Santa came early to Cleveland

Wow.  That weekend flew by.  Three days in Cleveland is just not long enough.  Just saying.  We had a great time though and so did the boys.  Gotta love family.  My favorites.

Friday was pretty relaxing I think.  The weather was really nice, so I think we spent a good bit of time outside letting the boys run and ride bikes and do whatever they wanted.  We had to wait for the sun to come up and that frustrated William.  He's not used to CHILLY mornings and he wanted to go outside immediately.  Silly William.  And Uncle Bildy showed up that evening.  But he didn't stay long, which disappointed everyone.  Apparently Duncan Phyfe sofas were calling his name in Alpharetta... Whatever. ha!

Saturday was full of fun.  It was Cookie Party day.  Which really means that we watched Daddy & William have the most fun ever.  Seriously.  William thought that cutting out cookies was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him.  He was so focused!!  Though, Daddy let him have a teeny taste of the sugar cookie dough and then he became obsessed with pulling out the dough from the crevices.... so he could eat it!  Stinker!!  Meri finally made it to Cleveland after a night of Hobbit watching with friends and it was SOOO good to see her!!  She's pretty awesome and super handy to have around when Patrick's exzcema (sp) flares up and looks like it's eating his body...  Just putting that out there.

Pizza night!!!!!  So much more fun than a stuffy traditional Christmas dinner.  I think we should make it a new permanent tradition.  I wish that Kat could've been there.  We probably would've gotten raucous then.  As it was, I went to bed with the babies and I think the whole house nearly followed suit.  We were beat.  The boys had been getting up at 5am and could not be persuaded to go back to sleep or sit quietly in the bed while we slept some more.  So down to the basement we went every morning far too early.  I don't know why we were surprised.

Sunday morning was Christmas!!!!!!!!!  Woohoo!!!  I played Santa with the help of the two cutest 'elves' of all time.  William was really great at helping and Patrick was great at 'redistribution'.  haha!!  They had so much fun though - Christmas could have stopped there.  Absolutely adorable.  What a gift those two are!  It was fun watching how excited William got over his favorite movies and Patrick toodling around amidst all the fun only kinda knowing about the excitement.  They got some great books and Twas the Night Before Christmas read & recorded by Uncle K has already become a favorite.  So neat!!!

Patrick pulled out some vocabulary while we were up there.  He said "Thankyou".  It wasn't super clear or anything but it was obvious enough that Sara and I looked at each other like "DID YOU HEAR THAT TOO?!!".  Funny boy.  He's gotten good at signing 'more', especially now that we are recognizing the signal.. ha!  He used it a lot when I made baked ziti for dinner on Friday.  He is a bottomless pit when it comes to meal.  :)  Ooh - and he's started following directions - he puts his clothes in the hamper every night before bath and every morning after getting dressed.  It's great.  And he's so proud of himself.

I think William is having a hard time being the big brother.  He wants to be picked up and carried a lot and I think it is mostly because Patrick is held a lot of the time.  It's silly, but before I would carry him up the stairs, he'd have to say that it made him feel special...  I'm trying to get him to verbalize his feelings so we can work through the big ones.  I don't know if we're really making any headway... he's  having a really rough time.  I feel bad and it's difficult to figure out how to help him best.  Yay for parenting.

Now, I'm just trying to logically work through the massive to-do list before Christmas.  I didn't think I left too many things until the last minute... but the list says otherwise.  Oh well.  It will all happen... or it won't and it probably won't matter either way.  haha!

Loves.

Not enough hours in the day

So I finally got a haircut.  It was only 8 months of denial in the making.  Ha!  And I got it all cut off.  Seriously it is short.  But I love it.  My mornings are definitely better without 15-20 minutes of painstakingly blow-drying my hair with a round brush trying to not have a nappy head.  Light spray, quick tousle with a blow dryer and I'm done.  It's awesome.  And even though it was totally evident that my oldest son was coached, nothing beats walking in the door and having William tell me that I look beautiful.  So sweet.  Especially since at that moment, I kinda hated my hair.  ha!!  I always do.... and then within 24 hours I'm in love.  This time it only took me fixing it to love it.  I like it messy - not quite perfect.  Ok.  That's enough about my crazy red hair.

