Peyton- 10 Months

Sweet little Peyton is 10 months old!  He is growing up too fast! 

Poor little guy has had a rough month. I took him to the doctor for his 9 month check-up and he had a terrible ear infection and I had no idea! Sweet little boy is so happy, I had no idea his ears were badly infected. The doctor asked us to come back in two weeks to check them again. Unfortunately, his ears were still infected after two weeks of medicine. We are trying one more medicine before the doctor will refer us to an ENT. Hopefully this medication clears it up! He also had another tooth break through this month and it was a tough one for him (and mommy!).

He started walking with a walker this month and is so proud of himself! He stood by himself for the first time and is trying so hard to take steps. He can also stand up from sitting down without holding onto anything to assist him. 

Being Sassy

Love these precious moments of trying to take his first steps!

He is such a happy little baby and giggles all the time! He loves to eat and will eat pretty much anything! 

He is a determined little baby and can definitely hold his own with Patrick. He sometimes even tries to crawl on top of Patrick while Patrick his playing with his trains. 

Michael says he sits like a 7th grade cheerleading girl with one leg bent behind him and one leg crossed in front of him. He crawls at super speed. He loves to play with anything Patrick is playing with, which really upsets Patrick.  He is babbling a lot now and can say ma ma and da da. He also always waves hello to Margaret in the mornings and waves goodbye when we leave.

These two precious little boys got to have a play day at home with mommy one day last week. Cherish those days so much!

Little angel still doesn't like to go to sleep unless I put him down, so he is pretty much always awake when we get home if we go out. How can you get mad at this precious little face? For reference, this was at 11pm. How is a little baby this happy at 11pm?

Love you Peyton! Can't wait to see you learn and grow this month!

Learning to Walk

Peyton is starting to try and walk!  He is so proud of himself and it is so cute to watch. Excuse the amount of trucks laying around, Patrick is sort of a tornado with his trucks!

Here is also a little video of Peyton laughing with Dad. How precious is his giggle?

And here is a video of Patrick singing Jingle Bells. I love his sweet little voice!

Fun in the Bath

Both the boys LOVE bath time (at least once you get them in there!) Peyton will not sit still and thinks it is so fun to stand up and sit down over and over again. He frequently falls flat on his face into the water so I have to be on my toes when I give him a bath! We normally give the boys baths separately. Each boy seems to like their own space in the bath.

One of Peyton's favorite things is to watch Patrick take a bath and giggle at him. Patrick loves to entertain him, so it's perfect!

This little boy has also figured out how to flush the toilet and tries to do it over and over and over again!

And a few little snippets of my sweet little boys. Not sure why Patrick is talking about hot spaghettios!

Patrick Quarterly Update

Can't believe its time for another quarterly update on Patrick!

He is just getting so big! He is such a little person now instead of a little toddler!

Patrick has made leaps and bounds in the sleeping department! He goes to sleep around 9pm and sleeps until about 7am. He asks for Michael or I to lay with him for 5 minutes while we pray and he gets settled in bed. He loves to pray for all of his family members (extended family included) every night. He has the occasional night (about once a week) where he wakes up and insists upon sleeping with us, but I think its mostly because Peyton wakes him up.

He also has the biggest heart and loves his family. On the weekends, Patrick is constantly asking where Peyton is if he is not around (i.e. napping). It is really sweet how much he loves him! A few times this month he has looked up at me, mid-play, and said "Mom, you are my best friend." Can you imagine anything cuter!? I think my heart almost exploded!

We have started talking about potty training. I think Patrick is physically ready to potty train, but is not there emotionally yet. He asks to go potty when he wants M&M's and goes frequently at school, but he won't do it consistently yet. I have a feeling he will be ready pretty soon.

He wakes up every morning and looks outside and says, "Mom it's not dark outside, it's a SUNNY day." I love how enthusiastic he is about waking up each day. Maybe I can take a cue from Patrick and wake up thinking every day is a sunny day too :)

He is also such a backseat driver. The other day I turned right on a red light and Patrick looked at me and said, "Mom!! You have to stop at a red light!" He also tells me when its green and I can go or when it's yellow and I need to slow down.

He loves to go to the "Target Market." He refers to a person as everybody. He sings constantly. Still loves trains. Pronounces his name "Patrick Moy (for Mulloy)"He also really loves movies. We have movie night on Friday night and he get's so into it. We pop popcorn, make a pallet on the floor and watch a movie he hasn't seen before and he loves every second of it!

He is doing really well at school, but I can tell that sometimes it is tough for him to go every day (I have  been working 5 days a week almost every week). By about Thursday or Friday he is pretty worn out. Those are the morning which are the most difficult for me. But, he has a sweet little ritual that he created when we drop him off. He asks if we will play with him for a few minutes and then when he has settled in, he asks for a hug, a kiss and a high-five (which is our cue to leave).

We had his first parent/teacher conference this week and he got such a good report! I was thrilled! His teacher said that he has a best friend and they just giggle at each other all day long. The teacher also said that he is extremely bright! She did say that he plays a little roughly with toys (what boy doesn't?) and that he has trouble when it is time to clean up or get ready for another activity if he is focused on something else.  Couldn't be more proud of his report!

Doing some of our feeding therapy homework and getting messy with glitter!

Build a Bear Workshop

Patrick, it is such a joy being your mom! Your sweet little smile and big blue eyes light up my world! I am so excited to continue to watch you grow and learn!

Feeding Therapy Update

We had Patrick's second weekly feeding therapy appointment last week. The difference two sessions has made is incredible!  Patrick is excited about eating and is doing so well!  He is doing wonderfully in his therapy appointments and is trying so hard to overcome his fears of food. During the first appointment the following foods were introduced: chicken nuggets, applesauce, cheese, bacon, sausage, oranges, cereal cars and apple crisps. During the first appointment Patrick would not try the oranges or sausage. He licked both, but starting showing signs of stress so the feeding therapist had him kiss it and put it in the all done bowl without eating it. During the second session, he ate everything that was introduced! The feeding therapist does not introduce new foods until he consistently eats the foods we have been practicing with at home.

Patrick still will not eat lunch or snack at school unless it is crackers or corn. However, he is excelling at home! For example, after school today he came home and ate 4 bags of apple crisps (freeze dried apples), a couple chicken nuggets, a french fry, 4 slices of bacon, juice and milk (with carnation instant meal added). I don't think he has eaten that much food in an entire week! He was so excited about eating and kept saying mom, I want to try something new (by new he meant only the foods he tried in therapy).

Before feeding therapy Patrick cried constantly around dinner time. He was so hungry but scared to eat anything. He constantly complained about his stomach hurting and he was just grumpy. I can't blame the kid, I would be grumpy if all I ate was yogurt, milk, fruit snacks and crackers. It was stressful coming home from work because he would just be screaming and there was nothing I could do about it. He was just terrified to eat anything of substance. Now he gets so excited about it and I couldn't be happier! He actually ate Chic-Fil-a for the first time in his life last weekend! I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but it is a big deal for him! I really hope this can continue and it can expand outside of our house. I hope he can become comfortable enough to eat at school and around friends. My hope from the beginning was that Patrick could go to a restaurant or a party and be comfortable eating something! I don't think we are quite there yet, but I know we will get there!

The feeding therapy is also helping in other aspects of Patrick's life. Before therapy, he hated getting his fingers dirty. He did not like to finger paint or get messy. But recently he has been comfortable finger painting in the bath and doing a few other messy activities. I am so encouraged and so excited about the progress Patrick was made. Michael and I could not be more proud of our big boy for facing such a big fear!