Our Rumer Christmas

As you well know – Christmas this year was on the weekend.  I’m not sure how, but it really felt like it snuck up on us.  Maybe because the tree was only up for what seemed like three weeks, and we were out of town one of those weekends…but we felt rushed when it came to the holiday.  Not that we were doing any last minute shopping, the boys definitely got more than enough from Santa, but I guess just celebrating time felt rushed.

I had the lucky fortune of managing to contract pink eye.  I woke up on Tuesday and my eye was swollen.  I figured I had poked myself in the eye during the night without noticing or I was having a weird allergic reaction to something, even though I have no known allergies…  Well, on Wednesday it was still swollen (and probably more so) and Sam & friends at work convinced me to go to the doctor.  I manage to get an appt with my primary care doctor, which is nothing short of a miracle, for the same day.  Turns out I haven’t been there since July 2010 – we had a lot to catch up on – like the pregnancy and birth of a second Rumer child!  He’s a nice guy – I like him a lot.  Which is why I decided not to be mad at him when he told me I had the highly contagious version of pink eye.  So, I go back to the office to tell the manager and off to Target (no fun – long wait) for my prescription eye drops.  I stayed out on Thursday just to make sure I didn’t give any one at work pink eye, I wasn’t terribly bothered by it…  Lucky for me, the swelling was gone in a couple days and I don’t think any Christmas pictures were ruined. 

Bill and Becky had the foresight to check the forecast for Christmas day, and it was going to be rainy and ugly all day.  This would not work for their Christmas gift plans for William, so Friday after I got off work we went over to their house for dinner.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and William got to open his big gift early…….a battery driven tractor with cart.  It is insane.  The expression on his face when he sees it is priceless.  And he picked up the driving process pretty quickly, pushing the pedal, turning the wheel – I’m fairly impressed.  Of course, he didn’t want to get off of it.  He rode it until it was dark and we made him come in.  He is such a cool kid.  We let him spend the night over at B&B’s, so then he rode it again all morning before breakfast and Bill says he became very proficient.  

After Saturday Chick-fil-A breakfast, we headed over to the mall to finally get pictures made with Santa.  I know I know… who leaves that to the last moment?!  We do apparently.  We changed William’s clothes in the car, while I fed Patrick in the front seat.  Turns out that at 10am on Christmas Eve is a pretty good time to go.  There was basically no line and Santa was still in a smiley happy good mood!!  Which was good for us – because yet again – William wanted nothing to do with him.  So we have some awesome red faced Santa pictures again.  Patrick didn’t mind being held my Mr Christmas at all – but he doesn’t mind too much of anything.  Ooh – but we were upset – in years past we have been able to take our own pictures of Santa.  This year, we were not allowed to stand on the red carpet and take pictures – so Sam had to stand outside the fence and off to the side to take pictures.  Frustrating.  And the cheapest package they had was $23!! For ONE picture!!!  Sam says he is going to write a letter to Peachtree Mall to let them know how displeased we are.  I doubt it will make a difference… but it will surely make us feel better…

That night we had church.  I love Christmas Eve service at St. Paul.  There is no nursery, so the kids were with us, and that made us a little nervous just because William is so full of energy ALL the TIME, but he did really well – we were pleasantly surprised.  Patrick fell asleep as soon as the first song was played and he slept until right at the end.  We always take communion on Christmas Eve and William thought he wanted to be cool like his parents and do it too.  I’m not sure why the associate pastor gave him a cracker – but he did – and then when William discovered it tasted like cardboard… he promptly spit it out.  Awesome…   My favorite part is at the end – they turn off the lights, we light candles and sing Silent Night.  It’s kinda magical.  

