Patrickosaurus

Patrick likes to impress his Daddy more than anyone, especially when it comes to dinosaurs. In the video below you can see the look on his face when he realizes Toby is quizzing him on their names. His eyes light up and he focuses on the task at hand, enjoying the challenge. I can promise you that doesn't happen when I ask him about dinosaurs (probably because he knows more of them than I do). I'd like to add that if you ever would like to rile Toby up, nonchalantly mutter something like "did dinosaurs even exist?" or "dinosaurs weren't THAT cool."*

At the end of the video Madelyn starts crying and Patrick runs to her shouting "Oh Maddy, Oh Maddy." That's a new thing, which is pretty cute,too. It happens pretty much every time she cries or sounds upset. I should also point out that in the beginning of the video Toby is asking Patrick about Thomas the Train. The lyrics of the song are "Thomas! He's the cheeky one" and so anytime we say "Thomas!" Patrick responds with "cheeky one."




*Be prepared to get the dinosaur lecture of a lifetime.

On The Go

Gone are the days when I was able to spend time capturing Patrick's every move with the "real" camera. This happened for two reasons: 1) He moves faster! Patrick is off exploring the wonders of the world (or most days, our backyard) and goes from one thing to another with lightening speed, and 2) My arms are a little more full of baby than they used to be and anything that requires two hands is usually out of the question. And so it is that my camera phone has gotten a lot of use since Madelyn was born.

It's so much fun to watch Patrick explore and use his ever-growing imagination. I am pretty certain we, as parents, are supposed to teach him all the correct names for things but sometimes it's fun to see what Patrick comes up with himself. Toby has an umbrella that looks like a ninja sword (if you knew his friend, Tony, that gave it to him, you would not be surprised). One day I pulled it out of the closet and asked Patrick what is was. He thought for a moment and asked to hold it, then said "firehouse. spray it. water" and proceeded to pretend spray the stairs and carpet and everything else he could find, stopping only to find his firetruck (from Aunt Mandie and Uncle Tim) and his fire hat (from Betsy's Travis) to really get into character.

Another funny moment was when we walked through the garage and Patch spotted a watering can. He looked at Toby and I and asked "is it? is it?". Toby said something like "What do you think that is buddy" and Patrick looked at it carefully then said "bucket hose." We eventually corrected him but it was very cute watching his little mind work hard at coming up with a suitable name for the object in his hand. Nine times out of ten his imaginative play tends to be about cooking. While playing in the snow he and Toby made snow balls and Patrick would say "Egg. Crack it" then he would "mix" it and say that he was going to cook it in the oven.

Here are a couple pictures from my phone taken this last month. They are not the best quality but they do capture some of the best moments of our day. My favorite is the last one of Patrick because it shows his personality perfectly. He is wearing his Batman T-shirt, "fish pants" (a swimsuit that Mandie and Tim sent him that day and he HAD to put it on immediately) and his rain boots as he blows through the house on his fire engine, while drinking milk. You can see the toys he's torn through behind him. That is Patrick...always on the go.

New Suspenders and Hat

First kiss from Miss Jordan Barker. She means business.

"Bucket hose"

Trying to do everything at once.

And Miss Madelyn...Our precious baby girl has learned quickly to roll with the punches (figuratively and literally). She is such a love but knows when to speak up LOUDLY to get some attention. Patrick heard me call her Sassy Pants one day and referred to her as that the rest of the afternoon. "Look Sassy Pants. Car. Man driving". It was very cute. We've discovered that Madelyn is very modest, quite the lady, as Toby is happy to report. She does not approve of being undressed whatsoever and wants her outfits completely zipped up and comfy at all times. Diaper change? Please! It's not decent to expose my legs unless I am at the spa getting a bubble bath and massage ;)

Our Angel

"Woe is me"

Refreshed after her bath and massage

Somebody's getting chubby cheeks!

One Month Old

We had Madelyn's one-month doctor's visit this last Friday. We took her on a day when Patrick was at school so we got to visit with the doctor a little more and have some good one-on-one time with Madelyn. She's gained about 3 lbs in the last two weeks! She now weighs 9 lbs 2 oz and is 21 inches long. She's right at the fortieth percentile for height, weight and head size. The pediatrician said everything looks and sounds good on her and she's a perfectly healthy and happy baby. We knew the happy part, but it's nice to get professional confirmation on the healthy part.

