Family update

I realized the other day that I needed to give everyone an update on our family before we add our newest member in 1 month! This summer has been great, but busy!
We started out the summer with a trip to Disney World in May. We knew Jonathan wouldn't remember any of it, but we wanted to take him before the baby came and we sure had a great time watching him have a good time! He loved the characters, adapted well to the busy schedule (or lack thereof!), and gave me and JP memories we'll have forever.
The rest of the summer we spent playing outside with his little friend and neighbor, Gabe, who is only 6 weeks older than him. I've gotten to know and love his mom, Tori, so that's been nice for me too! We sat in our chairs outside the apartments while they got dirty playing with chalk, trucks, rocks, balls, and anything else they could find! We did gather up the strength/courage a few times and took them to the pool. Jonathan loved it! By the end of the summer he knew how to blow bubbles and kick his feet. Pretty good for a 17 month old, I think! :)
The rest of the summer was filled with a few trips to the aquarium, Chick-fil-A lunches, and a new addiction to Phase 10 with our friends at night after the kids were asleep! We did end the summer with a trip to Tuscaloosa for the first Alabama game. Jonathan took it all in and had a blast!
School is back in session now so we have a little more of a schedule, which makes me happy! JP has started his second year of PhD work and is in the middle of, what I consider, his hardest class yet. The Theology of Amos. Ugh. He enjoys it though, so I think that HAS to mean he's doing what God wants him to do, because I don't know why anyone would really like that class on their own! :) It's lots of work, which means he's at the library a few nights a week, but we sure do love the time we have with him!
I'm still working nights part time at the hospital. It's getting a little harder to stay awake at night the closer we get to this baby coming, but it's not too much longer! Everything has gone great with this pregnancy, which is a blessing since Jonathan loves to crawl all over me, elbows, knees, and all! In case you don't know, we're having another boy! We just decided on a name a few weeks ago, but are keeping it a surprise. It's killing our family I'm pretty sure, but it's kinda fun having a little secret only the 3 of us know!
Jonathan is 19 months old now, and growing and changing so much! He talks so much now and I'd say we understand about 50% of it. :) He loves balls, cars, trucks, blocks, and "choo-choo's". He loves going barefoot (his father's child), playing in the grass, dirt, and puddles, and talks about any "boo-boo's" he gets for at least 3 days. He is all boy! He now says Roll Tide randomly (not just on request by us!) and absolutely knows that's what the elephant says! He loves reading books and has lately been very into coloring. He knows several shapes, can count to 3 (although sometimes he forgets 1), and I feel like he learns a new word everyday! We've started going to the library for story time on Thursday mornings, and although he doesn't sit for all of the books, he loves the music time. It's such a joy to watch him grow! We praise God daily for how wonderful he is and can't wait to add another little man to the mix! We have a c-section scheduled for Oct. 14 at 7:30am, so unless he decides to join us before then, that's baby ____'s arrival date! :) Sorry this was long, but I had a lot of updates to get out! New baby post to come!

Little ham waiting on a bus at Disney World :)

First haircut at Disney! (we've already had another since then!)

Playing at the aquarium

First Bama game!

Roll Tide!

Big news!

So I have COMPLETELY failed in my New Years' resolution and have neglected this blog for many, many weeks. But, I have somewhat of a good reason/excuse...we're expecting another baby in October! I've been in the midst of what I like to call "first trimester survival mode"! Between working, chasing Jonathan around, keeping the house (somewhat) straightened, and napping whenever possible, there has been no time for Facebook, blog, or email. :)
I am 13 weeks now and starting to not feel so gross and tired all the time. I've felt more nauseous with this baby than I did with Jonathan but I don't know if it's because of this baby or because I'm not nearly as rested as I was when it was just me and JP. :) It's still not much to complain about though so I'm very thankful.
We are very excited about our growing family and know that God's timing is perfect with this baby just as it was with Jonathan. The official due date is October 19 but since we'll do another c-section and get to pick the date (hopefully), we're looking at October 14. My birthday is the 10th, JP's is the 12th, and in order to make my logical brain happy, the 14th sounded good. :) Plus, the 14th would have been JP's grandfather's 80th birthday so that's neat too. They will be 20 months apart so I hope they will be great friends! Of course Jonathan won't know what's going on for awhile, but we're really playing up the role of big brother. He's such a sweet boy and I think he'll easily learn how to love another little person! Here are some pictures we took at the park of him in his big brother shirt. He's getting so big so quickly!

Some Olympic Thoughts

I have always loved the Olympics. I think it goes back to my childhood days of watching Mary Lou Retton and getting a leotard to match (that's right, I LOVED her!) Fortunately, JP likes to watch them too so it's been a fun 2 weeks. As they're ending up this weekend, I thought I'd share some thoughts and some conversations that have taken place in the Patterson house recently:

-I will be both sad and glad when they're over because I've stayed up til 11-12 watching them and have missed out on a lot of sleep. Oh the price for patriotism...

