Directions

Patrick loves to play "Simon Says" and has fun when we tell him to pat his head, rub his tummy, and touch his toes. We've recently discovered that it works the other way around too. Sometimes we get "no" and a motion to get back from a favorite toy, like his drum. But most of the time it's "Mommy up" when he wants to be picked up, "Daddy down" when he wants us to sit and play with him, or "in in in" when he cries in the middle of the night and wants to get into bed with us. This morning it was a complicated series of commands: "Mommy up," so I picked him up, then a "down," pointing downstairs, and finally (predictably), "dunk a ball."

Dunk A Ball

Patrick's longstanding obsession with balls has taken a new turn. David next door has been coming over to demonstrate his basketball skills on the Little Tikes mini-hoop. We raised it up to the highest level and David and a friend dunked, did alley-oops, and generally put every ball in the house through the hoop. Patrick watched the show is a sort of stunned awe, too wowed to do anything while they were here. But after they left he insisted that we keep the hoop up high and he constantly asks to "dunk a ball." We've invented all kinds of shots; my favorite is the airplane double-dunk slamma jamma, which involves a ball in each hand and me "flying" our budding Larry Bird around the living room before dunking. After a dozen of these shots I can barely lift Patrick but he still begs "again, again!"

Cousin Sophie

Patrick really loves his cousin Sophie. We have lots of fun going swimming together and watching her do silly things. He picked out a Valentines Day balloon for her this weekend but had a tough time with the concept of giving a gift, especially one as wonderful as a shiny red balloon. I felt so sorry for him watching Sophie play with the balloon that I offered him my "elmo" to play with--my cell phone. He quickly started punching in numbers. "Who are you calling?" I asked him."Sophie" he answered. What are you going to say to her? I asked. "Please share."

Fun in the Sun

A week in Grand Cayman was just what we needed to chase away the winter chills. Patrick had loads of fun "wimming," building sandcastles on the beach, and looking for lizards amidst the shrubbery. He also discovered a new culinary delight: "fries!" By the end of the trip he'd look at our waitress as she took our order and insist "fries!" "fries!" Donald and I got a rare treat: time to work out. The spa environment made it (almost) painless. One of my favorite memories will be Patrick discovering a "football"--a big green coconut. He played with his football for ages, until it finally cracked open--"all gone."