Max and Ermas

GREAT EXPERIENCE!!!!

This past weekend Jason took the LSAT. He had to be in Richmond pretty early Saturday morning so we thought it would be a good idea to locate the test center the night before. When he took the test in May the test center was so hard to find so he did not want a repeat of the confusion before the test.

We all loaded the car and decided we would have dinner out. After we found the test center I messed with the GPS and found an Olive Garden near by. We went there and the wait was 45 minutes. Pre baby I would have waited 45 minutes but now we just move on. McDonald's is better that having a restaurant full of people staring at me because my son is melting down. Anyway, we passed by Max and Erma's and I remembered eating there as a kid but didn't really know anything about it so I called my mom who informed me that I would beg to eat there because they had a sundae bar for desert and corn dogs for dinner. So I told Jason I wanted to eat there and I am so glad I did. It was a great time!

Clayton was super tired so half way through his corn dog and fruit cup meal he started crying out of the blue, well our neighboring table of 10 people were all looking at us! But I later realized they thought he was cute...he is really dramatic when he cries and could be funny if you weren't trying to control him. One the gentlemen at the table was having a birthday and shard his birthday cookies with Clayton which was SO nice in my opinion. The food was great and the atmosphere was great and the prices were pretty good and the Sangria was AMAZING!!! All in all, Max and Erma's gets 5 stars from me!

2 naps turns into one

So I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was transitioning Clayton from 2 naps to 1 nap a day. This means he went from nap at 10:30 lunch at 1 nap at 3:30 to the new schedule of lunch at 12 nap at 12:30 and he usually wakes around 2:30 or 3:00. When it works it works well. He seems more rested and isn't too awake at night or to exausted (he has a tendency to take the morning nap and skip the afternoon). other mom I have talked to or read this blog are in the process of dropping naps also and asked me what I have learned works and doesn't work.

- Get out of the house: play areas at the park, indoor play areas, library story times, shopping
-stay out of the car at what should be the begining of the nap you are trying to drop
- if they are used to structure (Like clayton is) make this a known change and stick to it everyday: we plan an activity at the same timeish everyday at what we be his nap time
-Monday-grocery shop
-Tuesday-Playroom
-wednesday-Library story hour
- Thursday- Starbucks story hour
- Friday- changes week to week

Luckily Clayton has a friend who is dropping a nap at the same time so his mom and I have planned these activites together and it seems to be helping...the boys get used to seeing each and it makes what could be a really grouchy and stressful not so bad

Case of the hidden slipper

So a few days ago Clayton stayed with our friend Angie while i went to the doctor. She lives one apartment down so I put C in his slippers when we wlked down there. He loves the slippers so when I could only find one the next day I immediatly called Angie asking if she had seen them and then we searched our TINY apartment and could not find slipper #2 anywhere!!! Fast forward to this morning...I always take Claytons high chair to Starbucks for story time because they only have one. Anyway, as I unstrap the high chair I look and see:

Apparently C had a hiding place I was not aware of...

Taking a moment to brag

I feel like I usually put more pressure and expectations on Clayton than he deserves. He is a really great toddler, was an awesome baby. I could not have asked for a better companion while Jason was deployed. He never cried unless he needed something and while that is still mostly the case now he does the occasional cry from frustration. I tend to think he should be quiet and still all the time and listen immediately when given an instruction. I am now realizing that he is a child and it is his right to be a child while he can. I am not saying that I think he should run all over the restaurant or scream in public but he is figuring out the rules and limits to life he wasn'tt born with them after all! Today we went to the library for story time. For 30 minutes he sat in my lap and listened quietly to the story and songs, 30 minutes is a really long time for 1.5 year old to sit in my opinion. My point is I am really proud of him and his behavior today. I hope that I can step back at others times and see him as a 1.5 year old not an older child who may know all the rules and except that he may through his cup on the floor just to see what happens and he may scream out in a quiet place to hear what his voice sounds like there. Everyday I look at how much he has grown and I am proud of the kiddo he is and is becoming.

Nothing to blog about

I have been waiting all week for something eventful to happen but nothing really did. but here are some highlights:

Biggest Loser: I love it! I think I am really going to to like this season, I love 2nd chances and that is the theme. I already have my favorite and am super excited for Tuesday...speaking of, I am also super excited for Thursday. Grey's Anatomy looks like it is going to be a great opening!

Maymont: My new friend Jill and my Army "sister" Angie took Clayton and Jill's son Kemper (7 days older than C) to a Nature Center and Garden called Maymont. It was a lot of fun! The boys ran until they literally crashed out and we were exausted from chasing them. They must have walked a mile, which is a lot for those little legs.

Pumpkin: I LOVE FALL!!!!! I love pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin spice beer and decorating for fall and Halloween and the little candy corn pumpkins...etc I am in love with this season. The leaves are already changing here! I can't wait until they are completely changed. We are thinking about taking a trip to the Shenandoah Valley for a hot air balloon festival...seems fun

Cows: Clayton is going to be a cow for Halloween. I found the top vest thing at a consignment shop ($2) and I found black felt that is self adhesive that I am going to adhere patches on a white sweat suit..it should be really cute.

