New Favorite Toy

I was hoping I would get to blog a bit earlier than normal today, about one-ish, so that I could have the time stamp at the bottom say 1:02 (and the assumed three seconds). That way I would be blogging at exactly that momentous second I've been waiting on for several years: 01:02:03 on 04/05/06. I might do a little post later just to say I blogged on 04/05/06 at 07:08:09. It's almost as cool as the first (although somehow I haven't heard a thing about that one). I'm such a nerd when it comes to numbers and patterns with numbers. I actually look forward to those date and time combinations. When I used to take fairly frequent driving trips, I would get excited if the last three (or four) digits of the mileage matched exactly with the time. If I was on the freeway, I would adjust my speed to keep the pattern going as long as possible. Sad, isn't it?

Patrick has apparently chosen his newest favorite toy. He's liked others, but more because we forced them on him. This one he has definitely chosen on his own. The stuffed giraffe was sitting within his line of sight yesterday, and he would not quit staring at it. I finally took the hint and gave it to him. He immediately put his arm around it and hugged it.
Then I started playing with him with it. I leaned the giraffe in towards his face, and he kept opening his mouth as the giraffe would get near. So I let him "kiss" the giraffe repeatedly. When I let him play with the giraffe on his own, he continued kissing it (i.e. licking his face or sucking on his nose). Then he started grabbing other parts of the giraffe, holding him wherever his little hands could get a hold and sucking anything he could. The small legs were his favorite.
It's fun watching him show so much interest in a toy. Up until now, I think his favorite toy was Daddy. He seemed to play with the others more to amuse us than anything. I think he likes Johnny the Giraffe (he had to have a name) because he is smaller and easier for him to hold than many of his other toys. It is also super soft, much like his favorite blankets. Some stuffed animals are stuffed so tightly that they aren't very flexible, but this one isn't like that. I think Patrick likes how easily Johnny bends, making it easier to pull a leg into his mouth.

Last night was another rough night with the teething. The past few days weren't bad at all. I think I pulled out the Tylenol once, and that was even before the crying had gotten too bad. Then last night, it flared back up badly. Patrick did not want to be laid down anywhere, even if Matt and I were both there with him giving him attention. Even after both Tylenol and teething tablets, and enough time for them to start working, he wanted to be carried around every second, preferably where he could see both Mommy and Daddy. We finally just tried giving him his bedtime bottle a little early and putting him on to bed. Of course he cried for a few minutes, but he was so exhausted from all the crying that he let himself fall asleep eventually. We were lucky enough that he slept all the way through to this morning, waking up at a perfectly reasonable time for a morning feeding. His gums still feel bad today, though. They are like a mountain range, and not just soft hills, but rocky, pointy mountains. The top front two teeth are particularly sharp; I hope they really do poke their way through soon. Maybe he'll start feeling better when he realizes all this pain will result in something good.