One Blogging Shelton

Teacher Tales

Kindergarten is almost over.  I had so many trepidations about my little baby entering the public school system at the beginning of the year.

Is he ready for school?

What if he gets bullied?

What if he doesn't do well?

How am I supposed to let go of my baby?

And boy did I ever let the tears flow. He's my only baby...and I'm letting go of him little by little to become this little, mini-man.

Wow...I look back at the fears I had....and I just laugh.  And laugh...and laugh some more. Big, fat, belly laughs

The instant we left Clayton's first Kindergarten parent-teacher conferences, the knot in my stomache unraveled. He was doing OK.  Better than OK.  He was excelling.

About a month ago, we had his second parent-teacher conference of the year.  I guess it's always a good sign when the teacher starts the conference out laughing about this or that, referring to the times Clayton has made her laugh. 

Mrs. Gilroy has always been great about relaying messages home in the form of a quick note jotted down in Clayton's assignment book.  Last week she made a note about how there would be a substitute teacher on Thursday and Friday.  I asked Clayton about it, and he said that her mom had passed away.

Instantly saddened, after having gone through the loss of my dad only months prior, I made a mental note to pick up a card over the weekend for her. 

Clayton and I picked out the perfect card. It had no religious fluff, and it had a pretty butterfly on it.  Perfect, considering their class had just finished studying butterflies.  Clayton and I jotted a heartfelt note, telling her how sorry we all were, and that cherishing the memories helps. Clayton even signed it with a heart following his name.

Today when he got home from school, he walked in and threw his bookbag on his bed.  I asked him how his day went. Fine.  What did you learn today? I don't remember. Did Mrs. Gilroy like her card?  Uh...mommy?

Just as I started to read his assignment book note:

"Hi guys. Just wanted to thank you for the beautiful card and thoughtful words.  However, THANKFULLY, my mother has NOT passed away.  I think Clayton may have been a little confused...etc."

The note went on and I could feel the heat moving up my neck into my face.  Wow...maybe next time I should consult other moms in the class first.  Wow...that is all I could think.  Wow.

Embarassed as I felt, I realized that I needed to get over it.  My little baby boy is turning 6 on Saturday.  I'm guessing that this little mix-up is NOTHING in the scheme of what I have in store for me in the years to come!

Clayton's Big Birthday #5 Surprise!

Clayton turns 5 today at 6am!  I can hardly believe how fast the time went!  Tara, a friend of mine from IDT (where I used to work) reminded me of how there were a whole bunch of us pregnant at once...7 of us!  Patty and I were just a couple of weeks apart and Tara was only a couple of months behind us.  The other girls went before us.  It was great to go through the pregnancy with them to compare stories and bellies! Some of us had morning sickness around the clock (never want to go through that again!!!!) and some of the girls hardly knew they were pregnant other than a minor physical change in their tummy!

Patty and I worked side by side in the same lab, so we had great experiences to share. I remember one night at work that was particularly funny...well, a bunch - but we'll stick to this one...I had just come back from taking a couple of vacation days over the week of Christmas/New Year's.  The first night back, Patty sought me out.  She said "did your belly change?"  This struck me as funny because I was actually looking for her to ask her the same.  In one week, both of our bellies just seemed to pop out.  We went from looking like we were just gaining weight to, "oh cute, there's a baby in there!"

So what did we do?  We opened our lab coats and hiked up our shirts over our bellies...right there in the lab.  I was amazed at how two different pregnancies were carried so differently.  I carried Clayton high in my ribs and my belly was hard as a rock the whole time.  Patty's was soft to where you could actaully feel the baby and she carried him very low.  We were pressing each othere's belly's when a guy we worked with walked in.  He looked at us funny, but smiled.  His wife had just had a baby two months before.

Along with comparing bellies, Tara joined us in comparing morning sickness (who named it that, anyway?????) horror stories and various other experiences along the way.  It was great to be able to go through that with those girls!

So Clayton's 5 today....