Church is always followed by the whole family going to someone’s house – this year Bill & Becky’s house (we used to host it but now our house is much too small…) – to eat homemade vegetable soup and cornbread.  I think this has always been the tradition, but certainly as long as I have been with Sam.  It’s nice.  William ran around like a crazy man.  Literally running in circles and telling me to “get out the way” and giving high fives to Grandaddy R on each lap.  And he loved being “swung” by Aunt Laura and Aunt Tasha.  He has such good aunts & uncles on both sides – such a lucky little boy to have so many people willing to horse around him.  Of course, we let him stay up way too late and didn’t think to get a picture early in the evening – so he in no way wanted to cooperate and take a Christmas Eve family picture in front of the tree…  yay for being two.  We left around 8:30, got the boys in bed, and prepped for Santa.

Sam has decided that he has found his calling in staging Santa and I was happy to let him to do that without any input from me.  I sat on the sofa, fed the baby and happily watched Bravo.  This year was more fun than years past obviously – there were toys to put out!!  Lots of toys!! Ok, well, not lots – but we knew that William would die when he walked in the living room – so that made it even more fun.  I think we probably stayed up way past our, or atleast my, bedtime getting ready for all the morning fun.  Totally, 100% worth it.  We are such suckers. Haha!

William was a wonderful child and chose to sleep until 6am, which was glorious, and then I changed his diaper and Sam grabbed the video camera.  Patrick was still asleep, so we got to spend an hour by ourselves with William, while he played with everything.  There was so much for him to see – but the biggest and best toy by far was the train table that Sam built.  William was in love and barely stopped playing with it all weekend.  We both just sat on the sofa watching him, trying to figure out what in the world was going through his head as he moved trains from here to there, changing the order and moving around the track.  Kids are truly amazing.

Patrick woke up an hour later at 7, and we did the same thing all over again.  Patrick’s big gift was actually something we received from the wonderful peeps I work with at the shower, but he is just now big enough for it – so it worked out perfectly…  He got a jumperoo and it is the coolest thing ever.  He’s still a bit short – but we put a pillow underneath him and he just smiled at all the activities around him and he LOVES when it bounces!  He also got some clothes and some little toys – the kid is totally set – and he was an absolute joy.  I love his baby smiles.  We have the greatest boys.

 

  

 St Paul actually has a church service when Christmas is on Sunday.  I came from a church that always canceled so “families could spend time together,” so I was pumped and excited to go.  We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, like we do every Sunday, and then we got ready.  There was no nursery again for church, news to us… but that’s ok.  It was a short service and they both did great again.  William sat with Grandaddy R and Patrick fell asleep during the first hymn.  We tried to get a family picture again…no such luck.  William was in a great mood – until the camera came out.  I don’t quite understand what his problem is – but the only frame worthy Christmas pictures of the family are only of three of us.  William is always trying to escape out of Sam’s arms.  Whatever.  I’m over it.

After church, it’s back over to Bill & Becky’s for big Rumer Christmas.  They let William open his presents before his nap, still not exactly sure why, but it seemed like a good idea.  Probably because he saw all the gifts and wanted to rip open some paper and they were afraid he would do it on his own… Who knows?!  We opened stockings for the boys and our stockings (great gift cards!! Thanks “Santa”!) and then William went upstairs to nap.  We ate appetizers, drank bloody mary’s, and waited for our aunts and uncles to show up.  Presents were opened – our family received a portable dvd player with two screens for the car – yay!!  Long trips will no longer be punctuated with “mommy mommy mommy” and instead all we will hear is the CARS soundtrack-  which is much preferable. Haha!!

 

Patrick of course, wanted to eat during dinner.  He always does.  He has impeccable timing when it comes to that.  Apparently, William has his Daddy’s love of deviled eggs because he put away atleast two and wanted more.  Which may not sound like a lot, but the kid barely eats anything at all… he wishes he could survive on cheez-its alone.  I finally make it to the table and get ham.  I love ham.  And this ham was smoked and might be the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.  And we got leftovers!!  Yummy yummy lunch for Meghan!!  Guess it’s a good thing we are playing Biggest Loser at work in the new year again – because I ate more than enough – and we all wanted a nap.