William has decided that he absolutely positively HATES tags in his shirts.  This poses quite a challenge.  I cut one tag out and then when we realized he was going to pitch a fit about every tag on principle - we stopped.  It's getting out of hand.  He asked me to cut out a tag on a shirt that was tagless this morning.  I think he's hoping I'll let him stop wearing shirts...  Naked William is cute but shirts are unfortunately required at school.  Well, I'm assuming they are.  I've never tried to send a half-dressed child to school...

Patrick is a hoot.  I can't get over him.  Such a happy joyful child.  Makes my heart so happy.  And he is far too big.  He now gives hugs and kisses to Sam and I in the morning, waves goodbye and then happily goes off to play.  Not a tear or frown in sight.  I'm not ready.  Just one sniffle is all I need - but nope - he's much too cool and well-adjusted for that.  Sam tells me to be proud that I am raising such a great independent happy kid.  I'm trying.  Honestly.  But I still kinda want him to be my baby.  Yes, at the ripe old age of 15 months - I'm afraid I'm losing him.  When he finally becomes a teenager, I might just have to crawl in a corner, huddle in the fetal position and having a coming to Jesus moment & good cry to get through it.  haha!!!  My sweet baby is growing up.  I do not approve.

We leave tomorrow night for Cleveland to do Christmas with my family.  It's going to be awesome.  It will be just us.  No extended family, just my brothers & sisters.  I can't wait.  And I talked Daddy & Sara into doing pizza instead of a traditional dinner.  I'm so pumped.  I foresee a new tradition.  Atleast I'm hoping for one.  And we're having a cookie day on Saturday.  Just like when we were little.  Sara would throw a huge neighborhood cookie party.  Everyone would look forward to it each year.  Then we all grew up, moved away, and scheduling became impossible.  William is going to love it.  So... lots of Christmas fun next week.  Hopefully I can keep myself sane enough to blog it a little so I don't get totally behind...  Best laid plans right?!

So I did some math - really simple counting but still...  On a good week day, we see the boys awake for about 3.5 hours.  How crazy is that?!  How wonderfully unfair that in order to put a roof over their heads, clothe, feed, and provide for their basic needs - we have to let someone else spend the majority of the day with them?  I really try not to think about it too much because it just makes me sad.  It also makes me want to try even harder to make sure that those 3.5 hours matter and that I'm doing my absolute best as a parent.  I also need to figure out how to make the hour-ish in the morning count a little more.  Not sure how with showers, getting ready, packing lunches, etc. but I definitely need to squeeze in some more quality time with them in the morning besides being silly while I get them dressed and shuffled off to watch Super Why.  Maybe extra time will suddenly appear now that I don't have to spend all that time on my hair.... LIGHTBULB!! haha!!!

Loves.

Mostly sunny with a cloud or two

Positive parenting requires an awful lot of patience. (though, raising children in general requires a lot of patience as well...)   I know that the end result will be worth it.  I know that I want my kids to grow up without voices raised, without punishment in the traditional sense, definitely without spankings, and with a lot of empathy, trust, sincerity, and love.  Most days I have the patience required.  I can help William through his big feelings easily and get him turned around into doing what is asked of him without a fight and becaue he is willing.  But then there are the days like Saturday, when I am just missing the coping skills to deal with life.  Saturday was rough.  It was hard.  And all I really wanted to do, what would have really made me feel better was to yell at someone and get it out all the frustration.  But I didn't.  Because that wouldn't have made William or Patrick feel better.  Just thought I'd lay that out there.  It's not all rainbows and sunshine around here.  I mean, it is a lot of the time - the boys' sweet faces melt my heart - but yeah, I'm all for being honest.  

