Just News and Pictures

Wednesday night and yesterday, I had my best friend Cathy come to visit. Matt is such a wonderful husband to give us some girl time to talk on Wednesday night. The three of us had fun hanging out the rest of the time, too. Then on Thursday, the three of us--meaning Cathy, me, and Patrick--had fun too. Patrick had lots of fun showing off for the company. He was such a flirty kid. By the time she left yesterday afternoon, Patrick had accepted her as part of the family. I think to him she was just another aunt to love on.

The busy visit obviously wore him out, though--that and the nap he refused to take yesterday afternoon. He broke down when evening came and he hadn't slept all day. After Daddy chastised him (gently, of course) for something he'd done wrong, he was inconsolable. Finally he wandered over to me and just sat with me on the couch. A few minutes later, this is what Matt found:
Not the most flattering picture of me by any means, but I'll take it. It was like a taste of heaven that he chose to finally nap in my arms. I love it when he's a cuddlebug!

For anyone keeping track, yesterday was Thursday, exactly a week after my first progesterone shot. Since I'm supposed to get them weekly, that means I was due for another yesterday. I have to say Matt is my hero. As uncomfortable as he is around needles, he gave that shot like a pro. It actually hurt less than when the experienced nurse did it last week (and that shot can apparently really hurt, based on last week's). It seems he must have inherited some fancy skills with a needle from his mom! (You'd be proud of him, Tricia!)

The other exciting news--for us anyway--is that Patrick's Grammy and Great-Grandpa get to come visit for the weekend. They're not here for the best of reasons (a funeral), but at least circumstances brought them our way. At least Patrick hasn't had that charm turned off long enough to lose it. He's going to have a blast showing off for and charming his great-grandparents.

And finally, the other night we had to get a picture of me as a cliche. I was actually barefoot, pregnant, and cooking in the kitchen. Patrick kept wanting to see what was going on, so I picked him up to watch the water not boiling. When Matt and I realized how funny the situation really was, we had to get pictures.

I guess that's all for now. Expect a few cute weekend pictures early next week. I hope I remember to pull our camera out while Grammy and Great-Grandpa are here.

What a Weekend!

Patrick's been full of new developments for us this weekend. The biggest milestone was learning how to drink out of a straw. We heard somewhere to try with juice boxes first, and a few weeks ago he successfully drank apple juice from one for the first time. He failed to apply the same idea to a regular straw in a regular drink, though. To Patrick, straws are for playing, not drinking. Then Saturday night we were at the mall getting dinner, and he was almost out of water in his sippy cup. We put a Sprite with a straw--in a normal cup--in front of him, and he knew immediately what to do. He was drinking that drink as though he'd been doing it his whole life. Matt and I were so proud of him, even though this seems like a pretty simple milestone to anyone else. This means he can finally give himself a drink in any form but a normal, open cup. He still seems to want our help, but he no longer needs it. At twenty months, it's about time!

We also saw an even more sensitive side of him on Saturday. Patrick was playing with Daddy's feet while Daddy was lying in his chair and somehow grabbed the toes in a weird way that hurt Matt. Matt immediately scolded Patrick for hurting him, although gently. Patrick looked up at Daddy with those big blue eyes and slowly broke into his pouty face, complete with the quivering bottom lip. I started laughing because I thought he was trying to manipulate Daddy with that face. Then Matt pointed out that Patrick had tears in his eyes. He was debating whether or not to actually start crying. He was so upset, either from having Daddy scold him or thinking he hurt Daddy. At that point, we were both suckered into the face, and Matt reached down and pulled him into his lap. After several minutes of comforting him with his own words ("It's okay, it's okay, Patrick."), Patrick finally leaned into Daddy's chest and snuggled up with him. I watched as his face just as slowly changed back to normal from the pouty face. Finally, when Daddy tried tickling him, he was able to give us a grin again, and then eventually a giggle. It took him that long to recover from hurt feelings. I suspect he's going to be the kid I have to watch everything I say to him for fear of hurting his feelings from one careless word.

On the lighter side of things, he has also found a new fun game, the belly button game. I'll lift my shirt just a little to show some of my huge belly, and Patrick will grin and stick his finger in my belly button (or what's left of it). I'll put my shirt back down, and he'll wait for me to lift the shirt again. If it takes too long, he'll start tugging at my shirt to let me know he's not done playing the game. At some point, I'll eventually reach down to his belly and start tickling him around his belly button, all while squealing, "Belly button!" like I do when he pokes at mine. It's all just another excuse to tickle him, which he obviously loves. I wonder whether the game will be able to continue when the belly button finally disappears altogether, which is definitely in the near future.

Update

The silly Patrick woke up this morning, not yesterday's fussy, sick Patrick. In fact, the one dose of allergy medicine was all he needed; by the time I could give him more six hours later, he was back to his normal self. I'm glad it was just a short-lived allergy attack, even though I particularly loved the cuddling.

I also wonder if he just hadn't slept very well the night before. He may have stayed up much later than usual while quietly playing with the new addition to the room. We found someone with a truck who brought Nathan's crib to the house on Sunday, and we put it together and set it up in the boys' room on Sunday evening shortly before Patrick went to sleep. He probably saw it as a huge new toy in his bedroom and spent more time playing with the toy than sleeping. By the way, we're expecting the bedding set and some room decorations to arrive in the mail later this week, so I will post some pictures of the room once all that is put together. Maybe you can all help me decide how to finish decorating the room from there.