Being a shorter little boy, we have been able to put off getting him a bigger bed until now.  He'd been sleeping in the same toddler bed since he was 2, but only recently have his feet been touching the bottom footboard.  So Wednesday Nathan and I went out and bought him a full size bed.  We weren't able to hide it anywhere, so we told him it was for our neighbor Myron and that we had to keep it in the basement so Myron could come over and get it.  It seemed to fly with Clayton, so hey, whatever works!

Last night, we had Clayton fall asleep in our bed.  Nathan and I put together his new bed.  Nathan found it to be so comfortable that he slept in it while I stayed up (until 2 am!) washing and drying his new sheets.  We then made up his new bed and without waking him up, carried him in and slid him into his nice new warm bedding.  He never even knew!

This morning when I checked on him, he was all snuggled up, lost a sock somehow up by his head, and had already drooled on his new pillowcase!  Now that is comfort! 

When we woke him up, he kind of glanced around and laid his head back down...then he bolted his head back up to see his new pillows and blankets.  I was able to catch it on video!  He was amazed and started naming off all of the different airplanes on the comforter right away.

He was excited to go to school this morning so he could take his birthday treats...SpongeBob cupcakes!  Tonight, we're going to Shogun where they cook your food around a hibachi table.  We went to a similar place in Minneapolis and he had a blast, so tonight will be interesting!

Happy Birthday, Buddy!  We love you!

Who needs those?

The other night we were hanging out on the couch, watching TV and eating ice cream.  There was a commercial on about a male enhancement pill.  We weren't really paying much attention to it...correction...Nathan and I weren't paying much attention to it. 

When the commercial was almost over, Clayton turned to Nathan and said, "You need those, Daddy?"

Not sure how to react, neither of us said anything for 2 seconds...total silence except for the commercial in the background. 

Just as we started laughing, Clayton added "you need those for your headaches, Daddy?"

A "Clayton" Moment

Yesterday Clayton and I went to my dad's appointment at the pain clinic.  We opted to hang out in the waiting area so I could entertain Clayton.  He did great and sucked up all the attention from the nurses and waiting patients. 

An older woman and her middle aged daughter sat down a couple of seats away from us.  When they called this woman's name, she stood up with the help of her daughter.  On her way up, she unfortunately passed a little gas.  Actually, she passed a LOT of gas, very loudly at an unusually quiet moment when Clayton was watching her stand up.

This is where life's time clock goes into slow-mo.  I heard him suck in his breath as he looked at me.  I threw him a "don't even think about saying a THING or so help me..." look.  But this back-fired because I think he thought that my expression was one of blame, so he blurted out for everyone...and I mean EVERYONE, "What...it wasn't ME!"

Oh the humiliation.....

Things That Make Me Happy #2 - Mommy Clayton Days

Mommy-Clayton days.

With my crazy work schedule, Clayton has designated the days that I get to spend ALL day with him as Mommy-Clayton days.  These are days when I don't have to sleep during the day and he and I get to have fun all day.

Today just happens to be one of them!

The Bird...yeah...that one!

Clayton and I went to Target today to get a few things for Halloween.  We got what we needed and he behaved like an angel, so I offered to buy him a small toy.  Reward the good behvior, right? 

He picked out a small box of Legos (I know....surprise) after about a 10 minute discussion on what a small toy is considered to be.  Big toys go on the list for Santa, also known as Mommy's leverage list.

We then headed over to the grocery section to get a few neccessities.  We made it to the bread isle and I was deciding between Oatnut and 12-grain.  Decisions decisions.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Clayton holding his fist in the air.  He was in the big part of the cart sitting with his back to me looking at his box of Legos, holding up...you guessed, THE BIRD!

I felt like Ralphie's mom on Christmas Story after he loses the lugnuts and yells the F-word.  A million thoughts raced through my head in the 2 seconds it took me to get to the cart.  How...who...where did ever learn that????!!!!  Then I did a mental backtrack to try to remember how many people walked by behind me as I was oblivious to him doing this while debating what grain of bread I wanted.

