Hello 2012

Wow. A lot has happened since my last post. I guess the first thing is that Parker turned 1 and I made him a super awesome birthday cake with a lot of different colors. Parker loved it almost as much as I did!





A few weeks after Parker's birthday we went up to Las Vegas to visit J-Gramps and Meemaw. It was WAY fun! I got to play with Spartacus, see lions, and went to a theme park at Circus Circus. At the theme park I got to do a plane ride, train ride, and this other ride where you sit in a seat and you are brought way up high and then they drop you! It made me laugh a lot cuz it tickled my belly.









Our travels didn't stop after Vegas either. We had an early Christmas in Houston with Nonny and Meemaw because there was a lot of family that were only in town for early December. I got a bunch of cool toys including this duck-hunting game where a toy duck would fly around and you would have to shoot it with a toy shotgun. It didn't shoot real bullets - just some invisible bullets or something.

Not long after our early Christmas we had another holiday get-together at Uncle Tommy and Aunt Peggy's in Nacogdoches. We ate tons of yummy food, including bowls and bowls of Aunt Peggy's world-famous homemade chili, and played a lot outside. There were a bunch of leaves on the ground and acorns were everywhere. Even the grown-ups went outside and threw frisbees around until it got too dark to see them.





We had our third and fourth Christmas celebrations back in Austin. One with just Mommy and Daddy and Parker and another at G-pa and G-ma's. Uncle J-bone and Uncle David were there, and I got to play with some of their toys. Uncle David let me play with his shooter gun that shot little circle things really far.

I've been back in school for a week now and I'm learning about snow. Did you know that snow is made of water just like rain? I don't know how you can hold it and turn it into a snowball though. Nature is such a mystery. I got my report card as well and had very good marks, so Mommy and Daddy let me buy a toy as a reward. I got a Lego truck. It is way awesome and I built it really quick.

Whew.. that was a lot of typing! I shouldn't wait so long between blog entries. Before I sign off I wanted to shoot you an idea I had. I was thinking that I could do a special video blog sometime, but sometimes I can't think of anything to talk about. I think being on camera makes me nervous! So to help me I was thinking that my wonderful family and friends could come up with some questions about stuff they want to know. It could be about me or what I am doing at school, or even whether or not I can count to 100! Ok, some questions might not be the best for video, but you get the point!

If you want me to answer your questions in my first video-blog, just send them to my Mommy or Daddy. I would have you send them to me but I don't have email or a Facebook account... yet.

Take care everybody! Love ya!

B-man

Life is sweet!

Seriously, life is sweet with all this candy I raked in on Halloween! I must have about 1,000 pieces of delicious treats. Candy, it's what's for dinner.. but don't tell Mommy :)

We went to G-ma and G-pa's to celebrate Halloween this year. Actually, we went last year too. Heck, we'll probably even be there next year. We always have so much fun together! This year we ordered pizza, I helped pick some jalapenos, we played in the yard w/ the big ol' blue ball, and once we heard the doorbell ring we knew it was time to start trick or treating.

My costume was super cool! Mommy made me a robot costume that was totally awesome. People kept telling me how cool my costume was and other kids would say, "Hi Robot" when they would pass me. I felt like a superstar.



It's tough having a super totally awesome costume sometimes. For instance, I couldn't touch my hands together and my robot shoes were difficult to walk in. Mommy held my candy bag for the most part and I eventually ditched my robot shoes. I wasn't even able to bend down to pick things up, so you can imagine the utter hopelessness I felt when I came to a house who had their candy bowl resting on the ground on the doorstep. I just stood there motionless, fixated on the untouchable treaty-treats. It was devastating! After Mommy and Daddy had, had enough amusement at my expense, Mommy came to my rescue and put the bowl in reach so I could finally get my hard earned treat.


It was a good night and I'm pretty certain I have enough candy to get me through til next Halloween. :)

There's not really much else to update you on at this point. I'm still in Karate and I am still really enjoying my school, teacher, and classmates. I attend the occasional Birthday party and go visit Nonny and Pops from time to time. I have a pretty awesome life and I am truly a happy little boy.

I miss you all and hope to see you soon.

