Tick Tock!!

Well, tonight is the full moon and no signs of labor!! It looks like Nicholas's baby brother isn't in as much of a rush as Nicholas was to get out of the womb and see the world!!! There are no complaints from Mommy, though, since our crib isn't scheduled to arrive until "early" next week and my hospital bag remains unpacked!!

Nicholas is very excited about his baby brother, though!! He keeps telling us that he's ready to go to the hospital to see his baby brother and ride the elevator!! He also has a Very Hungry Caterpillar teether rattle gift all ready to give to his baby brother when he meets him!! He runs around the house playing with the caterpillar and telling us how he will soon give it to his baby brother when he's done growing in mommy's tummy. Nicholas is also fascinated with all his old baby toys that are reappearing!! He loves his old cradle swing, his fun floor gym, and even his tiny old clothes!!!

In non-baby brother news, Nicholas was a show-off today at Little Gym!! I was so proud of him!! We arrived at the Little Gym early (small miracle!), so Nicholas was becoming impatient about going into the gym area itself. Finally, I picked him up, pointed out the clock above the gym door, and started to explain to him how much longer he had to wait before his class started saying, "Do you see the big hand, the minute hand?" Then, his current gym teacher (who is not our favorite gym teacher from past semesters!!) laughed and said, "He doesn't understand that!!!" I raised my eyebrow without turning around to look at the non-believer as Nicholas chimed in, "It's pointing at the 2!!" Impressed with this extra show of knowledge, I smiled and said, "That's right!! And your class doesn't start until the minute hand moves to the 3, which is in about 5 more minutes!! So we have to be patient and wait a little while longer." Nicholas replied, "Wait 5 more minutes! THEN go in gym!" Smiling, I put Nicholas back down on the ground and he ran off to the waiting area toy box... and the gym teacher didn't say a word. Hmph. She was obviously unfamiliar with Nicholas's clock obsession thanks to the millions of clocks in Grandpa & Grandma's house in San Antonio (okay, maybe there are just 4, but that's quite a few!!!) or the fact that Nicholas has everything explained to him because who are we to decide what he can or cannot understand?!?! Regardless, Nicholas made me very proud!! :o) What a sweet boy!!!

Happy Wedding!

This past weekend, Nicholas went to his very first wedding!! His Uncle Chris was getting hitched and Nicholas was chosen to be the ring bearer - yipes!! Everyone was a little worried about whether or not Nicholas would be able to make it down the aisle calmly with the rings still in hand!! But, sure enough...he was a champ!! Nicholas was instructed to bring the pillow (which was holding the actual wedding rings!!!) down the aisle and give it to Jesus. He performed this task very well at the rehearsal, so we had our fingers crossed that he would be able to do it again with many people watching!!

On the wedding day, the flower girl who was four months younger than Nicholas, started crying alongside Nicholas at the back of the church when it came time for the two of them to walk down the aisle. Luckily, her father popped out near the front of the church waving an Elmo doll. The cute little girl went running down the aisle to meet Elmo!!! Nicholas, on the other hand, was so very excited to be able to deliver the pillow to Jesus that seeing Elmo was merely an added bonus!! He walked slowly down the aisle carrying the pillow, stopped for a few pictures from the photographer as the bridesmaid and groomsman pairs did before him (nevermind that this stopping coincided with the flower girl reaching the front of the church and Elmo disappearing from sight!!), handed the pillow to the best man, and started climbing on the bride's kneeler at the front of the church! The best man and Daddy kindly retrieved the silly little ring bearer and sent him towards Mommy at the back of the Church!! The priest later commented that he thought Nicholas was going to climb up to the altar to try to say the Mass himself!! I wouldn't put it past him!! Since Daddy was a groomsman and Mommy was the "ring bearer catcher", there are sadly no photos of Nicholas in action!! But, we will hopefuly be able to get some fancy pictures from the official wedding photographer at some point!! Regardless, Nicholas was very proud of his accomplishment (giving the pillow to Jesus) and was excited to get his reward - a very yummy cookie!!


Nicholas and I missed the majority of the wedding since he has always had trouble sitting still during church, but from what we did see, it was definitely a beautiful wedding!! Congrats Chris & Ali!!! :o) Nicholas also managed to swipe a bouquet from Aunt Kaela after the wedding and had a grand ole time running around the church with it!! Mommy was just happy to get some extra pictures!


Nicholas's favorite part of the wedding was most definitely the reception!! He had a ball dancing around to the various songs!! He was the center of attention for many a song, but we just couldn't get him to dance with the flower girl!!! He's used to older girls, I guess!! He did get to dance with his new Aunt Ali, though!! Very sweet!

Nicholas also had a great time visiting with his El Paso grandparents, his Great Grandma N., his aunts and uncles, and many of his great aunts and uncles and their families! He especially enjoyed riding the hotel elevator up and down and up and down!! What a silly boy!! And of course, upon our arrival at the hotel, Grandpa N. informed us about the sad Michael Jackson news. So, in his honor, Auntie Em taught Nicholas to sing and dance along to Thriller!