The boys both love reading books.  It's really kind of awesome.  We brought home a TON of books from my Dad's house the last time we visited.  Really great stuff - like Disney stories, etc.  William's favorite of the week has been "Ferdinand and the bullies".  There sure are a lot of words and pages in the books we are reading now.  I am finding it such a relief when Patrick brings me a six page board book that is mostly pictures.  LOL  Patrick's favorite books right now are animals.  He really enjoys the Wake Up Little Animals book.  It must be working too - he totally 'baa'd' with a sheep at school.  Smart boy.

We finally put lights and ornaments on the tree after it being in the house for a week.  We just took our time summoning the energy to brave the attic for the boxes buried deep beneath far too many half full (with junk) boxes.  On that front - there is a large pile in front of our house for trash day tomorrow and Sam made a giant haul to goodwill.  One side of the attic has been attacked.  Now to figure out what to do with the couple of things I actually did manage to save from Sam.  haha.  Ok.  Back to Christmas.

Patrick was a pro at taking ornaments off the tree.  William did a great job of finding all the ornaments we didn't want him to touch because there were VERY breakable.  It was interesting decorating the tree with the two of them.  The Irish sheep still hasn't made it onto the tree yet thanks to William's wild imagination.  There are worse things I suppose.  We were getting close to done, so I took a step back to admire our handiwork... Realizing that the top half of the tree was practically BEYOND capacity and could hold no more ornaments, but 3' and below was a little scarce... haha.  We dug deep and found the last of the non-breaking ornaments to fill in some of the gaps.  It's a good tree though.  Completely imperfect and full of sentiment.  We love it.

William is a pretty good helper in the kitchen when he wants to be.  Those moments usually happen when I decide to make cookies or cupcakes or something sweet.  He really likes to pour the milk.  Maybe next week I'll let him use the sifter.  It's a pretty big deal though - we'll have to see.  haha  Patrick likes to sit on the counter and 'help' too.  He's not as useful,  but I can blame some of the mess on him, so he definitely fulfills a purpose.  :)  Sam hates it when I bake because flour and sugar and everything goes everywhere.  But who can be frustrated with the mess when such a cute little boy made it...?!  Though, unless you're the one cleaning it up, I don't think you should  get to be frustrated at all... just my opinion.. teehee

We are back on the "get Patrick to sleep in his own crib" train.  We definitely backslid for a week or two...  He's slowly getting reaccustomed to not nursing all night, and Sam said he didn't pick him up last night.  So maybe we'll get him back in the groove just in time for ... HOLIDAY TRAVELING...  And I'm sure we'll successfully mess it all up again.  haha  And so it goes.  He did sleep through the night earlier in the week though by fluke.  It was glorious.

Oh!! 15 months in and the boy has a lovey.  We've been forcing showing Walter the pig to him his whole life and this week he decided that Walter was worth big hugs and lots of snuggles.  I'm relieved that he finally decided to latch on the piggy instead of an uglier stuffed animal.  My second choice was Moosie, but it didn't come to that... haha  Walter has been taking naps and going night night with P for the past couple days and it's the sweetest thing to see him pull the pink piggy close.  And of course, he is definitely a Rumer boy.. First trip Walter made out in the world as an official member of the family and he got covered in chocolate milk.  So he is up for a bath.  William's Hilbert has had MANY MANY baths...  I just hope that Walter doesn't end up on as many "errands" as Hilbert does...

We went to the Christmas parade Saturday morning after breakfast.  The boys had a wonderful time!!  Even Patrick loved it - I was afraid he would be too little - silly me.  He had the best time waving to every car, firetruck, clown, soldier, and child that came by.  William loved waving his flag and yelling Merry Christmas. He got especially into the festivities when he realized that some people were throwing out candy.  Nothing like a Rumer on sugar high... LOL  The best part was, of course, the horses at the end of the parade.  We couldn't stay the whole time last year and missed Santa & the horses, but it was a major hit this year.  William wanted to know why he couldn't ride them!!

Loves.

