A Conversation with Patrick

Last night before bed:

Matt: Patrick, what sound does a dog make?

Patrick: Bock, bock!

Matt: Patrick, what sound does a kitty cat make?

Patrick: Mee-ow!

Matt: Patrick, what sound does a Patrick make?

Patrick: Talk, talk, talk!

Matt and me (uncontrolled laughter): Yup, that's about right, Patrick!

Pizza, Pizza

Patrick's progress in his speech has been so gradual over the last few months that I sometimes forget how drastic it really is. Here are a few things he never used to do that would have been typical for his age:

--answer questions with "yes" or "no"
--answer questions at all without repeating the last thing you just said
--sing songs
--say full sentences
--connect several thoughts together
--use pronouns often
--say his numbers fluently
--say his alphabet
--name colors

I am now proud to say that he does every single one of these things. He surprises me with new things just about every day.

For example, last night Matt and I decided to order pizza for dinner. We're both fighting a nasty cold and didn't feel like cooking, so pizza was the natural solution. In the past, pizza has been hit or miss with Patrick, so we were stunned to watch him devour nearly three whole pieces of pizza. Yes, really. I was so shocked that I couldn't help but ask him, "Where are you putting it all?"

Matt and I couldn't keep from laughing as he replied, with a mouth full of pizza, "In my mouf!" That's my literal kid!

Slacker

Yup, I've been a huge slacker where this blog is concerned. Anybody remember when I used to post every single day, with pictures? I have proof I used to, but I can barely remember those days myself. Somehow the time just gets away from me with taking care of two VERY active children.

Since I last posted, we have celebrated Christmas and New Year's, and life has been back to normal for a full week again already.

We spent Christmas with my family--the whole family. During the days, there were ten adults, four children (well, four and a half, if you count my niece Anna's future baby brother or sister), three dogs, and the elusive cat. I think everyone was glad when we took two adults and two kids out of the picture in the evenings when we went back to our hotel each night. It was a chaotic few days, but lots of fun and I'm glad we didn't miss out on the festivities.

The kids banked for Christmas. When we got home, we cleaned out all but a few of their pre-Christmas toys to make room for all the new ones, and they haven't missed any of the old ones. They simply got that many new toys. Matt and I were definitely blessed as well, with more than we know what to do with.

The day after Christmas, we went to Big Spring to spend a few days with Matt's family as well. (This is where about half of the kids' toys came from; I told you they banked!) It was a little less chaotic there, until the dogs started running, but also a cherished family time.

I didn't take many pictures of our holiday, unfortunately. (I told you I was slacking.) In Dallas, both my brothers were there with their professional-quality cameras, that I kept mine in its case almost the whole time. I'll have to get some pictures from them. I also didn't take too many in Big Spring, but thankfully a few more than in Dallas. The problem is that they are all still on my camera. Yes, this long after our vacation, I have yet to download any of the pictures from Christmas and before. In fact, I don't know that I've even taken any new pictures since we got back. Remember what I said about slacking? I'll either post the pictures or a link to them when I finally get around to downloading them.

The boys are both growing so much right now. Patrick's language seems to be going through another explosion. He speaks in full sentences most of the time, and some of the things he comes up with crack me up. For example, yesterday when I was changing his diaper, Amber came poking her nose up to see what the fuss was about and sniff out whether it was a dirty diaper. I shooed her away as usual, and Patrick had to comment on it. "Amber eat poop?" he asked. I reassured him that I thought that was unlikely, but I thought it was hilarious that he thought that was the reason I was keeping her nose away from his exposed bottom.

He still loves school and asks every day if he gets to ride the school bus. He loves even more when I tell him he's going to MDO first. He names all of his teachers by name. It's funny, though, that all of a sudden he has started clinging to me when it's time for me to leave him at MDO. Unless one of his teachers is holding him and playing with him, he won't let go of me. I don't think he dislikes being there; he'd just rather I got to stay and play with him.