I am transitioning Clayton from 2 naps to one. In order to make this work I am keeping him busy every morning during his nap. I have an activity planned for every morning this week and hopefully we will make it through!

Weekend Getaways

Over Labor Day weekend my mom flew in to spend the long weekend with us. When we lived in TX we never really went anywhere around us and when family come to visit we just shared our daily lives with them. Now that we are in VA and there are so many fun things to do within a few hours drive we decided that we were going to travel and that meant dragging visitors/family with us. I have always wanted to visit Colonial Williamsburg. Remember the American Girl books? Well I loved Felicity, she was the one that grew up during the Revolution.

my mom before she left to go back to GA

Clayton being sneaky..I dont remember what he was doing

Clayton running around getting out some energy

The family in front of the Governors Palace

Jason and Clayton getting in the mood for some living history

Clayton loved to feed these ducks behind our hotel until one snapped at his finger and then he was over them

I am not sure why I was so intrigued in the gourd but I thought it was really cool

The Governors Palace

The Peyton Randolf house- he was the first president of the Continental Congress

The next weekend we joined our friends on a trip to Busch Gardens and Jamestown/Yorktown. There were no other children on the trip and I am always really nervous when we take Clayton to places with only adults. He is normal a very go with the flow kind of kid and he was this weekend but as any of you with children know they can be unpredictable and turn a vacation upside down. Luckily the couple (Angie and Andrew) know Clayton very well and is very comfortable with them so everything went smoothly.
I love these things!Clayton was so scared of Elmo. Elmo faked crying to Clayton to hug him and that was worthless the child was terrified. We finally convinced him to blow him a kiss.

Big Bird was worse. Clayton was crying so hard we made him blow me a kiss and called it a day with the characters

The only ride that Clayton was tall enough to ride was this little dragon thing that was pretty boring. Clayton even told me all done half way through.
We did get to ride the carousel with him and as long as he could see me there he was ok. I really hope he grows out of this. I LOVE roller coasters!
This is Powhatans hut. They were the Indians that were native to the area the settlers landed.
This is the ship (replica) that the settlers came in on.
The fam in front on the same ship
Waiting to get into the Jamestown visitors center.
If you look beside C there is a cutout in the bench of the Jamestown symbol

My nose misses my childhood

As a psych major I must have talked/read/wrote about memory and recognition a million times. Of all those millions of times the one that sticks out the most is the phenomena that smell is the strongest trigger of a memory. Even when you are unaware that it's happening the smells around you can trigger or are triggering times in your past or storing a memory to be recalled later. Before this turns into a term paper (can you tell I miss school?) I will get to my point.

Jason always laughs at me because I call this time of year Harvest Season. Growing up we celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving but I don't recall them separately very often. I recall this time of year, also known as fall, as a happy time filled with SO many memories. Growing up in the same house in the same town with the same people for 19 years meant that every year at the same time the same smells would appear and thus bring up the memories of the years before. Since getting married and going on the whirlwind adventure with the soldier I love, I realized that I will not experience those sames again the way I once did. However, I will now smell something and think "the smell of construction sites-that reminds me of when we lived in Virginia in that tiny apartment across the street from a construction site that never stopped working".
While sitting on my porch this afternoon and trying to block out the noise and smell of that construction site I imagined the smell of a carnival (Gwinnett County Fair-every September) or new polished floors and a fresh coat of paint (the start of the school year) or concession stand hamburgers (football-Go Knights!). I thought about Clayton and I wonder what it will be like for him. Will he smell a hot dog and think of 20 different things where I remember 1? It is weird for me to imagine how he will catalog his memories different then I did. In the Army it is easier to remember your life and specific events by which post or deployment then by the numeral year. For example I will always remember that Clayton was born at Hood and had his first pet at Ft. Lee, etc. I just hope that although we have moved and will continue to move that he will set roots and find a favorite time of year and have memories that are triggered by smell and most importantly smile when he has these memories...so here is to making memories in what way necessary to have them later.

Whats new

Goodness have we been busy yet I can't really remember what we have done. Life I guess. We are in such a routine here and I love that. Clayton has started getting up really early (that means 7 for us) and at first I HATED it but we have made it work and actually naps are working out better and he seems to need them more.

So about a week or so ago I noticed that Clayton was showing signs of teething again. He has his front top and bottom 8 and his four 12 month molars. So I sat him down and tried to take a look and noticed that his cuspids or canines or whatever you want to call them were starting to come through. I thought it was really early for that but within a few days the first one broke through and the other 3 are not far behind. Luckily Clayton usually gets through cutting teeth really quickly so it hasn't been bad.

Wednesday story hour at Chick Fil A has ended now that school started back here. We are looking for something to fill that gap. No luck yet but I am looking! The weather has been really great so I am hoping the new activity may be something outside. I miss my old neighborhood so much! Every day we sat outside for hours talking while the kids played. Here there just isn't that community. I am hoping and have that Ft, Irwin is very community oriented...we will see in a few months!

We spent the weekend in Colonial Williamsburg with my mom...there will be whole post on that later.

As much as I love this fall like weather my allergies hate it...I am going to take some meds and get some sleep!