Clayton is Five Weeks

Clayton's fifth week was an eventful one! He went a lot of places for the first time (although he snoozed through most of these in the Ergo or stroller).  We had not been to the zoo since Clayton's due date, so we decided that it was time to visit the Knoxville Zoo!  He also went to Downtown Knoxville for the first time, and we didn't realize it but the Rossini Festival was taking place so we briefly went to the festival.  Other firsts for Clayton in his 5th week included going to Fort Kid, the chocolate factory, and the World's Fair Park.  He also went to the park so that Carter and Nora Kate could meet up with some friends for a playdate.  He's such a good baby that it's really easy to take him wherever we want to go-I just try to be careful that he's not in the sun much!  We have also gone on lots of walks around the neighborhood. 
In his 5th week Clayton has started smiling at us! He doesn't do it all the time yet making it hard to capture on camera, but it's so sweet when he looks right at your face and smiles!  On Friday when we were in the van leaving to take Dawson to school, Dawson got in Clayton's face to kiss him goodbye.  While Dawson was close to him Clayton looked right at Dawson and smiled!  It was SO sweet how excited Dawson was over this-he knew it was a big deal, and felt special that Clayton had smiled at him!  So sweet!
Clayton has continued to do a lot of tummy time and it's paying off as I can tell his little neck is getting stronger and he's getting better head control. 
Clayton has continued the same eating and sleeping patterns as I described in the one month old blog posting.  He also continues to be a happy, sweet baby! 
He always has someone wanting to hold him, pat him, or kiss him! I love seeing him surrounded by so much love from Dawson, Carter, and Nora Kate!  I watch the four of them together and hope that they always have close, special sibling relationships!
We love our sweet Clayton so very much! Here are some pictures from his 5th week!

Clayton's first trip to the zoo...

How quickly things change..the top picture was our trip to the zoo on Clayton's due date in March.  Then on our zoo trip in April we had four sweet kids with us!

Clayton's first time visiting downtown Knoxville and World's Fair Park.

Clayton started smiling this week!

LOVE!!

Clayton: 1 Month Old

As of April 21st Clayton is one month old.  Just thinking about that makes me sad in that it has flown by so quickly!!  Knowing how quickly time passes with kids, but especially newborns, we have tried to savor and enjoy every single moment!
Clayton continues to be an awesome baby!  He is a great eater, sleeper, and has long (for a newborn) periods of awake time during the day where he's really happy.  He nurses about 10 times in a 24 hour period.  During the day he eats every 2 or 3 hours and will sometimes want to eat even closer together (like every hour and a half) in the evening.  These cluster feedings in the evenings are fine with me though because I think it's part of how he does so great at night (and it's also why I'm not really willing to do much in the evening that takes us away from home or off our schedule because I'm afraid I'll mess out our night sleeping haha!  After having had three kids who were not great sleepers as babies, I'm not risking messing up this good thing we have going!!)  But after his cluster feedings in the evening he will usually go one four hour stretch of time during the night!  This means I get 3 and a half hours of uninterrupted sleep since it takes him about 30 minutes to eat.  I'm SO, SO thankful for the uninterrupted 3.5 hours! 
Clayton sleeps in his bassinet in our room in his swaddling blanket, but we (from the 2 days old) have swaddled him with his arms out since he prefers to sleep with his arms beside his head.  I don't think I've mentioned this in any previous posts, but when we were having ultrasounds done, Clayton always had his ankles crossed (even when he was breech!).  Now that he's "out of my tummy" (as Nora Kate likes to say) he always keeps his ankles crossed-awake or asleep! It must be his comfy position!
Clayton has become a lot more aware of what is going on around him.  When he hears Carter, Nora Kate, and Dawson playing or talking he always tries to turn toward their voices.  Even when he's laying on the floor he will arch around and try to turn toward them! I love this!  His siblings continue to love him so much, and John and I continue to be surprised that we have not seen a single bit of jealousy from any of the kids.  They all love to hold him, kiss him, pick out his clothes, help with his baths, basically try to take care of him!  Nora Kate has started referring to him very frequently as "our baby." 
Clayton has started paying more attention to the toys that hang down on his bouncy seat and his back time gym.  He really is happy in anything I put him in-swing, bouncy seat, tummy time, or back time gym.
Clayton is still happy at bathtime too!  The only times he will fuss a little (not really even cry) is when I get him out of the tub! 
Just when we thought Clayton couldn't make any more noises in his sleep, he has gotten even "grunt-ier."  He grunts a lot!  Carter made a lot of noises in his sleep too-more than Clayton actually-but it's still funny and sweet to hear all these noises especially when he's going to sleep. 
As I was reading what to expect from 4 week old babies just to remind myself, I read that this was a common time for baby acne to appear, then that very day Clayton's baby acne started showing up.  Some people have told me that none of their babies ever got this-but all of our kids have had it-the boys worse than Nora Kate (which from doing some reading, usually boys get it worse than girls).  Either way, we are in full force baby acne stage.  Clayton also has had a lot more of the peeling baby skin that newborns get (although this is almost over now), and after doing some reading on this the later past a due date a baby gets the more of this they usually have (which I just thought was interesting since he was our latest baby). 
In his fourth week, Clayton went to Gym Bugs for the first time and to Sandy Springs Park for the first time.  Also, he attended a birthday party of a friend from Sunday School who lives in our neighborhood.  At all three of these places he slept almost the entire time in the Ergo carrier I wear.  He's such a good baby that now that I'm feeling able to lift Carter and Nora Kate, we have been able to get out a lot more with him very easily.  He's happy in his carseat so drives are easy and he's happy in the Ergo which is usually where he stays when we are out and about.  I really don't think Clayton could be a better baby!  Since he's so good and so happy, I really do feel like we get to enjoy every minute!
Clayton's 1 month check up with Dr. Collins went great.  The doctor was impressed with Clayton's weight gain, and he said Clayton is looking great!
At birth Clayton weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces, and now, at one month old Clayton weighs 11 pounds 6 ounces (yes, he's gained over three pounds in one month!).  He also grew from 21 inches long to 22 inches long at one month.  His growth is GREAT! 
After all the details that only a mother could appreciate, on to the pictures...