Mini-people are funny

When William sings the ABCs and gets to L M N O - it sounds like he is saying 'animal'.  And only sometimes does he make it to X Y Z before skipping to 'sing with me'.  He also likes to make up songs like his Daddy.  The last gem was about the things he loves - starting with the most important - "cheese".  Definitely my kid.

 Tonight, while eating an absolutely delicious meal of baked penne (as evidenced by the lack of pasta left on the plates by everyone at the table), William said "Thank you for dinner Mommy".  I don't know where he learned that one, and I don't care.  Sweetest little boy.

Patrick slept through the night Sunday night.  That makes twice now.  It was glorious.  They both also slept until 6:15.  We might need to buy an alarm clock afterall.  I won't hold my breath though.  Or get cash out.

I have discovered that my OB/GYN is not very PRO breastfeeding -- I hesitate to call it 'extended' breastfeeding, but we'll just say breastfeeding past a year.  This is very disheartening because I love her.  But the solution to every 'issue/concern' I brought up at my annual check up was to stop breastfeeding.  Well, quote "I'm not telling you to stop breastfeeding... BUT........... XYZ will go away when......."  Yeah.  So, I know I'm not a doctor, but with a little bit of reading (extensively) online, my 'issues/concerns' could be attributed to something else.  And she didn't give me science, she gave anecdotal evidence.  I'm sad.  I have a whole year to decide if I'm going to switch doctors though I suppose.

 Patrick got his first bite.  Apparently it was over whether a play kitchen door was going to be closed or not.  What silly little disagreements.  Didn't break skin.  I hope we don't have serial biter situation like we did when William was his age.  That wasn't fun at all.  Though, I am a little more relaxed about it now.  Or, since it's just one isolated incident at the moment... We'll see how this pans out I guess.

Patrick has officially become big enough to climb INTO the playground at Chickfila.  Makes me a little nervous but he sure has a great time.  He also enjoys climbing UP the slide.  Goodness.  What a mess.

Patrick has decided he has opinions and he's not afraid to tell you about them.  Specifically when he is displeased.  He has a 'great' scream/cackle when he doesn't like something.

William has been doing a really great job at going potty since we bought the 'special' Mickey underwears.  He's only had two accidents in two weeks.  And tonight, after we'd put him in a diaper for bedtime, he still told us he needed to go to poo-poo and went to the potty.  Lots of high fives in the house!

I've been reading trying to figure out a way to better help William through his tantrumming.  It seems that they have been more frequent and more passionate lately.  I happened upon www.ahaparenting.com.  It's kind of awesome and you should go check it out.  Sam isn't 100% on board yet, but I think the empathetic (and there's more than just that - go read) approach is going to be just what the doctor ordered for William.  It's about validating their feelings but still setting limits....  It's good.  Feeds right in to attachment parenting as well.  And we ALL know how I feel about that! :)

Loves.

So very thankful

I am thankful for

'big hugs' from Patrick

conversations with William

tickling monsters

chasing dragons after bathtime

vanity sizing

large beds at a crazy good deal

a husband who tells me how much he adores me

babies who like to snuggle

reading books with two boys in my lap

a good job that I enjoy

the best Daddy & (step)MOM in the world

super cool siblings 

buttercream frosting

in-laws that let us come every weekend to 'borrow' their wide open space

that there is always tomorrow.

Loves.

Need Mayo?

William and Patrick are growing up so fast.  Maybe it doesn't seem like that to you and it probably shouldn't to me since aren't the subtle changes supposed to be less noticeable if you are around them everyday... but I just can't make time stand still long enough to feel like I've adequately soaked them in.  Every time I turn around, William has improved his vocabulary, diction, something wonderful has come out of his mouth and Patrick is working on words and is just so stinking smart.  Time needs to stop.  Like yesterday.  I can't possibly remember all of this.