Nathan's personality is what is most interesting about his developments. He is a total hoot. He makes up silly games to play with each of us, and that mischievious smile will get him out of trouble almost every time he does something he knows he's not supposed to. It's like his goal in life is to make people laugh, and he knows he's good at it. I still get comments all the time when we're out whether he's always that happy. Yes, he usually is (until he gets sleepy, as many of you got to discover over Christmas break).

No, he is still not walking yet. I honestly think he could if he wanted to, but he's a little timid about trying it. Besides, his scoot will get him places almost as fast as walking, so what's the point? I know eventually one day he will decide it's time to walk, and he'll be off. When that happens, we'll never catch him.

Over the last few weeks, Nathan has sprouted just about all the teeth he had left to cut. It made for some frustrating, sleepless nights when he was in the most pain, but we seem to be past that now. He sports a full set of teeth instead. No wonder he's suddenly so eager to try any "real" food we can put in front of him. Like his brother, his favorites currently include waffles and anything with lots of cheese.

Guess what I just realized? I have a group of pictures I downloaded right before Christmas that I never shared with you. Since I am quickly running out of time to write, I will just have to post the link, like I did last time. You can find some cute pictures, including Christmas-y ones of Nathan here.

A Few Things

I'm sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. I've had lots of things to blog about but haven't had the motivation to actually sit down and write about them, much less download all the pictures I have and upload them to blogger. I'll get there eventually, I promise. In the meantime, here are a few random stories, etc. from the last week or two that I never got around to writing about:

--Nathan had his one-year check-up almost two weeks ago. Obviously we learned nothing monumental, otherwise you would have heard something a little before now. It was mostly a weight and height check. If you're interested, he's right at 19 pounds, which is somewhere around the 5th percentile (a bit of a drop from his birth weight percentile). His height is at 29 1/2 inches, which is about average. Surely this must be a phase, where he is predicted to grow to an average height but is a beanpole. He also got four different shots with several more when we go back for Patrick's three-year check-up. Of course he cried, but he got over it pretty fast too.

--Patrick's been developing his sense of humor, surprising Matt and me with the silly things he does that seem to come out of nowhere. For example, the other day we were eating French fries with dinner and Patrick decided they looked better as toys than actual food. He kept putting one on his head and giggling. When that started to get old, he put one under his nose like a mustache. That one definitely got Matt and me laughing. Where did he come up with that? I don't know that he's seen anyone turn food into a mustache before, so we think that's pretty creative of him.

--Along the same lines, he's had lots of fun playing with his Mr. Potato Head, one of his birthday presents. He likes trading out the body parts, making some pretty silly looking faces (although he usually keeps them relatively normal, with eyes, nose, mouth, etc in their proper places). He's smart enough to recognize the body parts, too, so when he saw his brother wanting to chew on the various body parts, he had the idea to give him a mouth to chew on. I didn't realize what he was doing until he started to laugh. Then I looked up at Nathan and saw Mr. Potato Head's mouth on him. It made a hilarious picture (too bad I wasn't fast enough to snap any). We've since had to talk about what is okay and not okay to give to Nathan to chew on, but I can't fault him on his creativity and sense of humor to come up with the stunt in the first place.

--School is still going well for Patrick. I got to help out with their class's Safety Day last week, which means I got to sit and watch Patrick play with all his school friends for a little while. It was a neat experience. I learned a lot more about Patrick by getting to see him in a different environment, one where I am not usually around. It is clear to see he has lots of fun playing with his friends. But I feel bad for his poor teachers. It was not an easy job wrangling all those two-year-olds, even with four of us (the two teachers and two moms helping). I'll probably help again on Circus Day, their replacement for Halloween.

--Nathan's language has been taking off. Not only does he say "Mama," "Dada," "Gaga," and "Amba",' but he's started saying, "Hi," and "Bye" as well. He says both in this adorable sing-songy voice that makes everyone smile. He knows when to say them too, which I find kind of impressive. Lately he's also been adding his baby version of "See you in a little while" or "See you later" to the end of it: "Seeyawhy" or "Seeyalay." If you remember, Patrick said both phrases pretty early too. My favorite, though, is "Iwuhyuh," his version of "I love you." It's totally adorable.

