Shoes please!

Since today wasn't unbearably hot, we decided to take Nicholas to Leeds park.  It turns out that he is still a bit too young for the park, but will probably love it in about a year.  We also discovered that he is still not a fan of grass. 

What is this stuff?

How do I get away from it?

Daddy reassuring him that it's ok

Fool me twice shame on me!  He was not going to put those feet down again!

It will be interesting to see what he thinks about sand when we head to the beach this summer...

13 Months

Yea! Summertime! 

Each day Nicholas improves his walking abilities. It's amazing the difference 3 months makes...  He went from not even sitting himself up to pulling himself up, crawling, cruising, and walking.  Now he can even bend down to pick up a toy and then stand back up.  Nicholas loves to push things around the floor while crawling - it can be anything from a cereal box, to books, to toys.  I have a feeling he will love having toy cars and crashing them into things.  Another big thing is pulling toys out of his toy basket and putting them back in.  It's so crazy to watch him comprehend how toys work - which buttons to push and how to reassemble things.  Nicholas also loves his books.  I read to him several times every day and he will bring me the book he wants me to read.   

Nicholas "talks" non-stop.  Nicholas and his daddy have interesting conversations daily.  One thing I've also noticed is that his teeth grinding has stopped.  Hopefully this will not come back again (knock on wood).  Nicholas says things that sound like tickle, but said with a "d" and not a "t".  It also sounds like he says cheese sometimes.  He definitely knows what dog is, but he mainly says it without the "g".  Whenever daddy leaves in the mornings and gives mama a kiss goodbye, Nicholas will also give us a kiss.  It is the cutest thing ever!! 

Nicholas is completely weaned from bottles and is now good at holding and drinking out of the sippy cup on his own (until there is just a little milk left and he needs mom or dad to tilt it up a bit more for him).  By the way, I highly recommend the Playtex Insulated Sippy Cups.  They are great because he is actually able to get the milk out (compared to others that are either too hard or the milk just pours out everywhere).  His meals are whatever we eat along with regular helpings of yogurt, applesauce, bananas, graham crackers and Cheerios.  The funniest is when he is done eating, Nicholas will scrunch up his nose and turn his head.  There is definitely no ifs ands or buts about it!

   

I couldn't ask for a better sleeper.  I can put Nicholas down during nap time or at night without rocking him or a bottle.  He doesn't hardly ever fuss, but just sucks on those two fingers (upside-down of course) and cuddles up with his blankie that Uncle Mumbles gave him.  Nicholas averages a total of  2-3 hours of daytime naps, while at night goes down between 7:30 and 8pm and averages waking up around 6:30am. 

I know I've said this before, but I just can't imagine life any better than it is right now.  Our hearts melt every time he gives us a kiss, laughs or just smiles as us.  What a blessing this little guy is!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Wishing all father's - and especially

my husband

Pawpaw

Pop

Granddaddy

Brad

and Ryan

a Happy Father's Day!  Hopefully everyone had a great day! 

Doing splits over Ella

Today we were able to hang out with our good friends Ben and Jamie and their adorable little girl Ella.  Ella is around six months younger than Nicholas and this was our first time to meet her.  Nicholas was so excited that he did splits for her...  Literally.  I don't know why but recently he started holding on to a bookcase, coffee table, etc and slowly do a split  (not all the way, but almost) and he just thinks this is the funniest thing!  It is so crazy to watch. I don't know if this did anything to win over Ella, but he has plenty of time to work on that. 

 "Sorry Ella...  Didn't mean to knock you down!"

She forgave him.

Showing off those pearly whites to her

See what I can do!

What's new...

We bought Nicholas a sit-n-spin for his birthday, knowing that he wouldn't really be able to use if for awhile.  Well, Nicholas doesn't need a sit-n-spin, he is his own built-in sit-n-spin.  Nicholas will sit on our hardwood floors and use his legs and just spin himself around in one spot.  It is rather runny to watch.  I'm guessing once he is big enough to use the actual toy, he will probably love it! 

The cutest thing that Nicholas started doing over the last week or so was giving kisses.  Of course we always give him kisses and recently he has been big on copying what we do.  Whenever I give him a kiss, he gives me an "air" kiss back.  It is the sweetest thing!  Now if we can just get him to blow us that kiss!

Unfortunately Nicholas started to have a runny nose a few days ago.  Luckily it hasn't developed into anything else as of yet and hopefully it won't.  His sleep hasn't been too messed up by this and we have been running the humidifier non-stop.  He has, however, shared this sickness with me as I now have a stuffy nose.  My hope is that it just stays nasal and doesn't develop into a full-blown cold.   Fingers crossed!  

Yea Chick-fil-A!

Gabe's couponing skills scored us two free Spicy Chicken sandwiches at Chick-fil-A.  We are HUGE fans - not just because of the food (which is delicious), but also because of the friendly, fast service.  So we decided to cash in our free sandwich tonight and also buy a kid's chicken nugget meal for Nicholas.  They have really healthy options for the kids meal (we opted for fruit and milk).  It shouldn't surprise us that Nicholas loves Chick-fil-A as much as we do, because Gabe couldn't cut up the chicken fast enough.  I'm sure this will be the first of many visits for our little man here.  We can't wait to see him play in the playground area.  Here are a few pics from tonight...

"How much chicken can I fit in my mouth?"

"What?"

"More please!"

 

Status Update

Yesterday was Nicholas' one year check-up.  Go figure that when I signed in at Greenvale, they said they didn't have me in the system.  Luckily we didn't have to wait that long to go back.  Nicholas now weighs almost 22 pounds and is 31 inches long (50th and 90th percentiles).  Dr. Whitaker said everything looked great, unfortunately they had to give him four shots and a finger prick.  Let's just say Nicholas was not fond of any of this.  Our next appointment is at 15 months.  He did however recover with a 15 minute nap while headed to Mimi and Pop's afterward.  Since I didn't update all his current doings/sayings on his birthday here is what Nicholas is up to:

Sleep:  His nap times have been off most of this past month.  It seems like he has tried to drop the afternoon nap, but really he isn't on a schedule like he has been.  He is sleeping really well at night.  Because his nap times seem to have decreased during the day, we have been putting him to bed around 7 instead of 8.  He seems fine with this and continues to sleep until the 6-7am range.  Hopefully he will eventually get on a new nap schedule so mommy can plan her day.  At this point though, I'm just happy he sleeps well (no matter what time it is).

Nutrition:  Nicholas is now completely switched over to cow's milk.  He didn't seem to have any issues with the switch.  We have been slow to drop the night bottle for a sippy cup (especially when he was so fussy recently - as we suspect due to teething).  Nicholas is eating more and more table food.  Any time we give him something off our plates, he really seems to like it and is getting used to the various textures.  His diet now consists of a lot of applesauce, yogurt, bananas, veggies, etc.

Cute quirks:  He will rub his belly over and over (mainly during bathtime, but other times as well).  He throws anything that he gets his hands on.  Very cute when he has toy balls, but not so good when he is holding sippy cups, cell phones or remotes.  Nicholas also continues to point at everything. 

Talk:  Just recently it sounds like he is saying doggy and toy.  When watching Baby Einstein and dogs appear or when Bama is around he says doggy a lot.  It is too cute!  Of course he calls other animals doggy sometimes too, but he'll get there.     

Finally, we have a toddler!  Nicholas isn't super into taking more steps but we try to encourage him to do so.  He has to be in the mood to do this, but it will be interesting to see how long it take before he realizes how much quicker he is walking and just takes off.  Bama - now you REALLY need to watch out!