Patrick has recently decided that since he's such a pro at walking that he's going to switch things up some to challenge himself. Sometimes he'll walk backwards, one tentative step at a time, until he runs into a toy on the floor or something and ends up on his bottom. Sometimes he'll walk around while looking straight up instead of ahead of him. Or sometimes he'll walk with his eyes closed, but only for a few steps at a time. When he walks fairly normally, he works on setting a new speed record, even though he isn't quite up to the point of running yet. But my favorite is when he just walks in circles--not the circles he makes around the coffee table, kitchen island, or halls in the house. Instead he will spin himself in circles, like he's trying to make himself dizzy. Then he walks, or maybe the better word here is stumbles, like a drunk while he tries to overcome the dizziness. Usually he ends up on his bottom again until the dizziness passes. It's all a fun game to him. Whatever keeps him occupied, right? Besides, watching him walk around has started to make Matt and me giggle. It's really quite entertaining.

Posing for Pictures

Remember when I used to be able to put Patrick in a cute little outfit, lean him up against the side of that orange chair, and snap picture after picture after picture of my little cutie-pie? Um, not so much anymore. It's much harder to snap a good picture of a constantly moving target. Especially when that target is much more interested in the camera and how it works (can you say Daddy's boy?) than sitting still for the camera. When I get "good" pictures--meaning he is both in the frame and not blurry--they often turn out kind of interesting. I have no idea if he makes these faces on purpose for me or if I just have a lucky trigger finger.
Yup, Mom, he definitely has some genetics from your family in him. I'd say this is a classic Aunt Judy shot if I've ever seeen one. For the record, I don't think he dug anything out that time.

I'm hoping this was a reaction to the flash, but he makes a similar crinkle-nose face often, as a reaction to the bright sun or just to be silly.

Look! His eyes are open, he's smiling, and he doesn't have any fingers up his nose! Success! Never mind that he's lying on the floor trying to get me to tickle him.

He's playing Door, that ever-thrilling game where he opens the door, then closes it, then opens it again, expecting me to act surprised every time he opens the door again. He laughs so much each and every time that I give in and play the game with him for what feels like hours at a time. It may be boring from my end, but if it keeps him that happy, I'm happy to humor him.

Okay, we'll keep the sashaying comments to a minimum on this one. He just moves those arms a lot as he walks, almost like he's trying to wave them hard enough to get off the ground. No air time yet, though. My lucky trigger finger just happened to catch him in this crazy pose.

By the way, don't you love the new outfit? It's a little big on him still, but that just means he'll get to wear it all summer long.

Now a few pictures I posed for. This is me and my massive belly at 24-ish weeks. Looks like Nathan's growing like a weed, doesn't it?

Memorial Day, cont.

Warning: picture overload ahead...

Patrick grew up this weekend. I had no idea what a profound effect his relatives would have on him. Okay, I kind of suspected they would end up affecting him, but I figured it would be more on the crazy end of things. Instead, he matured to attempt to meet the level of the adults around him. It's a good thing he's going to have a younger brother and cousins to help him stay a kid around all the adults at family events soon.

He even looks more grown up, thanks to his first salon haircut. I won't go into the torture that is cutting a toddler's hair (thanks Mom for playing bad guy during that), but once he left the salon, he seemed to really love his new haircut. I have to agree. He grew from a young toddler to a miniature pre-schooler with just a few snips of the scissors.
His vocabulary grew immensely over the weekend, too. I can think of two new words he says now off the top of my head and one he learned to associate with much more.

Yesterday when we called Nana, Patrick started waving at the phone and saying, "Bye!" He hadn't gotten the two--waving and "bye"--in sync until this weekend when he went bye-bye several times every day. Now when he thinks of bye-bye, he thinks of going to Nana and Ba-pa's house. Speaking of that, he figured out what to call my dad (Grandpa). He calls him Ba-pa, because that's what he can pronounce that's close. How adorable is that? We're still working on the other grandparent names; even though he has proven to us that he can say Nana, Gigi, and Papa, he won't use them to identify his grandparents yet.

Sorry for all the Nana pictures this time around. He was acting really cute with her--while standing in one place! I took the opportunity to take lots of pictures, which turned out really well.

We got to see that goofy grin on his face nearly the whole weekend. Patrick loved having the task of entertaining the family with his antics and equally loved having each of them play with him as well. That squealy laugh rang through the house regularly any time he was awake. How come you guys can't hang out with him all day every day?

Uncle Nick is quite the accomplished pianist, and he was attempting to teach Patrick the trade. As much as Patrick loves music--and his Uncle Nick--he had fun "learning." Of course, moments before this picture, he displayed his comfort with his uncle by leaving him a smelly present in his diaper--hence the expression on Nick's face.

Patrick also had a lot of fun with his Aunt Jennifer (or Aunt Jill, or whatever nickname sticks for this aunt Jennifer). He wouldn't pose for the camera with her, though. Despite what it looks like here, he smiled a lot when Aunt Jennifer was playing with him.

Of course, his favorite part of the weekend had nothing to do with people. He remembered the cat immediately (kit-ty!), in the short time he saw her before she hid in "her" room from the mean old dog who showed up with Uncle Nick and Aunt Jennifer. That didn't bother Patrick any; the dog was just as amusing. He laughed at every doggy thing she did, like bark or scratch herself or run around the room. He also learned her name almost immediately. It doesn't hurt that it closely resembles "kitty"--Katie. He pronounced it very carefully: Kay-tee, emphasizing each syllable and that t. He has even asked for her since we got home. We may just have to try the dog thing again sometime after Nathan gets here.

