Having a kid is hard work.....mentally, physically and emotionally...
I appreciate my amazing wife Lisa more and more everyday...
Neither of our dogs like being surprised by a small boy...
Sometimes after we return from our nightly walk, Nicholas is fast asleep. I really enjoying carrying him upstairs and placing him in bed....I know I won't always be able to so I need to appreciate it while it lasts.
Nicholas LOVES all things having to do with Construction sites and Fire Trucks! He has a series of DVD's showing giant pieces of machinery in action...he watches it several times a day....
He also loves the show Yo Gabba Gabba.....if you are not familiar with it, look it up...it's kinda trippy....
Nicholas has a beautiful smile and a wonderful laugh.
Nicholas has learned many many English words and is now starting to put them together in two word phrases....and all in about 5 months!
Nicholas understands A LOT more then he can speak.
We are looking forward to our first...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve as a family.
We thank God all the time for bringing Nicholas into our lives...
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
More Milestones!!
On Sunday, August 30th Nicholas got to meet his Uncle Tom for the very first time! Due to scheduling conflicts his drive up from Houston was long overdue.
The moment we "got" Nicholas on April 13, 2009.....(His "Gotcha Day")...he immediately had, One Great Grandmother, One Grandmother, Two Grand Fathers, Five Uncles, Three Aunts and Eight First Cousins..
After meeting Tom on Sunday, Nicholas has now met Three of his Five Uncles.
Tom arrived in a giant Ford F 350 Truck that Nicholas immediately wanted to check out. He was even able to take his first giant truck ride as Tom slowly took us for a spin around the block....nothing like the smell of Diesel and the roar of engine powerful enough to tow a small church....ala "The Jerk," with Steve Martin.....
Once we finished our spin around the mean streets of Lantana, we spotted the local Ice Cream Truck.
Although Nicholas has had ice cream since coming home, he has never had ice cream purchased from the sidewalk of his own home from a giant van blaring the same song over and over and over and.....
So after treating us to a ride in his monster truck, Uncle Tom then became the first person to buy Nicholas an ice cream (actually a Popsicle...his first ever!) from the ice cream man/woman/person....
After the ice cream it was time for dinner.....ANOTHER MILESTONE...The first time we have allowed Nicholas to have ice cream BEFORE dinner...this was unheard of in my day....my parents always made sure we cleaned our plates before allowing us to have one graham cracker with some cool whip on it and then we had to do our homework, our chores and then off to bed at 7:00...
Tom and Nicholas really hit it off... He let Nicholas play with his i-phone (another first!) and sat and read some books with him. Nicholas loves all things Truck and Machine related and Tom explained how many of the machines and trucks worked out in the real world....Tom also brought Nicholas a toy truck...a remote controlled replica of his Ford F 350.....we all agreed he was not ready for the remote control aspect....but that didn't stop him from playing with it the whole time Tom was here and he continues to keep it in the "top toy rotation." Thanks again for the cool gift!!! We look forward to Tom's next visit so he can help us with some projects and give Nicholas another truck ride!
In other Nicholas related news......
I think I mentioned before that he was able to recognize the letter "W" and calls it...."Duhwel you you you".....very cute....well on our walk a few days ago he saw the letter "T" and said...get ready for this...."TEE" Although Lisa works on the whole alphabet and spelling certain words with him everyday....he can seemingly only recognize T and W..... Totally Weird huh??
Lisa recently taught him to say hello in Spanish...he can now say, "HOLA."
He is also saying....."I see you...." and uses "OH MAN" in context...
He can recognize and say some shapes...Circle, Square, Triangle, Heart, Star....we are working on Octagon, Parallelogram, Rhombus, Scalene Triangle and Trapezoid....
He can say all of the basic colors and is most consistent identifying items that are RED...like Stop signs, Fire Trucks and when the Dow has a bad day.
And now some pictures!
In the back seat of the GIANT truck...
In the driver's seat!
He is totally ready for Autopia at Disneyland!
In back seat with Grandpa talking him through the "buckle up" process.
Unbuckled and on the move.......again......
Uncle Tom explaining, "One of the most important things to keep in mind when going from split-shot injectors to single-shot units is tuning. To be specific, it's in the timing. Split-shot engines typically use 1 degree of timing advance at idle, while single-shot engines require 11 degrees. After our install was complete, we pulled the F5 chip attached to the power train control module (PCM) and had John Wood Automotive reburn it with DP Tuner's programming, which allowed the new, single-shot injectors to work problem-free both at idle, and on the throttle."
Nicholas updating his FB Status to...."Just had some Mac and Cheese; now sitting on Uncle Tom's lap"
Reading with Uncle Tom is F-U-N!!!
