The Rocking Chair

Friday, October 10, 2014

19 Months (August)

Tomorrow I have to go back to work and leave my baby... okay, I know he is 19 months old as of Thursday but still my baby nevertheless. I am such a mesh of emotions right now. I am really looking forward to starting out a new school year, at a school I love, and FINALLY being able to use my Master's but.... I feel lost thinking of how much I am going to miss Leo.

Since I got pregnant, Leo and I have only spent the majority of about 14 days away from each other. He's my heart and I have to leave him, then expect to still be able to do things... like teach. :( I know this will be a good thing for both of us and for our family but it doesn't make it easier. It does help that my sister is taking care of him and that he will be surrounded by love. It just wrenches at my gut to think that the next time I will get to spend all of my time with him hanging around will be next summer. It seems soooo far away!

I know I have been blessed in getting to stay home with him for even this long, blessed that I have family nearby to care for him... I'm just having a small (okay maybe a big) pity party for myself tonight but hopefully I'll feel better in a week or so. One thing about teaching is there isn't much time to think about yourself... it will keep me engaged mentally and physically for sure!

Hopefully I'll post this on the 21st as I don't know when the next long post will be. Who knows...it may be next summer! I will try to update every few months even if it is just a little bit. The below post will cover the last month which includes our trip to Florida! Lots of great pictures and fun adventures on this one...

(I wrote the above in August and just didn't have a chance to finish it until now.)

We started our trip in Tampa, where my mom was VERY happy to have all five grand kids sitting at her table once more. We got a pretty cute picture of them all too!

Mimi's Table!

Leo wearing my Grandpa Patterson's old hat and pretty happy about it too!

Cousin Tiernan was a big help on this vacation! He would willingly and VERY responsibly watch out for Leo if I was busy or asked him to keep an eye on him while I ran to do something. I love watching them hang out together. :)

While there I spent both a kid free night out with my friends and then a kid-friendly play date at one of their houses. The recent kids are all within 6 months of each other, but we had the 10 year old there too and now... one of my friends just had a new baby girl! Yay!) Here are some pictures of the antics of the one year olds...

Diaper Buddies

Leo was wetting down the slide for an extra fast ride...

Our hostesses!


The boys had a ball playing while their hostess slept!

The fun didn't end there in Tampa.... We had dance parties and guitar lessons.

played some golf,

"enjoyed" the Florida heat, and tried to decide between a bouncy ball and a golf ball. Decisions, decisions.

We even watched scary movies! (aka The Sandlot, Sara was a little worried about the kids getting the ball from "the monster" so Liam held her hand. Carol is raising some really sweet boys!)

We also just hung out around the house and enjoyed being with each other. :) Memories in the making. The fun didn't stop in Tampa though. The whole Patterson clan packed up and headed to Cocoa Beach for a few days of surf, sand, and lots of family.
We got to see my grandparents, cousins, aunt & uncle, as well as the kiddos of the new generation...

Fun with Mimi and Papa! (Leo was thrilled to be sitting next to my dad... he kept on patting his arm, lol)

Leo's dinner amusement...pouring condiments from 1 bowl to another.

Leo's own personal entertainer :) Love these boys!

While in Cocoa/Merritt Island we played some table-tennis, celebrated Carol's birthday,

played with our (closest in age) second cousins (and LOVED watching them interact),

and even got to meet the newest addition to the clan. :)

What a cutie!

Look at these cheeks!

Leo and I even greeted the sun one day...

It was a beautiful morning and will be with me for a long time...

Our journey doesn't end there though! From Cocoa we headed to see the other side of the family and spend some time in Deland. Nana, Pap, and Uncle Seth were anxiously awaiting our arrival and had great activities planned for us....

We quickly got settled in and Leo did his morning chores starting with driving the tractor around.

Once that was over with, he would visit the neighbor's goats, collect the paper, dance around in the back of Pap's truck, and sometimes would request a stroll in the wagon. This was a daily ritual and commenced immediately following breakfast. Everyone involved loved it! :)

Aside from household chores we were treated with a visit to the zoo,

Complete with a Merry-go-round ride

and giant turtle statue!

a pontoon boat ride along the St. John's River,

Feeling the wind in his hair...

Leo got tuckered out and couldn't resist the pull of a steady motor, soft rocking of the boat, and a Mama snuggled close.

Still my baby...

and a trip to some Florida springs.

Leo wasn't too thrilled with the chilly water...

We also got to eat at Cracker Barrel,

revisit the tractor for the umpteenth time,

and just hanging out around the house making more beautiful memories to last a lifetime.

It was a fun and adventure filled trip and we really wish Evan could have come too. :( Everyone really missed him, especially Leo and I.

The trip home was difficult but ended with a very sleepy baby and (thankfully) an empty seat beside me...

I'll try to make it quick but I wanted to share a little of Leo and I's last couple of weeks hanging out full-time...

