Little Things

In a perfect world, I would love to be able to post about all the cute and funny things that Patrick does so that I can remember them when I am old. Or when he is throwing a massive tantrum.

This morning was just warm and beautiful, so we spent it at the zoo with some friends. We all had a great time. Unfortunately, Patrick fell asleep on the way home and failed to finish his nap when we got home, although he is great at doing quiet time in his room so mommy can rest too.

He was full of energy when I let him out of his room. The kitchen chairs were upside down because I was getting ready to put new felt stickers on the bottom. Patrick was distraught about this situation and was attempting to "fix chairs, mommy" by picking them up. I showed him the stickers and he immediately wanted to help. I would get the paper part started, and then he would pull it off and put the felt on the bottom of the chair feet. He quickly got the hang of this and thought he was being so helpful (and he was!).

When he was all done, he helped me put all the paper in the garbage. I know Patrick is growing up so quickly (hence my last post), but sometimes I forget that he can really help quite a bit now. I need to give him a chance to help more often. At the zoo this morning he had so much fun pushing his friend around in his little umbrella stroller. He loves to say, "me help" over and over until you let him help in whatever you are doing.

I'm so lucky to be his mommy.

Stuff Patrick is Learning/Funny Things He Says

Can you believe that this little guy . . .

Is now 2 1/2?

I can't. I know all moms says how fast their kids grow up, and that's because it is true! Patrick is so grow up now and learning so much. Here is some things he knows and what he is learning.

• He has known all of his letters and their sounds for about six months. He loves his letters. He tells us EVERY SINGLE TIME he see a letter ANYWHERE. He like to "read" the signs when we are driving around, and sometimes he even reads the letters in order. He can write an O, but is not patient enough to learn the others yet. But he ask us to write the letters all the time.
• He is working on the alphabet song, but we aren't quite there yet.
• He is working on counting and knowing his numbers. He pretty much knows the numbers by sight, but not 100% yet. He loves to count, but it usually sounds like this, "6 . . . 4 . . . 8 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 9!" He can do 1-4 and 6-9, when he wants to. He is trying to match the numbers with the corresponding amount of fingers, but he still gets tangled up doing that.
• He still LOVES animals and know their names and sounds (even if they don't really make a sound, like for giraffe, he does a "chewing leaves" sound). When we go to the zoo, he repeats the names of the animals over and over. He even knows the kudus, flamingos, water buffalo, and the other lesser known animals. He knows where all the animals live in the zoo and how to get where he wants to go.
• He is now a proficient jumper and loves to jump off of steps and over cracks in the sidewalk. Luckily, he hasn't jumped off anything too tall yet!
• He has learned that if he can't reach something, he can go get his stool from the bathroom. Reed couldn't figure out how he kept getting into the Christmas candy until one day he watched him run and get his stool. He has also found some creative ways to reach his fish tank and throw toys in there. Like the day he dragged his hamper all the way out of the closet and turned it on its side so he could climb on it.
• He is currently obsessed with drinking straws. He is DONE using sippy cups and refuses to have a lid anymore. Now he only wants straws. He still only gets about 2" of liquid, but it makes him feel like a big kid. Also, he is constantly biting his straws.
• He has learned to open doors. Consequently, we have turned around the door knob in his room and added a chain to the front door.

Some funny things he has done lately:

• After watching a Halloween episode of Mickey Mouse, he has started bringing me his pumpkin buckets and saying, "Trick-or-Treat!" Which is funny because he has never even done that for Halloween before.
• Reed was gone at school one day, so I put some music on to get me in the mood to clean and organize. Patrick gave me a weird look when I started singing and dancing, so I asked him, "Do you want to dance with Mommy?" He walks past me and says, "No thanks."
• One night I heard him get out of bed around 2 am. I picked him up in the middle of the hall (wide awake) and asked, "What do you need?" He whispered, "Crackers."
• When asked what he wants to eat, 95% of the time he will say toast.
• He likes to label things now, so when he sees a picture of animals, the biggest one is the daddy, the medium one is the mommy, and the small one is the baby. He also does this with different sized rocks, chips, blocks, and any other inanimate objects.
• Patrick will only sing along if we are listening to Abba or Elton John. Also the only time he will dance.
• A long time ago, I taught Patrick how to have "Animal Kingdom Battles" with his cute little Fisher Price animals. Now, everything he can get his hands on turns into a battle. Animals battle, foam letters battle, pencils and markers battle, goldfish crackers battle, etc. He even does a "BATTLE!" war cry.
• Patrick loves sports. Sometimes I think he is going to make us rich by inventing an entirely new sport. Like the other day when he put his basketball on his tee ball stand, hit it with his baseball bat, and yelled, "Touchdown!"

That's our silly boy in a nutshell!

New Calling

I wasn't expecting a new calling because I was just getting settled into my new CTR 7 class, but plans change, right? This weekend I was called to be a Young Womens advisor for the Beehives and Mia Maids. I am excited for the change and a chance to work with the youth. I absolutely loved my experience in Young Womens I hope I can help make the experience great for the girls in our ward!

Christmas Day

We celebrated Christmas Day at our house this year, which was fun and relaxing. We got up and made egg casserole and abelskivers for breakfast. Patrick played with his car ramp while we make breakfast. Unfortunately, those pictures didn't work, but he did really love the car ramp from my parents.