His very own Ford F 350 Diesel!!
Tom showing how to install snow tires....just in case....
The moment we "got" Nicholas on April 13, 2009.....(His "Gotcha Day")...he immediately had, One Great Grandmother, One Grandmother, Two Grand Fathers, Five Uncles, Three Aunts and Eight First Cousins..
After meeting Tom on Sunday, Nicholas has now met Three of his Five Uncles.
Tom arrived in a giant Ford F 350 Truck that Nicholas immediately wanted to check out. He was even able to take his first giant truck ride as Tom slowly took us for a spin around the block....nothing like the smell of Diesel and the roar of engine powerful enough to tow a small church....ala "The Jerk," with Steve Martin.....
Once we finished our spin around the mean streets of Lantana, we spotted the local Ice Cream Truck.
Although Nicholas has had ice cream since coming home, he has never had ice cream purchased from the sidewalk of his own home from a giant van blaring the same song over and over and over and.....
So after treating us to a ride in his monster truck, Uncle Tom then became the first person to buy Nicholas an ice cream (actually a Popsicle...his first ever!) from the ice cream man/woman/person....
After the ice cream it was time for dinner.....ANOTHER MILESTONE...The first time we have allowed Nicholas to have ice cream BEFORE dinner...this was unheard of in my day....my parents always made sure we cleaned our plates before allowing us to have one graham cracker with some cool whip on it and then we had to do our homework, our chores and then off to bed at 7:00...
Tom and Nicholas really hit it off... He let Nicholas play with his i-phone (another first!) and sat and read some books with him. Nicholas loves all things Truck and Machine related and Tom explained how many of the machines and trucks worked out in the real world....Tom also brought Nicholas a toy truck...a remote controlled replica of his Ford F 350.....we all agreed he was not ready for the remote control aspect....but that didn't stop him from playing with it the whole time Tom was here and he continues to keep it in the "top toy rotation." Thanks again for the cool gift!!! We look forward to Tom's next visit so he can help us with some projects and give Nicholas another truck ride!
In other Nicholas related news......
I think I mentioned before that he was able to recognize the letter "W" and calls it...."Duhwel you you you".....very cute....well on our walk a few days ago he saw the letter "T" and said...get ready for this...."TEE" Although Lisa works on the whole alphabet and spelling certain words with him everyday....he can seemingly only recognize T and W..... Totally Weird huh??
Lisa recently taught him to say hello in Spanish...he can now say, "HOLA."
He is also saying....."I see you...." and uses "OH MAN" in context...
He can recognize and say some shapes...Circle, Square, Triangle, Heart, Star....we are working on Octagon, Parallelogram, Rhombus, Scalene Triangle and Trapezoid....
He can say all of the basic colors and is most consistent identifying items that are RED...like Stop signs, Fire Trucks and when the Dow has a bad day.
And now some pictures!
In the back seat of the GIANT truck...
Getting his very first Popsicle, purchased by one of his Uncles, from an Ice Cream Truck!
In the driver's seat!
He is totally ready for Autopia at Disneyland!
In back seat with Grandpa talking him through the "buckle up" process.
Unbuckled and on the move.......again......
Uncle Tom explaining, "One of the most important things to keep in mind when going from split-shot injectors to single-shot units is tuning. To be specific, it's in the timing. Split-shot engines typically use 1 degree of timing advance at idle, while single-shot engines require 11 degrees. After our install was complete, we pulled the F5 chip attached to the power train control module (PCM) and had John Wood Automotive reburn it with DP Tuner's programming, which allowed the new, single-shot injectors to work problem-free both at idle, and on the throttle."
Nicholas updating his FB Status to...."Just had some Mac and Cheese; now sitting on Uncle Tom's lap"
Reading with Uncle Tom is F-U-N!!!
His very own Ford F 350 Diesel!!
Tom showing how to install snow tires....just in case....
Sunday, August 23, 2009
A New Addition and a strange box....
We recently were able to trade in my 2001 Ford Explorer for a 2009 Honda Odyssey Mini-Van! Lisa and I are both enjoying it....
Someone "attempted" to take the car for a drive....
We also recently replaced Nicholas' Car Seat with a Booster Seat....after installing it, something strange happened to the box....using special high speed digital chronological photography the following images were captured...
Nothing like playing with a giant empty box!!
August 24, 2009
August 24, 2009 marks our 4 month anniversary of having Mr. Nicholas in our home! It has been a wild 4 months....he has learned so much...and so have we....
