Patrick's Many Faces

There's not much going on around here, so here are some pictures to tide you over until I have good stories again. I expect a few later this week, as Grandpa is here on business, staying with us for the week.

Weird expression on his face

I'm not sure what he's thinking as he eats that goldfish.

This would be his "kitty" face (which works just as well for dogs).

This might explain the huge crack on the bottom of the drum.

And this explains why the drum is now in hiding until he's a little older and can play with the drum more like a drum than a hat or a ball.

Four-Month Check-Up

I'm sorry I didn't write about Nathan's four-month check-up yesterday when we got home. We were all exhausted from the outing and chose to be lazy instead.

The appointment went well, though. Nathan is gaining weight impressively, up to 15 lb, 2 oz. It's pretty much right on track with his previous weight gain. His length yesterday was 23 1/2 inches, which is inconsistent with past measurements, but he kept curling funny when the nurse was measuring him. She agreed it's probably not an accurate measurement, but it was the best she could do yesterday.

The doctor said he was doing great. He looks perfect and is strong for his age. He has no concerns at all about him. We discussed starting solids soon, and then Nathan got his shots. He actually didn't notice the first one at all, and he didn't cry until the last one. That's some high pain tolerance! He's doing fine still today, with no reactions to the shots at all.

Payback

The other day, I was sitting with Nathan on my lap, shortly after he'd eaten. Patrick came up to us and started playing with the snaps on Nathan's outfit. I glanced up at the TV for a second, and when I glanced back down, Patrick had a disgusted look on his face and was holding his hand weirdly. He grabbed Nathan's burp rag and wiped his hand vigorously. I laughed, thinking it was funny that Nathan had slimed him, a common occurence around here since his hands are almost always in his mouth.

When Patrick finished with the burp rag, I took it to wipe Nathan's hands, as they must be slimy. That's when I found the spit-up on his shirt. It turns out that Nathan had spit up on Patrick, not slimed him.

I laughed much harder at this, probably due to the mean streak in me. It's about time he gets paid back for all the spit up he aimed at us for the first year of his life!

Four Months

Dear Nathan,

The last four months have gone by so quickly, yet it seems like you have always been here. You are so completely a part of our family that none of us can imagine life without you, even Patrick.
Your biggest development of this last month is definitely your physical growth. I swear you're just a little football player. You're a chunk. I don't know a better way to say it than that. You don't look the least bit overweight, though--just filled out. One glance at most of the pictures I have of you, and nobody would ever guess all the chub wrinkes that are hidden underneath your clothes. Your thighs are monstrous, short little pillars to hold up that beer belly and big head. They are easily as big around as my wrist, if not more. It's truly something to compare you to your brother at the same age, even the same size. You're filled out in a way Patrick never was, and probably never will be.

You look just as tall as you are thick, though. You only barely fit lengthwise on your changing table on your playard anymore. When you stretch out, your head touches the top while your toes push against the bottom. It will be interesting to see the exact stats at your check-up on Friday. I suspect you're still well above average in both weight and height. How did your daddy and I spawn such a large child as you?

Your size is also starting to present some challenges for us. You have outgrown the bed you've been sleeping in, the bassinette part of your playard; its weight limit is fifteen pounds, which you have certainly exceeded. I would love to move you into your crib in the room with Patrick, but your sleep patterns still need some work. For the moment, you need to stay in the room with Daddy and me, at least until you are able to sleep through most of the night without a feeding. (That might explain the weight, huh?) I don't like the solution we have right now, but you're staying in your playard on the bottom. I'm not sure you've noticed, but your mommy is on the short side. Leaning down into that playard to put you down and pick you up is not something she's going to stand for for long. Please work with us as we attempt to adjust your sleeping patterns so that you won't wake up the whole house for a feeding in the wee hours of the morning anymore.

All the sleep and food you have been getting lately, though, have turned you into quite a happy baby. You give all of us the biggest smiles when we look at you and coo and giggle regularly. In fact, I think those coos are the reason behind your big brother's name for you. You make sounds similar to "gaga" often. You have the biggest smiles for your daddy. I can't begin to tell you how special you make him feel when he walks into a room and you recognize him by immediately grinning and cooing. You even remembered him after he was gone most of last week on a business trip. You seemed truly glad to see him again.

I personally love changing your clothes, and not for the reasons you might expect. You enjoy getting your clothes changed, especially when I move to your chest to pull your clothes over your head or to snap or unsnap them there. I suspect you might be ticklish because you never fail to laugh when I touch your chest area. Just to warn you, you have many tickle fights in your future if you're that sensitive to it already.

