Singing machine!!!

Nicholas tends to find some area of interest and give it all of his focus for quite a long time before moving on to another main interest. We've had phases involving cars, dancing, Barney, and air conditioners, to name a few! Don't worry, though!! None of these phases has passed away completely!! Nicholas still makes time for these exciting activities, but they luckily don't last all day long anymore!!

Nicholas's current passion is singing!!! He has so many songs in his repertoire, it's crazy!! Many of the songs come from either his Barney DVDs (I Love You, The Growing Song, Mr. Golden Sun, and Friends are Special), his music class CD (Drip Drop, Allee Galloo, and the Hello Song), Storytime at the library (Read a Book and Skinnamarink), random songs from CDs (Bibbity Bobbity Boo, the Soapy song, Taylor Swift's Tim McGraw song, and other lovely songs), or just your typical nursery rhymes (Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Your Boat, Old MacDonald, etc.) The craziest part is that he really knows and loves each song!! He misses words and phrases here and there, but for the most part he's spot on with the words. And he's almost always spot on with the correct melody and timing!!!

He even finally sang his ABC's!!! One day he's just chanting, "A, B, C, D, F...." and the next day, as I'm quickly gathering groceries, I hear the cute little boy in the grocery cart sing all the way to Z!!! (I'm sure that he still skipped at least the letter "E", but I was more focused on speed-shopping than critiquing his alphabet!!) Nicholas was about to start singing, "Now I know my ABC's..." when foolish Mommy got overexcited and interrupted with a big kiss and a singing compliment!! I was just too proud!! :o)

What a sweet boy!!! Did I mention that the terrible twos are starting as well!! (Something tells me that the fact that Nicholas is a wee bit spoiled may have something to do with this "phase"!) Ha!! Buckle up...here it comes! :o)

What a gentleman!! (And a quick update)

Well, the time has finally come... Mommy can no longer easily put on her own socks thanks to her growing belly. Luckily, most summer outings involve sandals!! But getting ready for the barn still requires socks! So today, both Nicholas and Daddy were kind enough to help a struggling Mommy put on her socks! Nicholas was very meticulous in preparing a sock for Mommy's foot, but he wasn't quite sure how to get such a big foot into such a small sock opening!! So, Daddy sat down on the ground to help him out. Once the socks were on, Nicholas decided that it was indeed time for Mommy to be out the door and on her way to the barn. He grabbed Mommy's hand saying, "Hold my hand, Mommy. Now let's go." But as he grabbed Mommy's hand and turned for the door, he noticed that there was a Daddy road block on the ground!! He politely said, "Excuse us. Excuse us, Daddy." Then, as Daddy moved, he escorted Mommy out of the bedroom and towards the front door as she and Daddy exchanged very impressed looks!! What a little gentleman!!

Ah...and that reminds me of my lack of a Mother's Day entry to describe how Nicholas is such a very sweet and wonderful child!!! I know all Mommies say that their child is sweet and wonderful (well, at least I hope they do!!!), but it sure is nice to share that sweetness every once and a while!! But alas, all the cute stories that I had planned to recount have currently slipped my baby brain. Suffice it to say that all the "Hugs," "Give kisses," and "I love you" comments are enough to melt anyone's little heart!!!

Nicholas has had quite an exciting past 2 weeks!! He's visited with both sets of grandparents, his GG Papa and LaLa, and some fun friends and family in SA & Dallas!! Unfortunately, after the Mother's Day weekend, our camera died...so our picture updates are non-existent!!! :o( Instead, enjoy these older pictures...yay for summer!!)

Swing batta', batta'... Don't forget to hit the ball!!!

Posing for Air Conditioner Magazine....

Tis the season!!

Nicholas went swimming today!!! Nicholas's good friend, Langston, has a super fun neighborhood pool and is always so thoughtful in inviting Nicholas to tag along when he can!! Nicholas had such a great time frolicking through the kiddie splash area and wading into the shallow pool from the "beach entrance." What a difference from a year ago when Nicholas required Mommy to hold onto both of his hands so that he could walk through the splash area!! He also enjoyed standing on the edge of the shallow pool, counting to 5 (or 3 if he was a wee bit overexcited), then jumping into the pool (with Mommy's assistance, of course!)

What a fun morning!! I piled the sunscreen on Nicholas and myself, but with the sad lack of monkey arms...the shoulder blade section of my back feels burnt. Argh. I tried so hard, too!!! Evil maternity swimsuits...why are they so revealing?!?!

Which reminds me...here are the latest sonogram pics of Nicholas's Baby Brother!!!


My little alien!!! :o)

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!")