Madelyn continues to be more active during the day and has been sleeping much better this last week. She's done at least a five hour stretch every night and one night gave us six hours and another a full seven in a row! Hopefully she'll keep up the good work and the time change tonight won't throw everything off. She and Patrick are still doing great together. Now that she's more aware and awake when he's around he's started trying to show her everything he finds. All day long we hear "Look Madelyn! Pictures!...Look Madelyn! Flowers!...Look Madelyn! Silly Roxy!" It will instantly right a bad mood and fix anything that's gone wrong that day.

We left our camera at Grandma and Grandpa's house last weekend while celebrating Uncle Jonathan's birthday so I don't have any pictures with this post. But, I made up for it by including a video.

The first part of the video is Patrick showing Madelyn an Easter Egg he found and then hugging/mauling her. He had also just woken up and found a gift he received, from our good friends the Mayers, that was a baby yoga book. So, you'll hear him talk about doing yoga at the end - which is funny to me. The second part of the video is just Madelyn laying on the floor getting ready for bed.

Also, we're going to rename the site from All About Babies to...something else. However, I haven't felt especially creative lately in trying to think of a new name. So if you have any suggestions, put them in the comments below. If we pick the name you suggested, we'll give you a free unicorn*. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

*When supplies become available. And, no we won't.

Family Time

Because no one has invented a house that will pay for itself yet, even though it's the year 2010 (Seriously. Somebody get on that. Do I have to think of everything?) I had to return to work last week. Hence the lack of updates to the site. We're all still settling into our groove and finding when the new routine allows our free time to happen.

The two weeks I was able to take off from work were really wonderful. It was a blessing to be able to spend that time with Madelyn, Patrick and Angie. Patrick and I had a lot of good time together while Angie took care of feeding Madelyn and I was able to take Madelyn off Angie's hands at times so she could enjoy some one-on-one with Patrick as well. And I can never get enough time with Angie so it was great having two weeks to just hang out with our kids. It's such a cool feeling to think that this is OUR family. Ang and I keep having to remind ourselves of that as we see Patrick trying to show Madelyn his new shoes or explain that she can't eat his food because she doesn't have teeth. It's so exciting to think that these are the two kids we'll be spending the rest of our lives with and watching grow up to be adults.

Patrick still seems to be adjusting well to Madelyn's arrival, although this week has posed new challenges as Madelyn becomes more and more aware and requires more of Angie's attention during the day. If you've ever been around Patrick, you know he isn't a big fan of NOT being stimulated in some way. He loves to play and run and discover and he loves it even more if there's someone there to share in the experience with him. He's a very social kid and about the only time he sits still is when we're reading books, at which point he'll sit for hours at a time if you let him. He's great at playing by himself but a 19-month-old can only do that for so long. This last week he's had to start learning how to deal with sharing Mommy's time and attention with someone else during the day. He's doing a great job adjusting so far and doesn't seem to resent Madelyn for it at all but it has meant a couple meltdowns recently. As always, Angie is handling the whole thing amazingly. I've always been impressed with Angie as a mother and seeing her now as a mother of two is doubly impressive. She knows exactly what to do and is extremely creative when it comes to doing things like entertaining Patrick while trying to feed Madelyn. It would be very easy for her to just turn on a movie and sit Patrick in front of it every time she needed to tend to Madelyn (and, let's be honest, I'm sure there will be days like that sometimes). But she does things like have Patrick help her bake brownies or make dinner or clean the house. When she has to do something that's specifically with Madelyn whether it's out of necessity, like feeding or changing a diaper, or just out of fun, like playing with Madelyn and her toys or reading to her, she makes sure to get Patrick involved in some fun way where he feels important. In the first two days of being home alone with both kids she somehow managed to pull off an arts and crafts project with both of them, go to the store twice and clean the house. All things I can barely manage to do on my own. Especially the arts and crafts.

As for Madelyn: she's incredible. We wake up happy every day to have her in our lives. She's such a content and sweet baby. She's just over three weeks old and is starting to be more awake and aware of us during the day. She looks for us when she hears our voices and does that great thing babies do where they just start waving their arms and legs when they get excited.

Since the last post about our snow day, we've had a beautiful weekend in which the four of us went to the park and then another snow day just a couple days ago. And, it looks like this weekend is supposed to be sunny and in the 60s again. Go figure. Here are some pictures from our family trip to the park last weekend and a few others from the last two weeks.

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