November: 26 months (2 years & 2 months)

Dear Patrick,

• We play “monsters” on the bed and hide in the “cave” under the blankets.  “I see a monster - lets hide” you’ll say to me with big, wide eyes.  You can play this game forever.
• You fell off the Townsends guest room bed and got a real shiner on your cheek that has lasted all month long.
• When owl and elephant sleep, you want me to tickle their backs, like I do for you.
• You have a cute way of answering questions lately.  You say, “yes, I DO want some ice cream.” or “Yes, I DO see that yellow truck.”  
• We moved into our new kitchen this month - just in time for Thanksgiving.
• You finally met your cousin Jack over Thanksgiving and we all had such a great time together!  Aunt Jen let you feed the dogs and Uncle Jono held pillow fights with you on the bed.
• At your two year old check-up this month, you were 22% weight (26 lbs) and 97% height (37 inches tall), so tall and skinny!  Dr Chea said you spoke at a four year old level and that most children your age can only put two words together.  Aw, such a smart boy!
• Driving in the car the other day, you said, “Everyone has hair,” which isn’t exactly true, but I just love your little observations so much that I didn’t have the heart to explain the reality of baldness.  
• I have PJs that are blue with red strawberries and you like to pretend to eat the strawberries, but you always share with me.
• One morning this week you threw a fit about brushing your teeth.  “I don’t like to brush my teeth” you said, and really dug your heels in deep with huge sobs.  We brushed your teeth anyway, but I see a real independence streak emerging.  
• You pronounce the word “elephant” as “ef-fant,” and when I pick you up out of your crib in the mornings, you say, “Don’t fall, Ef-fant.  Hang on Owl,” as your friends are tucked close under your arms.
• If you eat a purple popsicle, your lips turn black and your father and I are rasing a little goth-baby.  
• You play with the coffee-maker and say, “I’m cooking.”

I love you my sweet beautiful boy!  Love,
Mom

October 2012: 25 months (2 years & 1 month)

This month:

• You observed the other day that “Coopy (the dog) has a tail.”  And then after a pause you said, “Mommy doesn’t have a tail.” That made me laugh so hard.
• One afternoon you waved Millie’s magic princess wand in my face as we were playing next door and said, “I make Mommy beautiful.”  Umm...I’m not really sure how to take that, my sweet boy.
• You told me the story of “Snow White” this month, which came down to a witch in a boat and an apple that “she ate it up!”  And then after some prodding about what happens next, you said, “the prince kiss to wake up.”  As a side note: while at the grocery store with Gangie, you saw a tabloid cover of Katy Perry and said, “There is Snow White.”  There was an inset photo to which you also said, “and there is Mommy.”  I’m not sure I would have ever thought Mommy, Snow White and Katy Perry could be grouped together, but there you go.  
• In a two-man maneuver wrestling move, your father and I extracted a splinter out of your foot, which you got on the Wiles deck.  Even though it is now gone, it must have been traumatic because you still talk about it and check your foot for it sometimes out of the blue.  
• You share very well but you are quick to announce, “Its Patrick’s turn!” now that you understand how these sharing rules work.
• Thanks to your Gangie, I sing to myself now, "Brush away tooth decay; brush at least three times a day!"
• Your father read the book “Magic 1, 2, 3” about discipline, in which in order to stop negative behavior we do not reason or overly explain ourselves, but simply say in a calm, clear voice, “Patrick that is a one” to get your attention and signal that you have been warned.  Apparently when parents get to 3, the child gets a timeout, but we have yet to get past one.  You are so sensitive. We correct your behavior and your little face just crumbles.  And you reflect on this correction by holding your little pointer finger out to us in the same gesture we used with you and say with a trembling voice, “Daddy said...thats..thats...thats..a ONE!”  And you stop.  Problem solved.  Again, we have never gotten past one warning.  
• Omi made your Halloween costume this year: a baby Byrd.  (And your mom and dad also have similar Byrd outfits.)  I have to say, we do make a cute flock.

September 2012: 24 months (2 years)

Patrick, it was a busy birthday month for you you!