--Then just yesterday, Nathan started waving for hi and bye. It's a little hard to distinguish from his excited arm wave, but you can tell it's a real wave because he only uses one arm and says, "Bye" or "Hi" with it. So cute!

More Tidbits

In no particular order...

--Nathan has another tooth. It's another bottom one to complete the set of four on the bottom. This brings the total to eight. He's also working on those molars--still--and is teething badly enough some days to keep him awake at night and cause a small fever (at least that's what I hope has caused the fever in the last week). I think we'll all celebrate when those finally cut. Here's a picture of the next-to-the-last tooth to cut:
--He's also still not quite crawling yet and doesn't seem the least bit motivated to learn the proper way to do it. He gets everywhere he wants to go with the bear crawl/scoot, so why bother learning the real way? I finally got some pictures of this scoot move.

You can see he's trying to stand up and will push that cute booty way in the air sometimes. He doesn't have the balance in his hips and torso yet, though, so he can't stand all the way up. Instead he'll just fall back down on the bottom and scoot a little farther.

He obviously loves being mobile either way. Don't you love the new way he's smiling too? It looks like a cross between a smile and a grimace because of how he scrunches up his nose. I love it!

--Patrick has named his dinosaur with a real name at last: Joshua. My theory behind the name is that he's finally figured out who else we're talking to when we scold him with his full name, Patrick Joshua. He's Patrick, so whoever else is with him when he gets in trouble must be Joshua. Well, the dinosaur is always with him, so therefore he must be Joshua. Matt's theory is funnier, though. He thinks Patrick named the dinosaur Joshua so that when we scold him with both names he can blame the dinosaur instead. "It wasn't Patrick this time, it was Joshua!"

--Nathan has started pulling up entirely on his own. Before he loved to pull up on our fingers, but I know I was giving him some support and helping him balance. Now he can do it on his own given the right environment. I suspected the enclosed play area might just provide that for him.

This was the very first time it happened. We had just dropped Patrick off at school for his first day and I set Nathan in his pen to play for a few minutes. I looked away for a minute, and this is what I saw when I looked back. The way he's kind of clinging to the side makes me think of the Spiderman song for some reason. You can tell he's pleased with himself. He does this regularly now. The funniest was this morning when Patrick was in "real time-out" (versus "play time-out," what Patrick calls the play area) right next to Nathan in the play area, and Nathan pulled up right next to where Patrick was standing. They were just inches apart with only the gate thing in between them, both of them hanging onto it.

--Patrick is learning so much at school. He's been trying to tell me some about it, but his limited vocabulary leaves me confused most of the time. So far I have figured out that they color at least some days, he "sleeps tight" during the day, and he likes his peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich at lunch. He always makes sure to tell me all about what he ate for lunch, as though I hadn't packed it for him myself.

In the meantime, Nathan and I have been having fun on our own during school days. Yesterday we headed to Target to pick up a few birthday presents to hide away until the boys' birthdays in a few weeks. That is an outing I wouldn't dare try to do alone with both boys, so it is fun to get to do things like that when only Nathan is around. It will be interesting to see what we can find to do with ourselves tomorrow when Patrick is back at school.

Enlightenment

Do you remember a picture from a week or so ago where Patrick and Dinosaur were both wearing socks--on their feet AND their hands? It was hilarious, obviously, but puzzling. I had no idea why he suddenly decided socks belonged on his hands.

A few days ago he came up to me with a sock in his hand again, asking for help to put it on his hand. He was chattering about something incomprehensible when I heard two words I thought I understood: "sah puppih."

"Huh? Did you say 'sock puppet,' Patrick?"

"Sah puppih! Yeah!"

And from that moment, Sock Puppet joined our family. It's definitely something he picked up from Blue's Clues, as Steve shows off his own sock puppet skills in several different episodes we've seen lately. Now Sock Puppet joins us on car trips and sometimes eats at the table with us, although we've learned to limit his appearances then to cleaner meals ever since the day he tried banana. "Yucky banana! Yucky sah puppit!" Sock Puppet even talks on the phone sometimes, although I'm not entirely sure what he's saying. But that's okay because I'm sure Patrick knows.

