November 2012 Recap

Patrick's Birthday Party:

Patrick's birthday is November 24th, which means every year it will fall on Thanksgiving day or close enough. Which means the poor little thing can't have a party on his birthday, so we celebrated Patrick's birthday party the weekend before (17th) at the same place we did last year. It's a Mexican Restaurant near our house that has good food and great service. We had lunch and cake at a private area, and the owner was kind enough to even let us break a pinata, Yay! I love the idea of having pinatas at my children's parties, and I was thrilled that Patrick loved it so much this year! He even cried when his turn was over, so he ended up having like 3 turns. Here is a video of that.

Aside from the cake, he gets a special cupcake just for him. This is the second year... I guess we have started a tradition in our family!

Below, the cupcake from last year... he has grown so much!

Here are a few pics of the party:

Once at home, he didn't care much to open presents, but his friends Jackie and Charlotte couldn't wait to find out what toys he received, so they helped out.

Of course Patrick loved his gifts once they were out of the boxes.

A weekend with friends:

Jackie and Charlotte's parents live in NJ, so we don't get to see them as frequently as we would like, but when we do, we have a great time. They came to celebrate Patrick's party and it was great for the kids to spend time together. But not only the kids had fun, the dads went to play some golf (and have a few drinks) while the moms watched the kids. When the dads were back, the moms went out to have a nice dinner, while the dads watched the kids and put them to sleep. It was nice to go out without the kids (and husbands), although somehow our chat was mostly about them hehe.

Here are few pictures of the kiddos since they were babies.

Charlotte has now a 4 month old baby brother, Patrick will have a baby brother any day now, and Jackie will have a baby brother or sister in April. We will have a new set of pictures then!

Patrick's actual 2nd Birthday and grandparents visit.

Patrick's grandparents live in Indiana, so we don't get to see them much. This is the 3rd year, however, that Thanksgiving is celebrated at our house with them (we have to thank Patrick for this!) They were here almost a week. Patrick was very shy the first day but he was fine by the next one.

Everyone had good reasons to be tired enough to cook Thanksgiving dinner (I was almost 9 mos pregnant, Tim had been traveling for work and the grandparents had just arrived) so we went out to eat. As a matter of fact, we went out to eat a lot when they were here, many good places around here!

For Patrick's birthday we had a chocolate cake and we were out shopping. Also, we broke the news to them that Patrick's little brother will be named after the grandpas.

Good morning! I'm 2 today!!

Grandma makes the best cookies ever. Patrick had the cookies for first time and he liked them so much that in one of those moments when nobody was watching him, he climbed on to the dining room table to eat some more!

I'm the cookie monster!

The grandparents enjoyed a tour of Mt. Vernon. Totally worth the visit if you are ever in this area!

And they also helped us put the Christmas tree up!

What's new with Patrick?

Patrick had his 2 year appointment with the Pediatrician. He weights now 24lbs, and he is 34 1/2 inches tall. Surprisingly he was scared of the doctor this time. He also doesn't want to be checked because he doesn't want to stay put for more than 2 seconds. He just wants to be out and about all the time. He can climb on anything now -as you could judge by the cookies photo.  Considering the things he does now, I can't believe it's been only 2 months since he learned to walk. He has tried to escape from the house a couple of times, and is constantly trying to run away from me at public places.

Escaping from the house - Wish I had taped from 

the very moment he opened the storm door and got out!

His dad has been working on house projects, and Patrick is enjoying "helping". It is just too cute to see him spending long periods of time trying to help Tim. One day daddy went to the attic, and Patrick dared to follow behind. Tim had to ask for help and when I came I saw Patrick climbing the ladder half way up to the attic. As I approached, he reached the top. We have no picture of this, please understand it was a very scary, dangerous and crazy moment - no time to look for the camera! He is very curious, and too brave... a little too much I would say. Funny how he is so scared of the doctor but not so much to climb on a tall ladder!