William said to me last week, "Mommy, Tatrick's not my best friend."  "He's not?"  "No, you're my best friend."  Oh, how my heart melts, even though one of my biggest hopes is that the boys do become best friends.  I love my sisters and my brother.  I think it's one of the greatest things - to have a sibling.  Someone who, really, knows more about your core than just about anyone.  I know my sister knows exactly what I'm thinking when something happens and we've been able to rely on each other, especially in recent years (not so much growing up - we had the typical bickery sister relationship).  And I am oh so thankful for that.  And not to leave out my other brother & sister - they totally rock too!  Love you guys!!  

Sam went to Canada for work at the beginning of last week, and in an effort to preserve what little sanity I had left, I took the boys to Family Night at Chickfila.  I figured we would survive because we were eating dinner at a crazy early hour (before 6) and they are old enough now that they can play without being helicoptered over.  I order a chicken sandwich (gasp! I know!) and a nuggets kids meal for the boys.  I'm gathering straws, napkins, ketchup, and then William is DEMANDING that I get mayonnaise.  I didn't even think he knew what it was, but he insisted that he wanted some.  Ok.  I grab the packet.  Fine.  Get to the table - he wants it opened.. Lord.  Fine.  Seriously - the kid dunked his nugget and his fries in mayonnaise.  I don't know where he learned this.  His daddy has a pretty healthy relationship with Duke's mayo, but I didn't even eat the stuff until college at the earliest.  I don't know what got into him - it was the weirdest thing!  He hasn't asked for it since, so maybe that it was a freako night....  Just strange little boys!

We had a wonderful fun time playing that night though.  William was back and forth between the table and the playground and once Patrick had eaten enough, I let him follow brother around as well.  They were so cute!  William would hold the door for Patrick and was telling everyone who would listen that this was his brother Tatrick.  I think they will be best friends after all :)  The best part was I just sat at the table munching and watching them play and have a great time with the other kids.  Nearly relaxing.

Side effect of Sam traveling is that snuggles take on a whole new meaning in the Rumer house.  Surprisingly, I got Patrick down to bed relatively easily (which I was really nervous about because Sam puts his down) but William was not having any of the bed time routine.  He wanted to snuggle.  So I snuggled.  For a long time.  Then he wanted to snuggle with me & Patrick.  Goodness.  I put that one off until about 4 am and then just brought him in the bed with both of us thinking everyone would go back to sleep, no harm no foul.  Yeah right.  Not my brightest decision.  They were both wired the minute they saw each other.  At five, I gave up and put on Mickey Mouse or Little Einsteins or something.  

The week was pretty uneventful, normal stuff.  Decided on Friday afternoon, after playing kickball at work, to go to Cleveland for the weekend.  GREAT decision!!!  Sam stayed behind, so it was just the boys and me and it was wonderful.  Super relaxing, beautiful weather, fantastic company.  I wish it was easier to go up there.  Got to have a long talk with my dad about parenting, etc. that was really eye opening and therapeutic for me.  Dads are so smart.  Or maybe I'm just really lucky.  Either way - I've got the best one.  Hopefully my kids will say the same thing about me....  I took about 500 pictures on Daddy's camera over the weekend... but then we had to leave abruptly because William was sick and getting worse, so didn't get them burned to a cd... sorry.  I think there are some really awesome ones though.

William got to ride Shake the horse, and he was SOOO excited about that!  Mima brought it up as a possibility in the morning and William wouldn't let go.  It was going to be bad if Shake didn't cooperate, but he did a great job and William was beyond excited!  So cute!  He really enjoyed feeding Jake & Shake carrots too - even got some horsey kisses from Jake, which was too funny.  

Oh - William came home with his first "homework" project. I'm not really on board with the whole concept, I think kids should be kids, etc etc... but it was kinda fun to do.  They've been reading a book about a turkey that has to hide from a farmer (based on what William has told me...) and the teachers wanted us to dress up a turkey in a disguise.  William wanted his turkey to hide as a pirate.  So, Sunday morning, I was busy tracing and cutting construction paper and making paper feathers for a pirate hat. I'm really WAY too proud of the pirate costume.  Seriously.  He has a peg leg and everything.  And really, the only part that William could be a part of was to glue the pieces together.  Well, he wasn't really in to that when he realized his hands were going to get sticky.  And so begins MOM doing his homework projects.  Oh no.  This is no good.  But - the pirate turkey is REALLY cute.  haha!

