The Sniff

When Patty was about 4 1/2 months old, her grandma taught her this cute little sniffing thing. She gets her face all scrunched up and sniffs. Lately, she's been using it to get out of trouble. When we catch her doing things she shouldn't, like grabbing Bassey's fur or pulling things out of my purse, she'll start sniffing because she knows we think it's so darn cute. I got a picture of "the sniff" during dinner a couple of nights ago - please excuse the carrots!

The New Work Weeeek!

Recently, my employer implemented a 4-day work week to offset rising gas prices. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but it’s H-U-G-E to me because it means that I get to spend one extra day with the Princess, Patterson Pearl. It also means that we can give grandma a day off!

So far, my off days have been busy with errands, but at least Patty and I are together. Take last Friday, for instance. We left the house at 10 a.m. for shopping in Rockwall (there went the gas savings!), then we took Bassey for a groomer appointment, visited a prospective pre-school (yes, my sweet will be going to pre-school in the Fall – I’m tearing up just thinking about it), went grocery shopping and baked birthday cupcakes for my Aunt Gwen. Yes folks, I said baked! From scratch, I made Buttermilk Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing. I got the recipe from the Food Network's “Down Home with the Neely’s.” The cupcakes tasted even better than they sound, the recipe was ridiculously easy to follow AND it only makes 12 cupcakes so you have enough to share with friends, but not enough to get yourself into trouble…unless you double the recipe, but that’s a different story!! So back to our “day off,” we ended the night with my Aunt Gwen’s birthday dinner and finally made it home around 10:30 p.m. I’m thinking we’ll make next Friday a day of relaxation! But whatever we do, we’ll be together!

Oh, the little things…

Last night, Mattie and Patty spent the evening playing in the backyard. Strapped snuggly into the baby bjorn, Patty paced the yard with “Da Da.” It seemed as if they watered every blade of grass (Matt has become a bit obsessed with the lawn). From time to time, Matt would sprinkle her with water and she’d giggle like her life depended on it. He’d do it again and she’d giggle as if it were the first time.

I didn't grow up with my father so it was extra special watching the two of them and an excellent reminder to slow down and enjoy the little things!

Choppers!!

About three weekends ago, an 8 1/2 month old Patty had two firsts: her first two teeth finally came in and she was sick for the very first time. She began gnawing on her hands at 4 months old and, naturally, Matt and I thought she was getting teeth early. Now, four months later, she has the most fabulous Pearly whites! Against the will of their owner, we're brushing them daily. Ironically, now that she's sporting two new teeth, I haven't been able to get a good picture of her smiling! I've been chasing a perfect "new teeth" photo for weeks!

Fabulous First Fourth!

Patterson's first Independence Day celebration was perfect! On any given night, she's usually cranky by 7:30 PM and asleep by 8:30 PM - you could set your watch to it! But on Thursday night, she stayed up until 10 PM, which was perfect because fireworks were getting started a day early in our neighborhood. We took her outside and she stared in amazement at the light show for a couple of seconds, then a car drove by and it was much more interesting than those silly, spectacular fireworks!

Matt and I ended up staying awake until 3:30 AM getting ready for our July 4th cookout. (We seemed to have forgotten that we are almost 30, but our bodies hadn't - we definitely paid for it the next day when Patty woke us up at 7:30.) We celebrated with Matt's family and Patty had a great time soaking up attention and jumping from Grandpa to Auntie Christy to cousin Seth to Uncle Marlon to Dad to Auntie Alex, and so forth. She followed my mother-in-law around the house most of the day, cruising right past me - the woman who birthed her! Once, she even cried to get to Grandma! Can you believe this kid? (see Grandma and Patty, top photo)

The next day, Patty and I went with my brother, Ryan, shopping for his trip to Florida. By Sunday afternoon, Patty was pooped! The photo to the right (bottom) says it all!

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.

“Goodbye World”

My Gran has always been a huge baseball fan. For reasons I’m not aware of, her favorite teams are the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs. It’s so funny to watch her watching the games because she really gets into them. I don’t follow baseball and am not familiar with all the ins and outs of the game, but if you’ve ever watched baseball with my Gran, you know that you don’t need to know anything about it in order to keep up. You just need to listen for a couple key words:

1. “Sapheaded Cogy” – “Sapheaded (adjective) Cogy (noun)” indicates that someone made a major mistake. If these words ever left my Gran’s mouth, I knew things weren’t looking good for her team.

2. “Goodbye World” – When Gran yelled “Goodbye World,” it meant that something brilliant had happend. Someone had really “knocked one out of the park.”

On Thursday, June 12, Patty had a “goodbye world” moment. Up until this point, she had only been able to say “Da Da” (a LOT) and “Ma Ma” (on occasion). But when I got home from work that day, Matt informed me that Patterson was now able to say “bye-bye” AND perform a wave to go with it! While he was explaining this new development, I was thinking “yeah right, man.”

When I got home the next day, she was playing in her play saucer. I "chatted" with her for a sec and then left the room to get changed. When I came back, she looked right at me and said “bye-bye” and waved at me!! In case you, too, need proof, click on the following link to view video of Patty knocking one of her first words out of the park! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOC8VjToD7o