A Slightly Smashed Finger

Clayton made it to 5 1/2 before making a trip to the ER for a true emergency. Honestly, I'm surprised he's lasted this long. A couple weeks ago, minutes after arriving at work, Cyle called. He said I need to either come home (I was 30 minutes away) or call Caitlyn (our fabulous next-door babysitter) because Clayton had smashed his finger really badly. Now, for Cyle to say it was smashed badly, I knew it must be bad. By the time I was able to leave work, Cyle and Clayton were already back home. I didn't see his finger until we had to change the bandage a few mornings later.

This is what happened: We had this really awful retaining wall along our driveway for a short distance. The previous owner had obviously collected rocks from around the property and stuck them together with some Quikcrete. It was falling over and looked really shabby.

Just after I had left for work, Cyle had started to break up this wall to remove it. The boys were playing with the rocks. Levi was up the hill rolling the rocks down to Clayton. According to Clayton, his hand got tired and he was resting it on rock. Meanwhile, Levi rolled another rock down. It just happened to collide with the rock Clayton was using as a hand rest. Cyle heard Clayton's scream and knew immediately that he was really hurt. - And this is where the chaos begins. -

Cyle asked Clayton what happened and Clayton replied, "Levi threw a rock and smashed my finger. You need to call 911! It's an emergency!" So Cyle took Clayton inside, wrapped up his finger and told him not to move. While Cyle was inside with Clayton, Levi thought he was going to be in trouble so he took off running into the woods. Cyle ran back outside, grabbed Clarey and set her inside the house so she couldn't go anywhere. Then he ran back out again to search the woods for Levi. Finally, he had all three kids in the house and Caitlyn came over. Cyle left her with two crying children and took Clayton to the ER.

One x-ray later and Clayton calmed down. His finger was not broken. They bandaged it up really well and told Cyle that he'd lose his fingernail. It could have been so much worse.

This evening, in the bathtub, Clayton's fingernail fell off. He was so excited to put it in his collection. His finger is healing really nicely.

Clayton's First Kill

Yesterday afternoon, I was summoned to the door only to find my dear little Clayton holding a rabbit by the foot. He exclaimed, "Look what I killed with my BB gun! A RABBIT!" He (and Cyle) were very excited. They had gone for a walk in the woods and Clayton had asked to take along the BB gun. Once they spotted the rabbit, after a little encouragement and a little help aiming the gun from Dad, Clayton hit the rabbit on his first shot.

I pulled out the video camera to get the full story recorded and though it was his first kill, Clayton already knows how to tell a "hunting tale." It was full of exaggeration, almost accurate information, and lots of enthusiastic sound effects. Cyle was able to fill me in on the true events.
Levi was also very excited for Clayton. He kept pointing to the rabbit saying, "Pow! Pow! Pow!"

Clayton told Cyle they taught him how to clean rabbits at school. Hmmm... Turns out that Clayton still wanted a little help.

So tonight- rabbit soup for supper!

Tractor Machines

So Clayton's favorite thing is.......TRACTOR MACHINES!!! Because he loves them so much and our life seems to revolve around them, we took a trip to the tractor machine store. We have been blessed to live just a few miles from one of the two John Deere dealerships in Ottawa. We spent the morning just looking at all of the different tractors and pieces of equipment they had for sale. As a bonus, we even got see them drive a combine around. (You can't see because of his jacket, but he has on his favorite tractor machine t-shirt. We've now got a collection of 4 tractor machine shirts so I don't have to do laundry quite so often.)

Grandpa G. came to visit this past weekend and while he was here we made a trip to the Agricultural Museum at the Experimental Farm. In their Tractor display they have this tractor ride that demonstrates the difference between the old metal wheels (bump, bump, bump )and rubber tires (so smooth).


No matter where we go, Clayton seems to always find the tractors. (Here you can see him sporting another one of his tractor machine shirts. This one has a backhoe.) The sensory table at the Richmond Fair, complete with corn and, you guessed it, tractors and wagons was a complete hit. It was definitely better than looking at goats, bees, baby chicks, or petting sheep.


