That's Mommy's Stubborn Streak

I think Patrick's going to learn to crawl in his crib. The last few nights he has slept on his belly. Yes, he has voluntarily slept in that position that usually makes him scream until he's hoarse. When he wakes up, he's not unhappy either, and he just "surfs" while on his belly. I wonder if he's figured out that's the only way he's going to crawl, but he will only learn on his own terms. I don't really care, as long as he learns sometime.

Along with this new hankering to crawl, he's learned new ways of using his voice. Sometimes he'll ooh or aah along with me while I'm singing to him. I think he's trying to sing too. But on the other end of the spectrum, he's found a new sound to express displeasure. It's much, much worse than any cry. I'll call it a squawk, but that doesn't begin to explain how awful the sound is. Think Dumb and Dumber, the most annoying sound in the world. And now triple the volume and compact the annoyingness into one loud squawk. Throw in the horrific teeth-gritting that he's recently resumed, and you have a recipe for disaster. He's found our kryptonite. Matt and I are rendered useless until the noise stops. We practically cover our ears and writhe on the floor. I can't wait for the days of "Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom," if they mean an end to this.

You may notice something new about the pictures today. Recently it has come to Matt's and my attention that all across blogworld, blogs are being ripped off. Matt read an article that estimated as many as one in three blogs has at least the pictures stolen off it and claimed by someone else. We're a little protective about Patrick's pictures, so we decided it was time to start taking precautions. We did not come to this decision lightly. We know all you family rely on this to get new pictures of Patrick. I hate that we've had to add an extra step for you to get these pictures. You're still welcome to these, but they may not be the best for printing and putting in frames. If you see any you'd like though, feel free to e-mail me and tell me which one(s) you want, and I'll e-mail it/them back pronto, without the watermark.

And those of you who read this and have your own blogs that you're worried about, let me know if you'd like directions to do your own watermark for your pictures. I'm hoping tonight to write up the directions for it. My e-mail address is in my profile.
Patrick was oddly fussy and clingy yesterday. I couldn't get any clear pictures of him smiling, but he was good at the serious face. I like how content he looks in this picture.
You may recognize this picture from a few days ago. Matt decided to play around with our new photo editing software to see if he could do selective color, and as you can see, he can. This is going to be tons of fun to play with!