18 months

Yesterday my baby officially turned 18 months.  I can't really call him a baby anymore since he's into the full-blown toddler stage, but sometimes I look at him and I still see this:

                                 

 There are so many days where I feel guilty that I'm not enjoying this stage enough and hours seem to drag on so slowly but then I look back and see that time is flying.  We have another little baby coming in a few weeks and I'm still trying to process that this little man isn't a baby anymore.  He's my little dude.  My buddy.

I'm probably going to miss all of this one on one time and suddenly it seems like there aren't enough hours before our life changes yet again, forever.  

Since becoming pregnant, I feel like I've failed miserably as a mom.  The word "no," comes out of my mouth more often, play time becomes less and less because I haven't felt well or have no energy, my patience runs lower, time outs become more frequent, but Patrick still loves so unconditionally.  If only I could remind myself, more often, to learn from my little example that I get to watch everyday.  He's teaching me how to become a better person and I'll forever be grateful to this little man.

This little man who is now in nursery!  On January 6th, we took Patrick to nursery for the first time.  We decided to go a couple weeks early so that Jon and I could hang out with him to see how he did and he loved it.  This Sunday he gets to go all on his own.  I don't think we'll have a problem with the whole separation thing, he already loves all of the leaders and he thinks it's great that they actually have a full kitchen set he can play with.  Plus he gets raisins.  He totally cried when we left nursery last week.

Patrick also has quite the vocabulary now.  Words he says: mama, dada, baba/baduh(bottle), yes/yeah, pwease, why, bye, hi, mine, nye(he says that for light...the L sound hasn't been figured out yet), ball, hat, eye, mow(mouth), no(nose), shoes, socks, ow, baby, poo poo, apple, more, done, gamma(honestly the word grandma changes between two or three different words.  Still working on that one), push, etc.  I really can't remember them all but it seems like his vocabulary has increased a lot in this past month.  Just in the last week, he's started copying a lot more words from us, but he doesn't say them on a regular basis.  A couple weeks ago, he started putting two words together and says, "bye dad!" "all done," "one more," and "Ya! Gamma!" when we pulled up to Grandma's house.  We try to do animal sounds but right now he's really only interested in what sounds dogs and cats make.  He's slightly obsessed with cats and will say meow over and over again.

Patrick's shyness is starting to come out more and more.  If he's around family, he will talk constantly, give kisses and hugs, constantly tells "jokes" and laugh at himself, folds him arms for prayer every time we sit down for food or put him to bed(which is really great because it reminds Jon and I to do it all the time), but when we're around other people, he tends to get really quiet and likes to hang onto us more.  He didn't have much of a chance with Jon and I both being shy but hopefully nursery will help him get used to being around more kids and grownups.    

Favorite toys: pots, pans, cooking utensils, brooms and vacuums.  He'll play with his other toys if I'm playing with him but if I want him to play by himself for a little bit, kitchen supplies are the popular toy choice.  That's what he's playing with right now, actually.  He's very particular what goes in his pots and pans and then he likes to pretend like he's cooking.  This phase has actually gone on for a couple months and doesn't seem to be dying down.  If anything, he gets more and more interested in what I'm cooking and with wanting to play with the things I use, so I'm looking forward to the day when I can actually let him help me with the real food.  Like, becoming my permanent cheese grater. ;)

This is my view right now.  I forgot to mention a new favorite activity is taking all of the couch cushions off and using the couch as his table.  Apparently VHS is the food choice for the day.  

  Anyway, sorry for the picture/info overload.  Good job if you made it this far.  Patrick, we love you more than we can say.  Happy 18 months, bud!  

Like father, like son.

Someday when Patrick grows up to be a famous computer...person, we can say we started him young.  Patrick adores his daddy so anything Jon does, Patrick likes to copy.  He actually does really well at "typing" and turning the computer on and off.  He might be a little too good at it...

Also, Jon and I have started going to the gym and we are sore.  I shouldn't admit that I haven't been there since morning sickness hit, but I love the gym and I've missed it. Sound weird?  It's my healthy outlet.  Anyway, morning sickness is pretty much gone(it only hits now every once in awhile) so it's time to be back and while I'm taking the necessary pregnancy precautions, I put Jon through the wringer.  Wish me luck getting him back there tomorrow. ;)

January

It's hard to believe we're already partly through January.  I don't know about you all, but we've mostly spent from Christmas to now being sickos.  It's been delightful but hopefully we're done with it for awhile.  Luckily, Patrick is still quite a happy camper when he's sick(much happier than I am when I'm sick) and continues to be the humor in our life.

I gave Patrick the second hair cut of his lifetime and he decided that he doesn't mind it after all.  However, when I told him to smile at the camera, this is the face he pulled.  Right after this he started laughing and smiled for me.  Oh, we love you bud.  

 

And, you have to love bath time.  Patrick's never minded it, but since he got some bath paints for Christmas, he can spend quite a bit of time in the tub.  Hours of fun.  Totally recommend them.  Usually I just take him out when the water starts getting cold or when he looks at me and says, "poo poo," with a big smile on his face.  That means he's going to poo soon. :)  Unfortunately, that didn't stop him from having an accident in the tub last week... Don't you love our lovely yellow tub? 

  

Also, Jon started another 18 credit semester.  Mix that in with his new work schedule, and he's a busy guy.  What do Patrick and I do all day?  Play with toys...and more toys...Somehow I still feel busy all day.  I guess if you have kids, you know what I mean.  