We also went shopping over the weekend--naturally--and picked up a few new outfits for Patrick. I think this one wins as my favorite so far. It's a pair of mechanic's overalls (hard to see on the pocket, but that's what it says). They fit perfectly and look so cute on Patrick.

Not that it hurts that the first thing he did after getting them on was lean down next to his car like he's going to fix it. That's my boy!

Oh, the Cuteness

How about a few pictures and a story?
Sometimes he takes after his mommy, reading his books (although sometimes upside-down) for a long time before moving on to other toys.

He's started using his sleepy-time blankie as a daytime toy, too. I think he knows how cute he is when he walks around trailing the blankie behind him or snuggling with it on the floor or playing peek-a-boo with it.

This is how he walks around with the blankie, with one hand over his shoulder.

The one story I have for today is totally unrelated to the pictures, but you'll humor me and let me tell it anyway, right? Patrick has learned to sing, kind of. He loves it when I push the button on his fire truck to play its song: "I see a fire truck..." He stares mesmerized at the little people who go in a circle at the front of the truck as it sings. After about the first three times hearing this catchy tune, I caught on to the words and sing them nearly every time we play the song. When it gets to the instrumental parts, though, I sing "do, do, do" along with the rhythm. Patrick has picked up on the "do, do, dos" and now sings them along with the song. Even when he doesn't exactly sing at the right place in the song, I praise him. It is so completely adorable to see him both singing and mimicking Mommy. I'll have to get a video of this before long, if he will let me. It's so fun to watch him figure out what he does that is so cute and then repeat it any time he's trying to get our attention.

Predicting the Future

Wow, has it really been over a week since I posted? I thought about it every day this week and just couldn't find the motivation to sit down and type something. I also wanted to download some pictures to include and was even less motivated to take the time for that, so the task of blogging got to be overwhelming. This won't be the mega-post it should be, though, because I'm still lacking in the motivation area. It's something anyway, right?

I have some new predictions for Patrick's future profession. One is a meteorologist. Any time I have the news on, he generally ignores it altogether. He'll play with anything and everything without even glancing at the tv. Until the weatherman starts talking, that is. Suddenly he will become spellbound in front of the tv. Matt and I thought it must be the moving pictures that capture his attention, but I've noticed this week that he doesn't start watching when the maps pop up. He is at full attention the second he hears the weatherman's voice. He can recognize both of the daytime weathermen on our usual channel by voice alone. It appears as though he is actually listening to what they are saying, not merely captivated by the moving graphics on the screen. His favorite part is apparently the seven-day forecast, based on the gleeful squeal. I think I'd be okay if he grew up to be a weatherman. Of course, the obsession may only indicate that he has indeed inherited plenty of genetics from his daddy's side of the family! (Kidding!)

Another possible profession for Patrick may be that of engineer--not an engineer like his daddy necessarily (although I wouldn't rule that one out), but the kind of engineer that gets to ride on trains all day. Among Patrick's very limited vocabulary is the word "choo-choo." His absolute favorite book right now is the choo-choo book, a cute book about trains that is fun to read out loud. He can sit on the floor and read that one book for ages at a time--and for a kid as active as he is, that certainly says something. Sometimes we can decipher among his gibberish a sound like a train whistle: "whoo, whoooo," another sound repeated often in the book. When both Daddy and I read the book with him, we make sure to emphasize the whistle sound, so he has probably picked that up. I wonder if he likes the book because we read it with him often because it is so much fun to read out loud. The repetitive phrases probably also stick with him better, making the book more memorable. Either way, it's cute to see him so attached to the one book over all the others (although he does seem pretty attached to the "kitty book" and the Santa book as well), whether or not it speaks of an actual interest in trains.

Patrick is a walking maniac these days. Sometimes he doesn't even need toys to stimulate him; he can wander back and forth from room to room all around the house for half an hour without pausing to play with a toy. He totters less and less as he walks, too. It's obvious that each day his confidence in his walking abilities increases. Before long, I will have to break into an all-out sprint just to keep up with him. There's no wonder he sleeps so well at night right now with all the energy he expends during the day!

We've also been better about going on outings. Patrick gets excited the second he sees my shoes on my feet and when he watches me throw the diaper bag over my shoulder. He knows it means he's going "bye-bye." That's another of his few vocabulary words, one that he loves getting a chance to practice. One place we've been twice since I last blogged is church. Now that RSV season is over and the morning sickness has finally started to subside, we're making church-going a priority. It's wonderful to see how well he does in the nursery now compared to the last few times we made it to church, back before RSV season started. He suddenly cares about the toys there and playing with the nursery workers and the other kids. It makes the experience even more special when he sees us walking up to the door at the end of church, too. He recognizes us and comes running (or crawling) as fast as his legs can carry him, excited both from his hour of playing and seeing us (Daddy) again.

As far as pregnancy stuff is concerned (which doesn't relate to anything else in the post at all), both Matt and I are starting to nest just a little already. We spent quite a bit of time this weekend de-cluttering and deep cleaning, especially the living areas where Patrick spends more of his time. We finally have a nearly completely baby-proof living room for him to play in. You can also expect another post devoted entirely to the baby on Tuesday night. We have our big sonogram coming up on Tuesday, which we are totally excited about. With a bit of luck, and hopefully a cooperative baby, we should know the gender then. And, if you're really, really lucky, we might just decide to reveal the name then as well. So stay tuned! I promise to blog a bit sooner this time around.