Lately I haven't been able to help myself when I gaze down at you while you eat. I have been overcome with gratefulness that God chose to bless our family with you. You are truly special, and I can only hope that I can prove myself worthy of being your mommy.

I love you so much, my little chunk.

Mommy

Nathan Gets a Nickname

Once upon a time there was a boy named Patrick with a baby brother names Nathan. Patrick basically ignored his baby brother the first few months he was alive. But very slowly, he started showing his brother attention.

He started by poking at the snaps and buttons on his brother's clothes. Patrick would unsnap and attempt to snap back the many snaps found on Nathan's sleepers and other outfits. Nathan was his personal baby to dress and undress (if only he knew his mommy sometimes thought the same way).

Then Patrick realized that if he showed the squirmy thing inside the clothes attention, Mommy and Daddy gave him special attention too. So he started booping Nathan on the nose and petting him on the head, games which he thoroughly enjoyed for the reactions they drew from his parents.

One day, Patrick took it one step farther by doing something his mommy had been waiting months to happen: He showed his natural compassion to his brother. He attempted to calm his brother while he was crying by repeating, "It's okay, it's okay," mere inches away from Natha's face.

Amazingly, Nathan calmed down enough for Mommy to hear the sweetest thing yet from her sweet Patrick. Patrick gave Nathan his first nickname. "It's okay, Gaga. It's okay."

And this will be the nickname that will haunt both of them in high school when Mommy insists on repeating the story to every girl they bring home: Gaga.

Update in Pictures

No new stories yet from today, since I blogged all the most recent ones last night. Instead, here are the pictures I promised.

He's getting so good at holding up his head, isn't he?

I'm guessing this suspicious look was at his brother...

...because who knows what he had in mind here.

For the first time, I gave him goldfish in a bowl for his snack. Usually I would just dump handfuls on a clean spot on a table. He loved having the bowl, though. Appropriately he kept taking it over to the kitchen and storing it in the fridge. As you can tell, he was oh-so-careful not to accidentally dump out the fishies.

Obviously this picture was taken before his pants boycott. Because the pants are a little loose (like most of them--this kid's just too skinny), he had to run around holding his pants up. It made for some funny pictures.

It looks meaner than it was, I promise. Nathan was having a blast, giggling and cooing the whole time. And to be on the safe side, we didn't play like this for long--basically just long enough for me to get a good picture or two.

Compare this nearly-naked-baby picture to his newborn ones. It's safe to say he's filled out just a bit. I wish I had some good ones of those hambone thighs. He's no skinny Patrick, for sure.

Picture #1 of the pants boycott. His grin says exactly how he feels about going pantsless.

And my absolutely favorite picture from the boycott so far. He looks like he's modeling the boots. Like any good model, he can't let pants interfere with the focal piece

He has started stomping lately, too. He'll do it in bare feet, but he much prefers to stomp in the boots. I can hear him wander over the entire house looking for a better flooring to stomp on. So far the tile wins. I had a good laugh yesterday when I walked into the freshly-vacuumed study to see these funny footprints in the carpet; they were the remnants of some odd stomping rain dance Patrick had perfomed there in his boots.

More Cute Stories

Patrick now says, "bear," too. He picked up a small stuffed bear he had never seen before and immediately said, "bay-ah." Either he's really working on those language skills, or I've finally started learning to translate toddler language.

He's also been super sweet for me lately. Today we had very few tantrums, and he worked to entertain me and his brother all day long. I have some great pictures of the boots for you, coming soon I hope. And remember that he still has this odd aversion to pants right now...got that mental picture? We'll have to see if the picture meets expectations in the next couple of days.

The cutest thing he did for Nathan today was walk up to where I had him lying on the floor next to me and start petting his head. It was really gentle and sweet, just another way to show him attention without playing with the snaps on his outfit.

I know this one is random, but he really, really, really loves animals right now. He might just take after his uncle Daniel with this one. Have any of you seen that ASPCA commercial they play on a lot of cable channels with Sarah MacLaughlan (sorry for the awful spelling--I don't feel like looking it up)? They show lots of picture of cats (kitty cats) and dogs (doggies) that have been rescued. Patrick watches the whole thing avidly, squealing at each new picture of a cat or dog. I'm guessing that when Nathan's a bit older, we'll have to try the dog thing again. Patrick's too much of an animal lover to not have a pet.