The Butterfly and The Bear

It just so happened that Patty's check-up fell on Halloween day. Yes, there were lots of shots involved which meant there were lots of tears involved. Now that Patty's older, the doctor's office introduced a new trick. As soon as the shots were done, the nurse rushed out for the real meds - suckers! Patty gave the sucker a once over then stuck it in her mouth. This was her first sucker experience and she enjoyed every single bit! Eventually, she held the sucker upside down and created a sticky mess.

After our visit to the doctor, we took Patty to the park for some relaxation. Between the sucker and play time at park, Patty was feeling much better.

Later on, Cousin Aiden came by to help pass out Halloween candy. We actually got about six door bell rings, which was up from last year's zero! But, the real fun was hanging out with the Bear (Aiden) and the Butterfly (Patterson Pearl). The cutest picture of the night was the one below when Aiden helped Patty to fix her costume (bottom).

Since they're still really young, I wasn't willing to give them any Halloween candy, but neither of them seemed to mind as long as we kept the Cheerios coming!

Ward's Daycare, now open for business!

Overall, our weekend was pretty low-key. But on Sunday, my nephew Aiden stayed with us for a couple of hours while my sister went to work. Since Patterson is now crawling and Aiden is beginning to walk, it was quite the circus! Aiden started off pretty shy and sat in my lap for the first 20 minutes or so, but soon he was down on the floor playing with Patty. They negotiated toys, played follow-the-leader, laughed at each other's hilarious jokes, toasted over apple juice, pulled each other's hair, "sang" songs, chased and ran from Bassey and showed each other the skills they had acquired. They seemed to be having a blast!

Matt and I noticed that when Aiden (13 months) was around, Patterson paid very close attention to him and tried things that she hadn't before. For instance, Aiden would stand without holding onto anything, and Patty would give it a try. He would use the wall to get to his feet and Patty followed. Since no one had told her she couldn't do the things Aiden did, in her mind, she could! (I like her thinking!)





At 3 PM, Matt had a brilliant idea - nap time! He turned to the Watercolor Jazz station on XM and closed the blinds. They must have been exhausted because they were asleep within moments and slept for the next hour and a half!

Keeping up with the two of them was exhausting, but watching them interact was high entertainment value! Shortly after Aiden left, Matt and I decided we had earned a toast of our own! Matt was in bed by 9:00 - no joke.

Cousin Aiden

May 11, 2008 was my first Mother’s Day and the celebration of my nephew Aiden’s first year of life. His birth was scheduled for August 2007, but he decided to arrive three months early – guess my sissy was getting on his nerves – I don’t blame him for wanting out of there! (JK, sissy) He started off tiny – only 2 lbs, 7 ozs (top photo). By his first birthday, he was close to 30 lbs! You wouldn’t believe any of this if I didn’t have a photo to prove it because he’s grown so much in just a few short months. He’s the cutest!

We all knew he’d be a stinker because even during his 3 month stay in the hospital he made several attempts to remove the tubes that the nurses inserted for feeding, monitoring, etc. Here’s a picture of my sweet Aiden after eating (and by eating, I mean playing in) his birthday cake (bottom photo).

P.S. I love the top photo of Aiden because I took it while he was in his incubator and, even though he was hooked up to all the machines, he looked as cool as a cucumber having a day at the spa.