Balloons and Bugs

Last night the three of us went to the grocery store. There was someone at the door handing out balloons to all the kids, so of course Patrick got one. I have never seen him so entertained at the grocery store, and he usually loves being around all the people as it is. He would grab the string of the balloon and pull it to his face, seeing the world through the blue haze for a few minutes, then let go of the string and shriek as the balloon flew back up into the air. I bet everyone in the store could hear each one of those excited shrieky laughs.

The giggly mood continued when we got home. He was so cute as we put him to bed. He didn't want us to leave him, so he kept playing peek-a-boo with us. He would pull his blankie over his head then yank it down, waiting for us to yell, "Peek-a-boo!" Then he would laugh hilariously along with us. Daddy threw an extra step in the game after a few minutes, tickling Patrick's belly when he couldn't see it coming because the blanket was covering his face. I've never heard a sweeter sound than the laugh that resulted. I swear, if you could bottle that laugh and sell it, you'd make a fortune. It could probably cure cancer and bring about world peace.

Although he's been a little less giggly today, the day hasn't been without its humorous moments. The funniest is also the most horrifying. Patrick was crawling around his playroom, hiding in the corner behind his swing that we have nowhere else to store until this new baby comes. He loves that corner because I can't easily reach him there. Since he's the only one who goes back there, I was a little concerned when he found something small and black on the floor to pick up. Before I could get to him to see what he found, it was already in his mouth. He only giggled at the fun new game when I tried to stick my finger in his mouth to make sure he wasn't eating anything dangerous. Speaking of dangerous, though, I nearly lost the end of my finger once I managed to get past the teeth. He may have left a bruise on that knuckle. Anyway, what little I extracted from his mouth looked suspiciously like tiny, crunchy pieces of a bug. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I tried to get more pieces out of his mouth, but he wouldn't let me. I'm left with no choice but to hope that it won't hurt him any. Either way, I'm watching him super carefully this afternoon to make sure he doesn't have any ill effects from his unexpected snack. As long as he doesn't, this is going to become one of those funny stories we tell about him years and years down the line.

Language Explosion

*Pictures to come later this week. I promise.**

I'm not sure what it is, but all of a sudden Patrick seems to have experienced a language explosion. He still chatters in nonsense most of the time, but he's trying more and more often to make his sounds into something that sound like real words. And when a word really stands out to him, he will try to imitate it.

It started last week when we left the house every day. As we would walk to the car, I would ask if he wanted to go bye-bye. About the third trip, he repeated "ba-ba" when I asked. Then Friday I decided to carry him with me to get the mail. When we approached the front door and he realized we were leaving the house, he volunteered "ba-ba" all on his own. He definitely understands what "bye-bye" means. Of course, he only thinks it applies to when he leaves, and he won't say it to others when they leave without him. Baby steps, right?

Then today he was acting like a garbage disposal during dinner, as usual, and Matt and I were on the search for more food to fill him up. We eventually turned to one of his favorite foods from a few weeks ago that we had forgotten about recently: a slice of cheese. He can recognize the sound of the cheese being plucked out of the refrigerator all the way across the house, and he gets excited immediately. Tonight, Matt decided to bribe him into saying the word "cheese." It worked. Before each bite of cheese, he would repeat "chiz" after his daddy so that he could eat another bite. Even when the cheese was obviously gone, he would keep saying "chiz" every so often, maybe to see if we would give him more cheese as a reward. Smart kid.

But the cheese story isn't the funniest. I noticed the other day that Patrick was starting to repeat one sound over and over and over. It sounds kind of like "oss, oss, oss." Anyone ever seen Meet the Fockers? If so, you know where I'm going with this. The way he keeps repeating the sound, he must think he's saying some word. But the only word we can think of that closely resembles the sound is not one that he has heard, at least as far as we know. (Anyone need to tell us something about now? Anyone?) Matt and I have struggled not to react to the sound at all so that Patrick won't figure out that there is anything unusual about it. That will only encourage him to say it more and louder. That would be great at church when we start going again (hopefully next Sunday). By the way, does anybody have any suggestions what he might think he's saying? Remember the only words he has said so far are words that he finds extremely important, like "mama," "dada," "chiz," "ba-ba," and "kitty." What word that sounds kind of like "oss" could be one with such relevance to him?

Happy Easter!

If these pictures don't say Easter, I don't know what does! Despite the cool weather, the three of us headed to the backyard for a quick egg hunt. Obviously, the eggs weren't exactly hidden. Patrick had much more fun playing with the eggs and basket than doing a traditional egg hunt. Doesn't matter...it still made great pictures!

He sat down after a little while. A boy can only stand and pick up eggs for so long. Unfortunately, it rained yesterday, and this is what we found when we came back in...

Despite the fun egg hunt, that wasn't the best part of the day. I was awakened early by my husband with breakfast in bed. He and Patrick hung out in bed with me while I finished eating, and we all had a great time with lots of laughter. My favorite moment happened when Matt accidentally let some gas slip out...audibly. Patrick heard and responded by smiling and spitting in perfect imitation of the fart. (Thanks, Papa!) I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. He is definitely a little boy in every way!

New Pictures

I apologize that I don't have a real post for you yet. I haven't had the motivation lately to do the post with the video. Don't worry, though; I haven't forgotten about it!
We ran out of Patrick's favorite sippy cups the other day, thanks to his sudden unquenchable thirst, so we pulled out an extra cup. As you might have already guessed, this sippy comes with a lid. He had a lot of fun figuring out how to get the lid off and then playing with it. It's now one of his favorite toys.
He also checked to see whether the lid fit on his favorite cups, like the one in this picture. It didn't. This is what Daddy and Patrick do when Patrick starts to wear out, though. I'm glad he's still small enough to sprawl across Daddy's lap like that, even though his legs are starting to hang awfully far off the end all of a sudden.
And here's the newest belly shot. We took it today, at almost right at fifteen weeks. I'm still growing, aren't I?