Take care,
Robot Brandon

Kinder-days

Kindergarten has been in full swing for a few weeks and... I've already gone to the Principals office (Sshh!). Who knew wandering off during school would land you in "The Office?" Of course, Mommy and Daddy prefer that they didn't get calls from the Principal, but at least it's something harmless. Besides, Daddy remembers his near-weekly visits to "The Office" and finds it hard not to be at least a little proud of his little 'rebel'!

This past month has been full of fun stuff, like Batfest, the opening of Jumpoline, surprise parties and visits to Mee-Maw's house. I sure am lucky to get to experience so many fun things and can't wait for Parker to be able to experience them with me. It won't be long though. He has already started standing pretty well.

A week ago I had my first Karate class! There is a kid's Karate class at my school in the evening and a whole bunch of kids go, including me. I'm not the best at doing push-ups yet but my Karate moves are already pretty impressive. HAI-YAH!


Mommy surprised me a few weeks ago by decorating my room! It looks great and one of the best parts is that there are glow-in-the-dark stars all over my ceiling. I love going to sleep at night and seeing them glow up there! Mommy is the best.

Daddy has been super busy at school and even busier with work. His company is making some real headway in getting off the ground and so he is always on the phone or at a meeting. To minimize the damage to his grades he dropped his Tuesday/Thursday class to do something called Independent Study where he can get credit for the work he is doing at his startup. We sure hope that he's able to juggle work, school and family without going nuts. Well.. more nuts!

The weather sure has cooled off, although it is still in the upper 90's and low 100's during the day. We are still hoping for a little rain because those wildfires going around are scary times. I had to stay inside all day during school last week because of the smoke outside. No recess = no fun! We are keeping our fingers crossed and send our thoughts out to those who have lost their belongings in the recent fires.

With that I would like to wish you a fond adieu. Sorry for getting this blog out late and I know I promised to update it on the 14th of each month but hey, what can you do when you are so busy having fun!

B-man

Kindergarten countdown

Howdy folks, B-man here. It has been a really fun summer. Not only have I been able to see tons of family, I got to go to Disney World and ride on a jet ski! Funny story. Not only did I get to ride one, I got to ride solo!! Daddy didn't exactly "let me" but there wasn't much he could do mid-backflip as I sped off with the jet ski. I heard his frantic screams though and came back calm and collected, and we had a good laugh.


But summer hasn't been ALL fun and games. Yours truly has done some serious learning too!

My secret weapon was Meemaw who teaches Kindergarten. I spent about two weeks with her this summer and I am happy to report that I am a READER for sure. Many words that I didn't already know I can sound out, and I'm not perfect but Kindergarten, bring it on!

Mommy and Daddy have been helping as well and are really proud of my progress. To keep me challenged we are all trying to learn sign language. I learn really quickly and already have a signing vocabulary of at least 30 words. We are hoping Parker bear will pick up signing as well so he can tell us why he is so loud all the time.


My little brother has been growing a lot and really loves playing with me. He is crawling all over the place so we made the living room 'baby-resistant' and let him roam freely. I have spent many an afternoon this summer crawling on the floor with him!

As I mentioned, Kindergarten is on the way and summer break is coming to a close. I will miss the many days spent at Nonny's swimming with Josh and Sarah and all the other joys of summer break, but I am ready for a routine and some play time with my fellow Kindergartners. (Plus I hear there's no NAPs in Kindergarten... oh man! I'm excited!!)

Until next time, avid readers!


B-man

Hey everybody! Guess what... it's summer!!!! That means no more school! Well, not school-school anyways. Daddy and Mommy have me in "summer school" at home. We have a daily routine of reading and learning so I will be the smartest kid in my class when it's time for me to start Kindergarten. You heard me right, I'm going to be in KINDERGARTEN!




I don't mind summer school because I love to learn! Actually, everyone's hard work has already started to pay off because I am starting to read!!

Can you believe it? Mommy and Daddy are so proud. I'm excited too because soon I will be able to read books to Parker. I love him so much!

Other than my new summer routine, life is pretty much the same for me. I still like taking care of my plants, although some days I forget to water them. But since I am such an awesome grower they are still getting huge! I even panted some cantaloupe seeds the about two weeks ago and a plant has already sprouted. I got my sunflower to bloom recently also!

