How time flies!!

We've done it again!!  We've gone an entire month without any updates, so prepare for a little novella!  I'm hoping that I can someday use these posts to finally prepare a scrapbook for the boys, so bear with me (or just look at the pictures!)  It's very sad for me to wait so long between posts since many of the cute little anecdotes are forgotten in the meantime!  Alas!  Here's what I can remember...

Silly boys.

Nicholas and the Terrible Two (and a half)
Well, the terrible two rumors certainly held true here!!  February was a crazy month for Nicholas!!  (But, I won't linger on the destruction and stubbornness.)  He's officially two and a half years old now, despite the lack of an official half-birthday!!  He hasn't been measured, but I'm certain that he spent the whole month shooting up like a crazy little weed!!  He's also been flexing his brain muscles, too!!  His new letters and phonics DVDs have been amazing! (Thanks for the idea, Katherine!  And thanks for the Christmas gift, Grandparents N.)  When Nicholas chooses to have an attention span, he knows quite a few of his letters,  their sounds, and even some words that begin with those letters!!  His time at our church preschool has also been very well spent!! Nicholas's teachers have been so good and patient with him!!  And I am soooo glad to have their help!!  I am in no way trained to be an early childhood educator, so I mostly try to teach Nicholas through play and some fun workbook "lessons" from my childhood.  So I am extremely thrilled when Nicholas comes home from school telling me, "Agua is water in Spanish, and juice is jugo!" and "How many fingers do I have?  Let's count.  1-2-3-4-5!!"  I can't believe I never thought to have him count his fingers!!  He pointed at each finger and counted so well!!  He's since been great at counting things he points at...the trick is getting him to point at everything that needs counting!

Ash Wednesday...look at those pinch-able cheeks!

Nicholas is still singing up a storm!  His favorite songs of the month are George Strait's Carrying Your Love With Me, which makes Mommy very happy, and the country classic, Walk on By.  He also loves playing Brother Band with Zachary.  Nicholas distributes instruments to Zachary and Mommy or Daddy (guitars, keyboards, bongos, tambourines, harmonicas, and his new recorder are all fair game), then he turns on the CD player and the jam session begins!  (Zachary gets really into this, too...more on that later!)

This is Nicholas at his very last Little Gym class singing on the uneven bars at the top of his lungs!

Ah, and I can't forget to send my gratitude to the TV!!  I always feel like I must issue a disclaimer that I'm not a bad parent for using the TV to maintain sanity!!  Anyone who has ever tried to care for Nicholas for a day understands that he plays HARD!!  And if you don't take a break, you end up passed out on the floor with Nicholas using you as a trampoline.  And if he doesn't take a break, he'll end up fussy, exhausted, and very grouchy!!  Plus, those kids' shows are sometimes amazing!  So there.  Anyways, the main show Nicholas chooses to watch now is UmiZoomi on Nickelodeon.  It is such a cute show for him!!  He loves running around the house using his "Mighty Math Powers" to count, find super shapes, and use his pattern power!  So cute!!  And on that note, Nicholas sure does pick up fun phrases from TV!!  Here are a couple...

After preschool, I was lecturing Nicholas about playing nicely with his friends and I mentioned that Mommy gets very mad when she hears about him misbehaving at school.  Then, Nicholas looked up at me with his sad little puppy dog eyes and said, "Mommy, don't get mad!  Get glad!!"  Congratulations trash bags, your advertising works on 2-year-olds!!

And just today, Nicholas was trying to get me up off of the couch after I nursed Zachary.  He started by grabbing and pulling on the blanket I was using.  He tugged at one end and I held onto the other end until I saw that he was standing in front of the cushy diaper changing pad, and then I let go.  Plop.  Nicholas fell backward onto the changing pad.  He sat up and looked at me with a very serious expression and said, "Was that part of the plan?"  Then he responded to his own question by saying, "Hmmm...more or less!"  :o)  He gave the Disney channel's Special Agent Oso credit for that line.

 Fun winter afternoons at the park on the big boy swing!

What's left?  Oh yes, here's an anecdote that I can remember!!  Just yesterday, I found Nicholas hiding under the kitchen table while I was tending to Zachary.  I didn't give it much attention since that is a frequent hideout for him to "do his business"!  :o)  But, when I finally set Zachary down and headed into the kitchen to investigate, Nicholas poked his head out from under the table and very seriously said, "Mommy, I was very, very hungry.  Please don't be mad."  I raised an eyebrow and looked on the counter to see an open box of Girl Scout cookies.  Before I could say anything, Nicholas continued in the same serious tone, "I had a cookie, Mom, because I was just soooo hungry!"  Sure enough, only one cookie was missing!  (That's impressive self-control for a child sneaking cookies!)  Usually, Nicholas would have gone straight to time-out since reaching for and grabbing things off the counter is not allowed, but I couldn't punish him when he looked so innocent and cute!!  So, he got off with a clarification and a warning.  :o)

Snow in Austin!!  Here is Nicholas with his Mr. Nicholas Head snowman!  Nicholas enjoyed making the snowman and throwing snowballs, but he was also pretty happy when the cold, cold snow went away!

Now you probably need some coffee to wake you up after reading that, so I'll give you a break!!  But, you can expect the Zachary update in the next post!!  :o)