Another unrelated Patrick-ism: He's decided that Cookie Monster is every bit as cool as Elmo and is thrilled if either one of them makes an appearance on his diaper. It cracks me up to hear him say "Cookie Monster," though, because he insists on growling it just like Cookie Monster talks.

We recently had to start replacing his wardrobe because he takes any buttons or snaps on his clothes and draws on the walls with them (they leave pencil-like marks that are difficult to remove). Those kinds of clothes are almost all he has, so we now need to find simple t-shirts and shorts without all those extra buttons. While browsing the clearance section at Babies R Us last night, we found a Cookie Monster outfit. Normally I avoid the popular cartoon characters on his clothes, but I couldn't resist buying it when he saw it and immediately got excited, growling "Cookie Monster" loudly. He's wearing the outfit today, and that's all he can talk about. I'll have to see if I can get it on video for you. It's got to be one of the cutest things he says.

Meet Dinosaur

Meet Doddledo, aka Dinosaur.
Doddledo is Patrick's newest best friend. He is the comfort object, that one item that follows Patrick everywhere and would be the cause of great distress if he ever disappeared.

Doddledo does everything with Patrick (except for baths, thank goodness). He participates in every diaper change, which is why you often see him in a diaper in photos. He eats meals with us, and he comes for rides in the car. He is fed some of Patrick's snacks and is given toys to play with and insists on watching Blue's Clues at various times of the day.

I have taken to addressing Doddledo when I have questions for Patrick. Here's a sample of our conversations lately:

Me: Patrick, what do you want for lunch?

Patrick: .....

Me: Patrick, what does Doddledo want to eat for lunch?

Patrick: Doddledo mumblemumble toteeya chee

Me: (thinking How is that easier to say than quesadilla?) Doddledo wants a tortilla with cheese? And what does he want to drink?

Patrick: Doddledo mumblemumble ilk? Ilk sippy?

Me: Okay, then I'll make Doddledo a tortilla with cheese and a milk sippy, and you guys can share.

Then while I start gathering everything for lunch, Patrick straps Doddledo into his own booster seat ("UP, downdowndown") and puts a bib on him. Patrick usually pauses during his own meal to offer bites of his meal and sips of his milk to Doddledo. Apparently, Doddledo usually declares them to be "yummy."

When naptime comes, Patrick is even more eager to hop in bed--if that's even possible. He makes sure to tuck Doddledo in next to him snugly. Then he kisses the top of his head. "Uh wuv oo, Doddledo." I am forced to repeat the routine as well, kissing Doddledo after I give Patrick his naptime kiss.

While they play together during the day, Patrick will pause at random times to lean down and give Doddledo yet another smooch. I grin a bit everytime I hear, "Mmm-mah!" knowing that Doddledo is very loved.

Sometimes Patrick decides that he is tired of carrying Doddledo everywhere. At these times, he tries teaching Doddledo to walk. He hunches over kind of funny, balances Doddledo on his feet on the floor, and rocks him back and forth as though he's walking. He drags him along by the hand at times, like he's holding his hand. Doddledo even dances with Patrick and jumps with him, practicing all those great gross motor skills.

Lately, Patrick has had issues keeping his diaper on when he's supposed to be sleeping, so we've started duct taping down the tabs. (By the way, he can even break through that sometimes. Anybody have any different ideas for us to try to solve this problem?) He somehow got the idea that it resembles a Band-aid, from the one time he saw me with a Band-aid on my boo-boo. Now when I change his diaper, he reminds me that Elmo has a boo-boo and needs a Band-aid. Of course, Doddledo needs one too, though. He has taken to peeling the decals off his car and using the stickers as a Band-aid on Doddledo's diaper.

Anything Patrick has, Doddledo needs too. I can't decide if Doddledo is Patrick, or just someone for Patrick to nurture, more like his baby. Either way, I think Matt and I may go on a mission to find a second Doddledo to keep hidden around here, just in case some sort of tragedy would occur to Doddledo...God forbid.

