well hello handsome

A pirated photo from the session last week. How cute is Paudie? Come on, he is like, baby clothes catalog cute.

After my posting last week a good friend emailed me and suggested perhaps I might experience better living through SSRI chemistry. Sort of made me think 1. hey, not a bad idea, and 2. I guess I can come off as a real mope sometimes. Did you know that mope means most-oppressed-person-ever?

So I'll try to keep it light today. The river of tears continues at our house. In talking to some other people, I guess it's what happens when you have children of a certain age. 18 months. So even though I think it's a lot of teething at once that has master P down, I guess toddler is as toddler does right? He needs more attention now and can't articulate why. So we are rolling with it. In other news... Paudie's chewing and spitting out behavior seems to be intensifying. It's like the Sex and the City episode where Miranda's date just chews his steak then politely spits it into a napkin. Except Paudie spits it down his shirt and on the floor. I have not heard about this from Wendy at daycare so I presume it is something special for John and I. But it certainly isn't going to get him out of his 50th percentile weight. I just wish for once I could see him eat a meal with gusto - actually, on Friday night he did pretty good with a slice of veggie pizza. I sawr some gusto there.

Easter was pretty lowkey. We did do an egghunt at a church in our neighborhood that claims to have had 10,000 eggs sprawn about. Of course you had to sit through about 40 minutes of singing and marketing for 5 minutes of egg hunt, but Paudie did a great job - I trailed behind with a bag. Good thing I noticed kids running by our house with bags the morning of or Paudie would have been only able to get about 5 eggs between my handbag and pockets. I have to admit, he did have some chocolate that day. I can't believe I, who was raised largely on soda and junk food, have any guilt about sweets. But I do have a little. But the boy likes his chocolate. In fact, his diet seems to be taking after mine. Pizza and chocolate! Hey - at least I'm not giving him coke in his sippy cup right?

Words are still few and far between. His interest in books continues to be steady. Paudie now likes to sit with adult books (usually upside down) and turn the pages, speaking out loud in his own language as if he were reading. Miss Wendy says he is quite a bookworm at daycare as well. That makes me happy to hear. Next stop - baby can read!

We are aiming to visit my family in NY this weekend for a few days - let's all pray the weather is decent so we can have outdoor time. As you'll recall, my parents' house is chock full of knick-knacks and what have you and frankly, they are both set in their ways so to see something out of place seems to really annoy them. For example, if Paudie takes the remote control and presses it (a major no-no given how convuluted the media system is), I will place it high out of his reach. Hours later, it will be back on the table. Paudie will take it, press the buttons, irritate my father, and I will place it high out of reach. Wash, rinse, repeat. Good times!