Happy Birthday Patrick

So our big, bouncy, smiley baby boy turned 2 on Tuesday. I’m guessing that means that the official end of infancy means that we can’t call him baby anymore – shame. If you saw him you would see that there isn’t very much of baby Patrick left, he really is a proper little boy. He had his 2 year check on Monday and still maintains the 75th percentile which means a whopping 29 1/2 lbs in weight. You certainly know about that when he throws himself at you! I am sorry to report that his height has levelled out and rather than being very tall he is now an average height. In terms of his development he is way ahead of where he should be physically but a little bit behind where he should be in terms of his speech. To be fair, we think that his numerous ear infections have contributed to this and have an appointment with an ENT specialist in January to discuss tubes and a referral to the speech therapy centre at some point next year.

He is still a contented little chap although we are seeing a bit more of his steely core, particularly when we try to get him to do something he isn’t keen on. He likes to run around and his Doctor commented on what a ‘busy’ little boy he is. He is extremely physical and likes to run, jump and play rough and tumble. It can be quite exhausting and I have picked up a niggly shoulder injury from our escapades which doesn’t ever seem to have time to heal!

His attention span to sit and read books and do puzzles suffers on occasion but build him a track or get out his cars and he will sit and play contentedly for hours. Just recently we have started to introduce him to his big boy bed and he loves the theatre of bedtime. He jumps into bed, pulls up his covers, tucks them neatly around him and then listens intently to his story. He is increasingly sleeping through the night and it is only when he gets cold that he wakes up. Interestingly (and I hope this doesn’t come back to haunt me!) he doesn’t wander during the night. When he gets up in the morning he will stay in bed and read his Thomas books for about 30 mins and only then will he come looking for us.

We had his birthday party at Balls of Fun which is his favourite place to play. It is perfect for busy boys, a large unit filled with a play structure and more balls than you have ever seen of all shapes and sizes. He loves it so much that he wasn’t keen to come in for snack time but felt better when the birthday cake came out. He LOVES you singing Happy Birthday to him. He trys to bury his head and look all shy but the cheeky grin gives it away. He doesn’t actually seem that interested in present openning, despite his sisters best efforts to show him what to do! What was inside interested him much more, although I have squirelled some things away to be bought out later in the year.

Whilst his temperament is quite balanced and independant he is also quite a sensitive little chap and loves cuddles with Mummy or Daddy. When he is sitting next to you he likes to be touching and will hold hands when we sit together on the couch.

After a blip caused by his constant illnesses nursery continues to go well for him. The reports I get are good and he comes home with lots of crafts and paintings which is nice. Markers are currently banned in our house due to Patricks delight in drawing on things other than paper and then biting the tops off the pens! He only goes to nursery 2 mornings and week but I think it has done him good in turns of building his independance. In September he was starting to get a little too attached to Mummy and nursery seems to have balanced that. I think it has also helped him to learn how to play and share with other children. His rather dominant big sister had given him the idea that just taking things and running was the only way to win, but nursery and our playdates are giving him the idea that others ways may be more productive. In saying that, he has no problem in standing up for himself and the other day Diesel had an interesting episode at the train table in the library when a bigger kid decided to pick on Patrick as an easy target. Apparently, Patrick just watched while the kids peeled the train out of his hand but then punched him square in the chest to get it back. Clearly, we are not delighted that he hit but pleased that he will stand up for himself, even with bigger kids.

In summary, it has been an interesting year for us getting used to having a little boy around. Balancing both of their very differents needs has at times been very challenging but I think we are just about holding our heads up.  Patrick is good fun, a very sweet, loving, cheeky and adventurous little chap.