Belated Easter Update!!

Now that I have forgotten all of Nicholas's cute antics...here is our Easter update!! I've added pictures to make my ranting less boring for those who may not actually want to read a novella on Nicholas's Easter activities!! :o)

First, Nicholas celebrated an early Easter at a nearby park when Uncle Chris came to visit!!


He actually managed to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap without crying!! (He was probably somewhat distracted by the very interesting appearance of this Easter Bunny. Creepy, no?)

After visiting with the Bunny, Nicholas was very excited to tell everyone about his adventure!!! "Easter Bunny!! Sit him!! Pet him!! Big bow!! Blue bow!! Give you candy!!!" His adventures in the park also included an inflatable bouncy house, a petting zoo, and a playscape.

Then, Easter weekend finally arrived and Nicholas made the short trip to visit his Grandma & Grandpa and the rest of Mommy's side of the family. We spent Easter Saturday morning at the neighborhood park in an attempt to hunt eggs and visit yet another Easter Bunny. Nicholas was loving the egg hunt with the other 0-3 age group kiddos as he gathered his first three eggs, but then he decided that his basket was plenty full and...oh look, there's the playscape over yonder!! So, it will be another year before he develops a competitive Easter egg hunt spirit!! :o)


The Easter Bunny arrived shortly afterward and Nicholas was at the front of the line!! Unfortunately, this Bunny, who was actually pretty cute and not very creepy, did not capture Nicholas's favor. He immediately wanted out of there!! Daddy took a quick picture as Mommy swooped him up and calmed him down by examining the Easter eggs that he collected during the hunt. And thus the can of worms was opened!! Nicholas now understood that Easter eggs were filled with candy!!! He demanded to eat a marshmallow bunny that he retrieved from his first egg...and the sugar high began!!!

We then made our way to the annual Easter family gathering where Nicholas was entranced by a high school jazz band!! He sure loves listening to music!! Nicholas was very excited to get to see all of Mommy's extended family...especially Uncle Charles & Aunt Julia, since he doesn't get to see them very often at all!!


Nicholas also met an Easter Bunny pinata before he participated in the pinata festivities themselves. He was very confused about hitting the poor bunny pinata with a stick!! "Easter Bunny. Hit him???" Poor Nicholas!! I quickly explained that this bunny was just a toy filled with candy and not an actual Easter Bunny. Nicholas's eyes lit up when he heard the word "candy"!! He was more than willing to help his parents, aunt, and uncle collect an adequate supply of pinata candy for him! (M&M minis were the choice item to chow down on after the pinata event...mmm...sugar!!!)


Then, it was time for another Easter egg hunt!! Nicholas missed the start of the event, but luckily his Grandma, aunt, uncle, Grand-Aunt Jeany, and honorary Aunts, Michelle and Melissa, were feverishly hunting eggs for him so that he could hunt them again later!! Once Nicholas showed up to hunt for the eggs, all he cared to find was one egg. He grabbed the egg, opened it, and exclaimed, "Candy!! Eat it!!!" He sure did enjoy his Reese's peanut butter cup!! (The sugar high continues...)

Eventually, the sugar high did catch up with him, so Nicholas returned home to get a good night's sleep before Easter!!


On Easter Sunday, Nicholas enjoyed his visit to church...happily described in an earlier post!! Then, he returned to his grandparents' house to enjoy his Easter spread of goodies!!!


He had yet another Easter egg hunt in the house later that day, but luckily Grandma had filled the eggs with Gerber Fruit Strips and Sesame Street figurines that Nicholas just loved!! (Yay! No sugar!)


After a fun visit to see LaLa & G.G.PaPa and investigate their house and yard, Nicholas returned home from his Easter getaway to play with his HUGE Easter Bunny from his Grandparents who don't live quite so close!!!

Many more pictures are posted on our website!! And I had many more exciting stories to tell a week ago that have been lost in the baby brain void!! Oh well...you'll just have to trust that Nicholas is super cute and funny!! :o) Happy Easter Season!!!