Bad Toes

An excerpt from a conversation with Patrick over lunch yesterday:

Matt: Patrick, what did you do this morning? Mommy tells me you played peek-a-boo with her toes.

Patrick: Toes? No kicking, toes. Timeout. Bad toes.

Who knew the blame game started so early? Patrick didn't do it; his toes did. Bad toes.

Shrug, Close Enough

As Patrick's language continues to grow, it's been great hearing him learn everyone's name. As he's done for a long time, he still yells, "Daddy!" when Matt gets home from work. He chatters to and about Gaga constantly, and he recognizes all his grandparents by name.

It's actually been a regular routine lately for him to crawl into my lap when I'm on my computer and ask for "pee-choo" (pictures). I'll pull up some of our vacation pictures or some pictures from Christmas, or anytime the pictures aren't just of Patrick, Nathan, and Amber. He thinks it's a great game to point out everyone in the pictures. "Gigi!" "Papa!" "Be-paw!" "Nana!"

Sometimes he surprises me with his memory. It only took one reminder each for him to remember his new cousins, Corey and Abby, that he saw last month. It's so cute hearing him say their names so clearly in his little voice. And one that didn't need any prompting was Uncle Steve and Aunt Ginny's dog Daphne (Daffee).

Oddly enough, the only person that he has a difficult time identifying in pictures is me. It's like he doesn't know what to call me. He can repeat me when I point to myself and say, "Mommy," or he can repeat Matt when he calls me Mommy, but he doesn't just call me that on his own.

Instead, I've often heard him calling me something that sounds strikingly like Jennifer.

Huh. I wonder what would make him think that all women who aren't his grandmothers are named Jennifer.

It's not like I'm not used to being called the wrong name. Up until a few months after I got married and shed my maiden name, I was called Christy. Anyone who knew both of us sisters as acquaintances got us confused, so I was called Jennifer regularly growing up. I guess it's not that big of a change to have my own son make the same mistake.

Of course, it would be a lot easier if every single one of his aunts wasn't also named Jennifer. But that's certainly not my fault, so I guess I'll just get used to being called Jennifer. In the meantime, I'll be reminding him that my name is Mommy every chance I get. And I suppose it's better than having him call every woman he sees Mommy.

Thirty-Two Months

Dear Patrick,

I almost didn't write you a letter today. I figured in the aftermath of vacation, nobody would miss it. Besides, you might just be getting old enough that you don't necessarily need a letter every month. Oh, and it's tough writing something without lots of cute pictures to show off too, and I've been bad about getting pictures since we got home from vacation.

But then years from now when I'm finally getting around to compiling all these letters to file away for you to read when you'll appreciate them, I'll notice that your 32nd month is missing. I'll drive myself crazy looking for it, afraid that I mislabeled it or accidentally deleted it. I'll wonder why I didn't ever write something in the first place.

So to keep from driving myself crazy, I'm writing something anyway.

The biggest and funniest things that happened this last months have already been recorded in the last few posts about our vacation. Without a doubt, that was a blast. I suspect you had a blast as well, as you are still talking about your grandparents.

I realized this morning, though, that I'd forgotten a couple of great stories from our vacation since I didn't have pictures to go along with them. Together they pretty much sum up your personality right now.

While we were at Nana and Grandpa's house, Grandpa got some new speakers (or receiver or something) for the sound system in their living room. He and Uncle Steve were trying them out with some of Uncle Steve's eclectic music. They found a particularly rockin' song, one that was probably a bit inappropriate to play around you (but you would never know), and you started getting down to it. Lately you've been dancing a lot to all sorts of music anyway, but this was much more energetic than normal. One by one, all of us adults laughed at your dancing and then joined in the fun.

It took the utter lack of self-restraint of a two-year-old to get all of us uptight adults to dance as though nobody was watching, as though we were children ourselves. It was a good lesson for all of us.

