Boys In The 'Hood

Photo Shoot with Mommy

Check out my purty babies . . .

 

Birthdays

Someone turned 35 years old on Friday. 

Someone turned two months old on Saturday. 

The two-month old weighed in at 12 lbs., 13 oz. (75% percentile) and measured 23 inches (50% percentile) at his check-up last week.  The 35-year old . . . well, I don't have authorization to share that info. 

Halloween and Stuff

I keep trying to get Josh to write a post to up the entertainment factor, but he just muttered something about NFL and the World Series and ignored me.  So, you're stuck with me, and I'm pretty wiped, so we're going to go with the mostly pictoral post.

 

Start 'em young, we always say!  (This would be a Central BBQ onesie, for those of you wondering.)

 

Yeah, we're going to call that a smile (from Patrick, not Josh -- he's been doing it for a while now).  We got our first one the day before he turned six weeks.  They're not frequent yet, but sweet when we get them!

 

Putty (and Nana, of course) paid us a visit over Putty's birthday weekend.  Here he shows off some of his gifts (CCR's greatest hits and raspberry dark chocolate -- a natural combo if ever there was one).

 

Josh and Walt give us their prettiest smiles during our trip to the zoo that same weekend.

Playing chess.  Because apparently checkers just weren't challenging enough.  (Uncle David, we need some serious coaching help.  I always beat him, but it's generally an accident.)

 

Halloween costume #1 -- Storm Trooper (technically a Clone Trooper, I think, but don't tell him that).  This is what he wore to school and for trick-or-treating.  Thanks to Cousin Collier for the loaner.

 

Halloween costume #2 - professional soccer player (thanks to Harriet and Richard for the uni).  This is what he insisted on wearing Saturday afternoon while waiting to go trick-or-treating when he decided he didn't want to be a Storm Trooper anymore.  Until he didn't want to be a soccer player anymore.  He has a very patient daddy.

And here's our little punkin head.  And some video of him working the speed bag.

Bowling Baby

Oh yeah, we took our not-quite-six-week old to the bowling alley.

 

But lest you question our parenting skills in light of this fact, please notice the open container of hand sanitizer in the picture below.

 

You feel better about it now, right?

Saturday Afternoon

It started out with Walt just hanging out next to Patrick watching football.

 

Then he noticed I had the camera out and snuggled up closer for a Kodak moment.

 

Then, per usual, he got all up in the poor baby's business.

 

Guess who kept right on sleeping?

Zzzzzzzzz

So, here's Patrick.  He's cute and sweet and pretty sleepy.  Definitely waking up a little more, but still spends most of his time studying the backs of his eyelids. Love that baby.

When he does wake up for more than a meal (which he's obviously not missing many of), he often gets a bath.  So, you know, at least a couple of times a week.  (Yeah, baby Walt got baths every night.  Sue us.)

We took a trip to Murray last weekend, but apparently left our camera in the bag most of the time because the only picture we have worth posting is this one of Uncle Mancil blowing out his birthday centerpiece (no desserts -- including birthday cakes -- are made in the Crouch household as long as the DQ is open).  Happy 85th, Uncle Mancil!

And speaking of the Dairy Queen, Patrick did take his ceremonial first trip, but only Gram took her camera.  She's promised to email pictures soon, so check back for those.

And, finally, for the big announcement of the evening . . . Walt is reading!  (Kind of.)  This evening when we were waiting for Daddy to come home, I suggested that we read some books instead of watching another show.  Because a girl can only listen to so many shows about dinosaurs before she starts to go a little nuts.  Walt thought it would be a better idea if he read a book to Patrick.  I gently reminded him that he didn't know how to read and also that Patrick was still snoozing in his car seat where we'd left him when we came in from school two hours before.  Well, Walt said, I can learn before he wakes up and then I can read him a story.  Instead of informing him that learning to read generally takes longer than the span of an average infant's nap (or even one of Patrick's epic naps), I sent him off to get the set of Curious George phonics books that Gram and DeeDaddy gave him for Christmas last year.  And to my great surprise, the kid really can kind of read.  Still needs quite a bit of help, but he's getting there on sounding words out and already recognizes a bunch of words by sight.

Oh, and finally, I've started Patrick's Birthday Pics album at left.  Yeah, we're already late on the one month picture.  Not starting out well on this whole "treat-the-second-kid-just-like-the-first" thing, are we?

What Patrick Is Doing Right Now

The Short One

I (Ginger) remember back in the early days of Walt's World when the blog's namesake was just a babe . . . we would somehow find things to post about on a daily (and sometimes more than once a day) basis.  Fascinating topics like diaper changes and swaddling techniques.  And you crazy people read them! 

Well, you may have noticed that poor Patrick (referred to around here as "the short one") is already suffering from second child syndrome . . . it has been more than a week since we've posted even a glimpse of him.   It's not that we don't think he's just as perfect and wonderful as we did his big brother because we absolutely do.  If anything, I'm enjoying his babyhood even more.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we don't plan on doing this again, so I'm savoring every moment.  Or maybe it's that HE SLEEPS ALL THE TIME.  Never underestimate the sweet factor of a sleepy baby.  You can just hold them and smell them and kiss them and they don't care!  They just go right on snoozing!  Who knew?  (Certainly not me after getting through Walt's first year.)

But back to the point, being that second babies often don't get much love in the baby book/blog department.  So, in an attempt to rectify that (for this week, at least) . . . here's what Patrick's been up to since last we posted.

First bath.  He was his usual stoic self during the experience.  He did give it to us pretty good the second time around, but the first time just seemed a bit perplexed.

Napping with Putty.  Nana and Putty came down last week to accompany Walt on his farm field trip to Marion, Arkansas, since I couldn't make it.  Apparently the farm wore Putty out.  Being alive wears Patrick out.

Story time with Daddy and big bro.  No time like the present to start learning about wildlife. 

Catching a few late afternoon rays on the porch this afternoon while Walt and I played Old Maid and Go Fish.  Aren't those the most beautiful chubby cheeks you've ever seen?  Yeah, I thought so.

Soccer Post

Walt is playing soccer.  

He loves it.

He occasionally gets some pointers from the sidelines.

And I'm not saying the two are related, but sometimes he scores. 

And Then He Has to Gather the Eggs