Ten Chirpy Chicks!

Nicholas always reads a few books before bedtime with Daddy, and occasionally Mommy is lucky enough to read with him, too, when she's not out visiting the horses during the bedtime ritual. Today, Mommy was home and Nicholas chose Ten Chirpy Chicks as his first bedtime book. Mommy and Daddy teach Nicholas various things throughout different books, and one of the main points in this book is that at the end of the book, the chicks return to their chicken coop. Nicholas usually points to the coop and says, "Who's dat?!" Then, we explain that it's the chicken's house, which is called a coop.

Finally, tonight while Nicholas was reading the final page of Ten Chirpy Chicks, he triumphantly announces, "Chicken Poop." Mommy was slightly confused and asked, "What was that?!" Nicholas repeats, "Chicken Poop," and points to the coop. He pronounced it so very clearly as though he was trying so hard to say it exactly right!! Mommy tried to stifle her laughter while trying to reiterate that it is indeed a Chicken Coop! Meanwhile, Daddy was shaking his head at Mommy's silly sense of humor.

:o) I'm still laughing!!!

Later, of course, Nicholas put me in my place when he showed me a dinosaur cut-out from a book saying, "Saracosaurus." Mommy corrected him again, saying that it was actually a Triceratops, while this other dinosaur was a Stegosaurus. Then, upon further investigation in the book, I learned that Nicholas was indeed showing me a "Styracosaurus"!! In my defense, they don't make Triceratops like they used to!! :o) Way ta go, Nicholas!!

Happy Easter!!! :o)

Nicholas has quite a few adventure stories from his Easter and pre-Easter activities, but unfortunately I'm low on time right now!! Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze them into a post later on this week... In the meantime, this is how Nicholas's Easter Sunday at church went...

Nicholas slept through the very beginning of church, but was awakened by a poorly placed speaker located directly above his seat where he was slumbering on Grandpa's lap. He continued to be relatively well-behaved for the first half of the Mass, but eventually the lack of a full nap began to catch up with him...

Nicholas: Cheerios!!! Book!!! Read it!! Mommy!! *irritable moving and fussing from being restrained too long*
Mommy: *gives Nicholas his juice cup*
Nicholas: Juice!! Grandpa!! Grandma!!! *irritable moving and fussing continues as he is handed off from Grandpa to Grandma*
Grandma (whispering): "Nicholas, be quiet."
Nicholas: BE QUIET!!!!!
Grandma: Shhhhh!!!
Nicholas: BE QUIET!!! BEEEE QUIET!!!!
Rest of nearby congregation: *muffled chuckling*
Mommy: Shhhh.... *grabs Nicholas*
Nicholas: SHHH!!! *laughs, throws his head back, and bonks it on the pew in front of us...crying ensues*
Daddy: I'm taking him out!!!

Silly Nicholas spent the rest of the Mass outside playing on the steps and eventually the playground still chanting, "Be quiet!" Only this time, he actually whispered it a little bit according to Daddy!!

Nicholas had a great Easter holiday and hopefully we'll have an update eventually...

Nicholas-isms

"Come here! Sweet Boy!!"

"Hi, Elmo. Hi, Thomas. Hi, Fishie. Hi, Apple. Hi, Banana. Good Morning. Grandpa's truck. Mommy's truck. Cathy's truck. Neighbor's truck. Ride it."

"Monitor. Hear you."

"Hi, Buddy! Daddy says it."

"Red light. Means stop."

"Who that?! What that?! Hear it! Touch it."

"Gig 'em!"

"Play more!!! Please."

"Bug!! Bite you!!"

"Nicholas do it. Self."

"Walk. Be careful. Hurt self."

"Nicholas!! Ride it!!"

"Hang on! Hang on! Grandpa says it."

"Wait. Wait. Wait turn. ...Nicholas turn!! Play it!!!"

"I love you!"

(I'm sure that I missed quite a few, but these are some of the classics that make Mommy and Daddy smile!")