Good--No, GREAT--News

I think it's finally happened, that day we've all been looking forward to for months. That's right; I think the morning sickness is finally starting to ease up. I had a really good day today with only a few bad spells that were short-lived. I feel better than I have in ages, and it feels great.

You want some proof I'm feeling better? I actually took some new pictures of my boys. Check this one out:
Patrick pulled his choo-choo book off the shelf himself, and after reading it on his own for a few minutes, he crawled it over to Daddy and put it on his lap. He wanted Daddy to read to him. How can a daddy refuse? Patrick loved how Daddy did the choo-choo whistle. Don't they look so content together?

Patrick got a St. Patrick's Day card in the mail today from his Uncle Dave and Aunt Jen and totally loved the card. He played with it for ages. I don't know whether it was the wonderful green color or the fact that it was a card, but this is one of his favorite toys right now.

I have one funny story from today to tell. When I went into his room to change his diaper after his afternoon nap, he was standing next to his diaper pail with one hand balanced on it (but standing mostly alone). Curious as to what mischief he'd been up to, I took a closer look at the diaper pail. He laughed right along with me when I saw what was going on. I saw a Gloworm placed in the hole of the pail. He'd been trying to flip the lid to send Gloworm to the diaper graveyard, but Gloworm was a bit too tall to flip over. The best part? When he saw me laughing, he smiled too and said, "Uh-oh," sending me into a hilarious fit of giggles. He couldn't have been prouder of the mischief he'd managed to accomplish during one naptime. (Side note: I think he gets the concept of "uh-oh" quite well. What do you think?)

Toddler? Or Turdler?

Now that Patrick is standing alone quite well, we feel sure his first steps can't be far away. With that milestone, he will officially be a toddler. Matt and I aren't entirely sure "toddler" is the correct terminology, though. Matt suggested the term "turdler" the other day when Patrick was showing some of his toddler tendencies.

It appears as though now that Patrick is becoming more vocal, mere crying will no longer get our attention appropriately. He hasn't figured out yet about yelling specific words to get the same effect. So instead, he found a perfect scream/squeal that is absolutely impossible to ignore. It's partially a loud, annoying screaming noise (think the most annoying sound in the world from Dumb and Dumber) combined with a squeal that I suspect only dogs can hear. It most certainly gets our attention, and it takes every ounce of self-control to ignore it. Our theory is that giving him what he wants when he screams like that will only encourage him to repeat it the next time he wants something.

Matt and I are also learning that the best way to approach most of his "turdler"-like behaviors is with a sense of humor. Although that's difficult with the ear-piercing screech, I found it easier to do when I walked into his room after naptime the other day. We baby-proofed his room flawlessly--so we thought--when we moved him to a toddler bed and he refused to sleep in his own bed, choosing instead to play until he fell into an exhausted sleep on the floor. He never did get to sleep during one naptime a few days ago. He discovered the joys of drawers, namely the ones in his dresser. Up until that day, he had ignored the dresser altogether, and we hadn't thought about the possibility of him getting into the drawers. Chalk that mistake up to first-time parents. Naturally, I walked into his room after his unsuccessful nap to find him standing at an open drawer with a onesie in one hand and a proud grin on his face. Strewn around the room were various articles of clothing and blankets. He couldn't have been more proud of the mess he'd made. Even faced with the inevitable clean-up, what else could I do but laugh?

Needless to say, we installed drawer locks on the dresser drawers asap (okay, Matt did).

True to toddler form, Patrick has suddenly developed a gourmet taste that is a mystery to everyone. Up until a few weeks ago, he ate just about everything we put in front of him. He had a few favorites but would eat anything. Then all of a sudden one day, a food he had liked a few days ago was intolerable. Since that day, it has become a gamble about whether or not he will eat what we fix him, even if he loved the food the last twelve times we fed it to him. We're learning a few tricks to persuade him to eat some of the disgusting food, such as giving him a spoon to hold (I guess it makes him feel like he has a bigger part in the feeding) or acting like we're about to eat it. If he thinks it's Mommy and Daddy food, it seems to go down a little easier. That's the other trick we learned: give him whatever we eat, if he can tolerate it. Whenever possible (i.e. whenever I don't have such a random and bizarre craving or specific food I can stand to eat), we plan our menu around what we think he might enjoy. Right now, that trick seems to be working. But if I understand toddlers and their eating habits correctly, that trick will only work so long before he finds a new way to frustrate us with his inconsistent eating habits.

Nothing Extraordinary

Today's doctor's appointment went almost exactly as expected. We waited for a long time to be seen, weighed and took blood pressure, heard the baby's heartbeat (for the first time on the doppler), asked the doctor a few questions, and headed home. Everything is remarkably routine, right down to the morning sickness starting to ease up just a bit. I go back in another month, and probably about a month after that we'll get the "big" sonogram. I don't know if I can wait another two months to find out the gender, but I guess since I don't have a choice, I will. My gut still says boy, but for the first time yesterday, I found myself thinking about the baby as a girl sometimes, too. I'm no longer quite as sure.

By the way, I have guesses for your babies, too, Jen and Ginny. Not that my track record is any good on myself, but I'm pretty good at guessing other people's babies. Jen, I see you with a little girl, and Ginny, I'm getting the boy vibe for you. I can't wait to find out whether my guesses are right--although I might have to wait a bit if your baby continues to be so uncooperative in sonograms, Jen.

