Did you miss us?

So I've taken a blogging vacation. A long one. For those of you that followed this blog, I'm sorry to have been slacking but glad to be back. I can't promise frequent updates, but I really enjoy doing these updates and in honor of my 32nd birthday, I'm making a promise to myself that I will take time to do this.

There's no good way to recap 17 months, so I'm just going to recap a little, chat Patrick a little and tell ya'll about some of the exciting stuff happening now.

Recap: The last 17 months have been busy! We've had our share of travels, especially Ryan. Our family destinations have included Atlanta (wedding) and Florida (wedding and a Mouse House visit!). Ryan has also been to Russia and India. Looks like there may be more India trips in his future and we have a trip to California and Florida planned.

The work on the house continues and I dare say the end is in sight. I'll definitely have to devote a future post to the incredible work that Ryan (and others) have done.

Ryan and I also started bike riding for fun and exercise. Over the summer we participated in a few bike events locally. Ryan even did the Miles of Smiles event - 100 miles in one day. The highlight of the biking events was our October trip, child free :), to Nashville to participate in the Bike to Jack and Back. This was a 150 mile ride over 2 days that Ryan did with some friends while I worked as a 2 day volunteer for the event. Ryan and the rest of our team rode from Franklin, TN to the Lynchburg, TN. Between days one and two we had the opportunity to eat, drink, and relax with the rest of the participants on the Jack Daniel's Distillery property and then camp on the grounds of a local community college. Such a fun event that raised money for the National MS Society. Who is going with us next year?

Patrick:
At 2.5, Patrick is incredibly fun and unbelievably smart. Those of you who know his Mama well will not be surprised to hear he has excellent language skills. Translation: He never shuts up and has an opinion on everything. In a good way! He loves to climb, jump, run, and play with his trains. He also has some sweet dance moves :) Patrick loves his friends at day care, and looks for any opportunity to play with his cousins.

He can't get enough of his books and bargains every single night to have more books read to him. He even insists on having his light left on so he can 'read' himself to sleep. He adores Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Thomas & Friends (ick!).

While Ryan was in India in August, I got it in my head that I should potty train Patrick. Surprisingly, he took right to it and I'm proud to say he's been potty trained for months :) He still wears a trainer at night, but it is dry every single morning. At this point, its more for us than for him.

Patrick is really looking forward to Christmas and tells us all the time about Santa. He loves trying to figure out where his elf on the shelf has ended up each morning.

But do you want to know the thing he's really excited about??

The most exciting thing?

PATRICK IS GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER!!!!

That's right!  I'm 20 weeks along now, baby #2 is due April 23, and Patrick couldn't be more excited.  Obviously, Ryan and I are also thrilled. This pregnancy has been very different that the first, and at 20 weeks I still find myself getting sick some mornings. But generally everything is great and so far both Mama and Baby are doing great. More on baby later :)

So that's about it for now. (What, that's not enough?) More updates soon, I promise.

Life in the country is never boring.

One morning this summer, I had to call in to work and explain that I would be late for a reason I never thought I would use. "Mr. Boss man, I'm going to be late...I have to wrangle cows." No joke. 

It started on June 3rd as Ryan and I were getting ready to leave for work. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something moving in the tall grass beyond our yard. I told Ryan I thought I saw something out there, and he jokingly said "Uh, duh, those are cows." Ha, ha, very funny. Yes, our yard backs up to a cow pasture, but I was certain I saw something in our yard. A few minutes later, my suspicions were confirmed - I had seen something. Ryan's joke had also been confirmed - it was cows. There were calves running and playing in our backyard. We snapped a couple of pictures out the kitchen window:

Then we chased them back into the pasture and called farmer Merle. Merle told us that he would be out to fix the fence and that if it was just a calf or two not to worry - they will always go back to their mommies.

4 days later, we were again getting ready for work when we heard a truck in our yard and walked out to find our neighbor driving on our lawn. Looking toward the backyard, we discovered a full-scale prison break. Cows. Everywhere. Big ones. Little ones. It was funny, fascinating, and a little scary. We chatted with the neighbor, who told us that he found a mama cow near the road and chased her back towards the pasture. He also informed us of an unfortunate personal situation that made farmer Merle unreachable, and that meant getting the cows back in the pasture and fixing the fence had to be done by, well, us. The neighbor headed home to change clothes and get his tools for fence fixin' and I went back to the house to call work and get the camera. For the next hour, we yelled, clapped, walked towards the cows and eventually got them all back. Admittedly, I was a bit afraid and kept myself and Patrick away from the action whenever I could, but we did have to get involved. It was overall a lot of fun, with the exception of when Ryan was trying to get a baby cow to move and the mama cow got a little...protective. Luckily, the mama was behind the fence and Ryan was in no real danger. Still scared me! Here are the pictures from the big escape:

Ryan and Patrick check out the action.

Cows EVERYWHERE!

The little ones liked playing in the mud...and were not afraid of us. 

This one was so stubborn it took 2 people to get her back. 

It was a situation I never imagined I'd be in, but certainly one of the better excuses I've had for being late to work :) 

 

Party Time!!