• I love the observations that come out of your mouth.  My favorite this month: “There are bones in there,” you said pointing to your arm one day.
• You are experimenting with volume control.  The other day you yelled at your father, who was sitting right beside you on the couch, “I neeeeeeed a peeeeeeanut, Daaaaaaddy!”
• You love your step-stool in the kitchen and like to watch us cook.  Standing on your stool, you made coffee with your father one morning and it was such a nice moment - the two of you side-by-side, saying, "first we get the water and then we push this button."  Really sweet.  And even sweeter that the latte was for your mom!  
• Favorite foods this month are: hot tamales (tamawes), olives, pop-tarts, yogurt popsicles, altoids, pea ice cream...jeez, what do we feed you?
• You make up songs that repeat one word over and over again at different inflections, and then title the song justly.  So the “Dada” and “Car” songs have no surprises.  They are exactly what you’d expect.
• After a long cold this month and a few rounds of antibiotics, Dr. Bass thought we should take you to see an ENT to discuss the idea of getting tubes in your ears.
• Kitchen progress began this month!  You are more excited, however, about the weird plastic sheeting put up to seperate you from all the fun.  You bang on it as you walk through the dinning room and when we unzip the zipper, you peek inside to say hello to Mr. Ben and Mr. Phil.
• We had a trip to Birmingham this month to visit Jack (and your Uncle Jono and Aunt Jen, plus your Aunt Katie and Uncle Sonny were also there!)  You stayed with Gangie while we met your cousin, but the next trip we promise to bring you.
• Sonny came to visit you this month in Greenville and you loved seeing him!
• You are intrinsically kind and sensitive; you give hugs so easily and seem so very sensitive.  I am so proud of you and your beautiful character...its hard to put into words.
• We have been letting you open a birthday present every few days so that you could play, focus and appreciate each one, which in theory sounded like a good idea, but in reality may have set your expectations a little high for never-ending presents. 
• We had your second birthday party at The Greenville Zoo (shelter # 29) this year and although it rained a little, you and your friends had a lot of fun.   You wore an orange t-shirt with a blue monkey on the front that read, "Woo hoo I'm two!"

Woo hoo indeed!  Happy second birthday, my sweet beautiful boy!

Love, 
Mom

August 2012: 23 months

Dear Patrick,

• On the way to the mall one day, Sharon said to you, “Lets go pick-up Biggie so he can come with us.”  Apparently, you thought about that for a moment and then replied, “Biggie is so heavy.”
  
• You like to play in the “Bird nest” (aka the pillows on our bed.)  You are a baby byrd and you ask for worms and bugs and pretend to eat them.  The pillows are also sometimes clouds, a fort and (my favorite) a “party house.” Really?!
  
• When Gangie walks in the door in the morning, you immediately ask for a peppermint.  You love peppermint.  And you love your Gangie.
  
• Your cousin Jack was born and it was so exciting for the whole family this month! He looks so handsome and sweet in the photos. We cannot wait to meet him.
  
• This exchange is common lately: Patrick mumbling something so we repeat back what we think you said in order to clarify - for example, “You want a cookie?”  And then you say, “Alright” like it was our idea to give you a cookie the whole time. Such a clever boy.
  
• You are known to call various family members on your “foot phone.”  You talk into your heel and listen with your toes.
  
• One night after putting you to bed, we heard you sing the entire “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and the “Itsy-bitsy Spider” song to yourself (or maybe owl) over the monitor.
  
• Mitch loaded new apps to the ipad for you.  Your skill at shape puzzles is impressive.
  
• You have been saying, “Nice to meet you” to strangers, which is really sweet but you also say this exact phrase to members of your own family.  “Nice to meet you, Mommy.”  Well, yes, nice to meet you six-hundred-billion times too, Patrick. 
• Some of my favorite things you say this month are: “I’m ok” if you fall or hurt yourself and “I need help,” when something isn’t going your way.  You seem to make character judgements like, “He’s a nice Pop” or “He’s a mean car.” The concept of “my” is emerging and "want" continues to be strong with you this month. Omi has been teaching you German so you said “das schmecht gut” out of the blue the other day when you ate dinner.  Happily, you say “thanks” more regularly now since we are pushing nice manners. And I really like when you use new words like delicious, limousine, grouchy.
  
• We went to Pawley’s this month with the Cullinans and Hopes and had such a wonderful time. You liked to feed the ocean sand, “yum yum yum!”  The pattern that week: inside, outside, inside, outside...fickle baby beach comber.
  
• In case we forget the rules of the road, you haven been known to shout "red means stop" and "green means go" as we are driving.
• You don’t like the whale episode of Dora the Explorer and get upset every time it plays.  We tell you not to look at that part but you peek anyway.  “I need help!” you say.

