This Little Light of Mine!!!

Today was Nicholas's Christmas program at his preschool!  Daddy took off work to help video tape the occasion!  All three of the two-year-old classes (about 24 kids total) walked down the church aisle together "singing" Jingle Bells while jingling little Christmas bells.  Then, they all stood in their places (or sat relatively close to their places) on the steps of the altar for their performance.  Nicholas was one of the kiddos that sat down on the bottom step to ensure that it was pretty much impossible for us to get any good photos or video footage of him.  Then, the teachers started singing This Little Light of Mine.  Some of the older kids joined in for a few words or motions.  I could barely see Nicholas from my seat, but I did hear his voice a few times and I saw his little pointer finger "light" moving around a few times, too!  (He's the youngest kid in the whole school, so I was just proud that he wasn't screaming or crying!!)  Just as I'm praising him for his good behavior, I hear him say, "Where'd Mommy go?"  Oops.  Shortly after that, Nicholas began mission "I'm Bored".  He didn't disobey his teachers when they told him to stay seated.  Instead, he scooted on his bottom along the bottom step from the far left side of the altar where he was originally seated to the far right side of the altar near the older two-year-olds.  Just as he arrived at his new location, the classes began singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.  Nicholas did sing along quietly to this song!  I was quite surprised since he's usually so very loud at home!!  Then, the performance was over and his teacher walked over to the other side of the altar to retrieve the silly little guy!  It was a very cute performance!  The three and four-year-old kids took turns performing after the two-year-olds were herded into their pews...they were also very cute!!  The four-year-olds actually put on a mini Christmas pageant!  The extra girls were angels, of course, but the extra boys were sheep.  I've never seen that before.  I suppose in two years, Nicholas will be a sheep if he has his mommy's luck!  Ah, I was always the angel, never the Mary!  Nick, Zachary, and I were very excited to attend Nicholas's very first school performance!!  I hope there are many, many more in the future!!

 
And, since there's been no update in over two months...here's a quick one!  The boys are doing very well!!  They're already such good friends!  Zachary is hitting his milestones so quickly!  He can roll over in both directions and he can sit up on his own (for a little while, at least!)  He won't start on solid food until he's 6 months old, but he is already suspiciously eyeing the rest of the family during mealtimes.  And did you know that Zachary is a master baby pianist!!  He bangs on those piano keys like nobody's business!!  He also received an Exersaucer as an early Christmas gift from his grandparents and he LOVES it!!  Nicholas loves helping him play in it, too!!  The Exersaucer has a phone toy that is attached to the Exersaucer by a sturdy ribbon.  Zachary pushes the buttons and eats the phone constantly.  Nicholas was watching Zachary play with the phone the other day when it fell out of Zachary's hands and dangled helplessly along the outside of the Exersaucer.  Nicholas shot Zachary a concerned look and said, "Oh no!  Zachary!  You dropped your phone!  It's okay, Zachary."  Nicholas picked up the phone, gently handed it to Zachary and said, "Here you go, little man!!"    I LOVE those boys!!

Nicholas has also had many more "Did he just say that?" moments.  A few that I can remember include....

Daddy:  Eat your veggies Nicholas.
Nicholas:  No!  I don't like veggies!
Daddy:  Nicholas, you need to eat your veggies!  They'll make you big and strong.  Don't you want to be big and strong like Daddy?
Nicholas:  NOOOOOO!!!!  I don't want to be big and strong like Daddy!!!  I want to be big and strong like MOMMY!!!!  :o)

Nicholas singing along to Granger Smith's song, Don't Listen to the Radio.
Actual lyrics:  Don't listen to the radio.  If you've got your heart broke.  Cuz it always knows exactly what to play.
Nicholas:  Don't listen to the radio.  If you got your car broke.  Cuz you always know Zachary wants to play.

There were more fun phrases, but I just can't think of them right now!!

Wow...it has been awhile since the last post!!  Here's a picture update of the major moments:

Zachary was baptized at the end of September.  Many people came to watch his Baptism, including LaLa and Great Grandma Neumann!  All of his grandparents, aunts, and uncles were also there to celebrate the occasion!  Zachary was quite the looker in his Baptism outfit!

The boys had a great Halloween!  Dragon Nicholas went trick or treating around the neighborhood, while Pumpkin Pooh Zachary stayed at home to hand out candy to the visiting little ghosts and goblins.

The boys also enjoyed spending Thanksgiving in San Antonio and in Austin.  While Nicholas was in San Antonio, he visited Kiddie Park where his Mommy and his grandparents played at kids!!

It "snowed" in Austin!!  Nicholas played out in the backyard while it "snowed"!  Zachary sat in his early Christmas present highchair to watch his brother out the back door.

Nicholas was very excited to help decorate the Christmas tree this year!!  Zachary carefully observed this event from his Exersaucer!! Both boys love watching the train run under the Christmas tree!

