A Year of Changes

January 03, 2010

For those who are wondering: yes, I’m working on the 2009 book of photographs of the two boys. Don’t expect it to be done before February or March.

Working on the book, I’ve spent a lot of time recently looking at photos from earlier this year. And that’s when the obvious hit me: Little Patrick has really changed a lot in the past year. Here he is in February:

Patrick, Almost Crawling

He could just army-crawl, he had almost no hair, and he was basically just a blob. I also wrote, back at the time, that he was the “pukiest member of the family.”

Here he is, from earlier today:

Say "Cheese!"

He walks runs (he’ll chase his brother and chase the cats). He’s got a full head of curly red hair. He’s got his own personality: He loves to go outside, he’s considerate but also has a stubborn streak. He’s learning to talk and he’s great at following directions. For the photo above, I asked him to stand by the tree, look at me, and say “Cheese!” He did it with gusto.

He also hasn’t puked in a long, long time. (Boy, I hope I didn’t just jinx things.)

Sure, we’re all a year older now, but 2009 transformed Patrick from a baby into a little person. And on top of that, a person who can be a real delight to be around.

Here’s looking at you, kid!

Wet Hat

Here are some of the current Patrick milestones:

  • While he’s had “no” mastered for a long time, in the past couple of weeks he’s also picked up “yeah” or a head nod for yes.

  • He said his first full sentence this week: “More ketchup please.” (This shouldn’t be a surprise for anybody who remembers the Ketchup Monster.)

  • Another thing his sentence demonstrates: Please_. He’s really got that one down. I think he’s said_ please more times this weekend than Alex has said his entire life. It’s now his way to ask for things: Point and “please?”

  • I think he’s just realized this weekend that not all cats are “Cleo.” He’s more reliably calling other cats “cat.”

  • _He likes washing his own hair, which is a trick he’s learned from his brother. He’ll dump water on his head, over and over, then ask for the shampoo (please!) that he then rubs into his own scalp. He then does an OK job of rinsing on his own, but sometimes I have to help there. _