See ya, 2008!

From Movies

Have a happy and safe New Year's!

Christmas Collage

It's been a long week, and you're probably sick to death of seeing photo after photo of the cute mugs of your sons/daughters/nephews/nieces/grandchildren/cousins/illegitimate offspring, right? Wait, what's that? Oh, you're not?! You want to see yet another photo of a kid in his jammies on Christmas morning?

Well in that case, you're in luck! I just happen to have a few pictures from last week right here and ready to post! I will soon upload all of our holiday photos into a Picasa web album, but in the interest of time - both mine and yours - below is the condensed version of Holty Christmas 2008. Hope you all had a great holiday!

PaddyTube: Holiday edition

Peacemaker Paddy:





I'm sending this clip to Mensa:



Translation:
"Strawberry"
"Heart! Heart," which is on the "spoon"
"Snowman," who has a "carrot nose"

More holiday pics to come within the next few days . . .

Strapping on the feed bag . . .

Christmas is almost here! Are you ready? We are as ready as we are ever going to be . . .



Oh, and here are some photos from the gatherings surrounding our last pig-out holiday, which I am only now getting around to sharing. Sorry, it has been a busy month.

PaddyTube

Holtywood is pleased to announce the addition of "PaddyTube" into its rotation. PaddyTube is much like YouTube in that it provides you with random video, but it's cuter because, um, hello!! IT'S ALL PADDY ALL THE TIME! What could be better?! Paddyphiles unite!

When we ask Paddy to smile, he seems to think that in order to make that happen, he needs to close his eyes, which ends up with him sweetly batting his eyelashes at us. We're not going to clue him into the fact that, unlike sneezing, it is possible to smile with your eyes open.

Notice how sweetly and orderly Paddy places those coasters in front of Maui; And Maui could not be more pissed off, as evidenced by the pleading looks he is shooting me. But, I have to give it to the dog, he lasts nearly a minute before he bolts. What a pal.

So, based on these two videos, Paddy is adept at giving people bedroom eyes and passing out coasters. Could a bar tending career be in his future? Well, he HAS been reading up on it.

Chatter: Eek! Eek!

"Ugh! I hate the sound of Styrofoam. It sounds like mice having sex."

Tackle Me Elmo

And he's down! And he won't be moving for a good 1.5-2 hours, depending on Paddy's level of exhaustion. Tough luck, Elmo.

Well, this is a strange feeling . . .

Today, my friend Miranda gave birth to her first baby. When I found out she was in labor, I was instantly both excited and nervous for her and all those feelings of anticipation and amazement that I experienced as a first-time mom nearly two years ago came flooding back to me.

Suddenly, I realized how long ago it seems that Paddy came into the world and how much he has changed since we first met him. Truthfully, the idea of him gaining more independence is almost always appealing to me. I love to see him figure things out, do things for himself and engage us in games and conversations. But today, as I pictured Miranda cradling her new baby boy for the first time, I felt kind of sad about Patrick growing up. Happy for her, but sad for me. (By the way . . . Congratulations, Mama M!)

And then as we were listening to some music before Paddy's bedtime tonight, this sweet song really made me realize that our sweet little baby is growing up. Fast.

Dandelions, fireflies, the sound of bumblebees,
How I love to be as small as me.

Roller skates, aeroplanes, bouncing on Daddy’s knee,
How I love to be as small as me.

Sunshine, birthday cakes, one and two makes three,
How I love to be as small as me.

Ice cream, puppy dogs and Mommy’s hugs for free,
How I love to be as small as me.

How I love to be as small as me.

Big Fat Lie

You know those moms who post recaps of their family's fabulous fun-filled weekends every single week? Yeah, those ones. Don't feel bad. Don't let them make you feel inferior. Listen to me: those women are liars.

As we enter the holiday season, let me just assure you that those same blogs will soon be featuring pictures of small babies and toddlers being dragged around Temple Square, Wheeler Farm, Park City, Zoo Lights and various other outdoor winter activities. Such pictures will be accompanied by at least one of the following descriptive phrases that may or may not be typed in ALL CAPS:
- Blast and a half
- Non-stop fun
- Funniest thing I've ever seen
- Time of our life
- Totally insane
- Craaaazy
- Too precious
- So awesome
- Super cute
- Best weekend ever

I can tell you from experience that it's highly likely that at least a few of those small children were NOT happy being pushed around in their icy cold strollers. They didn't like the crowds. They didn't like the noise. And they were scared of the dark. Just trust me on this one.

Paddy + Daddy

Just a child's giggle and a 'baby body slam' to help you through your morning:

Happy really, really early birthday to me!

The tickets have already been bought for her April concert. Believe it!

Thanksgiving Hangover/Pre-Christmas Drama

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. Ours was filled with lots of food, family (Hi, Grandma!) and friends. Spent lots of good quality time with Paddy, did some shopping, cruised through the lights at Temple Square and did some more shopping (IKEA!). Oh, and our downstairs family room/office is nearly completely drywalled - big thanks to all of Matt's saintly helpers! You are all demi-gods in my mind and we owe you some alcohol.

And now that Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is only about three weeks away! We're all good on the shopping front (see above), and we managed to locate our tree and stockings, but I am stressing over the following two things:
1. We can't find our large box of ornaments ANYWHERE in our under-construction-basement. I'm sure we'll find it eventually, but I'm really missing seeing my favorite vintage Snow White ornament hanging on the tree. She is irreplaceable;
2. We are being harassed by our very bossy . . . er . . . enthusiastic neighbor about the lack of lights up on the outside of our house. She said that it's not fair to Patrick that he is living in the only "black hole" on our very-well-lit street. So, I told her that if she wants to crawl up into our attic to repair our non-functioning exterior outlets, she is more than welcome to. Was that bad?