Of course, as soon as we were all dancing like crazy people, we realized that somebody was at the front door--the etched glass door that looked right into the living room where we were dancing the toddler dance. Naturally we scattered immediately, but those few moments when you got to teach us how to let loose were worth the resulting embarrassment.

A few nights later, we got to experience our first time in a hotel room with a toddler you and the first time ever with Nathan. Daddy and I were nervous about how exactly we would all get to sleep, especially since you and Nathan are used to falling asleep in a dark room many hours earlier than Daddy and I do. Either we would keep you up late, or we would have to go to bed at 8 with you guys. Without going into details on how that worked out--since that's not the point--I'll just say that it did. We all got a good night's sleep both nights we were in the hotel.

The part Daddy and I loved, though, was listening to you put yourself to sleep. You did what we suspect you do every night after we leave you and Nathan in the room for the night. You started talking to your brother. "Good night, Gaga. Sleep tight. Night night. See you in a little while, Gaga. I love you." And on and on and on. The first night it went on for about half an hour; the second night it was more like two hours.

Nathan fell asleep about five minutes into the talking both nights. Hearing your voice comforted him enough that he fell right to sleep.

That's the kind of relationship you have with your brother these days. You're not without your sibling rivalry for sure. You've been known to kick him or push him when he's getting attention that you want, or sometimes for no reason at all. But minutes later you'll walk up to him and hand him a toy, telling him to "pway, Gaga." You're eager to put him down for a nap and then get him up from a nap and help change his diaper. You want to help feed him and always make sure I'm giving him enough to eat. "Bi, Gaga?"

In return for all your care for him, he loves you like crazy and looks up to you. Everything you do is either awesome or totally hilarious.

Most of the time, I tend to agree. Each month you turn into more and more of a little person with a charming, magnetic personality. If you continue along this route, you'll be completely irresistible by the time you're ten. Already you're someone I can be proud of, and I suspect that pride will only swell as you continue to mature into the awesome kid you're meant to be.

Mommy (or Jigglia, as you called me tonight) loves you, my sweet little man.

Giggle Wednesday

Any of you stressing here in the middle of the week...say because of end-of-school insanity or something (ahem)...Patrick thought you could use a giggle or two. Or some uproarious laughter.

I don't think he was doing the disco, but you never can tell with this one.

The clothes weren't cute enough on him; the dinosaur had to wear them too.

For months and months, I've been concerned that Patrick couldn't point to different body parts like all the milestones say he should. He could point to his belly button and eventually say it, but that was it. Of course, I never could tell if he couldn't do that or just wouldn't. Lately he has started naming his toes, but I still didn't know if he actually knew more body parts than this. Apparently he just couldn't do things the normal way.

"Patrick, where's your nose?"

"No!"

"Patrick, where's your eye?"
"Eyyyyyyye!"

"Patrick, where's your mouth?"

"Mouf!"

"Yummy, toes!" (Yes, this is an actual quote from him--translated anyway.)

A Story in Pictures

Background: Sometimes when I'm making dinner and Matt's not available (like when he's away on a business trip), I let Nathan play in his high chair until we're all ready to eat. This evening, Patrick took it upon himself to start feeding Nathan while I got our meals ready.

And yes, if you look closely, you'll see the food is still closed. Only imaginary food ended up on the spoon or in Nathan's mouth.

"Here, Nathan! Try this!"

"Cool! Look what I found. Thanks, Patrick!"

"No, Gaga! Take that out of your mouth. I can't feed you if you have the spoon!"

Fulfilled Expectations

I'll never forget one day when I was a math teacher. As we all gathered in the math department office to eat lunch, several teachers started an intellectual discussion about derivatives, the unit circle, and other, more complicated math issues. They quickly left me behind with their far superior knowledge, but all I could do was start giggling. Unable to see what was so funny about derivatives, they asked me why I was laughing. "Because this is what our students think we must talk about over lunch!"