He is understanding more and more English each day.....understanding does not always produce results! We KNOW he understands the words "NO" and "STOP" but he does not always follow those commands. He seems to be getting a little better, but somedays he really tests us....
Every few days or so he has a word or two that inexplicably makes him laugh...
In the past they have been....
"Cheese it"
"Cork"
"Bite it"
"Squash"
"Say it"
"Zip"
"Zoom"
"Quarter" <-----The current laughter causing phrase......
We measured him today.....he is now 40 1/2 inches tall...
We knew he had grown since he was able to reach items that we used to have safely OUT of his reach...
The Child-Proofing continues!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
What's Been Happening??
Playing with one of his favorite toys from his favorite Aunt named Ann.
Reading a book about trucks with Grandpa... Nicholas loves trucks and all giant machines like bulldozers and cranes. Although we wish they would hurry up and finish, Nicholas loves when we drive past the numerous construction sites near our home. "OH WOW LOOK...MACHINE....GIANT!" is what we hear from the backseat.....
Lisa helped me out big time by baking numerous items for my American Heart Association Bake Sale...which she has done for many years in a row....but this year she had an audience!
He has his very own step so he can, "Watch."
Lisa helped me out big time by baking numerous items for my American Heart Association Bake Sale...which she has done for many years in a row....but this year she had an audience!
He has his very own step so he can, "Watch."
Some things just need to be brought down to his level....
Helping Mommy create her world famous Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Our son loves spaghetti with ground turkey and NO he is NOT Bashful!
Many have tried to escape the belly attack....
But they are never successful....
His first Texas Rangers shirt....maybe we can try going to a game next year when his attention span is longer than a..........hey look a cat!
My Grandma and Grandpa from California went to Malta and all I got besides the box full of presents they sent was this t-shirt...thank you, hope to see you soon...
Too many plumbers in the bathroom....
And now for the final event of the day....The Levitating Boy!!!
Helping Mommy create her world famous Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Our son loves spaghetti with ground turkey and NO he is NOT Bashful!
Many have tried to escape the belly attack....
But they are never successful....
His first Texas Rangers shirt....maybe we can try going to a game next year when his attention span is longer than a..........hey look a cat!
My Grandma and Grandpa from California went to Malta and all I got besides the box full of presents they sent was this t-shirt...thank you, hope to see you soon...
Too many plumbers in the bathroom....
And now for the final event of the day....The Levitating Boy!!!
More Pix From Baby Shower At My Office
Before the party, let me check my email.....HOLD all my calls!
His first cupcake!
Our second family picture....
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Observations after 97 days....
As we near the 100 day mark from returning home with Nicholas, things seem to be going pretty well. His language seems to improve each day and he is understanding more concepts too....but that is not always a good thing! Since getting his first Bee sting a couple of weeks ago, Nicholas now says, "hurt" whenever ANYTHING flies near him....although this would be correct for bees, wasps and hornets....it would not be correct for butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs and commercial aircraft....all of which he will say "hurt" when he sees them....
His vocabulary is improving all the time. He is now starting to repeat nearly everything we say, so we now have to really watch our flippin' language. He likes to repeat new words that sound funny to him...For example...we went to Hobby Lobby (www.hobbylobby.com) to get a large cork board for his room. The whole car ride over to the store he kept yelling, CORK!" which sounded more like, "QUARK!" and he would laugh and laugh. This behavior continued once inside the store, only it was louder and a few octaves higher...very close to glass shattering levels......speaking of the last time we were at Hobby Lobby......
Lisa and I were in some sort of clearance aisle with Nicholas securely (yeah right) in a shopping cart. We did not see how this happened, but when we looked down we saw that he was holding some sort of decorative plastic soap dispenser...we quickly snatched the illegally obtained item from his clutches...but it was too late!! Apparently he had pressed the pump an estimated 14 times causing large deposits of ancient soap to appear all over his shirt, pants, hands and arms. He then must have thought...."Hey this stuff smells great...it must TASTE even better!!" Life lesson learned...soap does not taste good......Lisa quickly used part of her blouse to scrape off Nicholas' out stretched tongue...we then headed straight for the restroom to clean up the soap...on the way there we were stopped by a friend of ours....Lori D.....she had not yet met Nicholas...we explained the "soap incident" to her and told her what she had to look forward to with her own child...
Other words he likes to say and then laugh and laugh...
Squash
Slow
Bonk
Cheese
He also likes to add the word "it" to the end of these and many other words....so imagine our small boy yelling and then laughing.... SQUASH IT..........SLOW IT.......BONK IT.......CHEESE IT.......BITE IT........CHEW IT....etc...