This is my cantaloupe plant. Do you see the little sprout in the middle?

My orange tree. I am hoping for oranges any day now. Just kidding. :) Still, I think it's pretty impressive.

My sunflower doesn't look so good anymore (since I've started forgetting how thirsty they get), but a few days ago it was looking totally awesome! Maybe I can convince my flower to be pretty again when the sun comes out today.

Mommy and Daddy are amazed at how easily I am able to grow my plants. They even think I've started watering Parker and that is why he is growing so fast! They're silly.

The next few weeks for me will be pretty busy, but I will update my blog as soon as I can. On the 25th of June Nonnie, Mommy, and I will be going to Disney World for 5 days! Uncle J-bone (Mommy's brother) may even come play with us one day.

After that Mommy and I will fly to California where Daddy, Parker, and Uncle Nate will be, and from there we will drive to Utah. We'll be going there to spend time with Uncle Chad before he leaves for his mission and because it will be time for Grandma & Grandpa Camp!!!! Parker and I will stay there for two whole weeks and it is going to be so much fun! Rest up now Spartacus.

With so much fun up ahead there are sure to be some great new pictures to show you next entry. Keep your eyes peeled for the next update!! Have a super fun summer everyone!

Love you,
B-man

Notice anything different?
Here's a little hint..

What do you think?

I finally decided that I didn't want long hair anymore, so I told Mommy and she took me to the hair cutter place. The lady with all the suckers cut my hair and put this stuff in it to make it stick up. I wonder what she used cause I get in trouble when I put stuff in my hair. I'm guessing it wasn't Windex. When we left I kept asking Mommy if my hair had fallen or if it was still mohawk hair.

It's hard to believe it is already May but I can't deny that I am really looking forward to summer break. I love school but who wouldn't rather go swimming all day instead? I took swim lessons a few years ago, but not much of it really stuck. This year may be the year I master the art of swimming. After all, how am I going to teach Parker to swim if I don't know myself?

If anyone is in the Austin area maybe you could come swimming with me at my pool. Or I can have my chauffeur (Mommy) bring me to your pool. Either way I really hope I am able to see a lot of you in the coming months.

While I wait for summer to arrive I usually occupy my time with lots of different things. Recently I have grown quite fond of gardening. I got some some sunflower seeds when Nonny and Pops took me to the Rodeo and I have done a totally awesome job of helping them grow! I water them everyday after school and check their progress. Mommy and Daddy think I have a green thumb, but they must be tricking me because my thumb isn't green. Sillies! Daddy shows me pictures of roots on doodle.com or cloodle.com or whatever the name of that place is so I can see what my plants look like under the dirt.

Since I planted my sunflowers I have found seeds in all kinds of funny places, like my lunch!!!
Actually, the night before my birthday we went to eat dinner and I had mandarin oranges w/ my pizza. As I was eating my oranges I found seeds!!! I got so excited and told Mommy we had to plant them. She agreed so I set them on the side of my plate so I wouldn't lose them. Well when I wasn't looking the waiter came and took my plate, seeds and all. I was very sad, but guess what! The very next day at lunch I had orange slices and found even bigger seeds!! I asked all my friends at lunch if I could have their orange seeds and I hid them in my pack pack so they wouldn't get lost. When I came home from school Mommy took me to the store to get a pot to plant them in. Although my orange seeds get water everyday, well lets just say we won't be having any fresh squeezed orange juice around here for a while. I don't get discouraged though :)

Some of the other things I like to do is to help Mommy and Daddy cook, I like to read and sing to Parker, play my new game Lego Harry Potter, and watch movies. Of course I still love to eat cereal and did you know that Parker loves cereal too? He eats it all the time, but his cereal doesn't look very good! Mommy and Daddy even put vegetables in it sometimes!! That is just wrong. Don't worry Parker, one day when you are a little older and Mommy and Daddy aren't looking I will probably share some of the good stuff with you. That's what big brother's are for right?

Well, I hope this satisfies your curiosity about what I'm doing on the regular ;) I've got to go because I am working really hard on rebuilding all of my lego kits. See ya later awwigator.

Love you,
Bman

April Days

Hello everyone.

We have been having some nice weather lately, although we could sure use some rain. I like sunny days because the sun feeds my new sunflower plants! They are getting really tall because I have been watering them.