This week has been the week of sick.  We rushed home Sunday to make it to Pediatric Acute Care because William's cough was getting worse and he was throwing up because of all the drainage.  Turns out he had an ear infection.  Then Patrick's temperature spiked up to 102 that night, so we kept him home the next two days.  Then in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, I started feeling icky and by 3pm I was absolutely miserable, so I left work and spent the rest of the day/night in bed and most of the day today in bed as well.  I would've sworn I had the flu yesterday I felt so bad.  Chills, aches, run over by a bus.  No fun.  But maybe now, that I don't feel quite so bad we are over the worst of it.  Though the boys are still on cough medicines and William has days left of antibiotics...  I'm living on cold pills.  So, just thinking happy unsick thoughts for us please... :)

Not a great catch up but my eyes are starting to cross and I need to go lay down again.  I'll try not to take so much time in between posts next time...

Loves.

We actually did stuff!

For once we actually had interesting things happen in our lives this week.  Granted, having a holiday midweek helps, but still.  I'm not scraping the barrel on things to say and that's nice for a change.

William was more than a little confused about why we were going Trick or Treating AGAIN on Wednesday, since we did the downtown thing over the weekend.  I tried to explain that Saturday was just for fun and that Halloween was really on Wednesday.  "It's Calloween?"  Yes baby.  Cute kid.  He began combining (best explanation we came up with) Callaway and Halloween - maybe because they sound similar in his head or he thought we were going trick or treating at Callaway... I don't know.  But it was pretty cute to hear "Happy Calloween!!"  We did make him say Halloween properly just to make sure we didn't need to start googling speech therapists...

We quickly ate dinner after getting home and then dressed the boys in their costumes.  Loaded them up in the stroller, took a picture or several, and walked a couple blocks to where we thought there might be houses open for business combined with good easy sidewalks.  It was a little slow starting but the boys had a great time.  Patrick was a bit shy but loved running on the sidewalk - or trying to make a break for the road... god help us.  William was an old pro - we had to remind him in what order to say Trick or Treat, Thankyou, and Happy Calloween - but he definitely understood the concept of treats. LOL!!  We walked and walked - had a big time - and then William up and decided he was done, didn't want to be an animal anymore, and it was time to leave.  Very well then.  Off we went.  He even got to eat a twizzler on the way home.

The rest of the week FLEW by!  We went grocery shopping on Thursday night (because we are gluttons for punishment) but only made it through Sam's Club.  William was a holy terror, Patrick was a cling on monster, and the thought of another hour minimum in Wal Mart made us want to cry.  We figured we had enough food to get through a day or two just from the warehouse trip.  Friday - I can't even remember Friday.  Huh.  Oh - got another bright idea to check out the new (relocated) TJ Maxx in Cross Country with the two mini peoples.  William was a holy terror, Patrick was a cling on monster, and all the boys sucked the good shopping vibe right out of me.  I did come out with a blue skinny belt (and a pink one) for quite the steal, and I needed a blue belt, but it's not a thrilling exciting purchase by any means.  What were we thinking?!  Seriously, I think we should become hermits for the next 4 years.

Today was the main event.  Steeplechase at Callaway!!  It's kinda a big deal and so much fun.  B&B got a family tent up at "Top of the Turn" and it was the BEST view.  We could see the horses come up the hill, make the TURN, and then go up the last hill to the finish.  It was great.  We were smart and didn't tell William about going to see the horse race until the latter part of the week (because he would ask incessantly if we did earlier) and he was pumped to say the least.  He even picked out a little stuffed horse at TJ Maxx that he bought with his mad money.  It's name is Henry and he accompanied William throughout the races today.

