Progress

Something about that bump on the head must have knocked something into place. Ever since that incident, Patrick has shown great progress.

We noticed it first on Thursday night. He was playing with his toys. Matt and I watched as he picked up the yellow star from his shape sorter and eyed the yellow star hole on the shape sorter that just happened to be facing up. He seemed to consider it for a moment, then he reached over and tried to place the star in the star hole. He couldn't quite manipulate it right, but he knew what he was doing. Every time Matt or I offered him a different shape, he would toss it to the side, but he kept trying the yellow star in that hole.

The next morning, he mastered the concept again with the red square. Again, he eyed the shape and the hole first, comparing them to see whether his plan might work. This time when the shape didn't drop neatly in, he fiddled with the square for a few seconds until it did. He still doesn't spend his whole playtime sorting shapes, but he clearly understands what the purpose of it is.

It also suddenly dawned on him the other night that the rings don't just come off the ring stacker; he can put them back on too! I got a couple of videos of him putting the blue ring on the stacker over and over again, eager to hear Daddy's applause each time. He has yet to figure out that he can stack more than one at a time, but at least he is making progress on that concept.

Unfortunately the knock on his head didn't suddenly teach him how to crawl, though. Maybe I should have dropped him on his head a little sooner!

In other news, Matt and I went out for a date (technically, a date-with-a-baby) again on Thursday night. I think we've unoffically decided that's our date night, since it's less busy than Fridays. I was in the mood for a particular dish at Black-Eyed Pea, so we headed there. We regretted that decision over the next hour or so, though. It started when they gave us their new menus--without the meal we'd come to the restaurant for. I chose a second choice off their very limited menu and pretended to myself that it really sounded good.

An hour later, we finally get our meals. Our waitress had forgotten to put our order in to the kitchen, so all the tables that had gotten there about the same time we had were done eating by the time we got our food. The food itself was less than quality. We ate very little and turned down to-go boxes. It was a huge disappointment. We would have complained, but our waitress had already made it obvious in the way she treated her tables around us--all of whom had complaints as well--that she didn't care. Eager to get a now-fussy Patrick out of there, we just shrugged, gave her a pathetic tip, and left. We will not be going back there any time soon.

To make up for our bad experience Thursday night, Matt suggested we get Boston Market last night--similar food but we wouldn't have to eat there. Despite a snail's-pace drive-through, we were still home and finished eating in much less time than it had taken us at Black-Eyed Pea. The best part was that the food was awesome.

Today we spent the day relaxing and watching football. We support Texas Tech's Red Raiders, and it was a rare treat to have their game televised. It turned out to be a great game. There was lots of action, a tight score, and the best outcome. That's the kind of September Saturday I'd been looking forward to.