After dinner we played Just Dance 3 on the Wii – Tasha had gotten it for Christmas.  And wow – it’s fun!!  And quite the workout!!  William even got in on the action and had a big time. There are very few things cuter than a two year old dancing – love it.  And I just have to mention that I beat Sam by 3400 points when we did “Take on Me”.  Just saying.  I had the game’s all time high score for the day.  Boo-yah!! Haha!!!!  The video never needs to see the light of day though.  Or we are just going to have to figure out how to crop me out so all you see is William dancing…. It was a good time though.

We had Christmas totally packed up and in the attic by 2:00pm on Monday afternoon.  The house was getting to the point where we couldn’t take it anymore with things EVERYWHERE and my Daddy & Sara were headed in – so we really needed things put away and in their place by the time they got there.  I think they were a little surprised that there wasn’t a tree up – but otherwise we wouldn’t have had enough places to sit in the living room…. Oops!  They played with William and loved on the baby.  We watched a movie and went to bed much too late.  I heart my parents.  They’re the best.  And they came down to pick up William for the week.  Bless them!  Life is going to seem so easy with only one…

So – basically – we had a wonderful Christmas.  I honestly can’t believe how quickly it went by this year.  We are so blessed with wonderful families and I couldn’t ask for sweeter boys.  Even Sam surprised me with very thoughtful and beautiful gifts – I am so lucky.

Loves.

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and 

a happy New Year!!

Love,

Sam, Meghan, William & Patrick

A Very Kennedy Christmas

Since having William and deciding that we would always have Christmas morning at our house, we've had to get a little creative with seeing everyone during the holidays.  Made even more complicated by the fact that I do not have any vacation days left, and you have entire families getting together to celebrate Christmas a full 8 days before the 25th.  Honestly, I won't complain, I like dragging out the holiday and it means I get to spend more quality time with everyone instead of rushing around and stressing about having the car packed by 2pm on Christmas day.

 So Friay afternoon we headed up to Cleveland.  Patrick slept most of the way and William was very well behaved even though I think he only napped about an hour.  We got up to my Dad's house without hitting any major traffic and had several hours before dinner - which was, of course, pizza because it was Friday.  I love how predictable and dependable pizza night is.  Seriously - it's the whole reason we rush and rush on the drive up.  It's the best pizza ever.  EVER.

Pizza night is usually accompanied by a movie.  We all chose "Water for Elephants" and I was pleasantly surprised.  I had little to bad expectations of the movie and it was good.  Really really good.  And I didn't think about vampires once.  Very convincing Robert.  In past, the night before "Christmas" all us kids would get stupid, play beer pong in the basement, and stay up way too late.  Apparently we learned a hard lesson last year and none of us felt like a repeat.  Plus, it's a lot less fun to think about when you know you will be up at 2am and 5am with an infant, and the toddler will be up around 5:30 screaming for you to come play...  The joy of being a parent. :)  I love it.  I love sleep.... but I love them too.

Saturday morning came much too fast, and we were up just as early as we thought we would be.  We had to wait until 8am for Christmas to really "arrive" though.  I think Patrick ate and slept through most of it.  Just like William did his first Christmas.  William was VERY into this year though.  He received many Cars from Santa, his aunts and uncles, and Mima & Grandaddy.  Kiddo is set.  And his big gift was a remote control Cars track with a moving Mater.  He was in hog heaven.  Sam could barely get it put together fast enough.  And William put every single vehicle, train, etc on the track - whether it fit or not.

Patrick got some adorable clothes, very cool toys, and had an all around wonderful time taking it all in.  He loved talking to all of his aunts and uncles and watching his crazy brother flit around with all of his toys.  William of course kept trying to claim Patrick's very cool animal train - it IS pretty awesome - and is sitting on his bookshelf waiting for P to be old enough to play with it.

Around noonish, the rest of the family started showing up.  Grandmother, Uncle John, Uncle Tim, and then Uncle Gerry & Aunt Cindy with their two kids, Dash and Dane.  William loves to play with the boys and has gotten fairly good at sharing his toys, which is pretty impressive considering the age.  I think William was napping when they got there, we try and stick to the schedule for everyone's sake (haha)...  I think we went ahead and started lunch without him...which is the surefire way to make sure he wakes up just as we sit down.  And, without fail, he did.  But he wasn't interested in eating (as usual...) and he played with his car track.

