Christmas Day, 2008

We woke up around 7ish on Christmas Day. This was the first year that Patty would be able to actually open her gifts. As I expected, she was much more fascinated by the paper than the presents. What I hadn't anticipated was how long it would take her to open each one. She spent about 15 minutes opening one or two gifts and was done with it! Matt and I ended up opening the rest.

We spent the first part of Christmas Day with the Wards and the other half at my grandma's. Here's a cute picture of Patty in my Gran's hat. A side note: My grandparents keep their home extremely warm, so we had to remove a couple of layers from Patty's Christmas outfit to keep her from melting!

"Baby"

Before the start of the holiday season, Matt and I had decided that one of Patty's Christmas gifts would be a baby doll. Of course, the baby would need to be the right size and weight (so that Patty, only 19 lbs herself, could actually play with her). Also, she would need to have brown skin. Now, I realize the color of a toy baby isn't important to lots of moms, but I grew up with a red-headed Cabbage Patch Doll and always wished that she looked more like me.

After trips to several stores, I found a doll that fit our criteria. I was so excited about it, I wasn't able to wait until Christmas to give her to Patty. "Baby" was a big hit! Patty immediately knew what to do with her and now takes her everywhere!

More cheese, please.

Generally, I find staged portraits to be undesirable. The results can sometimes be stiff and unnatural. I was encouraged by friends/family to have holiday photos taken of Patty, so I obliged. I scheduled an appointment for 6:30 PM on a weekday to try to avoid the crowds. Apparently, there's no such thing as avoiding crowds at a department store portrait studio between November 1 and December 24. Who knew?

I hate being late, so I raced home from work and quickly pulled Patterson's hair into pony tails and got her into her dress and tights (that was the fun part). We arrived early for her appointment by about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the photographers were running behind. One family had been waiting for an hour! After about a 40 minute wait, it was our turn and we were off to a good start. Patty sat on the tiny couch and smiled. (I was beside her, so I didn't realize her first smile was a gremlin smile until Matt told me later. Needless to say, we didn't purchase that picture.) Three hours later, when all was said and done, we had some pretty good shots! Patty paid them back for the wait by spreading cheerios all over the waiting area. Hey, I picked up as much as I could, but what did they expect from a one year old waiting for three hours in a small space?

This is Patty after three hours of waiting, posing and smiling. I think we all felt the same way, including the photographer. No more cheese, PLEASE!

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!

Ten Little Ladybugs

We’ve been reading Ten Little Ladybugs to Patty every night for the past couple of weeks. Just recently, she actually started paying attention during reading time and she’s really taken a liking to this one. The book was given to her as a birthday gift from the Wills’ and it’s a fun one. As soon as I open the book and begin ‘Ten Little…” she starts grinning. I think Patty likes it because it rhymes and there are plastic ladybugs glued to the pages (but not for long if she has her way). I love the illustrations and the surprise ending.

If you’ve got a "little one" - get Ten Little Ladybugs!

Political Misconduct

Because of my growing belief in misconduct at the polls, I had gone back and forth on whether or not to vote early. I thought, somehow, voting on Election Day would reduce the risk that my vote would be tampered with. But after hearing reports of lengthy lines even during early voting and surveying my friends, I decided voting before the November 4 deadline would be the only option. Matt and I were better than anxious to get to our polling site on Friday and were prepared to go the distance. We'd wait in line until our votes had been cast. Luckily, we were finished in 25 minutes flat. No sweat.

We took Patterson with us and though she obviously didn’t understand what was going on, I thought it would be a great introduction to the political process – something sentimental for her to look back on when she’s old enough to mark her own chad. She felt differently. As soon as we got in line, she turned into the hulk! She pulled on the stanchions, yanked the shirt of the man in front of us, screamed in our faces, threw her pacifier across the room and socked me in the eye (a couple of times). Saying that I was embarrassed would be an enormous understatement.

Here’s to hoping Patty’s was the only misconduct taking place at the polls!

"Minotauro"

On Saturday, Matt and I were invited by our friends Kim and Jaime to attend the opening of a new MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Gym in Uptown called "Octagon." The gym was quite impressive and it was pretty cool being up-close with the octagon. The real treat, however, was getting to meet the UFC's interim heavyweight champion "Minotauro" Nogueira. He's

also one of the coaches on this season's The Ultimate Fighter which Matt and I watch weekly! I already knew he had a great personality from watching him on the show, but in person he was bigger and even more handsome! Here are pics of Matt and I meeting Nogueira - I got a shirt signed too!