I had my birthday this month! I'm 5 years old. For my birthday I got some cool LEGO stuff, like LEGO Harry Potter, a cool book, and lots of other things. I can't wait for my next birthday. Presents are great!

I was browsing through our computer files looking for Spongebob videos and found this funny video of me before Christmas last year. I was so sleepy that morning!

Parker-bear is a cool little brother. He is totally awesome. Mommy and Daddy told me he is eating 'solids' now, but I don't know when they feed him solids. All I ever see them feed him is milk and this mushy stuff that looks gross! Poor Parker.

Me and Parker have been hanging out becoming good pals. He reaches out to grab everything and sometimes he gets my hair! It's ok though. It doesn't hurt and he doesn't mean it.

See ya later!

Back by popular demand!

You may be wondering where I've been and what I've been up to lately, and I apologize for being such a stranger. The last 9 months have been pretty crazy for us Claytons which has hindered my blogging. I thought it was only fair, since you have all been so patient with me, that I include a ton of pics! So, what do you say I bring you up to speed?

Since my last post I have started going to Preschool. Actually, I am now on my THIRD school!! Origianlly, I was enrolled at Children's Courtyard, a daycare that has a pre-k teacher come to teach the class at our campus, but since Mommy has adjusted her schedule so she can stay home w/ Parker there was no need for me to be in daycare anymore. That's when I started going to Blue Bonnet Elementary. My class was from 11:40a-2:40pm which was pretty inconvenient for Mommy, but she was happy to see me learning so much there!

I was one of four top students in my class according to my teacher! Due to a move I am now going to Davis Elementary, which is sort of funny since Daddy went to a Davis Elementary too. Now my class is from 8:30a-2:30p and I love it there! My new teacher, Mrs. Acuna, loves having me there since I am one of her best singers! She loves to sing almost as much as me! Not only am I an awesome singer, but I am also now a bus rider! I've wanted to be a bus rider ever since I started going to school, so everyday I hop on the "Frog" bus to get home and try my best not to forget my "packpack" on the bus. Don't worry I have only done that once. :)

As I mentioned earlier, since you last heard from me I have moved to a new pad. For several reasons Mommy and Daddy wanted to move into a smaller place and they were right on. Now that we are in our small apartment there is less cleaning to do. Much less! And, since Mommy and Daddy aren't so busy cleaning there is more time for playing. I was sad to not live next door to my best friend Skylar anymore but I love my new room much better. Plus, I still get to go over to her house to play.

Another totally awesome thing about our new place is that we can see deer from our porch and almost every room in the apartment. Finally, and probably one of my favorite things about our new place is that the pool is open all year round! Since, I will be taking swim lessons again this year, I expect to be in the water about as much as a fish!





There was something introduced to my life a few months ago that is very important to me... Legos! My G-ma & G-pa got me my very first set of Legos this past Halloween. Everyone was shocked at how easily I was able to construct this garbage truck by following the instructions. I mean, I'm a good listener and all, but these instructions were meant for 6 year-olds at least!

Since my impressive engineering abilities were discovered, I now have in my possession about 2.3 million Legos! My Nonny and Pops got me a super awesome Lego table for Christmas that stores about 3% of my Legos ;) and provides an awesome place for me to build all sorts of stuff without making my room messy. My Memaw and Papan gave me all of my Daddy's old Legos which was really awesome too! According to Mommy one of the coolest things I've made recently was a life like camera! Mommy and Daddy love seeing all of the creative stuff I come up with when playing with Legos.

You are probably thinking to yourself, "Hey Brandon, aren't you forgetting to mention something?", but I was saving the best for last. Another change worth mentioning and probably one of the main reasons I haven't had a lot of time to blog is about 4 months ago I got my very own baby brother!!!!! My baby Parker was born on 11/11/2010 and has been the best change of all! He is a very sweet boy just like me and I love playing with him! I love him very much and it may have something to do with him giving me a Lego set when he was born. Just "trickin"!