Oh hey, I'm only about 8 months pregnant and trying to climb in a little inflatable house.  Don't mind that I'm still in my pajamas. 

                                                  
Up until this point, Patrick didn't really see why it was great having an inflatable house full of balls but now it's a daily activity for him to sit in this little house and play away, preferably with me in with him.  Good thing I'm so limber while I'm this far along(total sarcasm). 

Randomness

I'm actually doing two posts in one day!  After this, I think I'm all caught up with 2012.  So...

This happened before Christmas, but Jon and I went to Lyndsee's graduation.  She had graduated with a nursing degree last year but went back to finish all the classes to get her Bachelors.  Congratulations Lyndsee!  She's a pretty great nurse so if your baby is in the hospital and Lyndsee is the one taking care of them, they're in great hands.  Patrick adores her, as do we. :)

By the way Lyndsee, when did we become close to the same height?  

Have I mentioned that Jon will have a picture like this, this year, where he's in a cap and gown?  Yeah, we're pretty excited about that.  Hello full-time job doing what Jon loves...programming.  I'm surrounded by smart, talented people.

Also, it's about time for one of those awkward, oh-so-flattering, pregnancy pictures.

7 1/2 months down and 2 1/2  left to go(if you're going by the 4 weeks to a month calendar).  Baby's growing well, I'm definitely growing well, and we're just excited to meet this little man soon.  Maybe he'll come out sleeping through the night.  Wouldn't that be perfect? :)  And totally unrealistic.

Christmas

I was reminded that I should put some pictures of Christmas on here because I got some cute pictures of Patrick.  While the holidays weren't as carefree and happy as usual, we definitely had some good times and tried to make the best of everything. 

So, these first pictures are from Christmas Eve morning because Jon and I decided to open all of our own gifts to each other before all the family festivities began so we got two days of Christmas.  Patrick decided to sleep longer that morning but we had a lunch to go to so we woke Patrick up before he was quite ready.  I'm lucky I got a picture of him not crying because he really wasn't a happy camper.

However, he got over his grumpiness pretty quickly once he realized he was finally able to open all the gifts under the tree and eat candy from a stocking.

I didn't really think Patrick would enjoy getting clothes, but he's a weird kid and got pretty excited over this shirt.   My mom got him socks and he got really excited over those, too.  He kept repeating, "sos, sos, sos!"  Yeah, he also loves shoes...

Jon decided he needed a real boy's toy so he picked out this Tonka dump truck.  And, Patrick loved that as well.  It was probably one of his favorite toys from Jon and I.  All is well. ;)

Grandma saved the day by giving Patrick Christmas Eve pajamas.  I don't know what's wrong with me but when it comes to traditions, I'm not really good at remembering them all.  We always got pajamas, growing up, on Christmas Eve but for some reason the thought didn't cross my mind to go buy some for Patrick.  But, my mom was prepared and these pajamas are super cute on Patrick.  Notice the Cars slippers.  Too cute.

Sad, but these are the only pictures we got on Christmas Day.  The first one is from the morning and the last one is from Christmas night.  Patrick had fun running all over that piano, making "music."

We also went and hung out with Jon's family on Christmas Day but we didn't get any pictures.  I get caught up in the excitement with lots of people around and any thoughts of the camera go out the window.  Now that Christmas is over, it's back to real life.  Lots of work and school.  But, I can't be too sad about school starting because it's officially the start of his last school year.  Considering we have a baby coming in the middle of March, we're going to be pretty busy and I think time will go by pretty quickly.  We can make it till July... 

 

All in a year

2012.  What a year.

 We all know trials happen for a reason and that we'll look back later and say we learned a lot and grew because of them, but I can't say I'm to that point yet.  I can see how 2012 has helped me grow as a person, but I'm not quite thankful for it yet.  Thanksgiving came and I saw a whole lot of thankful posts on facebook and blogger and I couldn't bring myself around to doing it.  I couldn't quite be the optimist and state everything I was thankful for when I had lost one of the people I love most in this life and the others I love most were hurting.  Are hurting.  2012 has brought death of multiple family members, unemployment(the company Jon worked for went out of business), morning sickness for months on end, missed memories, crazy school schedules, and a lot of moments when I question, "why?"

I could say the same thing I said last year and say, "Goodbye 2012.  Please don't come back again, and we hope this next year is a better year."  But it won't change anything that's happened in the last 12 months.  Hopefully 2013 is a year of healing and peace but I'm not going to go as far as to say it won't be painful on June 16th when we have that painful anniversary of everything that's happened in 2012.  

However...I'm grateful for hope.  I'm grateful for a Being who has given us a reason to hope that things always get better.  We may have started a new chapter in our lives, or you may be someone who's just starting to go through something that will bring about a new chapter in your life,  an unwanted chapter, but there's a Being who knows what you're going through and He is there.

Time moves forward, whether we want it to or not.  There have been times this year that I have wanted time to stop and there have been other times where I am so grateful that it just kept going.  Who knows what 2013 will bring.  I know Jon and I have started family "habits" in the last couple weeks that will hopefully help us be better prepared to handle anything that comes in life.  2012 definitely taught me about accepting the Lord's will, and while I hope the lesson is learned and 2013 is a little easier on us and is a time for healing, we can never know what's in store.  I guess that's what keeps life...exciting.