I will always be here to help you, my sweet boy.  Happy 23 months!  Love, Mom

July 2012: 22 months

Dear Patrick,

• I love the way you say cheerios “chee-rows” - and even better when you say “chee-rows sea-ruhl” (cheerios cereal).
• This first weekend in July, you and I sat on the floor in the living room and watched some of the Tour de France on television.  It was a nice snugly moment.  I don’t think either of us cared much about the bicycles; I just liked combing my fingers through your hair and tickling your hands.   We stayed that way for a long time, and I was so happy.
• You wanted to “fist bump” the other day and even did the “pow” exploding hand move - who teaches you these things? 
• It was pointed out to me by my good friend Vicky that “life narration” according to Patrick is awesome.  You announce play-by-play observations of life, and it’s very entertaining.  It’s also rather cute how you refer to yourself in 3rd person.    
• You saw your first real train on the way to Macon this month - a “REAL train” - woohoo! I wish I had a camera to capture your expression - pure awe.
• When you said to me, “Mama so beautiful” out of the blue one morning this month, I actually swooned.  In fact, I may swoon at the mere thought of this moment for the rest of my life.
• We watched Wimbledon together, and when asked who is playing, you say “Roger” with this great level of familiarity that makes me laugh.  Its the same tone you use when you see your father’s Marley records. “Bob” you say.  Yep, you keep good company with Roger and your good ol’ buddy Bob.
• “Kiss to wake up” is a new game you created where you switch between kisser and kissie depending on your mood.    
• I witnessed your first act of real pretend the evening of 7/9 when you gave me invisible ice cream to eat - just handed me nothing and we both filled our cheeks with air and said, “yum, yum good!”  I thought this moment was so fascinating - especially since you were dispensing ice cream from an ambulance truck that you pretended was an ice cream truck.  You are amazing.   
• You counted to seven in Spanish - all on your own.  We have no idea who taught you this (perhaps your good friend, Dora?).  And Omi started teaching you to count in German too!
• Sometimes you ask a question and then answer it for us with your desired outcome.  “Watch a movie? Yes, Patrick” you say as if it’s one complete thought.   
• One evening as your father and I were making dinner, you were left alone with your juice box - a mistake we will not make again since you created a game of slinging juice on the floor and walls around you, resulting in a sticky red circle of regret.  Your father made you sit in your first time out.  “Who spilled this juice,” he asked.  “Patrick did it,” you answered quietly with sad, puppy eyes. 
• You walked down the aisle at Katie & Sonny’s wedding like a pro, and everyone cheered.  However, removing you from the spotlight presented its own challenge, but all ended fine and we watched your Aunt and Uncle marry on closed-circuit tv from the cry room.
• You woke up yesterday morning and asked for the remote and ice-cream, and told us that you “need a pop tart.”  You are not scared to ask for the world.  Keep shooting for the moon, my boy.

With all my love,
Mom

June 2012: 21 months

Dear Patrick, here are some notes from the month:

• “Gummies please” you said the other day from your car-seat while your father and I were driving. “We don’t have anymore gummies, Patrick.” After a moment, this little voice from the back said, “Buy some.”
• You call the stuffed lion (a gift from you Uncle Michael) in your room “Waggy.”  Awesome nickname.
• “This is butterfly.  This is apple,” you say now.  Well, this is a big step as you start to add articles of speech to your vocabulary.  
• You like to count, and you try to do it very fast - all the way to 14...only skipping a few numbers along the way.
• We took you to your first baseball game at the Drive Stadium this month.  You liked playing with the folding seat more than watching the players. 
• Sometimes you wake up from a long night of sleep, and you look just like Gene Wilder - in hair only.
• When Jono and Jen came to Greenville this month for Jackson’s baby shower, you seemed to understand there was a baby in Jen’s belly.  I have a sweet photo of you outside of Soby’s restaurant as we waited for our brunch table that Sunday morning.  You put your hand on Jen’s tummy and said hello to your cousin for the first time.
• “Here comes the milk,” you said as you walked your sippy cup up the plank of the toy bus.
• We dug potatoes in the Howell's garden this month.  I was definitely more excited than you about uncovering “easter eggs” hidden in the dirt.  
• You do not like when Robin Hood is captured, or when the rat appears in Lady and the Tramp.  At those times in the videos, you run out of your room and down the hall to look for help.  
• You woke up at 4:00am in the morning crying on 6/23 and your father and I had no idea what was wrong - you never do that.  But as you held my hand and dragged me to the kitchen for “milk and cheese balls,” we learned you were just hungry!  (As an aside, we do feed you - you are just a growing boy this month!)  Then, after your snack, you went right back to sleep without a peep.
• Your “fort” is under the dining room table.  You invite everyone to crawl on their hands and knees and join you. 
• You went to your first day of school this month.  The teachers say you are very “verbal” and “can be reasoned with.”  (They did not say genius, but I think we can obviously assume they are thinking it.) Apparently, you get a little sad right when Gangie drops you off, but Ms. Debbie says you recover quickly.  She also asked that we pack you more food for lunch.  (I swear we feed you.) 
• You can barely walk under the island in the kitchen without bumping your head. 
• You made your father a frame at school for Father’s Day.  It was a cowboy theme, with your little green fingerprints making cactus and you dressed in a straw hat and bandana in the photo.  Your father keeps it by the sink in the bathroom so he can see his little cowboy first thing each morning.
• You tee-teed in the potty this month -- or as you say, "make bubbles in the water."  
• You threw blocks inside while we were playing one evening - after I warned you not to do it...so they were taken away.  There were a lot of tears initially but you haven’t done it again since.  We don’t give into whining.  
• You love your Winnie the Pooh book - the one Omi and Pop read to you.  We can hear their voices.  I like it too.  "Oh, baaa-thaaa" says Pooh (aka Pop).
• Annual beach trip with Sharon & Big Mitchell, Nannie & Papa, cousins and aunts and uncles was this month for a whole week.  Your father and I don’t know the details - only that you came home very happy, and that's enough for us.

