Fatherhood

Patrick has been learning ... so fast! He has been expanding his vocabulary and correlating activities so fast ... it is sometimes funny to watch and always exciting. Jen picked up a toy train the other day ... one of those ten dollar, battery operated things you find at the drug store. It plays several songs and tows it's two cars in a tiny circle. On the cars, two animals can be mounted ... one white with a blue base and one yellow with a yellow base. The activity, once the train was home and put together, was to attempt to put the right animal into the right car ... each animal as a differently shaped based; a bit of a challenge. I found myself pointing out the base and then the car ... and he promptly took the animal in the other hand and tried to put it in the car I had indicated (for the other animal). All this was hindered by the fact the train was moving and he had to wait for it to come around the track to try again. He'll get it I'm sure, but it will b...

Patrick is in a good mood tonight. In particular, after drawing, sweeping, unscrewing the screws in our chairs, climbing our step-ladder, and driving the car, he wanted me to go through on of the books we have with pictures of various animals. As we went through the animals (yes, with me providing the appropriate sound effects that he tries to mimic) he got tired of standing while I lay on the couch. Indicating he wanted up, what was a father to do? So, there we were, me laying on the couch with my son sitting on my stomach (you can guess from the title where this is going) ... it only took a few minutes for me to figure out the logistics and get back to the sound effects, a bit muffled since I could not get a full breath. Then, it happened ... Patrick decided to bounce. The air pumped from my lungs, he bounced again ... I actually think he was bouncing to the rhythm of Jen's laughter. I even managed  to keep my dinner down as this went on for about ten minut...