-Leah: Is that girl American?
JP: Far from it.

-Curling is like an addictive drug. I had never watched it, but JP did when I was at work one night and of course the next night and pretty much every night after we would sit and watch that craziness. What's crazier is that we actually cared and cheered. I'm pretty sure they play subliminal messages or something cause why else would it be so mesmerizing?

-JP: Scott Hamilton is way too excited about figure skating
Leah: You have to remember that to him figure skating is like Alabama football
JP: My mind doesn't even compute that

-I tried to teach Jonathan how to make a fist and cheer "U-S-A" over and over. He never got it, but laughs and laughs when I do it while we watch, you guessed it, curling.

-JP: I've decided that you don't need a baby name book every 2 years...just watch this and you have plenty of names to choose from (I think this was in reference to a skier from Norway named Aksel Lund Svindal)

-JP has fallen in love with Vancouver. He actually priced a trip for this fall (our 30th birthday) but my nerves can't handle taking an 18 month old that far from home. He's disappointed but we're definitely wanting to go there one day. Congratulations tourism bureau of British Columbia, you did great work on my husband!

Forks and spoons and knives, oh my!

Ok, so no knives yet, but we have started giving Jonathan spoons and forks so he can start learning how to use those to feed himself. Most of the time he just holds the fork and picks up the food with his hands (why would we change anything now, mom?), but it's a start! A few times he would eat the food off the fork (that I had put there, of course!) and he even tried to stab/scoop stuff a few times. I think he has the concept so we just need some practice. :) He eats his snacks and meals out of bowls and plates we put in front of him most of the time now and fortunately, SO FAR we haven't thrown anything across the room. I consider that success!

Growing and changing

Jonathan had his 1 year check up this week with the pediatrician and it was a good visit! He weighs 25 pounds and is almost 31 inches long! That's the 75th percentile for both but it sounds like so much bigger to me! He unfortunately got 3 shots (ouch!) but besides that everything went fine. We got the all clear to start cow's milk, and gave him some for the first time yesterday. He didn't like it! Well, let me clarify - he didn't like it out of his cup. He drank it just fine out of the bottle. Go figure. I guess it's a strange texture. Oh well! Guess we'll transition to milk and then get rid of the bottle. Dr. Collins said some kids do that and he'd rather them stay on the bottle longer than not drink milk. However, we tried the milk out of the cup again this morning and he drank some of it, so maybe we're just trying to figure this out. Hopefully this will be an easy transition!
We've also started giving him Cheerios and Goldfish! I know that doesn't sound dramatic but that is big boy food! :) He's at such a fun age right now too. He plays ball with you, laughs when you do silly things, and can even do the signs for milk and more! He's a smart little guy (if I do say so myself)! Here are just a few of the pictures from the party last weekend too!

Jonathan is 1!

My sweet little boy turned 1 year old yesterday! I can't believe how fast this year has gone! Everyone tells you how quickly it will go by, but when you actually experience it...it's SO fast! :) Birthdays have always been a very big deal in my family, so we've really made a big deal about his special day (or should I say weekend!). I've been talking all week about it to get him ready (even though he doesn't have a clue what's going on!) and the celebration officially began yesterday! For his actual birth day we went to one of our favorite pizza places on St. Charles for lunch (no pizza for him yet though!) and then took him to an indoor play area called The Monkey Room. He absolutely loved it! Then we came home and rested and went out to dinner with Gran, Pop and Uncle Ben. It was a terrific day!
We had his birthday party this afternoon at the gym here on campus. He had a great time playing with his little friend and neighbor, Gabe (who is also 1 year old). He didn't enjoy playing/eating his cake as much as I thought. He actually got a little upset at first! I think he didn't like having the frosting on his hands (his mother's child!). But after a few minutes he got into it a little more and played enough to appease his parents! We opened gifts and played with balls and balloons and I think he had a great time. He's taking a great nap right now so it must have worn him out at least!
The celebration continues tomorrow when Nana, Grandpa and Great grandmother Vail come to town for a few days. Nana and Grandpa weren't able to make it for the party because they were welcoming Jonathan's new cousin James to the world this weekend. So...we're having ANOTHER little party here at the house when they get here tomorrow complete with banners, balloons, and another little cake (maybe he'll like it better this time!). I told you birthdays are VERY important to me! :) Hopefully the Saints will win and the weekend will be a complete success! A friend from church took pictures at the party for us so I don't have them now, but will put some of them up when we get them in a few weeks after we get his portraits made too. I did post some pictures below that we made at the Monkey Room yesterday though.
Happy Birthday Jonathan! We're so glad God gave you to us one year ago and it's been the best year of our lives!

Who's that little boy?

Climbing the steps

Going down the slide

Trying to decide what to do next :)

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

Another new game

Here's the new game that Jonathan likes to play with his toy basket. He (forcefully!) throws toys out and then puts them back in. Sometimes he also climbs in the basket in-between. It makes us smile and wonder if he'll like everything put away like his mother! :)