At first he wouldn't say anything to me when I asked, so I promptly left his new Legos in the bread isle, thinking he was just being "bad".  As we made our way down the isle, him screaming and me making a calculation as to the shortest distance to the registers, I decided to stop and try to reason.  I got him to talk about why he did it.  He saw someone do it somewhere and honestly didn't know what it meant (I'm hoping no 4-year-old really knows what it means!).  So with his big tears in his eyes, and hiccupping from crying so hard, I melted at his "sorry, mommy" and retrieved the Legos.

Anybody care to share any shopping with child horror stories?

Clayton's Tall Tale

Today was an exciting day for Mr. Clayton Shelton.  It was his day to bring treats for his preschool class, so we made Ants on a Log (celery with peanut butter and raisins on top).  After snack time, they all went on a walk through a nearby neighborhood.  At some point on this walk he apparently told his teachers that we live in a tent.  He must have made it somewhat believable because when Nathan's mom picked him up, they asked her if we really lived in a tent. 

Wow...that's all I have to say...wow.

Hotty from Hottingham

File this under "From the Mouths of Babes"

Did you all see the commercial around Valentine's Day where the guy is frosting a burnt, smooshed 2-layer cake and he says something to the effect of "I made you this cake to symbolize our love, it's burnt but that's just because you're a hotty from hottingham" or something to that effect? Clayton and I always giggle at it for some reason.

Well last night I was baking salmon in a Teriyaki merinade. Some of the marinade splashed out in the oven and made a really smelly fishy smoke odor. Clayton said, "you burnin' supper mommy?"

I said no and looked at him. He had this goofy grin on his face. I asked him what he was laughing at.

"You burnin' my supper 'cause you a hottie from hottingham"

Giggles

I about died.

Glue My Hair Back....

Yesterday, Nathan asked me to cut his hair. It's usually a simple task of getting out the electric clippers, buzzing his head, vacuuming up the hair...boom, we're done. Not so, this time!

Half way through his buzz, our fireplace started smoking up the basement, so he had to deal with that.  That was a nice fiasco of trying to figure out what was causing all the smoke to come back in the house. It was really windy yesterday and the temp quickly dropped throughout the day. Apparently the wind was blowing the smoke back through the chimney.

Anyhow, I finished Nathan's hair and set the clippers down to go upstairs to get the vacuum. Nathan came up behind me to do something. When I got back downstairs, Clayton was sitting in the chair, holding the clippers. My eyes instantly darted to his head.

"Do you like my hair, mommy?" He asked.

I stared at his bare scalp in shock. As he ran his hand over his head, he realized how short he cut it. His lower lip inched its way out, and tears welled up in his eyes. I went over to hug him just as he started to cry, "Glue it back on, mommy. Put my hair back."

He cried so hard, so I started tearing up. Nathan came down the stairs at that point. His hand instantly went to his mouth. We both were laughing so hard, but trying to keep from laughing at the same time so Clayton wouldn't feel any worse...that's really hard to do!

So I had to calm him down and ended up putting the shortest guide on the clippers to finish his hair. I couldn't bring myself to cut it as short as he did the top, so it kind of looks like he has a landing strip on the top of his head, or an inverse mohawk. I figure in a few days, I'll cut it again so that spot will catch up with the rest of his hair.

No body told me boys do this too! I just remember doing this to my cousin Crystal when we were little. It was one of those, "I'll let you cut my hair if I cut yours first" moments as a kid. I cut a huge chunk of her pretty brown hair off and ironically, I never let her reciprocate the favor. I think my Granny walked in at that point and caught us.

Today, Clayton's fine with his new "do". In fact, he likes it because now he really looks like his dad.

New Pictures

I took Clayton to get his pictures taken for Christmas. He was SUCH a good boy, I was super impressed with him. He even brought his favorite rabbit along for the photos. Click here to view them.