After dinner, came presents.  It's always fun to see the whole family stuffed into the family room.  Which is really large - but so is our family!!  It's hilarious - there's always paper flying - Thankyous being yelled across the room - and the kids acting a fool.  I love it.  Nothing better than family.

Sunday morning, we were off to my mom's house for Christmas there.  She hadn't seen the boys since September so it was fun for her to see how much they've (especially Patrick) has grown.  William was scared to death her dog was going to "get him" but once we told him to say "no no doggie - go away" he felt much better and got some of his confidence back.  Maybe we should start bringing our dogs in more....  William immediately wanted to eat breakfast, so that was that, and we all sat down.  William stole everyone's grapes. It's funny when he picks something and locks on... but he's swallowing food - so we're happy.

Presents were just as much fun.  Our kids are so spoiled loved.  William got a very cool remote control car that drives just on the floor, no track needed, and it was amazing at how quickly he picked it up.  Granted, most of the time he just spins the truck around instead of steering it in a particular direction, but still - pretty cool.  He played and played.  We tried to get him to take a picture and that was kind of a lost cause, but I think we managed to quickly grab one.. maybe.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed.  I think we all took naps and then packed the car.  Ate dinner and drove home.  We decided to leave late so the boys would sleep again and that was successful - no screaming babies.  Back to work on Monday.  Fun fun.  Now we will do it all again this weekend.

SIDE NOTE: William poo-poo'd on the potty at school this week.  It was kinda a fluke but he did tell Ms Phyllis that he needed to go and she just barely got him on the toilet but we are still totally counting it.  That being said, he didn't want to go near the potty after he was done, apparently it caught him off guard a little bit... silly boy.  So, I guess come January we should probably for real start potty training.  It will be fun to pick out mini-boy underwear though.  I saw some Yo Gabba Gabba that was adorable, but I bet William would rather have Cars or Thomas... And I need to pick up some M&M's, but those never last long in this house... uhoh....

Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Parade & Some Horses

This past weekend somehow felt like we had all the time in the world with nothing to do – so we took full  advantage and filled it up with LOTS of fun Christmas happenings.  First, we pushed up Saturday ChickFilA breakfast so we could be downtown at 10 to see the Christmas parade.  William had a ball.  We got there early, and it turns out that was a little unnecessary, but we got a good spot on Broadway and William had a good time just running around waiting for the floats.  Sam had to go back to get his jacket because it was surprisingly windy and Patrick slept through nearly the whole thing in the Moby wrap.  

They were handing out mini flags at the beginning of the parade and William thought they were the coolest things ever.  And there isn’t much cuter than a mini-person waving a mini-flag.  Just saying.  He had such a good time and was even getting good at telling the people driving by “Merry Christmas”.  Of course, his favorites were the many firetrucks and trains that passed by.  A couple of the floats were throwing out “treats” and William was all about that.  He had lots of tootsie rolls stuffed into his and Sam’s pockets by the time we left.  I was surprised at how long of a parade it was.  We had to leave at 11:00/15 so I could get home, feed the baby, and go to the hospital to volunteer by noon – and it didn’t appear that they were even close to being done!

He did so good though.  Holding our hand in the road, not stepping off the curb, and being just generally a sweet wonderful little boy.  No tantrums in public.  It was great.  By the time we got home and I picked him up out of the carseat, he was exhausted (from waking up entirely too early) and had his head on my shoulder.  So straight to nap he went.  Poor kid.  It must’ve been a lot to take in…and he ran in circles for about 20 minutes leading up to the parade!

