Shhh ... Baby is Sleeping

... in the Car

When I was little (much closer to Patrick's age and size ... and yes, I realize that was quite a while ago) my parent would to put me in the car and drive around to get me to sleep. It was apparently effective enough for them to mention it to us when we brought Patrick home.

This trick works ... Patrick falls into such a deep peaceful sleep, I really hate to turn the engine off some days.

... in the House

There are times when I wonder if the car wouldn't be a better option. We get him to sleep on our shoulder ... then make any attempt to place him in the crib and he is instantly awake. We get him to sleep between us ... and again, any attempt to lift him to carry him to the crib and he's awake.

This is not "sleepy eyes, smiling at me" awake ... this is I'm irritated and I need as many people to know as I can manage. For an amazingly pleasant child, he can crank out the decibels when he wants to.

We've tried letting him cry himself to sleep (before you comment about this, we've only been trying this for the last few weeks) ... I think it worked once, but I was half asleep so it could have been a pleasant dream. I'll have to ask Jen about it later.

I do have to say at this point that when he wakes during the night, there is actually some reason ... thirsty, need a diaper change, etc. And at times, he does wake up in the morning with a beautiful smile on ... this morning was actually one of those mornings. He started the day with cartoons, pretzels, and fruit juice!

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Terror or Anger

Jennifer and I woke about twenty minutes ago to Patrick crying ... nothing unusual. I asked her to get him since I have to start getting ready for work in about three hours (yes, I have to work on a Saturday). Where things became unusual was the loud, sustained crash, and Patrick's cries rising to a hefty scream. Being the concerned parent that I am ... with visions of his changing table collapsed on top of him, I rushed to their aid. "What was that?" I cried. Jennifer, weakly replied, "I fell down the stairs." With Patrick screaming at the top of his lungs, I think I actually asked her to repeat what she said. I found my wife sitting, with her legs out and my son in her arms, at the bottom of the stairs. Asking if she and Patrick were OK was mixed into confused questioning about what happened. Somehow, her feet went out from under her (we suspect a couple of the leaves that Patrick likes to play with were on the steps). While my real concern was i...

Getting Involved

This is the second night in a row that we were able to spend time and Grandma and Papap's ... Patrick enjoys it so much! We even had a rousing rendition of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" with all five of us involved ... yes, Patrick is pitching in now. He runs from person to person, giving a bit to each one of us ... there is never a dull moment. Tonight, he repeated a new activity from last night. Last night, it was getting everyone involved in chasing him around the house ... tonight, we had this activity, but what we saw was that he wanted to play different games and wanted certain people involved. This is when he went to each person that needed to be involved and grabbed a finger, pulling them along. He even checked every now and then to make sure they were still following. Such an amazing child ... knows how to ensure that we sleep well.

The Evolution of Walking

It started with an attempt to crawl that looked more like something the military spent weeks getting me to perfect (the "low crawl") ... Patrick got that down in a few minutes. After all the photos, videos, and calls to our grandparents, we marveled at how amazing our son was. Then, the crawl became something that involved all four limbs; quite a bump up from just his arms. It wasn't long before he was moving quick enough to get his fingers into the door as I was closing it. The primal scream of pain was unreal ... yet, all too real. The little man's finger was dented ... I still feel a bit guilty today and it has been months since the incident. Then, just as Patrick was getting the crawling down, he managed to pull himself into a standing position without any help. About that time, he took a nose dive off the bed into a popcorn bowl ... it was hard not to laugh as he cried in pain. He loved playing with a fire engine that he can sit on and in...

Fatherhood

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