Dailey Update: June 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Two and a Half Years

It's been a while since the last monthly snapshot. Patrick has matured quite a bit in the past three months. His language skills have improved considerably. Three months ago, he spoke mostly in phrases. Now he uses complete, sometimes complex, sentences. He uses pronouns and tenses properly for the most part ("I sit in yours lap") and speaks slowly, carefully. "Pappick" has become "Pa-trick," and "buldozozer" has lost its extra syllable. We do still hear "piddow" and "lellow," and Babbick will always be Babbick (except for at school, where he calls it "my blanket").

His memory often surprises us, and it's so much fun to have actual conversations! He still doesn't love talking on the phone, but when he's in the right mood, he'll chat for a little bit. He's started teasing, giving incorrect answers to things he knows. "What color is an apple?" "Orange!" "What does a green light mean?" "Stop, stop, stop!" Always with a knowing smile. The same smile when asked "Who's your favorite baseball team?" "Booyankees!" (He usually answers "Go Red Sox!")

Patrick has been obsessed with baseball for quite a while. Every time he passes anyone on the street wearing a baseball hat, "Mommy, he's a baseball player!" He loves watching Justin next door play catch with his dad. We got him a T-ball tee for the backyard, and he took to it right away. Without any instruction, he picked up the bat (lefty, of course), and hit the ball quite a distance. A yard-sale batting helmet completes the look. When not batting or playing with his glove, he is playing or talking about football, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, or bowling.

He has discovered that people sometimes have two names. One day he walked into the hospital to visit Mommy and said "Hi Robin!" Shortly thereafter, he started asking "Where's Michael?"

Although he's not a huge fan, Patrick's getting a little better about eating vegetables. He'll try corn, carrots, and the occasional pea. His new food quirk is frozen food. As in frozen waffles or raisin bread straight from the freezer. He also prefers his corn chowder cold, and eats leftover "Mac O Cheese" straight from the fridge.

Patrick has adapted remarkably well to the recent upheaval in our lives. He enjoyed visiting Mommy in the "hos-a-pital" and all of the extra time spent with Daddy and extended family. At the tail-end of the string of family visitors, he went through a bad patch. He just wasn't Patrick for about two weeks, and the tantrums were pretty scary. But once we got back into a routine, he bounced back.

He now loves going to visit his brother and talks about him all the time. He'll ask to go visit, and knows the routine of parking in the garage (or with the man in the red shirt), washing up and putting on the purple gown (or blue or light blue), then climbing up on a chair to kiss James hello and hold his hand. Once James is in Mommy or Daddy's lap, he'll spend some time touching and singing to James, then ask to see SuperWhy. This show on Robin's iPhone has been a lifesaver. He's watched the same two episodes over and over and over.

It remains to be seen how he'll react to James actually coming home, but he does seem to understand the concept. He's very interested in pictures and stories of himself as a baby, and sometimes pretends that he is a baby.