So, I suppose that's it for this little update!!  We'll most certainly update again around Christmastime!!  In the meantime, Happy Advent!!  :o)

N versus sideways N

Just for comparison...  The boys are about the same age in the photos, plus or minus 7-10 days.  

 Nicholas and Zachary...enjoying some down-time in the swing after an all night party!!!

 Nicholas and Zachary studying up to be very smart boys!!

Wow.  Nicholas sure was skinny!!  And Zachary sure is round!!  :o)  We love you, boys!!! 

Brothers!!

And then there were two!!! Here's the "quick" update:

We had another baby boy, Zachary! He weighed in at 7lbs, 7oz and was 20.5 inches long!! He's sweet, smart, and handsome…just like his big brother!! He's two months old now and sleeps A LOT!! Nicholas and Zachary are already best buds!! They're so great together!! Nicholas loves to cuddle up to Zachary! Nicholas carefully approaches Zachary (usually) while very quietly saying, "Oh, ho ho!! It's Zachary! He's so little!! You love your brother!!" (Nicholas usually refers to himself as "You.") Then he gently grabs a hold of a Zachary appendage while jamming the thumb of his other hand straight into his mouth. Meanwhile, Zachary either gazes curiously at his silly big brother or furrows his brow in concern for his immediate well being.
Zachary is such a wonderful baby!! He is already sleeping through the night!!! :o) Nicholas didn't pull off that feat until he was 7 months old!!! As a matter of fact, Nicholas started screaming at 1am last night (he either had a horrible dream about bugs or there really was a bug attacking him in his crib) while sweet little Zachary slept so peacefully. But don't worry, there never was and never will be any shortage of love and attention for Nicholas!! Zachary also had to deal with the dreaded baby acne!! He looked like a little baby teenager for about a month, but his skin is now recovering!! He's getting pale and soft like a good little baby!!

At 2 months, his stats were: 13lbs, 15oz and 24 inches long! At 2 months, Nicholas was: 11lbs, 4oz and 22.75 inches long! Looks like Zachary will have a better chance at being my basketball star!!

Nicholas is also doing very well!! This month, he started preschool at our church. He goes twice a week for about 4 hours. He really seems to enjoy almost all of it!! He's not a huge fan of Mommy dropping him off in the morning and leaving for "boring places"!! I can't blame him…I wouldn't want to leave me, either!! (Just kidding!) His teachers really seem to get a kick out of him!! At drop-off time, he likes to yell, "Don't want Mommy to leave you to go to boring places!! No!!!" The teachers have given me rave reviews about his speaking abilities. He's the youngest in the class, but he's also the best speaker!! Today, his teacher praised him saying, "Nicholas is so smart!!! We say the blessing before eating our lunch. But today, instead of saying the blessing, Nicholas just broke into the Our Father all by himself! I've never had a 2 year old that could recite the Our Father in my class." :o) Proud? You bet I am!! I'm always so happy driving my sweet little boy home from preschool!! He really does make me so proud!!! And he's also quite proud of himself! When I come into the classroom to pick him up, he greets me happily and then grabs whatever craft he's made for the day. He runs around with it just beaming and says, "Look what you made!!"
Poor Nicholas had a run-in (literally) with a wall corner in our house about a month ago. He ended up with a large, 1 inch laceration that had to be glued together in the ER. He now has a lovely scar to show for it. Le sigh. My precious boy is now scarred for life…(again, literally.) But, our optimistic neighbor says, "Chicks dig scars!" So, maybe Nicholas won't fare too badly in the end. Ha!
Well, what's left?! Mommy absolutely loves her two boys and their little brotherly dynamic. Add in Daddy and the two horses….Mommy is completely surrounded by boys!! It took about a month and a half to really get into a groove, but now I feel completely at ease taking care of the boys. The horses are getting a little bit of the shaft at the moment, but hopefully that won't last too long!! They're troopers as well and I suppose that it's not the end of the world if I don't see them everyday! :o/ Daddy is also slowly getting used to the groove, but he's a little more frustrated with the lack of sleep and free time than Mommy. I must also mention that the first month with Zachary would have been absolutely crazy if it wasn't for the amazing grandparent assistance!!! THANK YOU!!! :o) Part of the difficulty for Mommy and Daddy is that we basically live for our boys. We want them to have mental stimulation and play and learning experiences all day long!! I really do feel guilty anytime the TV has been on longer than 2 hours in a day!! (God bless those first 2 hours!! Nicholas is very likely to kill himself running around the house while Zachary eats if he isn't glued to the TV! Nothing else will keep him still…nothing. Yes, we've tried. Plus, I grew up watching plenty of TV and I'm only a half-zombie!)
I suppose this short novella is enough of an update for now!! Stay tuned for the next update in another 2-3 months!! :o)

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