P in the Pot

Thank God I am getting another little baby soon =) Matthew is just growing up WAY TOO FAST!!! Tonight he went Pee Pee in the pot for the very first time. I can't believe it...they say that it takes longer for boys but I have seen little girls that are older than Matthew that are still in diapers.

I am one proud mom tonight!!!

We got the crib and bedding this week so hopefully this weekend I will be able to post pictures of our little man's room!!!

Have a wonderful Friday everyone!!!

Jackson's Crib

One thing I have been so lazy about is getting Jackson's room cleaned up and ready to set up the room. Today we decided to buy the crib online so pretty soon I will be forced to get everything ready. I found out that JCPenny and Target are having a huge baby sale and we got a great deal on a crib from Target.







We decided to go with a bumblebee theme for Jackson's room. One of Matthew's favorite songs is "Bringing Home A Baby Bumblebee" so I thought we would use that idea for Jackson's room. Here are some pictures of his bedding and other items I am registered for at Babies R Us.







Hopefully in the next week or so I will be able to post the pictures of Jackson's completed room =)

Happy Friday everyone!!!!

Matthew at 20 months and Jackson at 23 1/2 weeks

Matthew is now 20 months old...I can't believe that in less than 4 months he will be 2 years old. The sad part is that I will be 2 years older too!!!



Here is a picture of Matthew at 20 months old.



Just for comparison...here is Matthew at 8 months old.





I can't believe how big he is getting. Wow, pretty soon I will have another baby just in time for Matthew to start getting out of the baby stage.

Here is Jackson at 23 1/2 weeks. (and me of course)

Back to School and Matthew is 19 months old

I HATE back to school commercials. Even as a child I would have to run out of the room kicking and screaming to get away from the idea that the long wonderful summer of fun was coming to an end. Now it's worse. Last year, I was a little excited to go back to work because of the newness of Matthew getting to go to day care. Now, after spending all summer sleeping in (yes, Matthew sleeps until 9 or 9:30 most days) I am dreading the idea of getting up early.

Next week I am going to be going to a workshop on becoming a Steward Trainer. I am getting kinda excited about it because I will be around my union friends all week. To make things even better...Seth is going to!!! Matthew will be going back to Ms. Cookies tomorrow though. That is bitter sweet for me.

Matthew is now 19 months old. We took him to the beach for the first time a few weekends ago (I didn't take many pictures..because I realized that if I take all the pictures I lose out in all the fun). He loved going to the beach...he even got in his little toddler float and rode the waves with us. They were actually pretty big too. He just splashed and splashed and would even put the water in his mouth.

A few days later, he came down with this horrible fever. It lasted about 3 days on and off. Tylonal would always bring it down but after a nap he would always wake up hot. Then after the fever broke the next day he got this rash all over his body. I freaked out (of course) and we called the doctor. Luckily, the doctor knew what it was over the phone. He called it Roseola which is rarely contagious to adults. After the rash went away in a day or so he was back to normal.

On this past Thursday we took a trip to the zoo. Again I didn't take many pictures because I always miss out on things as the photographer. He loved the Lion. In fact he growled the rest of the night until he went to sleep. What a sweet memory for him.

Matthew is now sleeping in his toddler bed. We have to lock him in his room but he does go to sleep in his bed for the night without crying very much at all. I feel bad about locking him in but I am determined that we will have have our kids sleep in the bed with us. We have a 4 bedroom house for a reason. =)

Now I am looking forward to meeting our new little guy in December. Jackson Morris Patterson is actually due on Matthew's birthday Dec. 29. But since Matthew was a c-section I will have another with Jackson so I am assuming that he will be born about a week or so early.

Hopefully I will have pictures to share with you in the coming days. I am making a new goal to post once a week while I am back in school.

Have a great evening everyone!!!

Mt. Rainier, snow and me in flip flops (yes, my Florida was showing)

OK...so nobody told me that there would still be snow on the ground in JULY on our trip to the mountains in Washington state. Honestly, I just didn't think about it that much. I just wanted room in my luggage for....I don't know....other things, other than bulky shoes.



Mt. Rainier was beautiful...but COOOOLLLLDDD (at a high temp of 53 it actually was kinda a spring like day for the mountain folk) ;) The first place we went in the park was called the Paradise Visitor Center. On a clear day you can see wonderful views of the glaciers and snow caps on the mountain...but we just saw fog. Luckily at the next stop...Sunrise Visitors Center...the fog had lifted and we saw a beautiful view of the mountain.





We also saw really old trees (that sprouted in the 1200s)...



Waterfalls...





Wildlife...