***NOTE: This begins a series of entries that will get us caught up on the summer. It has been a long, fun one thus far, and I've been terrible at documenting. Let's get started on the catching up!***

The Sunday after Patrick's birthday, we celebrated with family and friends. Patrick really loved all the attention, the cake, and getting to play with his friends and cousins. Check out the festivities:

The Birthday Boy with Aunt Julie

This kid LOVES balloons. 

Patrick loves it when cousin Madison lugs him around.

Cuddles with Grammy Dorothy

Sammi and Finn (along with Brett and Cooper, not pictured) came all the way from Indianapolis to celebrate! {Thanks, guys!}

The Aunts and Uncles putting the back deck to good use.

Patrick's friend Henry really digs watermelon! 

Mommy made the cake, but wussed out when it came to decorating. Thankfully, Mommy's creative friend Leslie stepped in and saved the day!

Make a wish!

First time wearing the Morge birthday hat!

Messy Monkey

So many presents that Patrick had to get his daddy, cousins, and friend Henry to help open 'em.

On the cool CAT power wheels! 

Patrick's Birthday

In honor of Patrick's birthday, I took the day off work to spend the day with him. After the doctor's appointment mentioned in the previous post, we headed home briefly before driving down to Decatur for my dentist appointment. Ryan met us at the dentist and took Patrick with him down to the other house to do some "boy" stuff (fixing the air conditioner). We met back up with Uncle Andy for a yummy lunch at Mancino's, where Patrick got to have some bits of pizza and shredded cheese.

'Aunt' Julie was nice enough to invite us over, so after lunch we went to her and 'Uncle' Pari's apartment to play. He LOVED getting to play for hours with her, but eventually we had to get home for a nap.
On our way home we stopped at daycare so that Patrick could see his friends and I could talk to his 'teachers' about the changes in his diet. After that short stop, we made our way back home where Patrick crashed for a nap. When naptime was over, Daddy was home! Yay!

Ryan and I had planned a celebration dinner of steak and potatoes, and since Patrick had reached the ripe old age of 1, Ryan decided it was time Patrick learned the fine art of grilling and I took the opportunity to do a little photo shoot. Here are a few of the pictures from the evening:

Happy First Birthday, Patrick!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATRICK!!!

Can you believe it? Because I can't. It has been an entire year and our wonderful little baby has grown so much!  

From this: 

To this:

Ryan and I are continually amazed by how much joy one little person can bring to our lives. It is still hard to believe how much he has changed and grown. 

We went to the doctor first thing this morning and chubby boy has officially outgrown his car seat at 23#6  and 30 in long.  So big!!! Little dude has changed so much in the past few weeks!!

He:

• Is standing all on his own for as long as he chooses. 
• Dances (shakes his booty) while standing without falling over. 
• Walks with assistance. 
• Has finally started eating some finger foods other than puffs. He can be picky and sometimes still doesn't want to eat at all, but does like bread, loves pancakes and cake (blame all the birthday parties for that one), eats some pasta, bits of grapes, watermelon...and other stuff. Still not enough to be his sole source of food, but we'll get there. 
• Has 9 teeth - all his front teeth and one of his molars. He is also working on the rest of his molars. (Woohoo, that is FUN! Sarcasm anyone?)
• Clearly and intentionally says "Dada" and "Yum" Butthead still doesn't say Mama :(
• Mimics sneezing and coughing to get a laugh
• Cuddles with his cats at every opportunity.
• Loves nothing more than being licked silly by his dogs. 
• Has an unusual attachment to wooden cooking tools. The kid carries a wooden spoon with him much of the time. 
• Still loves to throw food and sippy cups on the floor. Grrrrr.
• Goes to bed at 8:15 (or earlier if he's especially pooped) and gets up around 6:45.
• Still takes 2 naps at home - the morning one is usually in the 20-50 minute range while the afternoon one is typically longer, sometimes an hour or two. He has been refusing to nap at day care recently though, so who knows what his sleeping schedule is going to be. 
• Has perfected his slow motion reaction that follows being told "NO" - lowers his head, puts out the bottom lip, looks up to check and make sure you're looking, puts his head back down, turns on the waterworks and looks up crying. It is very difficult not to laugh at.
• Is extremely curious - he wants to see everything you're doing, touch EVERYTHING, hold everything. He points everywhere and shouts "DAH!" 
• Still shows very little interest in TV - hooray!
• Is more fun than I could ever put into words. 

So that's our little Peanut in a nutshell (HA! I crack me up...) 

Just want to say a special thanks to all the family and friends that helped make our first year with Patrick such a fun and successful one. Your love, time, support, and advice have been so valuable to us. The past year has been such a whirlwind and we owe so much of where we are today to those who stepped in and helped us get here. Thank you!! We love you!

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!!

Messy Messy Munchkin

Little dude is getting more and more independent and adventurous in his eating. He loves his puffs, reaches for everything we have, and always tries to grab the spoon from me when I'm feeding him. Needless to say, the mess factor has been amped up. Luckily, messy is still a good look for him!!