Patrick is still doing well. He is finally vocalizing more in words that can possibly be translated into normal talk, not baby gibberish. He's learning the concept of "uh-oh," even though it sounds more like "eh-eh" the way he says it. Tonight he finally also stood completely alone without something to hold at least nearby, and for a good minute before sitting down again. We're really starting to think walking isn't far off; he's quite good at walking while holding our hands finally. He'll be a full-fledged toddler before we know it.

We had some minor pregnancy problems a few weeks ago (which have since been totally resolved), and I was instructed to be careful about my activity level in the meantime. That included much Patrick-lifting. As a way for me to cope, we converted his crib into a toddler bed. It felt foolish to us, with him not even walking yet, but we felt like we had no other options. He took a few nights to get used to the idea, but now he loves having the independence to play in his room until he gets tired. Unfortunately, he can crawl out of his bed but not back into it. Every night I have to sneak into his room late at night to move him back to bed. He has taken a liking to curling up on the feather bed we've placed on the floor next to his bed to cushion his deliberate fall out of the bed every night. It's really cute, even though I wish he would start to understand that he's supposed to sleep in the bed, not next to it.

One of Patrick's new words is "baby," and I think he's starting to understand what a baby is. I had the sweetest moment with him tonight when he was cruising around our bed after sneaking into our bedroom. He kept repeating, "baby, baby," so I asked him where the baby was. He was probably just reaching for me to get me to pick him up, but he happened to touch my big belly right then. Since he got to hear the baby's heartbeat earlier, while watching the nurse hold something to my belly, it is possible he's figured out that somehow Mommy's belly and the new baby are related. Maybe not too likely, but we all know how smart Patrick is after all...

Woo-hoo!

I'm feeling pretty good this afternoon. It dawned on me a few minutes ago that my good spells seem to be coming more frequently and lasting longer. And good spells no longer mean merely not hovering over the toilet but that I am truly not nauseous at all. Even when the bad spells feel overwhelming, I'm starting to have hope that this really will pass. I'm not about to give up my Zofran anytime soon, though!

Patrick astounds me every day by how much he's growing. It feels like he's growing up in leaps and bounds all of a sudden, instead of the baby steps I've come to anticipate. The other day he crawled over to the laundry basket sitting on the floor and voluntarily walked behind it while pushing it. We had been unable to convince him to do that very same thing on his toys specifically for that purpose, so it was amazing to see him do so on his own.

He is also looking for ways to play with his toys other than their intended purposes. For example, he'll put rings on his ring stacker deliberately out of order (he can easily put them on in order now) so that he can try to stack other toys on the top or balance balls in the indentation left by a ring that didn't settle all the way down. His play looks less and less random and more like he knows exactly what he wants to do.

A few of his toys are still somewhat complex for him, but it shocks me just how much persistence he shows in trying to figure them out. It takes him a long time to get frustated when what he tries doesn't work; I'm actually jealous of his patience. We're going to have to graduate to more complicated toys before long. I'm glad the ones we have don't bore him, though.

I love watching Patrick cruise at top speed around his pen, the easiest place for him to pull up and cruise. He is getting so incredibly flexible, balanced, and mobile. He loves hanging on and bouncing up and down. I think he thinks he's dancing. He does it more when music is playing and especially when he gets excited.

Unfortunately, he's growing up in some other ways too. He is almost certainly moving to a one-nap-a-day schedule. I'm sad about that. While I'm still sick from the pregnancy, I'll probably keep encouraging him to take two naps (I need the rest desperately), but as soon as I start feeling better, I think we'll be tweaking his schedule yet again. He will usually still rest during both naptimes and usually falls asleep after a little while. He just doesn't sleep quite as long each time as he used to. He's also been waking up earlier in the mornings. I'm not so fond of him turning into a morning baby again (although he probably needs to eventually), so maybe re-working his schedule so that he plays more during the day will encourage him to sleep later in the morning.

The other way I've seen him mature in the last week or so is his sudden insistence on showing symptoms of the terrible twos. He has started demanding things and making sure we know he's upset if he doesn't get what he wants right away. He can actually produce real tears in a short-lived temper tantrum. We don't usually see tears when he has a real reason to cry, so this is amazing. Obviously, these tantrums are frustrating, but Matt and I are learning to keep our calm about them. We just pay him no extra attention and do our best to not give him exactly what he wants right away. If it's something he would have gotten anyway, like lunch, he still gets it, but we don't jump to accommodate his wishes. He won't starve if we make him wait another minute or two to eat. Our theory is that if we cater to his tantrums, giving him what he demands, it will only encourage the tantrums. We want to teach him early that there are better ways to ask for things. Experienced moms, what have you found to work to suppress tantrums early on?

I hope everyone else is enjoying the beautiful springlike weather we are here. If so, take advantage of the early spring while you still can. If not, maybe thoughts of us basking in the 80-degree weather will help you feel a bit warmer in your typical February weather.

Finally an Update

I hate how touch-and-go I'm getting with blogging these days. It seems like just when I think I can stand to be on the computer long enough to blog, either Patrick wakes up or the nausea hits again or the laptop's battery dies.

