Crazy man, caught on tape...

Friday Fun!

This morning we went to story time for the first time in a few months. Nic, as usual, was not into listening to the stories. He preferred sitting at a table and coloring, which soon turned into dumping the crayons out and playing "pick up". I'm trying to teach him to clean up after himself. :)
Later in the afternoon Kameryn, Ryleigh and their mommies came over for a little afternoon play. Ashley (Kameryn's mommy) bought Nic a bubble mower because of all of his hard work learning to walk!!! Nic loves it, but won't walk behind it like with the shopping cart. He walks on his knees behind it, haha. He took a lot more steps today and stood by himself a LOT! It won't be long now before he is a full blown walker! He's also saying a lot more words and I am slowly seeing my little baby boy disappear :( Its funny, because I have been so anxious to hear him talk and see him take his first steps and now that it is happening, I just want to stop time before he gets any bigger!

Here are a couple of cute pictures from today. I didn't get any from story time because I was too busy keeping crayons out of Nic's mouth!

In the morning we played with his little people and also with his sunglasses. Nic has become quite forceful with his sunglasses! He won't quit trying to put them on you and then he likes to put them on himself. Each time the glasses go on someone's face you have to yell, "cool dude, cool dude!", I don't know why, I just did it one day and it stuck with him! haha, silly boy...




Later during the play date, the kids saw the dog across the street and they all rushed to the door and started yelling their own versions of "doggie" and there was even some pretty good barking. Don't be fooled by the picture, Nic is the youngest of the three :) This picture cracks me up, because from the back he looks so much older than them!



Kisses from Kameryn...
(notice Nic standing by the door without holding on to anything. He stood like that for a long time!)



Ryleigh bouncing on the chair...

Making Strides!

Nic has never been much for the push toys. He has a couple but has shown zero interest in them. He will push his high chair across the room, but thats about it. He's more of a cruise from furniture to furniture kind of guy. Today we went to Abby's house to play and Sophia had this little shopping cart. Well, all of a sudden Nic started pushing the thing all over the place! He was walking around putting stuff in it, and taking stuff out and he was letting go and taking a couple of steps on his own, I didn't even have to trick him into the steps! It was great! He was even picking the cart up and moving it around where he wanted it to go. It was so funny! The shopping cart is pretty flimsy so, it was of no support to him. He just thought it was helping him. He was pretty much walking all on his own! If my aching back could shed tears of joy, I think it would have at that moment. I have a couple of videos of him doing it at Abby's house, unfortunately by the time I remembered I had my camera in the bag, he was getting bored with it. Abby was nice enough to let us bring it home and he walked all around the house with it. Its such a relief to see he is getting over his fear of walking on his own. I'm not sure what came over him, why he suddenly became so brave but Abby and I suspect it was the Bon Jovi concert playing television. Livin' on a Prayer tends to make you feel brave! :)

On a Side Note....

My friend Josh Aronoff sent me a picture of himself from the early '90's. Whether you know Josh or not, its a great picture! If you've had the pleasure of meeting Josh, its even better, though. :)



I circled him in pink to pay homage to his amazing pink tie.





For you "Nic Fix", I was in the dining room yesterday and he got really quiet. I was sure he was into something he shouldn't be, but when I peeked around the corner this is what I found....



just loungin like a little man :) Apparently, something caught his attention on TV and he pulled out his little couch/bed and started watching. I don't even remember what it was, but I thought the picture was pretty cute :)

Who needs a professional photographer?

Our friend Abby took some pictures of Nic the other day at the park and they are so cute I just had to share! :) He was in rare form this day! I'm thinking maybe Abby should start taking all of his pictures!

These are 3 of my favorite pictures of Nic! They totally portray his personality. How can you not love him? :)

Time Flies When You're Havin' Fun!

I know it was been since before Easter that I last posted but we have been some very busy people! We have been on the move since the weather has gotten warmer. So, we have lots to catch up on and even more pictures to share!

Easter

We went down to New Martinsville for Easter this year. The Easter bunny was very good to Nic and he seemed to enjoy his basket!

In the afternoon we drove down to Parkersburg to visit with My friend Nicole and her new baby Sylvia! They were in town from Greenville, SC so this was the first time Nic and Sylvia met!
Don't they look excited! ?!?

I guess someday I will learn to take the pictures before the kids are cranky and tired and ready to go home! :)

Nic did get some fun time in watching sports, eating munchies and hanging out with the guys.

Nic got this cool new chair for Easter from Grammy and Grampy and he loves it! It is probably one of the simplest toys he has, but he sits and plays with it all of the time!

The Children's Museum

We have also discovered the Children's Museum in downtown Wheeling. There is so much to do there and the kids can just run (or crawl) all over the place and have a blast.

Here are just a few of the cool things we do at the museum...

the rice table is a HUGE hit with all of the kids!

Climbing on the clubhouse

looking at the "busy" downtown Wheeling traffic

playing on the stage and with the costumes

grocery shopping



coloring


and just having fun!



The Pittsburgh Zoo

A few of us went to the Pittsburgh Zoo on a Monday morning and we had so much fun! This was Nic's first trip to the zoo. I thought he would enjoy seeing all of the animals an I really think he did. As I suspected, he loved the aquarium! He has seen the aquarium at Cabelas and loved it. If he loves looking at a bunch of dirty river fish, surely he would love a big huge aquarium, right? :)

cherrios, again?



The big boys, Fletcher and Nic



eating lunch



checking out the dog sled by the polar bear exhibit with Fletcher and Sophia



REALLY excited to see the penguins up close!



mesmerized by the fish in the big aquarium (and getting very sleepy)


crawling through the stingray tanks!



walking through the deer petting grounds, but no deer would even come up to us! Nic wanted to touch one so bad!



MORE DIPPIN' DOTS!



completely exhausted, but magically perked up when I mentioned the words, gift shop! haha



Nic's first "taste" of finger painting

One morning we went to our friend Abby's and had a big finger painting party! The kids had a blast and we had a fun time watching them make a huge mess! haha

Washing up and cracking up at Colton!


One of the finished products



First Carnival

St. Michaels Parish has a Carnival every year and the was the first year Nic was big enough to go! We all met at Abby's house and had hot dogs then walked over to the fair. We did ride one ride, the carousel. Nic didn't like it, so we just watched other people ride rides and shared some funnel cake! :)

This is a fun little wagon ride before we left for the carnival. I just think they all look so cute! :)

Look what I won!


Colton being funny, again!

Thinking maybe he likes funnel cake....


Kam and her mommy, lookin cute


We did have a couple of weeks that were no fun at all. Nic had the flu and got really dehydrated. We had to spend a couple of days in the hospital, but I was so proud of him. He had to stay in bed for the entire time and hardly put up a fight. Its amazing how well young ones adapt to situations. He hung in bed with me the whole time and watched television, colored, played and really was just the best little boy in the world!



He loved playing with the hospital bed, haha. He is fully recovered now and we never want to go through that again! Thanks to our good friends and family, Nic had plenty of toys and books to play with!

When we got home our friend Abby had made him the cutest little cardboard kitchen! She is so sweet! Nic plays with it all the time!

Well, thats about it! Like I said, it has been a very busy couple of months for us, but I will try to update more often!!!

Here are a few more cute pictures (because I'm sure you haven't seen enough!)....