Flanagan Clan

Here’s a little game for everyone to play.  Directly below, are two random baby pictures of Patrick and Samuel taken when they were roughly the same age.  Further below are a bunch of family baby pictures that I happened to have saved on my computer. Take a look at the pictures, and pick the baby or babies that you think look the most like Patrick and Sammy. Leave us a comment with the pictures that you picked!

Patrick, 7 Months

Sammy, 8 months

Here are your pictures to choose from. You can pick multiple pictures, if you want!

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F)

G)

H)

Yesterday, for the very first time, Patrick tried to say the name, “Sammy”. However, it came out more like “MeeMee”! It was pretty funny. He is saying more and more words, and he’s becoming a lot more vocal. It seems like most of it has just happened in the last month or so. It’s nice to actually understand him better. He’s very curious… he will constantly go around pointing at things and say, “What dat, Mama?”. Sometimes we’ll say to him, “Patrick, say _____”, and he’s finally trying to say more and more things that way. However, if you ask him to say his name, he’ll say “RARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”. What a boy!

Andrew took a couple days off work this week because he’s been pretty busy with work, with all the traveling and such. It’s actually been nice for me, because today Andrew is giving ME a little break. He took Patrick out to the park and to Costco for a little while this afternoon. I’ve been playing with MeeMee. He has such the cutest expressions, that I love taking tons of pictures of his different faces. Then I have a hard time picking the ones that go on the blog, so I’m just going to post a whole bunch, although there are many more I didn’t post :-P.

Haha! Patrick can’t steal my toy from me! He’s gone with Daddy!

Uh oh! Better not fall over!

How do you like my tongue?

It’s fun to spend time with Mommy

Today was not one of the better days of motherhood. Actually, today things were sort of frustrating. To start with, Patrick, Sammy and I have colds. I believe Patrick caught it at Bible Study on Tuesday… a loud, raspy cough and nasty accompanying cold. The boys are almost better, but I finally caught the bug yesterday, and I’ve been in a bit of a daze ever since. Which is why the next two things happened.

Dents in the side of the minivan… the 1 1/2 year old 2006 Toyota Sienna has several new battle scars from this morning’s run in with, guess who, PATRICK and the swing set!!!! Let me explain. Our next door neighbors have two kids, ages 11 and 6. They had a metal swing-set that they’ve had stored in their shed for a couple of years, and they asked us a couple weeks ago if we would like it for our boys. On Saturday we picked it up, and since it was rainy, stuck it in the garage. It has two swings, a monkey bar, a bench swing, and a slide. Well, this morning I was hurrying to get the boys ready for a trip to Walmart. I had Patrick’s shoes and coat on, and I was in the process of putting on Sammy’s jacket and finding my purse when I heard a loud cry from the garage. Patrick had managed to get into the garage, get onto the bench swing (this thing is huge with metal arms), and knock it onto the car. He was scared and/or hurt and I was furious… we had specifically told him yesterday to stay away from that stuff. The car ended up with three small dents and several scratches. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to cover up a lot of the scratch damage with the touchup paint we have. It’s annoying because we like to have nice things, but at the end of the day we realize that it’s just stuff… and it’s not like we’ll be taking it with us when we die. I also bet that before we get rid of that car in 10+ years from now, it’s going to see a lot more damage than what happened today.

Another not so pleasant experience… burning bacon until it becomes a big black mass of yuckiness. I’ve never actually done it… until today. Here’s the next story. I was sauteing bacon in a pot to make split pea soup for tonight’s dinner. I realized that I needed to do something in my bedroom and ran upstairs after turning down the heat a little bit… I told myself I would be right back. Patrick followed. What started out as a quick trip to check on something turned into me playing with Patrick’s hair and showing him how to spray his hair with the spray bottle and make it stick up in little spikes. Suddenly I heard Sammy hacking downstairs and I ran down the stairs to find the entire downstairs covered in smoke and my bacon a black, gooey mess. It was gross. I quickly opened the back door, turned on the ventilation fan, and disposed of the icky bacon. While I was busy defrosting new bacon so I could make my soup, Patrick was still upstairs with the water bottle…. and let’s just say that by the time I had finally finished sauteing my new bacon and got the soup simmering in the pot, I found Patrick with the water bottle downstairs squirting everything, including himself and Sammy. His little long sleeved tee-shirt was soaked with water… so now he’s running around the house in nothing but his diaper and hiding under blankets and coughing away. I hope this cold clears up sooooooon… and there’s always hope that tomorrow will be better. I’m not quite sure I’m up for taking the boys to Bible Study because we’re all sick again, but maybe if the weather is nice we’ll get out of the house. Mondays are hard because I always do laundry and grocery shopping. Which reminds me… I am no where near finished with the 5 loads of laundry I had to do today. I better run!!!

Patrick’s running around the house as I type, yelling “A BOY! A BOY! A BOY!”. It’s his newest word, and Sammy seems very impressed and humored by his big brother. Here’s some shots of the boys from the past two days.

Sammy trying out his “new” carseat in the kitchen

Sammy perfecting the art of sitting

Patrick not only picked out his own outfit today, he tried to put it on himself. Can you tell?

Sammy loves playing with the bouncy bumble ball… when Patrick lets him have it, that is!

There are several things that I’m really excited about.

#1) Andrew comes home from Palm Springs tonight!!!

#2) Sammy is starting to roll around… it’s really cute!

#3) I actually do have a picture from the St. Patrick’s Day Party! I thought we hadn’t taken any, but I guess I was wrong!!!

#4) I had a really fun week meeting Josh and spending time with Rachel. I took them to the airport today and it was sad to see them go, but it’s exciting to know that Rachel will be back for the summer, and we might be able to talk Josh into another visit this summer as well!!!

#5) Easter is coming up soon. Easter is my second favorite holiday, and I’m going to host Easter dinner at my house this year. I have cute Easter outfits lined up for the boys, and I’m looking forward to having Patrick help me dye eggs. I hope the weather cooperates, because I want Patrick to have a little egg hunt outside… last year he didn’t quite get it, but he’s a lot smarter now, and I think he’s ready!!!

#6) I have the most beautiful tulips and daffodils in my front yard, and they make me happy!

#7) Josh bought me the coolest puzzle as a hostess gift. It’s 2,000 pieces and it’s a picture of tulip fields. It looks pretty difficult, but I love puzzles with tons of colors. I’ll probably start it the next time Andrew is on business, when I can take over the entire table… because I’m pretty sure I’ll need to use the entire table PLUS both table leaves in order to fit this puzzle!!!

#8) Sammy has outgrown his infant carseat, so I’m going to put him in Patrick’s convertible carseat and give Patrick the regular carseat we keep for the other car. It’s going to be so nice to not have to carry Sammy around in that carseat anymore… it’s HEAVY!!! Today I’m pulling the base out of the car, taking the cover off the carseat, throwing it into the wash, and packing everything away for Baby #3.

#9) Yesterday was the first day of spring. The weather has been nice, though we have had a little bit of rain here and there. I’m eager to pack away the winter clothes soon, and I’ve already been digging through my summer wardrobe and finding things I forgot I had (since last summer I was big and pregnant!!!)

#10) God has blessed me with a beautiful family, a loving husband, a wonderful house, and continues to bless us day by day, in both big and little ways.