There hasn't been much happening around here. I'm still trying to learn to cope with the morning sickness and taking care of a near-toddler at the same time. It's tough, especially when Patrick's mischievous side comes out. For example, a few minutes ago Patrick was playing in his pen while I lay curled up on the couch, when I suddenly saw him grab at the curtains behind his pen. He knows he's not supposed to touch them; we're worried if he tugs hard enough that he might just pull them down, almost certainly hurting himself. The more I told him no, the more adamant his babbling got. He was talking back to me and testing my limits. He kept grabbing at the curtain, too. I finally got up to give him a light spanking, and instead of getting upset about it, he laughed and crawled towards me. He went right back to pulling on the curtain when I turned around to lie down again (getting up usually brings on the nausea). I warned him one more time, and when he defied me again, I put him in his crib in a short time-out as punishment. I know he's probably too young for time-outs to be effective, and using his crib as punishment isn't a good idea (although for such a good sleeper it doesn't seem to be too bad). Still, I had run out of options. I was too sick to take him out of the pen and chase him around, which would have been a reward to him anyway, and what I was trying obviously wasn't working. The good news is that the punishment seemed to work. He hasn't touched the curtains once since getting out of his time-out.

I love that he's suddenly "talking" all the time. He'll babble in full sentences of baby talk to us, his toys, and anything else around. We hold whole conversations where I have no idea what I've just agreed to. I have a feeling more decipherable words will be following soon. He is definitely practicing his communication skills, and the next step will be to find words that we can understand.

Patrick's balance skills are also improving. Several times lately he has stood completely on his own for a few seconds at a time. I think he could balance longer, but he gets distracted by something nearby and wants to crawl to it right away. He usually stops standing by choice, not by necessity. As balanced as he's getting, though, I don't think he'll be walking anytime too soon. He shows absolutely no interest in it yet. Crawling gets him where he wants to go, so why should he hurry into walking? That's fine with me. He's enough of a handful as it is. He can take his time learning to walk if he wants--as long as he's accomplished at it before this next baby comes. I don't know that I can carry him and a newborn at the same time very easily.

On the baby front, I'm starting to look more like I'm pregnant, even at only eight weeks. I'm losing a little bit of weight (not enough to be worried about), and still my belly manages to pooch out some. If I don't dress carefully, it's pretty obvious already. My one pair of jeans that still fits already doesn't button most days. I have a feeling that maternity wardrobe in the back of my closet will come in handy sooner rather than later.

I vaguely remember someone asking ages ago when we went to the doctor whether there was any plan to try to avoid another premature birth. I forgot to ever answer that. Yes, as soon as we reminded her that Patrick was born at 31 weeks, she asked if we had heard of this particular shot. When I hit 24 weeks, I will go in weekly for a shot that has good results in preventing a repeat premature birth. Matt and I were both relieved to hear that she wasn't worried about repeat problems and already had a plan in mind.

I had my first baby dream the other night. I dreamed that the baby was born incredibly easily and full-term. It turned out to be a girl, too. I hope this dream is a predictor of what will come, not just what I hope will happen. I know it will still be a while until we know anything about the gender, but I'm curious about everyone's early predictions. Matt thinks it's a girl, but I think it's a boy. What about all of you?

Goofy Personality Day

So behind in cute stories. Before we get to them, though, here are the first few of the pictures that I finally downloaded off my camera. I'll probably post a few of my favorites each day until I am caught up.
Patrick was being so cute and sweet yesterday evening. I wasn't feeling great, so I was lying on the couch. Matt had to go do something in the other room, so he left Patrick with me, lying next to me on the couch. I figured he would squirm out of my arms right away, like he always does, but he lay there comfortably until Matt got back. Then Matt held him in his lap while he watched TV for a few minutes, and Patrick sat happily with him, for probably a good ten minutes or so. He was watching the show too, kicking his feet a little bit and playing with his fingers absentmindedly. It was such a sweet moment, and Matt and I kept looking at each other in wonder.
Patrick's sense of humor is uncanny sometimes. We'll catch him laughing at things on TV that we didn't even realize he was watching, much less should he recognize as funny. He'll even laugh before we do sometimes. I'm starting to think he understands a lot more than we give him credit for. Just because he can't say the words yet doesn't mean he doesn't know what they mean. Sometimes his laugh is a real belly laugh, and sometimes it is his new fake laugh. The fake laugh cracks me up because he knows when to use it, like at Daddy's corny humor or something.

The funniest moment from the past few days, though, was when Daddy was being silly and dancing the robot (and badly at that). We didn't know Patrick was watching until we heard that wonderful belly laugh. From then on, it was the funniest thing for Daddy to dance the robot for him. How should he know the robot is funny? Is it just goofy-looking or something?

Just a few minutes ago, Angie randomly started barking at the pen in the corner where Patrick plays often. I would think she's just crazy, but I think instead she was hoping Patrick would suddenly show up and start playing with her. The two are becoming fast friends, but they seem to get along better with the gate between them, so that Angie doesn't bite his fingers or toes and Patrick doesn't "pet" a little too hard. All Patrick has to do is squeal his Angie squeal, and she'll go running like a mad dog around the house, barking at him the whole time. It's adorable to watch.
On the pregnancy front, the morning sickness continues, but is more tolerable than last time so far. It seems to be staying mostly in the mornings, which is quite a blessing to have afternoons and most of the evenings free from it. It also hasn't been as severe yet, with no rushed visits to the bathroom. I'm hoping those decide not to happen at all this time. I puked enough times with Patrick to last a lifetime.

