things remembered

In the highly unlikely event that one of the kids ever accuses me of not doing a stellar (or any) job of recording their interesting little lives and milestones via baby books or photos taken with anything other than a cellular device ... I'll always have painfully detailed posts like these to toss back in my defense. I'm still a novice but I know that as far as parenthood goes ... today's annoyances are tomorrow's funny and eventually forgotten memories. Wait! I'm not saying that the kids are annoying but maybe that quirky and consistent little 4:30 am wake up might not be met with the same starry-eyed laughter that the memory might evoke down the line. Way down, Theodore Rooster Patton.

Not that he really has much of a choice but our resident butter ball is the most laid back Patton baby ... ever. He puts up with Phoebe's loooong strangle-hugs, people often thinking his name is Buster (or recently, "Gospel"), and is happy to eat virtually anything (although his petite figure might have you guessing; sarcasm -- small joke).

Sometimes he gets so overcome with happiness that he throws his head back and then flings it forward full force to hit usually nothing but air but the other day it happened to be my lip -- that is now extra fat.

Forgiven this time, B.

Onward.

I asked Phoebe to say, "cheese" and she responded with ... 

 ... "poop". Every time.

Last night I walked out of the room to put Julia to bed and was gone for no more than one minute and walked back in to find all three boys crying and Phoebe not crying but looking rather pleased with herself and the trucks she had won by way of obvious hair-pulling/arm-pinching/whatever-measure-was-necessary force. She can hold her own at home with the boys during the day while Julia is at school but has yet to grow out of her stranger-danger fears and is a real delight to take out in public.

Moving on to victim #1

Whenever he wants to ask for something that he knows will probably be a big fat, "um, no" such as pouring all my creamer into his sippy cup or skipping his nap he loudly whispers the request as if that will make it sound less ... crazy. He is our earliest riser and when I try to reason with him that it's, "still night time" he rushes to the window to show me that the sun is almost up. Methinks Theo might find one of these tucked in with him one of these early morning/late nights.

Victim #2

Sebastian has gone through such a wild growth spurt recently that he has exactly one pair of pants that wouldn't fit neatly under the capri category of clothing. He talks daily about going to school next year and times his elaborate train track building sessions to coincide right with bedtime. Every night. He's recently discovered the convenience that the great outdoors offers when nature calls which is fine except when we happen to be walking through a highly populated parking lot.

And Julia ...

... the queen of the rat pack recently lost two teeth and wrote a rather compelling note to the tooth fairy. It read: "Come Tooth Fairy". She gave her fifty cent winnings to the collection basket at church the next morning but we're not entirely sure she understands that she won't be getting her extensive coin collection back. She was sick last week and cried fat and ugly tears when she had to miss a day of her beloved school so explaining the concept of summer vacation should be oodles of fun when the time comes.

And lest the kids only remember Mom as groomed and dressed to the Costco-going nines ...

... she'll forever be trying to make sweats+sweaters+serious selfies happen. Even in Florida.

And that'll do until next week when the kids have ALL new quirks to report all over again. Thanks for humoring me.

Happy Fat Tuesday. I trust you're indulging appropriately.