Mama's eye view...

Yummmm... fresh strawberries (aka buberries by Leo)

Flowers were waiting for me when I returned. I think somebody missed us as much as we missed him. : )


Strong man!

We had some gorgeous days for working in our garden, family outings to the library, and we even saw our good friends married!

Congratulations Toby and Joe!

We had playdates with friends, tried on new clothes, did lots of swimming. We were exhausted and happy at night and got lots of snuggle time in...

Dada rocking Leo (it was dark but I used the flash).

I took Leo out for a final summer photo shoot and just enjoyed being a Mama to my precious little boy... It has been a summer to remember and a wonderful year and a half of devoting myself to this extremely difficult job of raising a child. I will miss so much of this but I am so blessed and grateful for the time I have had...

UP MAMA!

We had a temper tantrum mid-photo shoot so I took advantage of the situation...hehehe

What can I say but that I have a little boy who has stolen my heart and everyday he gives me something in return... a kiss, a hug, a beautiful smile... the returns are endless.

Monday, August 18, 2014

18 Months

This past month has been pretty crazy so although this post is almost a month late I am going to pretend like it is on time so sit back and let me take you to almost 2 months ago when Leo was entering his 18 month of life...

A few things about this month, Leo's half birthday is right around the corner! This month also marks a year in this apartment. I remember how sentimental I got when leaving the old apartment that I brought my tiny baby to and now I am amazed at how much he has grown in this past year and how many things he has accomplished (and still accomplishes) every day. On move in day my sister Emily, while watching her own toddling 15 month old, remarked how she could just imagine Leo standing at the door waiting for Daddy or watching the outdoors. Now we are there and she was right... Leo LOVES being able to look out the back door and will run to it if I happen to hear the car pull up and tell him that Dada is home. I know Evan loves being greeted with a big smile and hug.

Leo got his first haircut this month...courtesy of his Mama ;) I was very sad to cut off his cute little curls he had going on at the nape of his neck but looking back at pictures he was looking a little scraggly in the hair department lol. Still adorable in my book though.

The haircut required two episodes of Blue's Clues and a HUGE bowl of blueberries (Leo's favorite).

Here are some after shots, along with a photo shoot that reminded me of the photo shoot I did for his half-birthday last year.

It is amazing how much he has changed but how much he has stayed the same. I still see my baby : )

Leo continues building his vocabulary and just wants to communicate so badly. There are days when he repeats a word or phrase over and over and I just don't understand then he gets so frustrated... but if I cuddle him up and look him in the eye and tell him "Leo, I know you want Mama to understand you but I am not sure what you are saying... let's try again." My amazing little man will calm down and either repeat himself again or try a new technique like pointing or something. I am astonished every time it happens because I know he understands what I am saying and that he trusts me to try my best. It is a very gratifying feeling and while I know our open line of communication might not always work so well, I am just soaking it up for the time being. Among the most memorable words he learned this month... chipmunk (munk) "Aww, look at all the cute monks running around the campground!"

We celebrated the Fourth of July with our friends Toby, Joe, Doris, Greg, and Melody. It was lots of fun!

We went camping twice this month! The first time was a test night and boy it was a lot of fun (this was said dripping with sarcasm). We went on a weeknight and headed to a campground only about a half an hour from the house which we also decided to do the day before (great planning!). It doesn't help that it was light out until about 9:30 pm but Leo just wasn't having the whole sleeping on the ground thing. Our normal routine went up in flames and ended up with Leo finally falling asleep exhausted at about 9:45. Only to wake up again at about midnight and thrash violently while I tried to comfort him. When he finally fell back to sleep it was on my head. I wished I had a picture so much that I decided to draw one... forgive the horrible artistic skill and enjoy the humor.

Needless to say I got very little sleep that night (about 2-3 hours) and Evan had to go to work the next day leaving me to care for "child who also missed out on lots of sleep and was extremely cranky all day". It was lots of fun folks... LOTS of fun.

My handsome men

The second camping trip went better since I knew what to expect and at least didn't set my hopes too high... plus we had friends to share our misery with! Doris, Greg and their daughter Melody came as well as our friend Toby and my sister Emily, nieces Sara and Rebecca and BIL Steve. It was lots of fun having so many people to go camping with. The kids loved playing around the campsite and it was fun watching a new generation enjoying the great outdoors. Leo was again having problems going to sleep with the added fun of 90 degree weather (in eastern Oregon) but I think he fell asleep around 9:30 on the 1st night, so... progress! Our trip was going to be three nights this time so I figured if we continued on this train by the 3rd night he would be asleep by 8:45! His normal bedtime is 7 pm but no worries, we just did what we could and managed to survive. We got to do lots of fun things while in the Bend/Sun River region. Including (but not limited) to tubing down the Deschutes River, hiking at Smith Rock State Parkand, and exploring the Lava River Caves. Here are some pictures from our vacation.