200 Posts!

I just realized that I crossed the 200 post barrier this week! Amazing! I can't believe I've had that many posts and more importantly, I can't believe people still read them! Actually, I'm not sure there are a ton of people still reading. I know at one point it was maybe 5-10 range, but now I imagine it's less than 5. Nevertheless, I will continue to post and write about what is going on in our lives, which has basically been extremely crazy because of everything that we are doing right now. I enjoy writing and hope to be able to continue in some form for the next several years as Landon grows.

That's basically it for today. I just wanted to comment on breaking 200. Have a great rest of the week, take care.

Tiger Pt 2

Quick post this morning. After reading this article by Bill Simmons I think I am questioning whether or not I believe Tiger. There was a good comment that he was sorry he got caught and not for what he did, and I think I agree. I go back and forth, but to be honest I'm thinking about it too much now that I wrote about it and I don't want to think about it anymore. I'm tired of Tiger and am dreading the coverage when he comes back. Hopefully some people out there make fun of him on every course and he gets mad in typical Tiger fashion. I feel bad for all the kids who looked up to him. Check out the article if you have time - he's my favorite writer and usually has good thoughts.

Landon Updates

Landon will be 12 weeks old on Wednesday. He's almost 1/4 of a year old! It's hard to believe his is getting this old. In 2 weeks he will be 3 months old. In such a short period of time, he has made tons of progress. It's amazing we had this sweet, tiny little boy who could barely take 2 ounces at a feeding. Now, he's taking 6-7 ounces regularly and you can definitely tell he doesn't miss a meal! He's probably in the 12-13 pound range now, which would make him exactly double his birth weight.

He can hold his head up really well not and is extremely active. Just yesterday he was splashing Christi while taking a bath! No, really! His bathtub used to look huge and now he barely fits in it. Since he's so active now and he LOVES taking warm bathes, he was having a great time kicking his legs all around and enjoying his bath time. He got Christi pretty wet a few times. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it was hilarious and it really showed how much he had progressed.

The other day I was putting up some clothes of his and I came across some of newborn sized outfits that used to be big on him. Now, he couldn't wear it if we really wanted him too. He is so long now most 3 month outfits look tight and 3-6 month style outfits are doing some work to hold him. It was a very sad moment to see those clothes that he cannot where anymore. However, it is also exciting because he is so much more responsive and you can really see in his face his emotions, unlike before where he mainly slept.

He has started to 'talk'. Since day 1 he has spoke grunt-ese, but lately it's been more sound related. When he cries, I swear you can hear him say "mom" like his is calling out to Christi to comfort him. I don't think anyone believed me at first, but Christi heard it too. I know he's not really saying that, but you can here it. He's getting to where if you talk to him, he'll stare at you to process it and will make sounds back like he's trying to have a conversation with you. It's awesome. In addition to talking, he's smiling and laughing so much . It is probably the best feeling ever to come home from work and have him turn his head to see you and see his face light up with a smile and laugh. Being a parent is so awesome; I am blessed to have such a great family.

I hope to post some more pictures soon. It had been a long time and I will hopefully have some good pictures to post. Thanks for reading. Have a great week.

Thoughts on Tiger

How many times have you seen the replay and / or analysis of Tiger Woods' press conference apology? It had been everywhere it seems. Maybe that's just me since I watch a lot of sports on TV. I was curious what everyone thought about what he had to say (everyone who isn't a media analyst that is.)

I felt what he said was very good and appropriate for the situation. I didn't find anything I really disagreed with. I don't condone anything he did by any means, but I think this was a good step forward for him. He barely mentioned golf at all and was focused on his wife and kids, as he should be. I thought he was as open as he has ever been, took responsibility, and touched on all the big issues. I know there were some people who were disappointed that he did not expand on this "transgressions", but I wasn't expecting his too and don't ever expect him too.

One criticism of his speech is that it seemed insincere and rehearsed. That got me wondering, are sincere and rehearsed mutually exclusive? That is, can you only have one and not the other? I thought it did seem sincere and also thought he had practiced it. I mean, come on, he's about to give the biggest speech of his life (bet he never thought it would be at this moment for those reasons) - he's going to practice it. I don't think sincere requires flying by the seat of your pants and just saying whatever comes to mind. Yes, that is definitely pure and honest, but I think putting your thoughts on paper and rehearsing those thoughts before you speak isn't being sincere. Rather, to me it's very sincere because you are taking the time to make sure exactly what you want to say is said. I didn't feel like it was insincere, but that is my view. I think he's naturally a dry person and he is also a perfectionist. As a result, you got an honest speech that had been practiced (likely numerous times.) The man is a machine throughout his life. It shouldn't come as a surprise he worked hard

I have no idea when he will be back. It will depend on what is going on in his life. You can definitely tell that golf is getting far less coverage than when he was playing. I have a feeling when he comes back, he's going on a tear and will dominate for several weeks. He'll send a message to the tour that they were lucky he was gone, but it's his show now - again.

I'll end with this. Do you think sincere and rehearsed can be had at the same time or do you think he apology was like his entire career - machine-like and calculated?

