Shoes

So after the obsession with the vacuum, comes the obsession with shoes. Patrick has always liked his dad's shoes but now wants his own shoes to practice on.

He is very interested in putting them on by himself. He won't take offers for help and insists that he do it himself.

He also doesn't take suggestions well either.

And when he is successful? He just shrugs it off like it was no biggy to do it in the first place. Of course, they don't come off once they are on!

Nah Night

I love our bedtime routine. I never thought I would say that given the early struggles that we had, but now it is the best. Many times Patrick will now ask to go to bed or if we say something about it he'll start running towards the stairs.

P loves bathtime. He says "bath?" a lot even when it isn't bedtime. He loves playing with these little cups just pouring water. He is funny though, he'll never sit down in the tub. Most of the time he stand, but the rest of the time he'll squat. It is pretty cute actually. I usually need a towel on hand to keep myself dry during bathtime!

After bathtime Patrick loves to brush his teeth. He'll sit there all day if you let him.

Then comes jammie time. Patrick loves to show off all the fun body parts he has learned lately. Elbow, Toes, Knees, Teeth etc.

Then we are on to storytime. Lately he picks out not only the books he wants to read but also who he wants to read them. It is always funny to see whom he likes to read a certain book.

Yeah, I love Nah Night time.

21 Months

My little man is getting awfully close to 2. Here is what he has been up to this month.

Talkin'
He has so many words now, we just don't always understand them. The other day he looked out the window and kept saying "bouy" "bouy" I finally saw what he was pointing at and said "birdy?" He was so excited that I got it! We hear a lot of "What's this/that?" Up, down, broom, eat, applesauce, breakfast, water, juice etc. Each day is a discovery of what he will say next.

Runnin'
We have had a really fun game lately of chasing each other around. He'll run all through the house just laughing and giggling. Ryan and I never last as long at this game as Patrick does.

1st child, type A, and responsibility syndrome
He already suffers from type A, responsibility syndrome. Lucky we have this kid to take care of us. He closes doors that we forget, he cleans what needs cleaning, he picks up his toys and puts them where they are supposed to go, he brings his plate to the sink, he likes his routines and makes sure to follow them.


Potty 101
We are getting closer to being potty proficient. We are probably a ways off from fully trained, but we are getting a little closer. He usually announces "poop!" before or after he pees or poops. He is very good at his potty routine (gets his seat, tinkles, wipes, puts down the lid, flushes and washes his hands) He is so proud when he goes on the toilet too, it is fun to watch.

Growin'
P is growing like a weed lately. Not sure what his stats are, but he is out of all his 12mo clothes and most of his 18mo shirts. Mostly 18-24mo pants and 24mo shirts now. Fun to see his little legs finally get a little longer!

I'm sure there is tons more to share, but I'll add as I can!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Patrick

The Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain.

And washed the spider out.

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.

And the Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the spout again.

YAY!


*Once again all photos by Bliss Photography! ;)

Christmas part 3

I have to finish the Holiday's up because I got some super fun pictures this weekend that I can't wait to share.

Ok, so over to the Bliss side of things. We were supposed to spend the majority of our time in Brookings this year, but the weather got us there a day late. We still had a great time.

Patrick didn't want to wait until we celebrated Christmas to open a present. Although, we should have saved this until the end because it was a favorite for sure and hard to top!


This toy vacuum really did work and had all the fun accessories as well. One evening Ryan and I got P to sleep and went to a movie. Well, he woke up and wouldn't go back down until he had his vacuum in his hands. The picture was taken in the dark, but it does show a boy in love! ;)

After a fun trip snow tubing on Sunday, Monday brought us more family and another Christmas. We waited to open gifts until Patrick woke from his nap. As we were starting to hand out the gifts, Patrick decided that pants weren't neccessary for the job ahead.

Patrick was super excited about all his gifts and couldn't wait to start playing.

Daddy was excited to try and put them all together!

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas at the Bliss household without the fear of opening a gift from Uncle Roger. From Coconut art, to tacky reindeer and a lovely tree, you never know what you are going to get!

And of course once all the goodies were opened, we had to have the annual wrapping ball fight.


Wish I had a great post about New Years, but my pictures were terrible. Check these other blogs out though, because they capture the fun of a toddler New Year's bash!

Jenn, Jared, Addy and Tyler

Anne, Grant and Miles

Christmas part 2

I may just finish talking about the Holiday's in time for the weather to warm up above -cold degrees.

So, there we were stuck at Grandmas (who didn't get run over by a reindeer but did hear the song sung to her for the first time by Tony)

I mentioned that we got out a lot, but so did others. My Aunt Jane was so stir crazy she was willing to shovel in her nightgown most days. Then a huge fight broke out between Tony and Jane when Tony stole the shovel and took over duties. She was not about to loose the one thing that got her out of the house each day. They fought, wrestled and eventually compromised. Tony got to shovel on the top of the hour, Jane on each 1/2.


Ok, none of that happened, but they did seem to duke it out a little to shovel.

I took a walk with mom one day. We waved to a passing truck on the country road. He being the typical nice farmer dude (and very good looking I might add) stopped his truck to see if we were stuck in the ditch. Although we appeared a little lost, we were also just trying to be friendly. Next time we'll act as if we are going somewhere.



We spent the rest of our days napping a lot, playing way too many hands of canasta (in which I highly recommend sitting next to those who don't know the game and throw you killer cards!) and eating a lot of turkey with a side of lefse.

Christmas eve I made my famous Caramel rolls that we baked fresh for Christmas morning. I also talked my mom and Ryan and Patrick into attending church with me. Benson church is always the same. Same candles, same hymns, same people sitting in "their" pews, and a dose of everything looking much smaller than you remember since you were small when you remember it.

We returned to a fabulous meal of turkey and all the fixings along with presents afterward.

Christmas morning brought us stockings from Santa, more presents and another day of naps and cards.

We didn't actually get out until Saturday, the day after Christmas in which we braved 35mph traffic for 4 hours with a toddler who didn't nap, but that is for part 3!

Christmas part 1

I'm not sure how many parts there will be, but enough to tell the tale of our travels this Holiday.

The storm of the year was predicted to hit on Dec. 23. This was the same day we were scheduled to leave town. Well we certainly didn't want to deal with bad roads and a toddler and night driving, so decided to take off a day early. We also decided to cut out one of our stops and go directly to the action. Grandma's house.

We snuck in about midnight and Patrick slept all night, which was just wonderful! The next day we woke up to snow and soon after Nana, GB and Uncle Tony arrived to join us in the fun.

In order to keep our sanity we ventured out a little each day to play.


The snow really was beautiful. Patrick enjoyed the farm, the snow and the barn kitties.