I am really good at making him laugh and smile. If I am talking but Parker can't see me, he will look for me until he finds me. And when he does he smiles almost immediately. I am a big helper when it comes to changing his diaper, feeding him, and keeping him entertained if he gets fussy. I give him hugs and kisses all the time even though he hits me in the face with his hands and feet a lot. I know he is just a baby and doesn't know that he is doing that so I don't ever get mad. I can't wait to share my Legos with him once he's big enough and not drooling all over everything. :)

Well, I hope this gives you a better idea of what I've been up to lately and again, I'm sorry it has been so long since I've posted an entry! I know how much everyone enjoys reading my posts so I will try to cut my time with Legos a little short so I can keep up w/ my blog. Speaking of which, I saw Parker at the computer the other night... I think he might be working on his own blog ;)

I love you all very much!! Later alligators! Now enjoy some more pictures :)


Birthday weekend in Houston:











Christmas:

Doth thine eyes deceive thee?!

Nay,

They but behold the glory of another entry into B-man's, I mean - my awesome blog.

I know I have been a huge slacker about updating for the past half-a-year or so, but I promise I have been busy and that things have been hectic for months. Daddy must have been stuck somewhere, because he 'got out' of the Navy and bolted for Texas.

Ever since then we've been busy with all sorts of arrangements; from birthdays to welcome back celebrations (I love you J-Bone!) and playing to learning, we've been in a whirlwind!

Daddy says it won't get any better from here. He says he'll get about three weeks of rest between work and school, but that after mid-July he's not going to get a moment of rest. His semesters will each have two halves each 7 weeks long, so by December he will have taken at least 8 finals.

Also by December, I am going to be a BIG BROTHER!!! Mommy and I got to surprise Daddy one day when he came home from work with the big news that mommy is pregnant. We were all really excited. A few weeks ago we learned that it will probably be a boy as well! How AWESOME!! I already have a cousin being born in July and he'll be around the same age as my little brother, and I'll be the biggest so I'll have to take care of the younger kids.



I'm brushing up on my Big Brothering skills already by making sure I am good for Mommy and Daddy. If my little brother sees me being good he may want to be good too! I have also been learning how to spell some words! Daddy is pretty sure that I am just memorizing the word visually and that actual spelling is still pretty far down the line, but he and Mommy are proud of me just the same! So far I am a master at spelling Mommy, Moon, Stop, and a few other fun words. Like I! I laughed hard when I found out how to spell I.




My favorite thing to do lately has been to play Wii. Mommy and Daddy started a system with me where I can earn 'points' for learning or being especially well behaved. If I collect enough points I can play a game or watch cartoons. Most of the time I choose to play Mario Galaxy which is REALLY fun!! My parents don't think that Wii games are the best for me, but they make for good rewards and it is truly astonishing how quickly I pick up on these games - especially one as difficult as Mario.

I wish I could write more but I just don't have enough time to keep updating when I could be playing Wii! Just kidding. Again, I'm sorry I haven't written sooner but be thankful for what you get! (And I promise to update again soon!)

Love you guys,

B-man

Hi friends and family!! I know, I know it's been a while since you've heard from me, but I have a really good excuse. I had to accompany Mom (I prefer to call her that nowadays) and Nany on a 1400 mile journey! We drove all the way from Norfolk, VA to Houston, TX and boy was it exhausting. I was a very good boy though. We made it safely and we have been working on getting settled. Now I have a little more free time on my hands so I figured I would drop you guys a line or two.

So recently one of my favorite hoidays just past.. Halloween! I dressed up as Frankestein and had a blast. I got to spend the day with two of my best friends Josh and Sara. They are my cousins and I love to play with them and they love to play with me too. Well Josh, Sara, Uncle Freddy, Nany, Mom, and I all went to this place that had a ton of moon bounces!! I bounced my little heart out on each moon bounce and burned up every ounce of energy that my little body held that day. However, i soon recovered that energy because next we went to The House of Hoops where we got to play games for candy. The house of Hoops is where Mom found out how good I am at shooting hoops and how kind of good I am at dribbling. All in all I had a lot of fun, I got a lot of candy, and it was a great night.




Now I am looking forward to the holidays to come. I am looking forward to seeing family, eating good food, and getting closer and closer to seeing Daddy again. Soon Daddy will be out of the Navy and we will have many more opportunities to spend time with family. I miss you and love you all and can't wait to catch up in person!