Flanagan Clan

I have a hard time getting good pictures of Patrick lately because he’s always on the move, and I’m not quick enough with the camera to get good shots of him. I did, however, manage to get this picture on Sunday. His face is washed out a little bit by the camera flash, but I actually got him to smile for me!!! Isn’t he such a good looking little man?

I love putting Fall sweaters on the boys. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of Sammy in his cute little sweater. Well, Fall has just begun and there will be many more opportunities for that!!!

It’s amazing how quickly Patrick is growing up. He’s not a little baby anymore. Here are just a few of his latest accomplishments!

Eating with chopsticks

He is surprisingly pretty good at it!

The legos in Patrick’s hand are in the shape of an airplane, at least according to him. If you think about looking straight at an airplane facing the cockpit, you might be able to see where he got the idea. He loves making these airplanes!

He loves making airplanes so much that he’ll make a whole bunch and stack them on top of each other.

He just made two of these last night. It’s a bicycle.

He also loves to look at books.

Sammy’s favorite thing, though, is food!

I, being wrapped up in my pregnancy and all the craziness of day to day life, haven’t given a ton of thought to the fact that in less than a month from now I’m going to have a THREE YEAR OLD. How on earth did that sneak up on me? It honestly feels like not that long ago when I was planning for Patrick’s 2nd birthday party… could it really have been a year? And yet, here we are, planning for yet another birthday party. Last year we did a baseball theme. This year we’re doing monkeys. It seems appropriate, seeing how much of a little monkey Patrick is. We’re not doing a big party or anything… I don’t think I’ll have the energy, since I’ll be 34 weeks and all. I still want to make it special for him though. So, we’ll have Oma, Opa and Uncle Jonny over for a nice dinner and some cake. I’m going to try to make a monkey-shaped cake. I’ve gotten a lot of different ideas online, and I think I found one that shouldn’t be too hard, being that I have limited skills with cake decoration.

Before Patrick turns three though, there’s going to be another birthday in the family. My brother, Jonathan, is turning 25! Wow, that’s a quarter of a century. You’re really getting old there, Jon. Maybe I’ll have to make you a cake too. Anyone have any suggestions on what kind I should make?

Patrick, over the course of about two months, has really begun vocalizing. He is learning new words (and USING them!) every day, but sometimes things come out wrong. So wrong, that if I didn’t know better, I’d think somebody’s kid needed a good mouth washing out with soap. I don’t even want to give any examples because they aren’t words that Andrew and I even use. And I know he’s not saying them because he somehow heard them being used somewhere, he’s merely trying to increase his vocabulary and he doesn’t get all the sounds right all the time. Usually, his words just come out unintelligible, but there’s just that random occasion when something comes out that is DEFINITELY a word, and a potty-mouth word, at that.

So, if you happen to be around my child and something comes out that makes you wonder about our parenting skills… just remember, he’s not actually trying to say what you thought it said!!!

Sammy and Patrick have begun their roles as partners in crime.

Every day Sammy will begin pulling out the videos on the bottom shelf of our bookcase, and Patrick has begun the task of helping him get everything off the second shelf AND pull them out of their cases.

Patrick drops crayons on the ground for Sammy when he colors, so Sammy can chew on them.

Patrick helps Sammy get into rooms that are closed for the direct purpose of keeping Sammy out.

Patrick pulls things off of shelves or tables so that Sammy can play them… usually things that we don’t want Sammy to get a hold of!!!

Sammy enjoys getting into the dishwasher

Patrick trying to share the fun of being outside with Sammy

Patrick dragging Sammy around the house on Big Bear

Sammy likes to push the Civil War documentary box around the house!

Patrick definitely acts like an oldest child. He loves to tattle on Sammy…  “Mama, Baby make mess!”, “Mama, Baby go poo poo!’, “Mama, Baby cry!”, etc. It’s really funny! He also tries to verbally correct Sammy… “No, Baby!”, or “Baby, SHHHHHH!!!!”. I have to admit that there’s NEVER a dull moment in this house!!!