And ever since then I've noticed occasions in my life when things have happened exactly as people would picture them, as I would picture them. There was the day when I held Patrick for the first time, and looking down at that tiny body looking up at me and feeling the complete awe that I was a mother and this was the child I had waited so long to meet--that was absolutely how I expected to feel (even if none of the rest of the birth was at all as I'd expected). It was the same when the nurses placed a gooey Nathan on my belly moments after his birth, and I felt this surge of love for him, my first words to him being, "I love you, little Nathan."

Then yesterday, I looked over at Patrick having lunch and realized that it was exactly how I expected life with a two-year-old to be.
He even gave me a cheesy grin (get it? he's eating a grilled cheese) to complete the look.

Just Like Mommy

I wish. This latest cute thing Patrick does...we have no idea where he came up with it.

I noticed this morning that he wasn't using his bat like a normal bat. He was walking around with it making a "Ssss" noise. I couldn't figure out what he was doing until he leaned down and made a wiping motion on the floor.

He was "cleaning" with the bat as his cleaning solution. He even started telling me about how he was going to "clee uh" (clean up).

Now I understand where he got the phrase "clean up," since we've said that to him pretty often, especially after meals. But I don't know the last time he's seen me clean with some sort of cleaning solution. On the rare occasions that happens, he's taking a nap. My best guess would be that he has a great memory and can recall the times he helped me clean our glass-topped coffee table. That hasn't happened when he helped probably since Nathan was born, but I guess it's possible he remembers cleaning with me like that. It certainly seemed to make an impression at the time.

Either way, all this pretend play sure makes me out to be a good mommy--taking care of diapers, baths, and feeding, as well as plenty of cleaning. I hope that's really how he sees me!

Patrick-isms

Although Patrick's vocabulary is still growing by leaps and bounds, he still insists on calling his brother Gaga. It's so common to hear now that sometimes I slip and call him Gaga around Patrick. At least we both understand each other, right?

Lately, though, this has become much funnier. You see, Nathan has learned how to say his name. Along with the "mama"s, "baba"s, "nana"s, and "dada"s, he can now say "gagaga." I wish I could believe he was imitating his brother or actually saying his own name, but it's cute even if it is just another random sound he's learned to make.

I particularly love when Nathan happens to spout into a round of "gagaga"s at the same time that Patrick is talking about his gaga.

Speaking of some of Patrick's favorite words, I got creative the other day and combined a few of those favorite words to come up with a new lunch for him. He's grown tired of our usual quick lunches and was in need of something to switch up the routine. So I pulled out the tortillas and a slice of American cheese and made him a super easy, impromptu quesadilla.

Unfortunately, Patrick refuses to associate this new meal with the quesadillas his daddy makes so well. He refuses to call it a quesadilla (which, yes, he can and does say). Instead it's a tortilla with cheese. Yesterday that was a "toeteechee." Today it's more mature--a "toeteeya uh chee."

It's great that something so incredibly simple has not only filled his belly better than any other meal in quite some time but is helping improve his vocabulary too. Although I can't help but wonder if we eat Mexican food too much when his limited vocabulary includes both "quesadilla" AND "tortilla."

He Cracks Me Up

Thank goodness. Patrick seems to have made a complete recovery from the horrific toe injury. He woke up this morning having forgotten all about the boo-boo.

He still hobbled around most of the day yesterday, though. Matt got to see it when he got home from work, and we just about collapsed in giggles watching him limp with such exaggeration, only using the heel of that foot. I'm laughing again now just remembering.

Then he got hyper, which is inevitable these days, and forgot to limp as he walked. If I hadn't already suspected he was just fine, that proved it. I'm glad he pulled through it; it was rough there for a while (*rolling my eyes*).

If There Was Any Doubt

Patrick is so definitely my kid. Today he learned the word "boo-boo," and all of a sudden it's his favorite word.

We were outside playing with the dog (who was really more lolling in the grass) when Patrick slipped on our patio and skinned his knee--just barely. After cleaning it, however, I noticed that his toe was also injured, although whether this happened at the same time the knee was skinned I have no idea.

The toe isn't bad either, just a little skin pulled away from the top of the toenail. It looks a bit uncomfortable but nothing else. In fact, Patrick didn't even notice it until I brought it to his attention by putting a Band-aid on it--his first.