I love you so much sweet boy,
Mom

May 2012: 20 months

Dear Patrick, this month:

• You said, “Happy Mudders Day” this month and yes, indeed, you made the day very happy for all of us. 
• One morning, you asked for the “big book,” which is the ipad. I looked around the living room and I didn’t see it so I told you, “I’m sorry, Patrick, I don’t know where it is.” You said, “Dada move?” and I was amazed that option even occurred to you. So I smiled at my brilliant child and simply said in reply, “Yes, maybe your Dad moved it.”  Knowing out of sight is out of mind, I thought that would be the end of the discussion.  Nope.  You paused for a moment and then looked me right in the eye and said, “Ask him.”  Wow...my brilliant, resourceful child - just wow.
• Things you would not realize unless you talked to a twenty-month year old: “Friar Tuck” (a character from Robbin Hood) and “fire truck” sound remarkably the same. 
• You received your second official haircut mid-month.  We’ve discovered the secret to keeping you happy at Great Clips is letting you squirt your father in the face with the water bottle.  Your dad is a good man.
• You love stickers.  Miss April gave you lots of stickers early this month, which we transfer to index cards and put in little photo books for you to carry around - your "sticky books," as you say.
• We’ve moved onto past tense verbs this month.  I handed you the “Runaway Bunny” book that Omi and Pop gave you and you took it to your father and said, “Mama gave.”  As an aside: you quote, “Aw shucks bunny” and “so he did” from the last page of that book.  Its very cute. 
• You love to be a naked baby, and you ask to take your clothes off often.  In fairness, this summer is hot already and there is a lot of sprinkler/baby pool fun to be had, which of course is just better nude.  
• You are starting school next month so Gangie is helping us get organized and prepared for the big day!  She is going to get you your first lunchbox.  Gangie is the best.
• Your dad brought you a computer even though I told him it will be outdated by the time you can you actually “use” it.  But it was explained that this computer was “an original, orange, clamshell Mac iBook” and it was not only sentimental to your father, but apparently only $40 on Craigslist.
• I softly tickle your forehead, cheeks, chin - and say, "butterflies on your face."  With eyes closed, you'll say, "Omi do."  That’s right, buddy -- Omi tickled my face when I was little and now I do it for you.  And you love it just as much as I did!
• Some of my favorite things you say this month are: “Get you Mama,” “fistles,” which are Willy’s favorite food (thistles), “A-choo Patrick,” "Sneaky-sneak," “Hug Mama," "Happy Mudders Day, Da-da!" and "Crawl baby."  
• Owl is a very important member of the family.  We had a scare this month when he went “hiding” at bedtime.  But we found him.  Please don’t ever fly away, Owl.
• My favorite exchange this month between us. Me: "Good Morning, Patrick!  Lets get some breakfast."  Patrick: "pop tart?" Me: "No, lets get some oatmeal instead."  Patrick after a long pause: "Da-da said pop tart."  Oh, he did now, did he?!!
• Although we are struggling with the amount of TV to let you want to watch, it’s so cute when you ask to “hold hand” so you can drag us down the hall to turn on the player (my old VCR player and VHS Disney tapes!) in your room. “Watch movie,” you say.
• We traveled to Macon for Memorial Day Weekend and you had a wonderful time watering the tomatoes and cutting flowers with Pop, playing on the ipad with Omi, splashing in the pool and fountain that your father and Bunky created for you, visiting with the Kings and Tom Hope.  There were also a lot of biscuits given to Winnie. 
  
• Owl use to just be a "crib friend" to help you sleep, but now apparently Owl wants toast for breakfast and makes other such demands, which he articulates through you.  I am particularly pleased that Owl seems to want hugs and kisses most often.  I am full of those.
  I love you, my sweet boy, Mom