Turtle

Patrick will be a turtle for Halloween. We had our first run in his costume at Auntie Wendy's pumpkin carving on Saturday and will go trick or treat at the houses of a few friends Wednesday night. He LOVES our staircase and is quite good at climbing the stairs with our close supervision (Jesse was right behind him in this picture but this little turtle is fast.

Feeding Piggy

I have not posted much about Piggy, Percy Piggy to be exact. He is Patrick's best, best friend. Piggy came into Patrick's life his first day in daycare (beginning of August) and has been faithful ever since. Piggy is Patrick's first stuffed animal (or at least the first one with which Patrick has had an attachment) and some of you may remember that Patrick was a little piggy his first Halloween and one of his several nicknames is Little Patrick Piggy (sometimes Little Patrick Piggy Bear -- I know, too much!). Piggy was a constant comfort while Patrick was in the hospital and he has been a special friend while going to sleep and in daycare.

Patrick loves to put Piggy in his highchair. I guess he wants to feed Piggy.

Fall pics

I have been out of town for the greater part of the last 3 weeks on business and a family funeral. Patrick and I went up to New Hampshire for a cousin's funeral. Happy babies can make everyone around them feel a lot better about a bad situation and Patrick rose to the occasion, including blowing raspberries as the pall bearers brought the coffin into the church. Later he managed to grab a font of holy water and tip it over spilling the blessed water all over the floor -- typical PK (priest's kid).

Blogger is having trouble uploading all the pics I wanted to post but here is one:





We took Patrick to a real pumpkin patch where we chose pumpkins right off the vine. He had a good time but the sun was bright and he wouldn't look up. This was his first ride in a wagon. He wanted to get out and walk but he did pretty well. Bright sun that day.

New Day Care

As of almost two weeks ago, Patrick is in a new day care. See Patrick's Expulsion from School for the beginnings of why. We were all home for almost two weeks sick, sick, sick and that gave me some time to think and realize there was no way I could send him back to Children of America. So I discovered another day care in the area, visited and loved it (will not mention the name of that day care for reasons of privacy but I would love to cast a legitimate shadow on CofA). The new, wonderful, warm, loving place is truly all those things. The first day I took Patrick in to visit I noticed such a difference in how he reacted to the people and surroundings. Watching him, I realized he was scared and overwhelmed at the CofA (and there was a lot of tension there from the director who worked against her teachers as I later discovered).

I also found out from employees of the new day care that many of the things I had experienced at CofA were against state regulations. So, of course, I reported their ass. Got a call from an inspector to whom I told my story and she uncovered even more violations. I am so glad we aren't there anymore.

Now, to get back on my soapbox about supercapitalism and outsourcing: turns out this particular CofA is owned by foreign investors. Great, so there's not a friggn' bit of accountability and they really have no idea who they are hiring to direct the center or teach in it. Lovely!

I'm walkin' yes indeed and I'm talkin

Patrick took his first real steps this week. He had taken a step here and there but now he can walk 10 or 15 feet at a time when he wants to. He also says doggie, book, baba (maybe) in relation to those things in addition to mama and dada. I thought he might have said piggy last night but wasn't sure. Takes some interpretation sometimes!