I explained to him that we were putting a Band-aid on his boo-boo to help it feel better faster and at Matt's suggestion gave him some M&M's to help it feel better (and distract him from the Band-aid that he desperately wanted to peel off).

Since then he has been oddly sedate. I've hardly coaxed even a smile out of him, and he keeps looking at the offending toe. When he got up after lunch, his first attempt walking on the foot since the bandaging, he hobbled with an obvious limp to the couch, where he has sat watching Blue's Clues intently ever since, occasionally reaching an arm down that leg, probably to play with the Band-aid, but he keeps resisting the temptation at the last second.

So he can bump his head hard against the table or something without seeming to even notice, but the second I put on a Band-aid, he puts on a show for me. I wonder where he could have picked up such dramatics about injuries...

Amber Unintentionally Calms the Boy

Patrick woke up from yesterday's nap crying. This happens often. You see, he insists on his full nighttime routine even for naps. This includes covering him with every single blanket in the house, nearly. When he's particularly tired, he forgets to shed the extra coverings before dozing off. In the winter, this isn't a big problem. Matt and I are cheap enough that we keep the house a bit cool in the winter to save on heating bills.

In the sudden summer that hit...oh, Monday here...this can be a real problem. We're equally as cheap in warm weather, so the house is fairly toasty all the time. The ceiling fans only help the problem minimally. So when Patrick forgets to toss off the covers before falling asleep, he wakes up miserably hot. Cue the crying.

There's little I can do to help him feel better until he has cooled off, so I usually give him a few minutes to crawl out from the sweat-soaked covers and compose himself before rescuing him. After all, why should I frustrate myself trying to calm him down when all it needs is time, something he can take care of on his own?

But yesterday the few minutes weren't enough. I had to go help calm him down. I decided when I saw his sweaty hair that one of his favorite activities might be in order--a bath. I left him in his room for another couple of minutes while I gathered everything for his bath.

While I'm gone, I notice the crying has stopped. A minute later from his room: "Ah-boo. Ge dah. Ge. Dah. Ah-boo!" When I peek into his room, I'm already prepared for the scene. Patrick hasn't moved an inch from his spot in bed, but Amber is sitting at the foot of his bed. She's not doing anything but apparently it bothers him that she's there.

He is lying down, barely suppressing his giggles, as he adamantly tells Amber to get down off the bed. I was already smiling at this when I noticed the kicker: he had his pointer finger out, admonishing her, waving it around as though this is what would coax her off the bed more than his harsh words.

Funny enough, she didn't quickly respond to my orders to get off the bed either, as it was barely audible between my own giggles.

By the way, when he got out of bed, he'd left a Patrick-shaped sweatstain on the sheets. Poor thing. No wonder he woke up crying.

A Great Picture

Patrick had a piece of his daddy's birthday cake last week.
But only one.

Boys Will Be Boys

I think my years teaching freshmen prepared me to be the mom of two boys. Do you think boys are born with that sense of humor we associate with little boys? Because Patrick seems to have it.

We've had a couple of bad allergy days around here, and as a result, Patrick has learned the word "booger." He giggles uncontrollably every time he says it, too. I'd like to think it's just a funny-sounding word, but more than likely it's just that boogers are innately funny.

So are farts and fart noises. Last night for dinner we were having French fries, which of course need ketchup. The ketchup made that fart noise as Matt squeezed some out, and Patrick immediately started laughing. It was the funniest thing he'd heard all day.

Then this morning, I watched as he strained and his face turned red. He wasn't pooping, though, because a second later, I heard a loud fart echo in his booster chair. He laughed so hard at that one, immediately saying, "poot," right after it happened and then declaring it "yucky."

I'm afraid I'm not helping matters by laughing along with him. I try not to giggle, but I find situations like that funny even before Patrick reacts to them (thank you freshmen boys). Then when Patrick starts laughing, I can't help myself. Oh, well, he'd learn the humor in bodily functions by the time he got in elementary school anyway, right? He might as well be precocious in this area.