(OK..OK I am aware that the last picture is of a previously wild Panther...but isn't it beautiful)


and not to mention the beautiful scenery!!!



We were sad to leave the park...but it seems like everywhere you go in the Seattle/Tacoma area the mountains are following you. We looked in our rear view mirror at one point and there it was...chasing us away. It was a little scary to know that Mt. Rainier is an active volcano. If we heard or felt rumbling we were supposed to leave the park immediately. Luckily, we made it out...and the only rumbling I felt was the bumpy road that Seth was driving too fast on...just kidding Seth ;)

In the Twilight Zone

Getting back to blogging. While we were in Seattle we decided to take a trip to the Olympic National Park. This place is about 95% wilderness and I can completely understand why. It is desolate in places. Wow, it is beautiful that we still have places that are wild and unexplored in America.



First of all we took a ferry boat to this small little town on the edge of the park called Port Angeles, WA. It is about 25 to 30 miles from the Canadian border. We got to our hotel around 6 pm, so we decided to head out and do some exploring of the town. You see in Washington it doesn't get dark until about 9:30 or 10:00 at night (which is already 12:30 or 1:00 am eastern time so I was kinda fascinated by this time change business) In Port Angeles, we went down to the docks area near the water and all of these stores has stuff about the Twilight series in them. You have to understand that since Matthew was born I don't have time to read much less go and get hooked on movies so I know little or nothing about all of the craziness surrounding the Twilight saga. We decided that we needed a break from Seafood (gasp) and got Mexican instead. Although this quaint little restaurant called Bella's something or others caught our eye. It was Italian and since I am pregnant Italian always gives me heartburn so we decided on Mexican instead. Anyway, Port Angeles is a creepy little sea town and EVERYONE looks so pale and different from the tan and Hispanic crowd I am used to in Miami. I just couldn't get the Twilight stuff out of my mind so when we got back to the hotel that night I searched Twilight on the Internet and OMG....Twilight was set in this part of Washington. We were actually going to drive through Forks, WA...where Bella (the main character) lives in the book. I also found out that in the book and movie the characters eat at that Bella's restaurant where we almost ate. Weird huh???



Above is a picture of Port Angeles...isn't it creepy???

Needless to say, I had weird dreams about Edward (the vampire) coming into our hotel room the entire night. I can't sleep in strange musty hotel rooms very well anyway so it was just a weird night.

Well, the next morning we (I, gladly) got up and headed out for our adventure. First off we went to Hurricane ridge where there was SNOW!!!







After all of that we headed to Forks. Which was now something more exciting and unusual for me.







The above pictures are taken at the "it spots" for TWI hards to go and have their pictures taken. I must say that it didn't really mean much to me but...it was a little exciting. We went into the Chamber of Commerce building and someone asked me if I was for Jacob or Edward. I looked at them like they had grown another head because I had no idea (now I have figured it out) what they were talking about. =) Along our drive, however, I did expect a ware wolf or vampire to jump out at any given moment. This place was creepy. And remember earlier how I talked about how everyone looked so pale...well, in Forks it was even more weird. I expected, at any given moment for someone to look at me and have red glowing eyes.

After we had lunch in Forks...went about 10 miles down the road to a cold weather rain forest (which was spooky considering we were in vampire and ware wolf country).







The last stop of our trip to the Olympic National Park was at the Pacific Ocean.





Although you would think that all of this was within about a 70 or 80 mile trek...well you would be wrong. From Port Angeles to Forks alone was about 60 miles or so. This trip was a LOOOOONG day. We finally made it back to Tacoma around 9:00 and when we went to eat at a restaurant they acted like they didn't want to serve us because they closed at 10 pm. We were pooped!!!

Tomorrow I will tell you all about our day trip to Mount Rainier National Park!!!

Seattle, WA

So I am going to take a few minutes and blog about our trip to Seattle. Seth and I flew out for the American Federation of Teachers convention where we are delegates for our local union back in Miami, FL. It is bizzare to think that we come from about 200 miles from Cuba to about 200 miles (or less) from Canada. You can't go much farther across the US.

On our flight in I snapped these shots of Mount Ranier and the surrounding snow caps. We are going to take a tour of the area after our obligations to the convention is over so I will have more pictures at that time.

Meanwhile, Matthew is staying with my mom (his Nana) back in Alabama. I don't think he misses me much...you know...out of sight--out of mind. He did see a picture of me today and say momma...so at least he remembers me =). I miss him like crazy, but honestly it is a relief that he is not here because of all the walking we have to do and it feels like we are walking up hill both ways, except there is no snow...it has been in the upper 80s.












More to come soon....