Another word he seemed to know without us telling him is 'tunnel.' He saw a picture of a tunnel in my photo album from my trip to Mexico. I got to walk inside a giant pyramid and took many pictures of the tunnels. Upon seeing the picture for the first time he said..."tuh-nuu-lay." This quickly became 'tunnel.' He now knows you go through a tunnel....so whenever he sees ANYTHING that resembles a tunnel he will say...."tunnel....through."
Nicholas continues to love all water related things....baths, swimming pools, washing his hands, sprinklers, lakes, streams, water towers, fire hydrants...we think he is saying the Ukraine word for Fire Hydrant since everytime he sees one he says...."Dyloooshka."
We have had some very humid weather here lately so the wild mushrooms are all over the place...including in our back yard....
A few days ago Lisa noticed our very own large mushroom and decided to take Nicholas out to see it. As Lisa and Nicholas got closer to the fungus, he stopped a few feet away from it and then continued on to get a closer look at this strange new thing.....as Lisa was trying to get him to say "mushroom," she noticed he was quickly moving his feet up and down and seemed to be stressing a little. Upon further investigation Lisa discovered he had stopped on top of an Ant bed and his feet were now teaming with Ants! She brushed them off and brought him back in the house. He only had one bite on his foot. Now when he says 'mushroom' and points outside, we ask him if he wants to go outside and see it....he will they reply...."no...hurt."
Lisa and I continue to feel amazingly blessed to have such a wonderful son......stay tuned for more stories and pictures!
Take Care....
R/L/N
His vocabulary is improving all the time. He is now starting to repeat nearly everything we say, so we now have to really watch our flippin' language. He likes to repeat new words that sound funny to him...For example...we went to Hobby Lobby (www.hobbylobby.com) to get a large cork board for his room. The whole car ride over to the store he kept yelling, CORK!" which sounded more like, "QUARK!" and he would laugh and laugh. This behavior continued once inside the store, only it was louder and a few octaves higher...very close to glass shattering levels......speaking of the last time we were at Hobby Lobby......
Lisa and I were in some sort of clearance aisle with Nicholas securely (yeah right) in a shopping cart. We did not see how this happened, but when we looked down we saw that he was holding some sort of decorative plastic soap dispenser...we quickly snatched the illegally obtained item from his clutches...but it was too late!! Apparently he had pressed the pump an estimated 14 times causing large deposits of ancient soap to appear all over his shirt, pants, hands and arms. He then must have thought...."Hey this stuff smells great...it must TASTE even better!!" Life lesson learned...soap does not taste good......Lisa quickly used part of her blouse to scrape off Nicholas' out stretched tongue...we then headed straight for the restroom to clean up the soap...on the way there we were stopped by a friend of ours....Lori D.....she had not yet met Nicholas...we explained the "soap incident" to her and told her what she had to look forward to with her own child...
Other words he likes to say and then laugh and laugh...
Squash
Slow
Bonk
Cheese
He also likes to add the word "it" to the end of these and many other words....so imagine our small boy yelling and then laughing.... SQUASH IT..........SLOW IT.......BONK IT.......CHEESE IT.......BITE IT........CHEW IT....etc...
Another word he seemed to know without us telling him is 'tunnel.' He saw a picture of a tunnel in my photo album from my trip to Mexico. I got to walk inside a giant pyramid and took many pictures of the tunnels. Upon seeing the picture for the first time he said..."tuh-nuu-lay." This quickly became 'tunnel.' He now knows you go through a tunnel....so whenever he sees ANYTHING that resembles a tunnel he will say...."tunnel....through."
Nicholas continues to love all water related things....baths, swimming pools, washing his hands, sprinklers, lakes, streams, water towers, fire hydrants...we think he is saying the Ukraine word for Fire Hydrant since everytime he sees one he says...."Dyloooshka."
We have had some very humid weather here lately so the wild mushrooms are all over the place...including in our back yard....
A few days ago Lisa noticed our very own large mushroom and decided to take Nicholas out to see it. As Lisa and Nicholas got closer to the fungus, he stopped a few feet away from it and then continued on to get a closer look at this strange new thing.....as Lisa was trying to get him to say "mushroom," she noticed he was quickly moving his feet up and down and seemed to be stressing a little. Upon further investigation Lisa discovered he had stopped on top of an Ant bed and his feet were now teaming with Ants! She brushed them off and brought him back in the house. He only had one bite on his foot. Now when he says 'mushroom' and points outside, we ask him if he wants to go outside and see it....he will they reply...."no...hurt."
Lisa and I continue to feel amazingly blessed to have such a wonderful son......stay tuned for more stories and pictures!
Take Care....
R/L/N
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