Also at the fair... Cyle and Clayton couldn't get enough of this home-made tractor. The older gentleman had constructed it out of many, many different tractors and such. I think Cyle said the motor was from the 19-teens. I paid attention long enough to take the picture then Levi and I went for a walk. I can only look at tractors for so long.

Campfires to Dinosaurs

Well, I wasn't going to update this until August, but we've been so busy I've got lots to add.
Cyle's been wanting to take Clayton camping. It's not really worked out for us to go anywhere, so last weekend they were going to camp in our woods. But they were calling for thunderstorms, so we settled for a campfire and a hot dog and marshmallow roast. Clayton thought it was very cool to put a hot dog on a stick and even better when we did "icing" marshmallows. He didn't really care if they were roasted or not. And the best part was - we all got to sleep in our soft, comfortable beds as the thunderstorm raged on.


One day last week, I had to run downtown for some errands and wanted to give Clayton a break from the car so we stopped in at the Children's Museum. Ottawa has a FABULOUS children's museum inside the Museum of Civilization. We spent the entire morning outside in their Adventure World where Clayton got to play games from around the world, dig in a giant sandbox with" 'chines" (machines) and he even got to build a boat and float it in a small river. He had a blast and was pretty much asleep before we got out of the parking garage.

This week we traveled to Morrisburg, Ontario (about an hour away) with some friends to visit Prehistoric World. Two brothers (sculptors) have created over 50 life-sized dinosaurs that are in the woods along a walking trail.
Clayton ran from dinosaur to dinosaur and at each one would say, "Dine-saur!" like it was the first one we had seen. They were really well done. The size was definitely amazing. We had a picnic lunch around a sand pit where the kids could dig up dinosaur bones. It was such a fun day. Thanks, Laura, for taking us!
Have a great last week of July!

Fishing, Mowing, and a New Bed

Since Cyle's return home, Clayton has wanted to do everything just like Daddy. Over the past two weeks he has become obsessed with fishing. He wakes up in the morning and asks to go. He plays outside (occasionally inside) for hours with his little Scooby Doo fishing pole. Cyle's put a weight and a lure minus the hook on it and Clayton will cast and reel it in over and over. Last weekend he got to go for his first boat ride. Thankfully he's more interested in just casting and reeling than actually catching anything. Especially since when we're home and he's "fishing" it's just in an old ice cream bucket. Every once in a while he'll pull out the lure and say, "Yeah! Fishy!" as if he's actually caught something. I've got to give it to Cyle. He gave up a perfect fishing day on Saturday to spend it fishing with Clayton ALL morning.

While my mom was visiting, she mowed our lawn. (Truly, she's a saint. We have 3 acres of land and a push mower.) Clayton, of course, had to be in the middle of it. So while we were in Wal-Mart one afternoon, Mom spotted a play mower and couldn't pass it up. Now that Daddy is home and he mows, Clayton must also mow our yard. But first he has to fill it up with gas.


Clayton has also mastered the art of climbing out of his crib. Really, he did it quite gracefully and very well. But did we decide to convert his crib into a toddler bed. I just wasn't sure of how graceful he'd be at 2 a.m. Clayton loves his new bed because it's a "big boy" bed and anything that is "big" is definitely the best. He does a pretty good job sleeping in it. He's just not so great at staying in it.


The summer seems to just be flying by. I can't believe we're half way through July. I've been keeping busy with Clayton, our flower beds and I've been doing some baking. It's gotten warmer so I've got to have a good reason to get my oven/kitchen hot. I've been trying to make casseroles and easy to freeze suppers for after the baby's born. Cyle's been practicing traditional archery with a recurve bow and has set up a shooting range in our back yard. He's also been taking care of our garden. We've not had a lot of sun this summer, but it still seems to be doing well. Hopefully Clayton will find picking produce as fun as mowing!
Have a great month!