DECATUR - Vincent Clayton seemed out of place sitting at a small table and filling out slips of papers to enter his two sons in a drawing at the Deca ;tur Public Library.

He was the only man on the second floor of the library, along with several women and their children, participating in the library's summer reading program.

However, Clayton suddenly stopped writing when he no ;ticed his son, Christian, 5, swinging a gate back and forth in the children's play area. And his son, Matthew, 2, seemed content sitting on the floor, dallying with some red and green toy dinosaurs.

In an authoritative voice most fathers use, Clayton in ;formed Christian to stop swinging the gate and it was time to pick out some books. He then took the boys by the hand and led them to several shelves.

"How about this one," he asked Matthew about the book "Slither, Swoop and Swing" by Alex Ayliffe and began flipping through pages.

Christian grabbed "Spot's First Walk" by Eric Hill and handed the book to his father and decided to wander back over to the gate in the play area.

Katie Gross, head of the children's division at the library, watched in admiration as Clayton scrambled through the book shelves. "This is a regular daddy here at the library," she said about how often he is at the library picking out books to read to his sons.

Clayton, 41, a Pennsylvania native, does something most men don't: He's a stay-at-home father while his wife, Dawn, an engineer at Caterpillar Inc., heads out the door to work every morning.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are an estimated 98,000 stay-at-home dads in the United States. These are married fathers with children younger than 15 who are not in the labor force primarily so they can care for family members while their wives work outside the home. Stay-at-home dads care for about 189,000 children. According to the Census Bureau, there are about 66.3 million fathers in the United States.

Clayton not only takes care of his two young sons, but he is trying to get a degree in elementary education through the Professional Adult Comprehensive Education program at Millikin University.

This summer, he drops off Christian and Matthew at a day care at Richland Community College for a couple of hours while attending a class.

Matthew is the typical toddler with a sweet demeanor and constant curiousity.

Christian starts kindergarten in the fall and already reads at a first-grade level, brags his father.

Christian attends speech therapy once a week at the Easter Seals Center off North 27th Street. The 5-year-old also recently had tubes placed in his ears to help his hearing.

Then, there are the father-and-son sports outings: Christian is part of a Little League baseball team, the South Shore Astros, and Clayton is the assistant coach.

During a recent game, Clayton stood behind home plate with a catcher's mitt on and gave his son a few batting tips.

The pitcher slowly tossed the ball toward Christian, who swung and missed. He swung a second time, hit the ball and grinned all the way to first base.

Someone yelled, "Safe."

"I like to play (with the boys) and trying to make that distinction of being serious is hard at times," Clayton said about his role as a dad.

"But it's a blessing to see your kids take that first step and watch them grow up. Words can't describe it."

His wife, Dawn, 39, agreed very few men would stay at home to raise their children: "He does an excellent job. His disposition is far better than mine, and he is more patient," she said.

But at the end of the day, her sons know, "I'm still mom," she said.

David Stewart recalls the 1983 movie "Mr. Mom," starring Michael Keaton, who takes care of his three children while his wife goes to work. Well, that sums up Vincent Clayton, he said.

"He's the modern day Mr. Mom and does it with pride and dignity," said Stewart, who is a good friend of Clayton.

Stewart works at Archer Daniel Midland Co., is the interim pastor at Mount Emory Baptist Church in Jacksonville and knows the ropes of fatherhood with five daughters of his own.

"When people think about a father - he is supposed to be the worker and provider," Stewart said. "But Vincent still provides what his family needs and what society's trends say fathers are expected to do. Too often fathers become distant from their children and leave the raising up to the mother. I just have the utmost respect for him."

Clayton displayed an example of that caring parent at the library last week, when he saw a 2-year-old girl with a runny nose scurrying past him. He quickly grabbed some tissue from off a desk and wiped the girl's nose.

The girl's mother was standing nearby and seemed surprised by what he did. She smiled and thanked him.

Sheila Smith can be reached at sheilas@;herald-review.com or 421-7963.