Funny Little Man

Clinton is growing up so fast! Lately he has become a little boy and is officially no longer a baby. Words are just pouring out of his mouth. Sentences are being formed. Directions are being followed. And decisions are being made--particularly about what he'll be wearing and what he'll be eating.

One of my favorite things about him right now is how much he loves and cares for his little sister. Occasionally, I'll go to get her out of bed and find that her brother has left a bottle or a blanket by her. Often when I'm holding her, Clinton comes and gives her kisses. When Heidi is crying, Clinton comes and tells me, "Her cwy-ingt". And sometimes when she's upset, Clinton pats her head and tells her, "Kay"...as if to say, "It's okay."

He's also been trying to assert himself around here which results in the "terrible two" tantrums. I typically react by leaving the room and shutting the door behind me. He'll quickly pull himself together, come find me, and start the tantrum over. We repeat this several times until he gets put in his room until he is "all done crying". I love that he has an opinion and a will to fight for what he wants, but good gracious, it's exhausting!

In our house, we definitely believe in he power of "T". Rodney, a University of Tennessee grad, and me, a University of Texas grad, both love a power "T" (in our respective shades of orange, of course). However, Clinton has taken the love of T to a new level. With all the new words Clinton has been adding to his vocab, he's also added a new sound. He's added the "T" sound to the end of a lot of words. Instead of saying "again", he's now saying "againt". Before he said "mon" for milk and mowing, now he says "mont". And as you may have noticed above, we have "cwy-ingt" in our house now!

Another part of growing up is saying goodbye to the baby toys. Clinton has pushed aside all of his old bath toys and traded them in for monster trucks and matchbox cars. Clinton's daddy started this trend and Clinton has been loving it. He not only plays with these in the bath, but also in his club house, on his train table, on the kitchen counters, in the car and anywhere else that he can. I just have to make sure to keep them picked up...they're no fun to step on!

And when Clinton's not having a tantrum, he's able to follow directions quite well. He knows his colors well enough that I can tell him to get something and describe it by color. Or he knows where things are that he can go get--i.e. his shoes, his bowls and cups, or his hats. He also loves to help me clean. Which isn't really helpful at this point, but I let him help because it makes him happy and I'm hoping to set a standard in this house about pitching in!

On Clinton's last day of school last week, we stopped on the way and picked up one bunch of flowers for each of his two teachers. Clinton was very excited about them and held the "trees" (what he calls all plants) all the way to school. He then wanted to carry them in to give to Miss Kay and Miss Mary. As we started across the parking lot I noticed he was dragging them along the pavement. I told him to hold them up so they wouldn't hit the ground. This little goose held his arms straight above his head, elbows locked and walked all the way across the parking lot, into the school, down the hall and into his class with the flowers above his head! BUT HE FOLLOWED DIRECTIONS!

Looking forward to more accomplishments (big and small),