Graham Dean Tompkins

I can't believe it has already been two months since our precious baby boy, Graham Dean, was born. We welcomed a very healthy 8 lb, 19.5 inch long bundle of joy to our family on October 24th. He didn't want to come out but he seems to be pretty happy now that he has.

For those of you who can't tell for sure from these small photos whether or not Graham looks much like his older brother, the answer is yes! Can you tell who is who?!?

I'll give you a hint, Graham likes his pacifier more than Patrick ever did ;)

Patrick has been such a fantastic older brother. He loves to give his little brother kisses and hugs, and he likes to have Graham sleep on his belly (I think he saw Mommy 

and Daddy doing this).

Patrick put stickers all over Graham's face. You can guess how Graham felt about it :) 

Patrick does want to be treated like a baby on occasion. Here Nana is holding both of he "baby" boys 

Patrick loves his brother!

Cutie Pie!!!

Well, I'm having technical difficulties, so that's all for now before I get too frustrated! I hope to be able to add more pictures and stories soon.

Love,

Sarah

Big Boy, Big Belly

I know it has been ages since I last did an update on Patrick or the progress of our bun in the oven. All I can say is that I have been a little distracted. I'll do my best to summarize Patrick's development in the last few months and share the photos that I have, but there aren't many. Delmar likes to describe my "nesting" as "gettin' twiggy", which surprisingly manifests itself in me being crafty! I know it's hard to believe, but I've been spending Patrick's naptimes working on art projects to decorate the boy's bedrooms.

Despite our disbelief, Patrick will be turning two years old in just over a month. He has developed into quite the little man, quite literally. He's a little man's man. Here's a list of Patrick's usual daily activities: playing with his toy trucks and cars, playing with his toy trucks and cars inside my Subaru, playing with his toy trucks and cars on top of his dog, Sophie, playing in Mommy and Daddy's cars (he can get the keys in the ignition but luckily can't turn it all the way!), playing soccer and t-ball, and tormenting Sophie and his ducks. He's a simple boy with a few simple interests and we love him for it!

Oh, and he loves the dirt! Playing with his cement mixer truck.

Playing in Daddy's lawn mower, sitting where the battery should be :)

Before I forget to mention it, I should tell those of you that haven't heard yet that Bailey is no longer with us. Unfortunately, we had to put him down after he bit Patrick on the face. Luckily Patrick is just fine, he just has a few nice scars now. I actually took a few great pictures of Patrick and Delmar about and hour before it happened. Here they are.

My models :)

The day after Patrick was bit, we went up to The Sandy Bar Ranch on the Klamath River up in Orick again with the rest of the Nakamotos. Patrick was a trooper. He didn't even seem to be bothered by his swollen shut, black eye. We were all able to still have an amazing trip, we just had to keep a close eye on Patrick to keep him out of the sand and water the first couple days.

I guess the last big change for Patrick is that he now has his own "big boy" bedroom. We moved him into the guest room, where he has his own twin size bed! It's so adorable when he's all curled up at night, he barely takes up a quarter of the bed. I'll add a couple pictures of his bedroom but the wall decorations that I'm working on still aren't hanging yet. I'll have to add some pictures of those later because I am very proud of them!

Patrick still isn't talking a whole lot but he's definitely getting closer. We hear lots of "mama" and "dada", he's really good at "more" and "no" and his "hi" and "bye-bye" are pretty adorable when he also blows you a kiss. Everyone else hears him say more words but it all sounds like jabbering to us. With time it'll become more clear I'm sure.

So that's our Big Boy, now onto my Big Belly. I have officially entered the third trimester. Personally, I can't believe I still have three months to go. I am much bigger than with Patrick and definitely less mobile. During my 20 week ultrasound we found out that we are having another boy! And he looked very healthy, which is all we really cared about anyways (two kidneys, yay!). So in about 12 weeks (hopefully less!), Patrick will have a new little brother named Graham Dean. We're so excited to meet him!

This is Patrick trying to get to the frosting inside of the cupcake that would reveal the gender of his younger sibling...it was blue frosting!

Well, that's all for now folks!

Love,
Sarah

Mr. Patrick

So I know it has been quite a while since I have done an update about Mr. Patrick. I don't like excuses but I think I have a few really good ones. First of all, we went through a long stretch of Delmar working about 80 hours a week. Meanwhile, I was dealing with the rough beginning of my first trimester with our little baby number two. That's right, baby "Dos" is on the way!

This is the 11 week ultrasound and also a picture of Patrick announcing to Grandma Nakamoto the big news. His shirt says "Big Brother" and "10/15" on the pocket.

Anyways, back to my excuses, life has been busy and Patrick is just so darn active now that it is difficult to get many decent photos of him. So here I am, attempting to do a brief summary of the last few months with limited pictures.

       Here are a couple pictures from Easter Sunday up in Eureka. We had our traditional Easter with our good friends the Fishers, Patrick's "Uncle Mike" and "Auntie Lauren". Auntie Lauren even set out some eggs for Patrick to find around the house!                                                      










Patrick in a nutshell: he loves to be outside, he loves trucks and cars, basically anything with a loud motor, he loves to play in water and get dirty and wet, and he loves his Sophie dog. Patrick spends quite a bit of time every day wandering around our front yard, spying at the neighbor's chickens through the fence, chasing his dogs and ducks around the yard, playing ball, riding his "truck", and getting into the dogs water bucket! Here are a few pictures to illustrate my point:

He had pants on earlier but they were so wet from playing in the puddle that we just took them off. 

Patrick has to share his puddle with the ducks

"No Pants Pat" is a happy boy!

 Just exploring his yard, enjoying all the colors, smells, and tastes!

I also have to give credit to Delmar for this last series of photos. He was a fantastic camera man that day!

 A few more outdoor photos of the little man. 

Cruisin' in his yard!

Helping Mommy work in the garden, aka throwing dirt everywhere while giggling.

Checking out the goats at Rancho San Antonio while visiting the Nakamotos.
He wasn't so sure about the bigger animals. 

He was much more comfortable with the chickens, although you can't tell it by his serious face.
Patrick can be a very serious little man sometimes!

Checking out the flashing lights.

While Daddy was working so much and Mommy was very tired with "Dos", we went and hung out at the Police Station a lot! Patrick really likes playing with all the lights and sirens in Daddy's car!

He found all the different sirens and sound buttons!

Alright, just a few more fun photos for your enjoyment. 

Patrick is a big time lover. If you ask him for a hug or a kiss, he'll stop whatever he is doing to give you your lovin'! He's such a precious little boy!

Patrick needs a bigger bed! This is just a sample of some of the funny positions I find sleeping in during the night. This summer we're going to move him into his new big boy room with a twin bed so that we can get the baby room ready again for his little sibling.

And finally...he did this all on his own! I just took the pictures!

 This boy loves his dog...and her crate!

Well, there you have it. Hopefully I can get updates out a little more often now. We'll have to see how "Dos" treats me. 5 more weeks until we find out if it's a boy or a girl!

-Sarah