Yard Work

Although we've been living in our home for around 9 months now and the work on the interior has continued, we hadn't had the time to work on the yard. And it has been driving me crazy. The backyard had returned to its previous life as a hayfield and the front yard continued to look like a construction zone. I wanted a "real" yard.

This weekend, that real yard became, well, real. In fact, even more work than just the yard got done. On Thursday, my dad came down for the day and got hard to work painting inside. Thursday night, he and Ryan put down hardwood floor until way past my bedtime. (Believe it or not, Patrick STILL sleeps right through a hardwood floor being installed above his head.) On Friday, I headed off to work, Patrick to day care, and my dad, Ryan, and Ryan's dad got to work on the yard. Ryan's Uncle Don was kind enough to lend his bobcat and dump truck to our cause for a few days, and they got to work. By the time I got home on Friday, wow, there had been plenty of lawn mowing and dirt moving under way. My mom joined us on Friday evening to help keep an eye on Patrick while I was out in the yard and do some major cleaning and organizing on the inside of the house.

Saturday morning, Dad and Ryan got started early, and then headed south to pick up a tractor and tiller than a friend was kind enough to lend. While they did that, Mom and I ran errands. We met back at home after lunch for another hot day out in the sun. By the end of Saturday, the whole lawn had been cut,  front yard had been tilled, flattened, and seeded, and the garden had been dug out. We celebrated with a relaxing night watching the Blackhawks win game 1. WOOHOO!

Sunday morning we again started early, trying to beat the heat of the day. We got a lot of work done before Ryan and Dad took the long drive to return the tiller and Mom and I worked on cleaning the house. By the time Mom and Dad P left and Ryan's family arrived for an impromptu cookout, the backyard had been tilled where it needed it, the soil was built up near the deck, and the low spots in the yard had been filled. And we were tired!

All in all, it was an interesting process. Dad P spent 8+ hours on a riding lawnmower, and Dad P and I both 'rode' the crazy contraption that he and Ryan built to drag the front yard. We picked rocks and construction trash out of the yard by hand, and all ended up sunburned and sore. But when all was said and done, we had a beautiful start to a gorgeous non-construction lawn. It looks AMAZING!! Here are some pictures of the work in progress:

Farmer Ryan pulling Dad P on the scary drag contraption

Of course I had to join in and take a ride!

Men at work

Patrick wants to help with the lawn

So much fun!!!

We had some major rain today, so no more yard work was done. Weather permitting, maybe I'll get some before/after up here sometime. But, get ready for this folks, there will be another post tomorrow. Two posts in two days? Crazy, I know. But tomorrow is a very, very special day for one very special little boy - Patrick turns one! Of course, that deserves a post. Until then...

Mother's Day Weekend

Hello all, Patrick here again. Since I'm the reason that mommy gets to celebrate Mother's Day, I am taking over the blog entry for this weekend. 

Mother's Day weekend was SO much fun for me and Mommy had a great time too. On Friday, my friend Henry came over to my house with his Mommy and Daddy to watch hockey and eat pizza. We wore our jammies and played late into the evening. Even though Henry is a Blues fan, we're still friends (GO HAWKS!)

On Saturday morning, we hopped in the car and drove up to Grammy and Grandpa P's. I slept almost the entire way, waking up to play just a few minutes before we got there. I'm such a great traveler!! 

Once we got there, I got to go do something cool for the first time - go swimming!! My mommy took me into the water verrrrry slowly. Since it was an "old people" pool, it was very warm and there was a ramp for us to walk down - perfect for a first-timer like me. 

Mommy and I got to cuddle in the pool (I think she might have loved it more than I did!):

I got to hang out in my own little boat:

Grandpa and Grammy helped me 'swim' while Daddy manned the camera from the edge of the pool.

Of course, no one could resist messing with my hair and giving me a funky do. 

It was such a fun time!! 

Sunday morning, I got to cuddle with Mommy and Daddy a bit and I gave Mommy her present. (More on that in a sec) Then we had a yummy breakfast, followed by another round at the pool with just Grammy and Mommy.

We followed our time in the pool with a great Mother's Day lunch, and then hopped back in the car to head home. When we got home, Daddy set up Mommy's present, and I got to join her in it:

Daddy and I got her a hammock!!! Mommy says its for "quiet Mommy time" but I think she'll let me hang out with her once in a while. Right, Mommy?


That's all for now! Love, Patrick

Creeping Towards a Year

I’m having a very hard time believing this, but Patrick is 11 months old already. Next time I do an entry like this he’ll be a year old!! Craziness…

What’s been happening this month?

• His hair is starting to settle down. The back is still sticking up all over, but the top has settled into normal little boy hair. This makes it glaringly clear that he needs a haircut, but I think we’re going to hold off for a little while. Mommy’s seeing a little too much change in her little boy right now; cutting the hair would probably push her over the edge.
• We’re up to 7 teeth – this last one came in with little difficulty and it doesn’t look like any more are pushing through right at this moment.
• He has 2 ‘talk’ settings – quiet as a mouse or chatting (nonsense) constantly. He has a lot to say, I just wish we knew what it was. 
• His new thing that cracks mommy up? He sits down on the floor with a book and starts flipping through it going “ooooooooooh” as if he’s very impressed. I don’t know where he got that, but it might have something to do with my over animated book reading.
• Milk allergy: Present and accounted for. Not sure what we do in a month, getting a little nervous about it, actually. Luckily, it isn’t so severe that he can’t have products with dairy in them, or a taste of whipped cream here and there - he just reacts badly when I have a regular amount of straight dairy products. I’m taking that as a good sign that he may just grow out of this after all!
• Food: Loves his puffs. Not a huge fan of chunks of fruit, but loved the fresh steamed sweet potatoes and squash that we gave him last week. Favorite food? Maple breakfast sausage. (Blame daddy for that one) He always wants to try whatever we have, but when we give it to him, he fake chokes.
• And speaking of that - he has perfected the fake choke, using it whenever he feels he's not getting enough attention. We have to figure out a way to stop this...
• Bottles: He finally slipped and showed us that he does know how to hold his own bottle, but most of the time just doesn’t care to. Why hold it yourself when you have two able bodied servants to do it for you? He is starting to get better at using a sippy cup, and loves to keep one with him, but Mommy is too worried that he isn't getting enough to let that be his only source of liquid.
• He is a very, very busy little man. He loves to chase the cats, creep along anything he can, take all the Tupperware out of the cabinet, try to unload and/or crawl into the dishwasher, take all my cookbooks of the shelf, hand me things he finds on the floor, and try to play in the cat water. 
• He loves being outside – if he’s cranky, a walk out on the deck will calm him down (aka distract him!) immediately. He is NOT a fan of grass, however:

Get me off of this stuff!!!!

• He is a dancing machine, although dancing at this point is limited to shaking his head and bopping to what mom and dad are singing. Still, adorable. 
• He will still applaud with the television, but now has added applauding for himself when he does something he's proud of. He also claps along with music - the other night we thought he was asleep in the back of the car when we heard him start clapping along with the radio. 

We have a big month ahead of us - May is a Mother's Day / Graduation / Birthday celebration filled month. Think I can keep on top of the blog? Probably not, but I'll sure as heck try!!