky Baby.  Yes, that's his giant belly hanging over his pants.

On the back of a parlor car

Attempting to escape the stroller

Clayton and William with a little friend they met at the train exhibit

Jingle Jars

The Words No Mother Wants to Hear

Tonight at dinner...

Scene: Sitting around the table, Clayton and I are discussing how eating good food makes your body grow big and strong.

Clayton: Mommy, you're eating all your good food?

Me: Yes.  It will make me big and strong.

Pause

Clayton:  Mommy, your bottom's gettin' bigger.

Thank you, Son.

Loving Winter

We've been enjoying more snow days around here.  Just when all our Christmas Eve snow had finally melted off, we got 5 new inches on Thursday and Friday.  We also got nearly an inch of ice on Thursday, which always complicates things, but it sure does make everything gorgeous.  Ryan was able to stay home Thursday and Friday, so we've had a lot of great family time all together.

Our house.  Eli's crawling up the driveway.

This is the usual result of an ice storm.  The front of our house faces north and becomes completely encased in a sheet of ice.  This includes the garage door, which will not open until you break up and knock off the sheet of ice, which is easier said than done, especially without damaging the garage door.  Thursday's ice was about 3/4 in. thick.  Some places had over an inch.

I LOVE the way the trees look when they're coated in ice (as long as the ice doesn't break off all the branches, which then hit and take down all the powerlines, causing weeks of power outages).  When you drive down a tree lined street, the trees all look like they're made of crystal.  It's one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen.  We've been very fortunate to keep our power throughout this storm.  I just saw that 108,000 customers are currently without power in the state.  This storm was on Thursday, so they've been without heat for a while now.

Last time it snowed, we didn't have a snowsuit for Eli, and he had zero interest in playing in the snow.  Aunt Kristin recently loaned us this suit, and it has been used the last couple days.  The hat was also a hand-me-down from a girl in my Bible study.  I thought it was pretty silly when I first saw it, but boy did it keep this little boy's head warm.

From the moment we set Eli down, he was off.  Surprisingly, this boy loved the snow.  He crawled all over the yard and driveway and had a great time exploring.

Clayton could not wait to get out and make snow angels.  He wanted to make a snowman, but we had to work on the garage situation that day, so Frosty is on hold.  Maybe we can get out there tomorrow.

Sweet snow baby.

Too busy to look at Mama.

Starting to get a little chilly.

Playing with Daddy.

Looking so big.

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I updated our blog.  We've had holidays, travels, and some company, and I just haven't gotten around to blogging lately.

On the heart front, in case you haven't heard, it's looking more and more like Clayton will not have his Fontan for at least another year, if not two.  We'll have to see.  His size is the issue, and the fact that he is doing so well from a cardiac stand point, leads both Stanford and our cardiologist to see no reason to rush into a Fontan.  Personally, I would love to see Clayton with higher oxygen sats, but his body is tolerating these sats so far, and the cardiologist seems okay with him staying like this for a while longer.  So that's the plan for now.  Things can always change, especially if his tricuspid valve worsens or heart function decreases, but for now we wait.

On the Eli front, it's been a rough fall and winter for our boy.  He's currently on his fifth (at least) double ear infection of the season.  ENT has been mentioned, but I think we're going to wait it out a little longer.  On Tuesday he woke up with a fever, and I was suspicious.  By 10 am the piercing screaming and ear tugging made it obvious.  Yesterday and today he's been back to his old happy self, attempting to mimic a lot of what Clayton does, and attempting to wrestle with me at every moment.  Wrestling must be an inborn trait in little boys.  I don't understand it at all, nor do I really care to participate.

2010 has arrived.  It's hard to believe.  I'll update again with some new pictures soon.

Brrr!