The kitchen was his big present from us. I found it at a consignment store for just $25 and then bought extra food.

He was excited to open this BIG box from Grandma and Grandpa Haight.

Two big tractors! So much fun to push around!

Patrick got tired about half way through opening the presents!

Deodorant from Mom!

Patrick LOVED the $1 animals from Walmart. That's why all the pictures are blurry--he wouldn't stand still with them! He got an elephant, giraffe, zebra, lion and tiger.

Here Patrick was eating some beef jerky (from Mommy's stocking). He chewed a piece for a minute, spit it out on the table, decided to feed it to his lion, and then ate it out of the lion's mouth. We have a funny kid.

Daddy's favorite gift this year was the Star Wars Trilogy (Eps 4-6) and this was Patrick's first introduction to Star Wars. He was mesmerized.

We had a very nice Christmas, and we hope everyone else did too!

Zoo Lights

We went to see the zoo lights with Grandpa and Grandma before Christmas. Patrick loves the zoo and Christmas lights, so it was a great combination.

The zoo does a great job with their lights, and they add a little more each year. Patrick loves to loudly tell us the color of each light display.

He was very disappointed that so many of the animals were sleeping, but we were still able to say hi to the elephants, hippo and rhino.

Patrick loved the lights but was very upset when we wouldn't let him climb all over the displays. It was also a chilly night, so the last few minutes were a little dramatic, but once we got warmed up in the car he was fine. I'm still glad we took him, but next year we will try to go earlier so he can see the animals too.

Handsome Pictures?

Patrick got a handsome grey suit from Grandma Haight, and I thought it would be nice to take some pictures on the Sunday before Christmas. Patrick had other ideas.

Yay! A happy handsome Patrick! Merry Christmas!

Silly Days

This winter really only got cold this week, and we were still able to go for walks most of December, but there were still days we got a little stir-crazy. Here are some silly pictures.

Patrick just wanted to eat all of the candy canes I bought to put on the tree. He knew right away that they were edible and not just for decorating.

One day we decided to play with the glow sticks that were leftover from Halloween. We turned off all the lights and made a big fort. Mommy even got out the headlamp and we read books and ate snacks in our fort. Until Patrick decided it was more fun to pull the blankets down on top of us!

Patrick's Room

This has actually been done for a couple months now, but I just got the pictures off the camera! My mother-in-law made the cornices for Patrick's room, and I made the animal collages. I took old National Geographic books from her house, cut out the pictures and laminated them. Most of them are jungle-type animals, which he loves, but I am hoping to eventually find some more books at Goodwill with some different animals.

Patrick also LOVES to see pictures of the temples. When we got the October Ensign, which was the special temple issue, I showed him the angel Moroni on the temples, and he has been hooked since then. Whenever he sees a picture of a temple, he YELLS, "Angel! Angel!" He even knows which ones do not have an angel. On the other wall in his room we put up small pictures of the Denver temple, Jesus Christ, and President Monson. Almost every day when we leave his room, he tells me what each of the pictures is. He is learning a lot, and it is very sweet.

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward Christmas party was on December 18th, and I think it was a big success. I had a lot of help, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The theme of the party was "The Symbols of Christmas." I wanted the party to be a little fancier, so I had the tables set ahead of time. Of course, once the party started, I was too busy to take any other pictures!

I made suckers for the centerpieces in the shapes of the symbols of Christmas. The Young Women came over one evening for mutual and learned how to make suckers and helped me wrap them all up. They were a big hit!

I decided to keep the evening really simple by just having dinner and a short program. I provided the ham and rolls for dinner, and the Relief Society sisters brought sides. I was trying to save money, so I bought the hams, carved them at home and warmed them up in the oven. If I had to do it again, I probably would because it worked out really well, but it was a lot of work. Now I have a tone of ham hocks in my freezer that I am trying to get rid of!

For the program, I had a brother in our ward narrate for us, and I just wrote a paragraph for each of the symbols and a few scriptures that went with it, and then we sang some Christmas hymns in between. I was pleased with the program, but it could have been a little more reverent. I wasn't expecting Sacrament meeting reverence, but all the kids were running around, and the teenagers were off in the corners talking, so if I do a Christmas program again, I think I will redo it a little differently.

I enjoyed doing the activities, but I'm not sad that it's over. There is no more activities committee, so I am done with that calling. I am still teaching in Primary, though, and this year I am teaching the CTR 7 class, and they are all so excited to learn and get baptized.

Adrian Got Baptized

After all of our discussions, Adrian did decide to get baptized (on December 18th), which was a very exciting event for me. It was a little stressful because the baptism ended up being scheduled for right before the ward Christmas party, but everything went smoothly, and it was a very special time.

I really enjoyed being able to share the gospel with Adrian, and I can really see Heavenly Father's hand in helping all of this come to pass. Last year when we were looking for a house, I really felt impressed to pray for an area that we could do missionary work, and now I have had that opportunity. Hopefully we can find someone else to share with again!

Adrian had to go back to Mexico soon after the baptism because his visa was expiring. He is hoping to get it renewed and come back to continue working on his English and apply for jobs. I know that the Lord will bless him because of his faithful decision.