At 3:00 we went to The Landings to see the Budweiser Clydesdales!!!  I have never seen them before, even though they come every year, and I guess we couldn’t make it last year… who knows.  But off we go…….. to circle the parking lot with the rest of Columbus for twenty minutes before finding a spot.  Turns out the horses were a little late, and it takes an hour to get them hooked all up – no worries.  William ran up and down the sidewalk and Sam took him into Mainstreet Toys.  Pretty sure the kid was in hog heaven.  I fed the baby – which was interesting with the wind – thank goodness he only wanted a snack –haha!!!  

Around 4:15, the horses began trolloping around.  They are really cool, beautiful, humongous animals.  William loved it – we stayed and waited for them to come past us three or four times.  “Horsey come back?”  So cute.  We told him we were going to go see horses, and he immediately said “Shake?” – which is one of my parent’s horses.  Crazy how he remembers that!!  And he now will go “Neigh” (instead of “moo”) when you ask him what does a horsey say?  So cute.  (he was really obsessed with cows for a couple months…)

The next morning, I think Patrick and I slept in a little (still up before 7) and William & Sam are watching The Polar Express.  I guess Sam had DVR’d it and William was enthralled.  I had never seen the movie, and didn’t really remember the book, so it was fun to have a family moment watching the movie.  Even if Sam was falling asleep… he had an early morning again. ;) love you babe!  

We went to church, did a Christmas craft and had a generally wonderful rest of the day.  I heart my boys.  

Oh - before I forget. We were all, Patrick too, in the boys' room putting William to bed.  Sam sang him Jesus Loves Me, we said our night night prayer, and we all gave him kisses and hugs goodnight.  Then, he grabs Sam's hand, pulls it to his face, and says "Don't go Daddy.  Stay here".  Sweetest thing I've ever seen.  I'm pretty sure Sam melted.  So, I'm going to try and remember that moment when he is being VERY two.  My sweet boy.

And William decided that he COULD indeed say his name tonight!!!!!  He has been saying "me" or "name" when we ask him what his name is - but he apparently decided that today that was no longer good enough and will say his name.  We are so proud.  :)

Loves!

It's beginning to look like Christmas

We are in full Christmas swing at our house.  Well – we have the tree up, three wreathes, the toy soldier on the back of the door, an ornament spoon holder, and a couple Christmas pillows floating around.  We didn’t go crazy – there were a lot of things that didn’t make the cut because little curious hands would destroy them – but the house is very “Merry Christmas!”  This year I managed to wrangle my husband into agreeing that perhaps the money spent on a Christmas tree would be put to better use getting the boys something for Christmas – or paying bills and putting food on the table.  Not sure how I succeeded, but it just so happened that my Daddy had an extra artificial tree that he could let us borrow, and he was coming to Columbus anyhow to take us to Fantasy in Lights.  Perfection.  $40 saved.  Thank goodness.

Fantasy in Lights was so much fun.  And a big shout to my super awesome employer, TSYS, who always works out a deal with Callaway allowing us to purchase super discounted tickets.  Love it.  We headed out literally as soon as I pulled up in the driveway and made it to the line around 6:30-6:45ish..?  It was perfectly dark.  William sat in front with Mima and told us all about everything he saw.  Then he switched and “drove” the van with Grandaddy and Hilbert helped steer.  He loved going under the light “tunnels”.  My favorite is the part with all the twinkle lights that just hang down from the trees.  No animation – just pretty white lights.  I’m easy to please.  And I swear Patrick even watched and enjoyed the lights.  It was a wonderful evening and I can’t wait to repeat it every year with the boys.  It can only get more fun.

Patrick has decided that excessive drooling is much more fun than spitting up.  Though, he still spits up frequently enough to create massive loads of laundry…  He sucks on his, gets the saliva really flowing, and then lets it dribble out of his mouth and onto his entire outfit.  A couple times we have been playing, I hold him up to fly, and then I get a whole bunch of drool dropped onto my face.  It’s awesome.  But if he’s teething – he’s not upset about it – though he does LOVE to have his gums rubbed.  Sam discovered that the other day.  If he was a cat – he would’ve purred.