What a fun time for Nicholas!! It's definitely good to be back home, though!! The hotel was apparently having air conditioning problems over the weekend...ugh. :oP

On another random note, Nicholas was watching PBS today and a before-show segment asked him to fill in the blank...
"Hooper found one shoe,
It was small and new,
It was painted in blue,
He wished he had ___"
Nicholas walked up to the TV and said, "Two!! One, two!!" My jaw dropped as the little segment host said, "Two! Very good, because it rhymes with blue!" I don't know if Nicholas has ever seen that segment before and just happened to remember it, or maybe he's just that smart! I was impressed either way!! What a smart little guy!! :o)

Busy, busy, busy!!

Nicholas has had a very busy past few weeks!!

Potty training is still going well with about an 80% success rate at home for liquid potty deposits!! Nicholas still refuses to use the potty for his larger, messier deposits!! He's still way ahead of schedule in Mommy's book, though!! :o)

Nicholas has also developed quite a love for spaghetti!!! For the longest time, he was not a fan of tomato sauce. Something in his taste buds must have changed recently, though, because Nicholas is now a spaghetti-eating machine!!! He also is a huge fan of "Zahn-ya", or lasagna in layman's terms, and of course, pizza (preferably pepperoni, but sausage is also acceptable!) He has his Italian food bases covered! Mommy and Daddy are very excited that Nicholas will enjoy his trips to Fazoli's and Olive Garden as much as they do!! Here's the requisite spaghetti face shot...


Nicholas also spent a fun week with his Grandma at home and in SA!! The purpose of the visit was to check a bunch of items off of our "To Do Before Baby #2" list, and if three is "a bunch," then we were most definitely successful!! Regardless, Nicholas had a grand old time playing with Grandma!! What a cool cat!


We made the trek to SA with Grandma to celebrate an early Father's Day with Grandpa and G.G. PaPa. Nicholas, of course, loved the visit and has requested to "Go back to San Antonio!" multiple times a day since we've been back. (He has not stopped singing "The Hammer Song" either!!) While we were in SA, Grandma and LaLa were so very wonderful to host a beautiful baby shower for the new baby!! Nicholas loved being surrounded by family and figured that all the fuss was about him!! Thank you to everyone who came and showered the new baby and Mommy with so many nice things!! We feel so loved!!

Once we returned home to celebrate Father's Day with Daddy, Nicholas felt that we needed a little more chaos in our lives, and he finally outgrew his crib!!! After his nap on Monday, Nicholas decided that Mommy was taking too long to pull him out of the crib. So, as soon as I entered his room, he stood up, used his arms to push himself and his stomach up onto the crib railing, and then let gravity take him headfirst towards the ground. Mommy caught him during his descent with a sigh. Daddy then spent the majority of the evening disassembling the crib and attempting to convert it into a toddler bed. Sadly, the toddler bed rail was defective, so the project could not be completed as intended!! (We have since whined to the manufacturer and we should receive the replacement rail soon.) Luckily, I have been listening in on other mommies' conversations on the topic of "big kid beds" where they mentioned placing a mattress on the ground next to the day bed or regular bed to buffer any falls. And guess what!! We just so happened to have an extra crib mattress lying around thanks to Grandma and Grandpa's timely and much appreciated shower gift for the new baby!! So, until the replacement toddler rail arrives, Nicholas is loving his "new crib" set-up!! Hopefully he'll be able to give up the second mattress when his brother arrives!!!


And that's about all the news I can think of at midnight!! :o) Goodnight!!!

Go Potty!!

Nicholas has officially instituted his own potty training!! After weeks of asking for an Elmo potty, Nicholas finally has a potty to call his own!! :o) We did not purchase a stand alone Elmo potty in the end because...ewww!!! How is cleaning a little potty bowl better than changing a diaper?! Anyways, we went with the Baby Bjorn Toilet Trainer potty seat that attaches to the regular toilet seat and received 5 star ratings online. It is now attached to the toilet in the "guest bathroom", which will now be known as "Nicholas's bathroom". We also purchased an Elmo step stool since Nicholas was indeed promised an Elmo potty!! (He seems content with the compromise!)

Anyways, today was the first day that I actually opened the Pull-Ups training pants box. Nicholas demanded a diaper immediately. I told him that these were training diapers to help him use the real potty. At that, he stated, "Go Potty," and ran over to his bathroom, pull-up in hand! He climbed up on the Elmo stool where Mommy helped him remove his pants and diaper, and then he sat down on the potty seat. I told him that he could now use the potty and after much pushing and grunting...the first pee was seen!!! (Sorry for the TMI!) He was so happy!!! "Now flush it!!!!" I had no idea that half of his motivation to use the potty was for the privilege of flushing the toilet!! He's been told that you can only touch the potty or flush the potty if you're using it!! So, after wiping, climbing down from the potty, and putting on his pull-up, Nicholas flushed the potty and washed his hands!! What a big boy!!!

This episode was repeated once more when Nicholas was caught suspiciously squatting in the living room, and he was again very proud of his accomplishment!! (Especially since Daddy was there, too, to witness what a big boy he is!!) :o)

But enough of this potty talk!!! It was brought to my attention that I apparently completely forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Nicholas also loves to sing the Lucky Charms jingle!! "Frosted Lucky Charms... Magically... *pause for effect* Delicious!!!" :o) His Daddy was so happy to have captured Nicholas happily singing this on the video camera!!! And Mommy is definitely guilty of teaching Nicholas the Lucky Charms jingle, since she is the official eater of the Lucky Charms!!! Sugary cereal is my weakness, what can I say!! :o)

Until next time...potty on!!! :oP

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)