Landon Pictures

We had some pictures of Landon taken when he was 8 weeks old. To check out these pictures, use the following steps to access the website. They will only be up about 5 more days I believe. I wasn't really prepared to have my pictures taken. I was thinking that we were just going to take some shots of Landon. I was wrong!

1. Go to www.jomiii.com

2. On the top menu click on "Proofing"

3. Look for a folder called 2010Patterson

3. Enter the following information

Username: 2010Patterson
Password: 5850-20

4. It should prompt you to enter your email address and a name.

5. Click on "View Photo's" on the top section tabs or "Landon's Images" in the toolbar on the left

6. Click on a picture to view the larger version of the photo (note that this launches a program that takes over the whole screen. Press 'ESC' to go back to the photo page.) Use the navigation arrows to view the different pictures.

Updates coming soon. I have a test tomorrow and I've been studying for that. Have a good day.

Landon and Random Links

Landon had his 2 month doctor's visit today. He is doing really well and growing like a week; this visit confirmed that. He is now up to 11 lbs and 22.25 inches. His official weight was 10 lbs 15.75 oz, but it was going back and forth between that and 11 lbs. Everything checked out well and Dr. Vernon said he is progressing perfectly. The downside of this doctor's visit is that Landon had to get 4 (yes - 4!!!) shots for some of his immunizations. He did not like the shots and having to watch him get them was heart-wrenching. He cried a lot, but after a little while he was ok. I think he was fussy today, but that is due to the soreness of the shots. We gave him some infant's tylenol this morning and a few times during the day. He was running a small fever at 100.4 but seems to be doing fine. Still, we gave him some more tylenol and is now sleeping. We are working on getting him to bed earlier, but it didn't work out that good tonight.

Before I quit I had 2 links to share with you. The first is something GT students and alumni will appreciate. It's a site I found a few months ago and I think it is hilarious (and sad sometimes). It's called Only At Tech. Check it out. Only at Tech

The other link is a crazy story that is just coming from GT today. A former student attacked a current research professor with a samurai sword. I have no idea what the cause was, but here's the AJC article detailing everything - AJC Link. Crazy. Only at Tech would a samurai sword be involved in a real attack. Ok, bad joke.

That's all for now. Have a good night

I'm back

Hey everyone. I know it's been a long time since my last post, even for my slacking standards. I made a New Year's Resolution to post more often and was even going to write a post about my resolutions, but obviously that didn't happen. I'm off to a good start, huh?

We've done a lot the last 2 weeks since I've posted and most of it has really run together. It's a lot of the same ol' stuff, so I won't go into a ton of detail. This week we've really been trying to soak up as much time with each other as we can. Why you ask? Because today was the day that we've been dreading for a long, long time. Christi had to go back to work. I know, it's very sad. She's been trying to keep her mind off of it the best she can, but I know it's on her mind most of the day. Please keep her in your thoughts this week. It's going to be very hard on her having to go back to school.

The good news is that Christi's mom is going to keep Landon! Ideally Christi would be keeping him, but we can't do that right now. I'm going to seriously re-evaluate everything this summer and see where we are, so we will see how it goes. Thankfully for the time being Christi's mom retired and is going to keep Landon. Retired may not be the right word since she will be working from home some and may go to the office once a week, but she will be at home with Landon giving him tons of loving and attention. I can tell she is very excited to be keeping him and we are glad that someone we know and love will be taking care of him. She loves Landon a lot and we know he's going to be great staying with her.

We took Landon to get some pictures made today. No, not more of my pictures - real, professional pictures! We have been wanting to make some pictures since he was born and we finally got around to calling the photographer we have used since we've been married. We had a hard time trying to figure out what outfits to get his pictures made in but overall it went well I think. Landon had his picture made in many, many different outfits. We had some pictures of him naked and us holding him naked. I didn't think I would like it but I think they turned out really well except that he peed all over me at one point. Other than that everything went well. He was very attentive and didn't really fuss. He got tired at the end and decided he was done, but he just kind of fell asleep instead of getting too fussy. I was proud of how he did.

Landon has grown so much the last few weeks. He is smiling and laughing all the time. He recognizes a lot of people's faces and voices and will follow you with his eyes all over the room. He loves taking baths and splashes all around kicking his feet and moving his arms. He's wiggling all over the place and you can really tell when he is having fun. He will move his arms and legs all over the place and he's getting very strong. He can stand up very easily and does it frequently. If he is in any position to push with his legs, he will. He is getting better with his balance, but obviously someone is holding onto him while he is standing. However, we aren't pulling him up, just keeping him from falling over. We are working on his tummy time. He is used to falling asleep on our chest while on his tummy, so he likes to do that. We are working on getting him to hold his head up and push off on the ground. He will do that for about 1 minute, but if it doesn't go like he wanted then he gets fussy quickly. Overall, he is growing way too fast and it's very sad, but it is also encouraging because of everything he can do that he wasn't able too.

It's about time for him to eat and that means it's time for me to go. I hope to post more often than I have been so check back for some updates.