I have my first visit to the doctor on Thursday. I should hopefully find out then a better idea of just how far along we are. You may notice the ticker change then, when it's less vague of an estimation. By the way, I have the best husband ever. He figured out how nervous I was about this appointment (thinking about it was making me nauseous), so he's taking the afternoon off to go with me. I'm more worried about how to handle Patrick through the appointment than anything, so it's great to have help with baby-handling. Just knowing Matt will be there is taking a load off my shoulders.
I think that's it for tonight. I'll try to post again tomorrow, at least so you can see more pictures. I'm sure I've forgotten fun stories from the past few days too, so maybe I can catch those up too.

Checking In

I'm sorry I'm getting so sporadic with my posting. I'm afraid it's only going to get worse before it gets better. The morning sickness I was so thrilled seemed to be skipping me this time has finally hit. If any of you remember anything from Patrick's pregnancy, "morning" sickness was not a very accurate term. I was nauseous all day long. Last time I had a computer aversion for weeks along with it (never could explain that one), so I might need to avoid the computer from time to time again. It also makes it difficult to remember cute Patrick stories when I'm fighting being sick all day long. I'll try to make a real effort, though, to keep everyone posted with how things are going.

We made it back home to Houston this weekend. Things have been pretty uneventful since then. Patrick has been having lots of fun playing with Angie since we got home. His favorite new game is to play in his pen and drop his toys over the side one at a time for Angie to play with. Unfortunately, she's not allowed to play with his toys, so the pen time that used to be a reprieve for me now takes constant supervision. I'm constantly throwing his toys right back over to at least keep them out of Angie's mouth, even if Patrick doesn't want to play with them. Of course, he just throws them right back over, so we end up playing a new version of the pick-it-up game that I've tried so hard to discourage. He found a way to win either way; we either end up playing the pick-it-up game or he gets his way in letting Angie play with all his toys. Yes, it seems as though my fifteen-month-old son has outsmarted me.

Reason to Brag

My son is seriously a genius. Of course, Matt and I--and all the grandparents--have known this for ages, but we finally have proof.

Last night, Patrick was playing in the kitchen, which is an odd fascination of his when we're in Dallas since he doesn't care about the kitchen at home. He suddenly remembered having played with magnets on the fridge the last time we were here and went in search of some. He found them in their usual spot, on the bottom of the fridge where he could reach them. For a few minutes, he played with peeling them off, trying to put them back on (backwards of course), and then dropping them on the floor, only to pick them back up a minute later to try again.

In the meantime, Grandpa was finishing cleaning up the kitchen. As he closed the dishwasher a final time, Patrick watched him carefully. I could nearly see the gears turning in his head as he compared the look of the front of the dishwasher to the fridge. Suddenly it clicked. He crawled over to the dishwasher with a magnet in hand and promptly stuck it on the dishwasher. He was so proud of himself for figuring out that they might stick there too.

From there, he proceeded to analyze why that might work with other experiments. He tried sticking a magnet on top of another magnet. Nope, didn't work. He tried sticking the magnet on Nana's shirt. Still didn't work. Then he decided to see if other things would stick to the dishwasher. My favorite was when he licked his index finger and carefully touched the dishwasher. Surprisingly enough, that didn't stick either.

Patrick definitely gets his analytical approach from his daddy. I could just see a little version of Matt trying to figure out just how this whole magnet thing works.

Of course, then today I had to drag him away just seconds before diving into the dog bowl, and more than once. Maybe I should hold off bragging about his genius just yet.

The Best Excuse

I'm trying to figure out just what this pregnancy can be used as an excuse for. I'm already blaming the hormones for just about everything, from feeling lazy to griping at the dog (among others). I think I can probably explain away my absence from the blog for the past few days as being too tired as well. You'd never know the difference anyway, right?

While I have been extraordinarily tired, that's only part of the story. As Paul Harvey would say, here's the rest of the story...

Matt has been sent to another training, in Chicago this time, which is to be quickly followed by a trip to help out a customer in Florida. Neither of us liked the idea of my staying at home with Patrick and Angie for nearly the full week alone, so we managed to work things to get Matt's flights out of Dallas. (In reality, it saved the company money, so it wasn't too hard to convince them of our plan.) That means I'm spending the week at my parents' again as Matt flies in and out of here a few times this week.

As always, life gets a little more interesting here, and I just haven't gotten around to blogging.

Okay, the inevitable adorable stories so far this week:
1. Mom had found some little puppy toys that she hoped Angie might like, since it was her first time here after all. One in particular has quite a hearty squeaker on it that scared Angie at first. Patrick found the toy right away, though, and loved it from the start. He would squeak the toy, laugh, and then imitate the squeak, quite well I might add. Finally Angie got jealous of Patrick playing with her toy and took it from him. Ever since, she has been obsessed with the toy and Patrick couldn't care less.

2. The other dogs in the neighborhood scare Angie. We have a hard time getting her to go to the bathroom outside at all because she hears other dogs barking, even all the way down the street, and just wants to go back inside. It makes for a messy week. We really don't understand this at all. Angie was born into a house with many other dogs, all bigger than her, with some much bigger. If she wasn't scared of her Doberman uncle and pit bull aunt, then why is she scared of the relatively wimpy dogs in the neighborhood?

3. Yesterday while I was napping in the evening, Mom was watchng Patrick (thank you, thank you, thank you). He was starting to get sleepy, which means he was getting to be a real handful. To try to distract him from all the things he wasn't supposed to get into, she pulled out some books to read with him. He actually sat on her lap, leaning up against her, and let her read to him. When they'd finished reading those books, he continued to just cuddle with her for quite a while. For the record, a good cuddle with Patrick these days lasts about ten seconds, if you're lucky. Mom said this cuddle lasted a good fifteen minutes probably. I think I like what Dallas is doing to my baby.