Time-out

This is how we do time-out at our house.  Arms folded and sitting on the couch.

 Although, it's hard to be serious when Patrick's so dang cute about it.

Being crafty and Santa!

 So, while I have openly admitted that I'm not an expert at sewing, once in awhile I get in the mood to be all "crafty."  That, mixed with the fact that I want to feel like each baby has new things but yet have a limited budget...these pictures are the result.  While making this, I realized I greatly overestimated how much fabric I would need.  So now I can make Patrick and the new baby a blanket with the material left over.  So, $30 later(although I was lucky to hit the expensive material on a great sale), I have a new interior, a car seat cover and two blankets.

I decided to cover the inside of the car seat with the minky material and then made a cover for the top.  Thank you to velcro, because without it, covering the inside of the car seat wouldn't have happened.  I won't even try to pretend like I know how to sew a car seat together.  Again, sorry for the bad picture quality.  All you people who have clean, crisp pictures on your blog...how do you do it?  I suppose getting around to taking pictures earlier than 8:00 at night would help.

And...tonight we saw Santa.  It would be an understatement to say that Patrick was not fond of him.  I knew that Patrick takes time to warm up to people before letting them hold him so I figured he might cry a little with Santa but I didn't realize how terrified he'd really be.  The kind lady elf finally took a picture for me so that I could sit by Patrick and try to comfort him long enough to get a shot.  As you can see, Patrick just grasped onto me for dear life.  Maybe next year he'll realize that Santa is actually a fun guy who gives presents.  Although...I can't remember a year growing up when I didn't freak out every time my parents mentioned the phrase "let's go see Santa!" so maybe he just gets the odd fear from me.  We'll see.

Who knew vacuuming was so great?

Yesterday, I was able to babysit my niece, Afton, and my nephew, Clayt while my sister-in-law had her hair/nails done.  I realized in my last post that I haven't taken many pictures lately so I thought I should start again.  This is Patrick and Afton playing outside-it looks like Patrick smacked her and ran away smiling but I'm pretty sure I just caught this picture at an awkward moment.  Who knew getting a 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old to look at the camera at the same time would be so hard? ;)

 I do have to say that taking care of 3 kids was harder, physically, then when it's just me and Patrick.  I was exhausted last night!  But, mentally, I felt like my morning/afternoon went by a lot faster.

Also, this has become a great past time in the Blackburn home.  Vacuuming.  I don't know why, but Patrick loves it.  We have an old, ghetto vacuum that is pretty easy to push around(as you can see in the pictures) but Patrick has vacuumed at grandma's house with the big vacuums and he does just as well.  I'm pretty sure his super-baby strength didn't come from my side.  On the good side, my floors have never looked better. :)  I'm taking advantage of this stage Patrick's in where he loves to "help."  Laundry, vacuuming, and doing dishes are a regular morning routine.

hello.

So, I'm starting to get kind of bad at this blogging thing.  Probably because my life isn't incredibly interesting at the moment and by the time I get Patrick in bed, I'm just really tired.  Dang pregnancy.  We don't get along.  Thank goodness I only have 3 1/2 months(hopefully at most) before I meet this new little guy.  If I thought being pregnant with no kids was hard...yeah, it was a walk in the park, physically, compared to now when I'm chasing an active toddler around.  But, I'm not complaining.  Kids are totally worth it...at least that's my opinion most of the time.  Really, Patrick is the greatest thing to happen to Jon and I and we couldn't have asked for a better child to practice all our parenting skills on.

This month Patrick has changed a lot.  Not physically, but verbally he's understanding and saying a lot more.  Oh, it's soo nice and I can't wait till he can say and understand even more.  Words Patrick says on a regular basis: mama, dada, ruff ruff, nana(banana), shoes and socks(too cute.  he loves that part of getting dressed, although those words sound like soos and sos), push(he pokes us and says push, also too cute), yes, up(talking to the puppies when he wants them to come sit by him).  Certain words he's just copied from us once or twice, like: dog, no, my bottle(that phrase really surprised me and hasn't come out since), bye, hi, etc.  Besides talking constantly now, Patrick is just full of energy.  I could probably say that's an understatement.  Ideas on keeping a 16 month old entertained would be much appreciated.  Our house is pretty small and if we don't have an outing for the day, Patrick goes a little(a lot) stir crazy.  He plays hard, but luckily he also sleeps hard which makes naptime/bedtime easy.  Does anyone else struggle through three hours of church?  We're there but we walk the halls for 2 1/2 hrs. of it.  Nursery cannot come soon enough.  I took him up there a few weeks ago to see how he would do(I stayed in there with him) and he loved it.  Now, whenever we go by the room, Patrick tries to go in because he knows that's where all the toys are.

I'm trying to enjoy these last few months with just Jon, Patrick and I because I know our lives will change again once this new baby comes.  I'm sure when I have a lot of kids running around, someday, I'll look back at these times when it was just the three of us and think that I had life so easy.  Not in every aspect of life because we've had life changing trials this year, but as far as parenting goes, Patrick has our full focus and love.  In some ways, I'm sad to see that come to an end but then I remember that Patrick will have another buddy to help keep him company and I get really excited.  

Soo...here's another pregnancy picture.  I should just do away with them because I seriously don't know how to get those cute, flattering pregnancy pictures that everyone seems to post but maybe someday I'll be glad I did these.  And maybe someday my kids will find it exciting to see what their mom looked like when she was pregnant with them...?  Anyway, 6 months down!

                                             

And just because it's a shame to end with a picture that unflattering on here, I decided to add one of Patrick as well. :)                    
                                       

Side note: Jon has 6 months of college left and then we're done!  Maybe then our lives will get a little less chaotic as far as not having time to do much.  Maybe.