He’s been practicing diligently at opening and closing his hands.  He focuses on his fingers really hard and very purposely practices.   It’s funny to watch him work so hard at it – but all that concentration is starting to pay off.  I left him this morning at daycare with a rattle in his hand and the other evening he had ahold of my shirt/hair.  Soon he will probably be able to for real play with toys and then life will be REALLY interesting.

William has been saying the funniest things.  The other day coming home from school, he was telling us something that sounded like “Garrett come to the house”.  Nothing is ever that clear though, so we tried all variations of Garrett and different people’s houses before I think William finally gave up and just said “ok”.  Haha!  I will say, I’m not necessarily looking forward to setting up playdates.  That just seems like it is going to be a lot of work and I’m sure that William will become best friends with a child whose parents I won’t be able to stand.  Without fail I am sure.   Maybe not.  We will see.  Maybe I have a year or so.  Though, getting invited to birthday parties has already started.  He was just invited to one for a child in the other Transition classroom, who I don’t even know.  I think that’s ridiculous.  I understand not wanting any child to feel left out, especially since they can communicate with each other now, but….um…..I don’t know you.  Your child is not in my child’s direct classroom.  Luckily, we will be heading to Cleveland during the party, so I’ve got an easy out.  Just saying.

Poor little William fell the other morning before school and ran into some picture frames that needed to be rehung, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.  Of course he would run into them and cut his face.  What we didn’t realize until the next day, was that he had also bit the hell out of his cheek.  We were dropping him off in his classroom, giving him a hug bye, and I caught a glimpse of the inside of his mouth.  It was hugely swollen and was white at the top of the wound.  I thought it was infected it looked so bad.  Sam was able to get a better look at it and thought maybe it was just beat up “cheek meat”.  I called the doctor and they said that there’s nothing that they can really do for it.  When we get home, we look at it again, and it just looks terrible.  Really really awful.  So Sam takes him to acute care, while I play with Patrick and make dinner.  They say basically the same thing, but give a prescription for antibiotics ‘just in case’ it gets infected.  Which was really what we were all so concerned about.  And honestly – somehow the copay for acute care has dropped and is the same as going to his pediatrician – so I might just start taking him there more often.  I was really happy they came home with a Rx in hand – I feel like we pay the copay too often and leave empty handed with the knowledge that there is “nothing they can do”.  Whatever.

Patrick has seemed to have acclimated successfully to daycare and has taken the opportunity to stop sleeping through the night.  We are now up anywhere between two and three times prior to 6am.  We are trying out alternating nights like we did with William.  Though, William only got up once and took a bottle of formula, so it’s not quite the same, but yeah.  It was nice to sleep all hours, but I felt really guilty about not giving the kids boobs, and anytime I go more than a couple hours without feeding him (when he’s home) I feel guilty.  I hate giving him a bottle on the weekend or in the evenings, because I am absolutely terrified that I will lose my milk supply.  Terrified.  But Thursday night was my night to get up and it wasn’t too bad.  It took me a long time to get back to sleep the first time, so I only got an hour between feedings to sleep, but I feel ok.   I just don’t know if this system is going to work.  I feel like the kid should get boobage, even though he’s getting breastmilk in a bottle if Sam feeds him.  But then, I will never get to sleep through the night ever again, because it doesn’t look like he’s hopping on that train anytime soon.  We’ll see.

We are such suckers.  I have declared that we are done with the boys’ Christmas half a dozen times.  That they are not getting any more presents.  And then, something pops up on the classifieds at work that is so cheap that I can’t refuse.  Granted – they are amazing deals and Patrick is going to look oh so cute in all of his new to him clothes.  (I also have total mommy guilt over him not having very much that has only been his…)   It’s silly.  I just have to keep reminding myself that it doesn’t matter how much we spend (which really hasn’t been that much anyhow) that #1 they are too young to remember #2 they don’t really NEED anything and #3 they will know that we love them more than anything regardless of how many presents Santa brings.  I just hate feeling like I can’t give them the world.  Stupid mommy guilt.