Clayton's sweet hair!

His hair stands up like this on it's own.  Every time I bathe him it springs back up as soon as it dries! I love it.

This picture cracks me up...he's sitting up so straight!

Clayton is one blessed boy to have so many siblings who adore him!

My sweet and talented friend Cassandra made this blanket for Clayton.

(Carter and Nora Kate have similar blankets made by Cassandra.)

It's so soft and cute!

Clayton's Nana and Grandad gave him this adorable nautical quilt! I need to get an up close picture to show all the cool patterns on it, but I love how tiny Clayton looks laying on it in this picture!

Carter is FOUR

On Wednesday, April 13, our silly, compassionate, smart, loving, adventurous Carter turned FOUR!  One of my favorite qualities of Carter is his silliness!  He loves nonsense and silliness! I love to watch him get so excited and giggly over things-even over nothing sometimes!  I always say that Carter is our "feeler"-he feels everything-meaning if something is exciting or fun-Carter will be the most excited about it in our family.  At the same time, if something has made Carter sad or hurt his feelings-he "feels" this equally as strong.  I love, though, that he can get so excited over things! It's fun to watch and experience things with Carter because he is like this!  I love this quality about him too. 
Carter is loving and compassionate.  He cares about the feelings of others.  If John takes everyone somewhere and I am by myself, Carter always asks in a very concerned manner, "Mommy, will you be lonely?"   Probably Carter's top love language is touch-he is ALWAYS giving hugs and kisses to our family unsolicited!  He regularly will run in the room where I am and give me a kiss and run out saying, "I just wanted to kiss you!" LOVE THIS!  Carter still asks us each night at bedtime to hold him like a baby and sing him Rock-a-by Baby.
Carter has lots of friends-and will make new friends and talk to other kids on his own with no prompting.  He's not shy, and I think his ease in interacting with other children comes from having an older and younger sibling.  He does great with lots of different ages.  Carter still LOVES to play with Dawson all the time!  Carter gets more excited for the weekend (when Dawson is home from school) than Dawson does!  He is so excited to play with his big brother that he really looks forward to it!  By the same note though, Carter and Nora Kate have really become sweet little friends this school-year while Dawson has been in Kindergarten.  They are good about playing together, and it's really sweet for me to watch.  Carter and Nora Kate are great at playing pretend together!
At four years old Carter's favorite things to do are play outside on the playset, playdoh, coloring/art, play with hotwheels cars on his hotwheels track, play restaurant, play tanks on the wii, and build forts in the sunroom with every blanket and pillow he can find in the house. 
Carter goes to bed at 7:30 Monday through Friday and gets up at 6:45.  On the weekends or any non-school day for Dawson, Carter goes to bed at 8:00 and gets up at 7:30.  Carter still takes a 2 hour nap every day(except on special occasions).  Carter and Dawson share a room, and Carter loves this!  There have been a couple of nights where the boys slept in separate rooms (due to trying not to spread the stomach virus about 6 weeks ago), and Carter kept talking about how lonely he was without Dawson in his room.  Carter is definitely an extrovert and a people-person.  He loves to have people around him all the time-even to the point of being "lonely" when he has to sleep in his room alone. 
Carter's been really into board games lately.  He claims his favorite is Mouse Trap, although lately he frequently asks to play Hungry Hippos, Kerplunk, Number Puzzle, and Don't Break the Ice.  Carter's favorite places to go are Dollywood, the Zoo, and Gym Bugs (lately he has been constantly asking to go to Gym Bugs!)
I could go on and say so much more about our wonderfully sweet 2nd born son, but I'll end with the stats.  His four year check up isn't until the beginning of May, so I don't have his official percentiles (I'll update this post when I have them).  BUT I do obviously have his height and weight...
After 32 hours (and eight minutes) of labor, Carter was born four days after his due date on LUCKY Friday, April 13, 2012, at 7:08am weighing 7 pounds 13 ounces and 21 inches long.  NOW at 4 years old Carter weighs 40 pounds.  
We love our affectionate, fun-loving Carter very much, and he is bringing us so much joy as we watch him grown and learn!  Happy fourth birthday, sweet Carter!

