Oops

St. Patrick's Day is coming up so we dig out the decorations from the garage over the weekend. I had my decorations up for way too long last year (think into April) and I swear to you I never noticed this until I put up the banner this year. Me thinks this was probably made in China.



Molly is all about the dogs lately, or as she calls them, "shushes". Guess what everyone in this house is always telling the dogs? Shush! She's still working on Louie's name but she knows "Ella", she just pronounces it like She is speaking in Spanish. Bravo!

County Fair

This weekend was the Santa Clara County Fair. When I was a kid the fair was a big deal, it ran for 8 or 10 days and we usually went to see the animals, eat corndogs and ride the rides. Sometimes one of my cousins had an animal they were showing in the fair. I remember there being hundreds and hundreds of animals and lots to see. I always loved it. So when I saw the commercials for the fair last week we decided it would be fun to take Patrick. The fair is only 4 days now, and it was actually quite small. There was maybe 1/5 of what I remember from 15 years ago. It's kind of sad because this area has such a rich agricultural tradition and it's just about all gone. I was hoping to be able to show Patrick something about what this area was like when I was a kid, and what it was like for his grandparents and great grandparents who grew up here. My mission was only sort of accomplished, Patrick enjoyed seeing the animals but I'm not sure it was as meaningful as I would have hoped. Maybe next year.





In other news, Ella is in the pet hospital :( She has a kidney stone and a kidney infection, the vet needs to make sure the stone gets smaller and her infection responds to antibiotics. She only has one kidney so it's really important that she responds to treatment in order to avoid surgery. So please keep her in your thoughts! We all miss her, especially Louie.

Garlic Blues

Patrick fell in love with a piece of garlic today. I was chopping garlic this afternoon and Patrick was very interested. He wanted to smell it and touch it (and I wanted to finish my cooking), so I gave him an entire clove (with the skin still on) to play with. Patrick sat down on his couch with it and very gently peeled the clove as he watched a DVD. He then carried the garlic around for the next 3 hours, sniffing it and declaring "Nummy, garlic smell good!". It was rather hilarious. I guess toddlers sometimes get attached to small inanimate objects. Patrick's friend Calvin had a recent affair with a coffee bean (until it ended up in his nose).



But alas, all good things must come to an end. Patrick gave his garlic clove to Ella who took a bite and spit it back out all mashed up. Poor garlic never had a chance.

Long, Long Time

Oops, it's been a long time since I updated this. Patrick is over his nasty cold and life is back to normal. The weather has been amazing this week so we've been spending lots of time bird watching in the backyard and blowing bubbles. I suppose every parent has a moment when they hink their child may be a little peculiar. In our case it started this week when Patrick decided he really needed to wear a pair of socks on his hands. All the time. He would cry and cry if we tried to take them off. So for 5 days now he has been wearing socks most of the time. He wear them when he is playing. He wears them when he helps me open the junk mail. He wears them when eating. He wears them at the park. He wears them when we are out running errands. He wears them to bed. I had to buy more socks at Target this week because we are going through 2 or 3 extra pairs of socks a day. Ummm, ok.



Earlier this week we joined Tom for lunch at Stanford Shopping Center. Patrick really enjoyed the fountains and was thrilled to throw in pennies and make a wish.



And Patrick sends birthday wishes to his Godmother (my cousin Danielle). Although her birthday was yesterday, we celebrated today with lunch with the family. Patrick has a great time running around with his cousins. They are all so good with him and he adores them, it's very sweet to watch them play :)





Have a great weekend!

The Daily Grind

We're getting settled into the house and still unpacking. It scares me that we still have an entire storage unit to unload. Yikes. Patrick is having a ball exploring every nook and cranny of the house. His new favorite activities include tormenting the pugs (and slipping them Cheerios) and emptying the cabinets (who knew I had so many ice trays?).





And I have to mention that I swear Patrick normally wears pants!

In other news Patrick has his 19 month well baby visit yesterday. My little baby is getting so big! The official stats...

• Weight - 23 pounds, 14 ounces (20th percentile)
• Height - 33 inches (70th percentile!!!!)
• Head - 55 cm (97th percentile)

Patrick has been steady on the height chart at 50% so the jump to 70% is interesting. Especially since I am 5'2'.....

....in a slight heel.

Walking The Dog

My little man is 14 months old today! We celebrated by going out to lunch with a friend of mine from college whom I hadn't seen in almost 10 years. We just happened to bump into each other one day at the mall, she was out shopping with her newborn son. Her baby slept through the entire lunch while my baby tried to stand up in his high chair during the entire lunch. Hmph.

Yesterday we took Louie and Ella to the dog park. Patrick loves holding Ella's leash.

Puppy Love

Is there anything cuter than a boy and his dog? Ella loves to follow Patrick around and she sneaks him lots of kisses whenever she can. Louie still seems pretty annoyed with Patrick but sometimes he lets Patrick pet him. Patrick is very gentle, it is so cute. Last week he starting petting another baby in his playgroup!

Here is Ella watching over Patrick today


And Patrick with his cousin Dex (notice the muzzle)


I couldn't resist posting a picture of this little punk rocker after his bath


Leave a comment, let me know who is reading :)

My Best Friend

The great thing about Patrick's new LeapStart Learning Table it has lots of toys so more than one person can play with it. Or one person and a dog. Or two dogs. Or whatever.

Get up, stand up...

Patrick is now an old pro at pulling himself up. He mastered the crib, even after it was lowered (thanks Tom!). Now he has figured out how to stand up in the Pack n Play. It's actually really cute to see him so pleased with himself when he gets up. The dogs are getting nervous, they've realized that Patrick can now chase them.

We're getting excited about Patrick's first Christmas. He will be thrilled with all of the boxes and paper.

An introduction

I thought this would be an easy way to share pictures and keep everyone up to date on what Patrick is up to.

Patrick is now 8 months and is just starting to crawl. He's starting to get in to all sorts of thing that I hadn't really thought about. Yesterday he reset the TiVo. Oops.

Here are some recent pics of Patrick...

Patrick's holiday picture


With the Christmas tree


On his 49ers rocking horse


And a funny picture of Ella thrown in