Happy 2009 & More

Greetings...

It has been a while since my last post because boy, oh boy, we have been busy. The holidays and the rest of January were a blur.

Christmas for Nicholas was much more "fun," this year, though he almost got more excited about some of the boxes and tissue paper than the toys, but he's set to play for the rest of the year. I try to rotate the toys every couple of days so that he can play with something new.

He's also just walking everywhere these days--crawling is so 2008. He got moved up to the big boy room at daycare, so he's been having fun sitting in chairs (and not highchairs) and using utensils to (try to) eat his food. I'm also hoping to transition him off the bottle soon--he seems to like it after he wakes up and before he goes to bed, but the rest of the time he uses sippy cups--though he actually likes regular cups the best (I just don't like him drenching himself 10 times a day).

Merry Christmas!

Nicholas will celebrate his second Christmas with his family--we are looking forward to watching him try to open presents and play with all his new toys.


Up next for Nicholas? Lots of time with mom over winter break. Baby's first haircut will probably be within the next week. He also has 3 more teeth coming in right now (for a total of 8).

One Year Old

It's hard to believe that our little boy is one year old already! We feel so blessed to have him in our lives, and have enjoyed every minute of this last year.

Events: This was a tough month for our family emotionally (see post below), so Nicholas did us the favor of bringing all of us happiness and joy every day--he's helping us make it through losing Isla one smile and hug at a time. He enjoyed his first Thanksgiving feast by throwing all pieces of turkey on the floor and gobbling up the homemade mashed potatoes. He also seemed to enjoy the sweet potatoes, rolls, and green bean casserole.

Milestones: Well, he took his first steps this month, but he's not quite confidant enough to do more than 5 or so from person to person yet. He's now mostly eating table food and is drinking whole milk (no more formula! whoo hoo!). At his 12-month check up he clocked in at the 90th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight, so he seems to be sticking to the same long, lean trend so far. We celebrated his first birthday with our family and lots of presents--he was very excited about all the new toys. He also got his first bites of cake and ice cream--both of which he seemed to like--he especially liked that Snoopy was on his cake.

Surprises: We are going to be taking Nicholas to an ENT to check on his ears--as you may have read on the blog, he's had quite a few infections that don't seems to clear up from antibiotics, so we'll see what they say and try to make the best decision for him. We are looking forward to introducing him to Santa Claus and watching him open up more presents in a few short weeks.

Saying Goodbye to Isla

I'm not sure I have the right words to honor the memory of Nicholas' cousin Isla, but I'm going to try.

We are so sorry that this horrible accident befell our perfect little niece. All I know is that we're all going to miss her so much for the rest of our lives. I'm especially sad for Nicholas, because I know how close they would have been; I wanted so much for them to share so many things. I know Isla is watching over him, and all of us, and that he'll know her some day. Isla, we'll miss you and love you always.

First Steps

Nicholas took his first steps on Thanksgiving Day; it was his birthday present to Auntie Kristina. We were messing around with the camera at the same time, and we actually got it on video. I can't believe he waited until he had such a big audience--oh wait, yes, I can; he's such a ham.

Eleven Months--Really?

Where has the time gone? We're already planning a birthday party for our little baby. How can it be?

Events: Nicholas' first Halloween was something we had been dreaming about since we first found out we were expecting (if you've seen our yard in October, you know why). It was so much fun to dress him up and take pictures of him crawling all over the house in his dragon outfit, and the night of Halloween he got to see all of the trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood. Scott, especially, is looking forward to next year. Because of the nice weather, we were able to get in a few fun fall days together this month. Swimming lessons have concluded for now, but we'll start them up again next summer.

Milestones: Nicholas seemed to get his first four teeth all at once, and since then we've been waiting (for what seems like ages) for more to make their way through; when he turned 11-months-old, suddenly 2 more top teeth were popping. He's cruising all over the house, and he just figured out how--again, when he turned 11-months-old to the day--to climb the stairs. Now he's busy trying to apply that climbing knowledge to anything and everything. He tried to scale my leg today when I was loading the dishwasher. Another exciting milestone is clapping. He really likes it when he claps, you clap, you copy him clapping, or he puts his hands on yours while you clap--clapping is where it's at these days.

Surprises: He has learned his first official sign-language word: "More!" and yes, there is an exclamation point at the end of it. He knows it gets him more food, and I'm excited to see if he uses it to ask for more hugs, more tickles, or more of anything else! He's been saying "ma mama mamamama" a lot, so I hope by that he means me. I have a feeling, though, that "da da" will be the first official word--he's going through a phase where he absolutely loves his Daddy, and I'm trying not to be too jealous. We're both having so much fun playing with him--he's so happy all the time.

Happy Halloween

Nicholas' first Halloween was pretty fun--our costume theme this year revolved around his: Since he was a little dragon, mom was a princess and dad was a knight. He tolerated the costume pretty well, but I'm sure it was pretty warm when he was wearing the whole ensemble. He did pretty great for the party--he slept through the whole thing.

Trick-or-treating was also fun, we've been slowly adjusting his bedtime later to allow for daylight savings time, so he got to see a lot of the kids and the costumes, and he seemed to like to tell them Happy Halloween, or at least I think that's what "bababababa" meant.

On an unrelated note, he's very close to walking (he likes to cruise around with a walker we're borrowing from Aunt Katie). He just started doing this about 2 weeks ago, and I didn't know if I should get the camera, or keep him from falling.