 

There was plenty of room for the boys to run and we got lucky because no one showed up to one of the spots on the rail, so William spent most of the day up there getting a great view of the horses.  He also convinced almots everyone in the family to take him to the 'fun place' (kid corral) atleast once.  Silly boy.  I heard that he even went down the BIG dinosaur slide.  The first time we went to the kid corral right after we got there in the morning, the boys (both of them) made it very clear that they wanted to ride the ponies.  So cute.  Both did such a great job!  William yelled Yeehaw!  Ride em Cowboy!! and talked the cute girl's ear off I am sure, and then Patrick just clapped and smiled and had a great time on his turn.  I can't believe I didn't take my camera down for it... Bill took some phone pictures though, so maybe I can atleast get those to facebook or something... We'll see.

As I'm sure you all know, William is ninety miles a minute at all times.  Well, today, we got our first taste of Patrick doing the same.  He literally hit the ground running.  All day, he would run off whenever he had the chance, and then look back slyly to see if you were following him, and then double his pace and keep going. He has no fear - so he'll start down a steep hill or step right off a step - so someone had to stay within grabbing distance of him.  Luckily, all the aunts, uncles, boyfriends, and grandparents joined in so Sam and I weren't totally spent.  I don't know if we could have kept up with him today.  He was certainly on the move! And only took a quick thirty minute nap in the stroller.  Sweet boy - it was so hot (IN NOVEMBER!!) - that we ended up just letting him run around in his diaper.  The heat aggrivates his excema and he was starting to get the rash bad on his legs & then it started creeping up - so off came the overalls.  And then, being the super classy people we are, we let him run around most of the afternoon in just a tshirt and a target diaper.  He was adorable though, and we had several offers for him to spend the weekends with strangers.  They retracted the offer when I told them he still wasn't sleeping through the night.  LOL! ha!

Sam leaves on Sunday for Toronto.  Not too bad this time - he'll be back Tuesday evening.  I am a little nervous about two days on my own, but we'll be fine.  I don't know how I'm going to get Patrick to go to sleep though.  Sam is the official sleep walker of babies.  I feed him, and then Sam gets him to sing/walk and Patrick KNOWS it's time to go to bed.  He doesn't quite get the message when I sing/walk.  So, it will be interesting.  I might have gray hair by the time Sam gets back.  We'll see.  And we might be hitting up the Chickfila family nights for dinner instead of me trying to entertain them and cook at the same time.

Oh!  So - Patrick is officially in the new big boy room as of Friday.  We dropped him off on the Toddler side.  (the teachers were sick earlier in the week, so they didn't move him over until Thurs. DAY and Friday).  He obviously likes being over there, with all the new fun things to do, but I was so sad to be leaving his infant room.  Had to go get a big hug from Ms. T and  her & Ms Tonja went in and played with P several times during the day.  They are going to miss him too.  :(  He has been sleeping worse than normal this week, combined with all the new activities - his teachers told us that he fell asleep at the lunch table with a chicken tender in his hand!!  I wish they had taken a picture!  I can't believe it.  Sleepy boy!

Things I want to remember:  William exlaiming "That's Ridiculous!!".  The boys loving on my aunt & uncle's dogs (they were at Steeplechase for the bagpipe parade!).  Patrick walking right in to the toddle side of school like he owned the place.  P is finally starting to get some hair on his head - just enough to make his head look dirty though.  No curls of any substance yet.  The way they giggle during bath time.  Patrick saying "all gone" when Sam ran out of icecream at Chill.  P got his first taste of apple juice today - he's a fan - but it's definitely not his 'baby drug' like it was for William.  William trying to tell Patrick it's ok when he's crying and giving him a hug or trying to hold his hand in the car.  How long it takes Patrick to eat one grape.  Patrick will now pick up your hand and put it on the book he wants you to read to him.  His favorite right now is an animals in different environments books (jungle, sea, pets, etc).  He points at the animals he recognizes, very cute.  William's favorites are the Thomas books right now.  Patrick is becoming very  vocal and his favorite hobby is perfecting his razz.  It's getting VERY good and VERY loud.  The best one is when both his lips get pooched out to make the noise.  William will join in if they are in the car and then there's nothing stopping them!

Loves.