Two Patrick Stories

First, the bad:

Patrick was doing his thing where he spins in a circle, trying to make himself dizzy. He was also trying to make me laugh, I think. He succeeded at both. Unfortunately, when he got dizzy he lost his balance and fell. Of course, he couldn't fall any one of the many directions that would have been safe. He fell right into the corner of the coffee table, face first. Immediately he started screaming. That's how I knew it really hurt. Most of the time he will just stand up, rub the sore part of his head, and bravely tell me, "It's okay!" That didn't happen this time, so I leapt to comfort him. It took some time, but he finally calmed down enough that I could see what exactly he hurt. Amazingly enough, he doesn't have anything to show for his rough encounter with the table. He bloodied his nose a little--a first for him--but even that wasn't as much as I would have expected. What a tough kid!

And the good:

A little while after the accident, Patrick was still anxious for my attention and comfort so he climbed into my lap while I was holding Nathan. Nathan was a bit upset, squirming a lot and fussing some too. With one hand around each boy, I wasn't able to do anything to calm Nathan. Patrick decided it was time to be a good big brother and take care of Nathan when I couldn't. He found the pacifier and worked hard to work the pacifier into Nathan's mouth. He knew exactly where it went, getting it into his mouth each try and most of the time even got the right end in. The funniest moment was when he left it in just long enough for Nathan to start sucking on it--and then immediately pulled it back out of his mouth anyway. At least he's trying to be a good big brother, even if he's still working out the details.

By the way, I have plenty to write about this weekend and pictures to post, so expect that over the next few days.