Did I mention that William refuses to say “Patrick” with a P – even though he can totally say that sound.  He calls him “Tatrick” and it is THE most adorable thing ever.  We are honestly just happy that he’s calling him by his name and not just saying Baby.  And oh how he does love the baby.  He always wants to hug and kiss and hold and carry Patrick.  Though – he never wants to do any of that when I am trying to take a picture of the two of them.  Of course.  One day.  I really shouldn’t be too disappointed because Patrick has a tendency to go a little bug eyed when the camera gets brought out and flashes.  I can’t blame him.  He has little eyes – I bet the flash IS kinda startling.

William might become a music kind of kid after all.  Or maybe a rockstar.  He was jamming out on his air guitar the other day.  I know I say this a lot - but MOST. ADORABLE. THING. EVER.  Seriously - the kid kills me.  His imagination knows no bounds, which I guess is the point, and it is so much fun hearing what his world looks like every day.  Hilbert has a starring role in most of his made up stories, but sometimes his cars and trains make an appearance.  I'm just happy that he's not a super-analytical kid.... well, yet.  He just goes with it, and goes fast, without looking where he's going.

I forgot to mention that William really enjoyed decorating the bottom 36 inches of the tree.  He did not appreciate it when he would see an ornament through the box, demand it, and it would be a breakable one that he was not allowed to hold.  He did really well though and there was only one casualty, and while it was an ornament I liked - there was no humongo sentimental value to it.  He is even adhering to the rule of "no touching the ornaments once they are on the tree".  Teaching him to stop stepping on the button to make the lights turn on is a different story.  He loves the lights on - but he also loves buttons....  Bad news bears.  I forsee many trips to the corner for "not listening to mommy/daddy".

Loves!

Patrick by Numbers: 3

*Weighs approximately 13 pounds 10 ounces, I’m sure he’s taller but I have no idea how much.

*Solidly in 3-6 month clothes.

*Obsessed with sucking on his hands.  I’m fairly certain he’s close to being able to get his whole hand in there.

*Stopped sleeping through the night as soon as he got used to being at daycare.  We are back to getting up 2-3 times a night.  Yay for us.

*We have upped his bottles at daycare to 4 oz.  We send four, but he usually only eats 3.

*He will be embarrassed about this one day, but he can toot with the best of them.  I’m just glad all the gas isn’t making his tummy hurt.  That would be worse than the smelliest of toots.

*He doesn’t enjoy tummy time but he is really trying to roll over.  I suppose he’s motivated.

*He is still a wonderful baby.  Perfectly happy most of the time.  Loves to be held and loves to smile.

*He is starting coo A LOT.  Quite possibly the most adorable thing ever.  Of course he stops as soon as we break 

out the video camera, so I will just have to really focus on remembering.

*He spent his first night away from home on December 2nd.  I was totally against it but then gave in because a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep sounded beautiful.  He did great, though he was mad he didn’t get any boobage.  

*He has rekindled his love for the swing after we turned it to swing front to back instead of side to side.

*He is VERY alert and loves to observe everything.  I swear we have caught him watching Cars with William.  He does have a great seat in the swing.

*Has had a stuffy nose and congestion for about a month now, but we do everything we can (saline, humidifier, aspirator when necessary) and nothing gives.  The doctor won’t do anything until it turns into an ear infection.  I don’t understand; I just hope it magically goes away one day.

*Travels in the car well but inconsistent.  He did GREAT on the way up to Cleveland, but then cried for 2 hours straight on the way back.  His feelings were obviously hurt about something….

*He loves to be in the Moby wrap.  He falls asleep in it 9 out of 10 times.  I don’t mind.  It’s nice to have him all snuggly on me, and it sure does make grocery shopping easier.

*Is no longer taking baby Zantac.  He stopped spitting up as often and as much, generally, and he’s definitely not unhappy about it anymore.  Plus, he hated taking it, I don’t think it was very tasty.  Though he is still pretty good at creating a bunch of laundry for me and him… ha!

*Loves to be tickled.  Especially his cheeks.  We get the best smiles ever doing that.  Love him.