My Carter

Carter requested I take some pictures of just him and Nora Kate...they have a special and silly relationship.

Carter's MONSTER TRUCK Fourth Birthday Party

On Saturday, April 9th we celebrated Carter's 4th birthday with friends and family in our backyard.  Per Carter's request, he had a monster truck themed birthday party.  The weather the day of Carter's birthday party was unseasonably cool, but even though it was cool it ended up being a pleasant, clear afternoon to be outside celebrating our birthday boy!

All about Carter!

Here's the invitation that Carter picked out himself.

(The two white boxes are covering our address and phone number)

We rented the BIG inflatable slide, also per Carter's request.  We also had the smaller blue inflatable on the other side of the yard for the smaller kids (although I think all the kids took at least one turn on it too!).

Our birthday boy being his silly self!

When Carter's birthday shirt was delivered, he was SO excited! He got a piece of paper and wrote several letters and said, "This says, "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! THANK YOU FOR MY MONSTER TRUCK SHIRT! I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!"  Do you think he was a little excited about the shirt?! 

The slide was a hit with all the kids.

Nora Kate and Nana.

Also per Carter's request, we had a monster truck piñata!

A couple of pictures of all the spectators watching the piñata!

What's a monster truck party without a monster truck?!?!

So we had this monster truck stop by in the middle of the party!

This was Carter's over excited face when he saw the monster truck in our driveway!  We had NOT told Carter about the monster truck coming so that it would be a surprise.

The wheels were bigger than Carter!

The kids all thought it was so cool that they could walk under it.

This thing was so high off the ground!

I think every kid at the party took a turn standing on the tires.

When I asked Carter what all foods he wanted at his party, his reply was, "Pizza and Cake..that's all!" So we had pizza, cake, chips, carrots, and fruit.

Wonderfully generous friends brought sweet gifts that Carter LOVED!

I made a monster truck cake and cupcakes.

Carter was specifically showing me how to cut his piece of cake.

Someone was excited about the cake.

Singing to our birthday boy.

Daddy helping Carter eat the cake.

We are thankful for everyone who helped us celebrate our sweet 4 year old boy!  In attendance were the following people:  Daddy, Mommy, Dawson, Nora Kate, Clayton (who slept inside during the entire party because he was only 2 weeks old at the party), Pop, Lolly, Grandad, Nana, Sarah, Alexa, Connor, William, Freddie, Olivia, Ben, Mary Grace, Nora, Charlie, Violet, Casey, Jessica, Carson, Harper, Daniel, Patty, Hayden, Katelyn, Ashley, Jaxon, Josh, Cassandra, Henry, Thomas, Marshall, (they're so awesome to travel all the way from Asheville just for a 4th birthday party!), Melanie, Katie, and Emily G.  I think we had 39 people total if you count our birthday boy. 

Carter was so happy with his party, his gifts, and everyone who came over to our house to help him celebrate his big day!