MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Santa Baby!

For the last two years, Nic has been absolutely TERRIFIED of the fat (I guess the more P.C. name is, "the vertically challenged") guy in the red suit. Much like a restraining order, John and I were not allowed within a hundred feet of him. If we attempted, there would be a screaming, crying, kicking toddler to contend with. Not this year! Our son made us proud. He even had a mental list of what he wanted from Santa. Nic waited for his turn, jumped up on Santa's lap and proudly exclaimed, "Hey Santa, where's your reindeer?". The following video is Nic's idea of where Santa lives and where he parks his reindeer. Nic and his new buddy!

A new holiday tradition

This year, my mountain man husband wanted to start a new family tradition. Instead of the annual Home Depot Christmas tree, John wanted to go to a tree farm and cut down a fresh one. Being the city slicker girl that I am, I initially protested. Visions of spiders and mud were dancing in my head. Besides, if we went to the tree farm, I’d miss out on the poinsettia sale Home Depot was having. My cries went unnoticed and off we went to the tree farm, and in the end, I’m glad we went. The experience was fun for everyone. With the help of a Grandma, we managed to capture the monumental event on video. Nic picked out the tree himself, helped daddy with the sawing (by using a stick), and when the tree came down, he thought he broke it (check out his quick glance at me). When our son realized he wasn’t in trouble, the next word out of his mouth was, “another one daddy”.

Mission accomplished!

Family

My oldest joke is, “Family, you can’t live with them and … you can’t live with them”. Joke aside, I wouldn’t change my family for anything. As loud and as crazy as they (o.k.,we) are, we’re always there for each other. One phone call will bring in the masses with no questions asked. Being the youngest of nine, I always knew the “elders” took care of me more than they should have, and because of that, I rarely asked for favors in my adult life. That is, until recently. Having a child changes everything. It does take a village (or a family of about the same size) to raise a child. Who do you entrust with your most valuable possession? The answer is easy, “family”. Nic is lucky. He’s coming in at the tail end, which means he has more family than ever. He’ll grow up knowing his family is LOUD, a bit crazy (in a good way) and always ready for a party. He’ll also grow up knowing that he can count on every last one of them - if he ever needs that favor.

Nic with his 1st cousins (and his Grandma)
Christmas 2005

Hiatus over

I know I’ve been slacking with the Nic installments, and I apologize to the devout followers (read: Grandma), but life has been a bit chaotic and some things had to fall wayside. Nic is fine, but he has officially entered the “Terrible Two’s”. We had such a wonderful, peaceful first year that we didn’t think our kid would suffer from this deadly (and hopefully temporary) condition . No pity party for us though, life is grand with a capital G. To prove it, here is a video of this past weekend. We took Nic ice-skating and considering he’s only 2 yrs and 5 months, he did pretty well. However, I got caught on tape as being a bad mom. Nic was terrified (at first), and in the background you hear me, and my niece, laughing our heads off. In my defense, it was just so cute, I couldn’t help myself.

With some "supportive' coaching, Nic eventually got out on the ice and enjoyed himself – sort of.

Viewer discretion advised.

This may be a hard read for non-parents, but I don’t care. Right now I’m speaking to anybody and everybody who has been through the same experience. Today, our son went potty in the POTTY! We’ve been practicing for a while now and before today it’s always been sort of a mess. Nic is at the point where he tells me - while he’s going. By the time we get to the potty it’s usually a scene of damage control. Sometimes (depending on what he ate), I wondered if it was worth the effort. Not today! My son looked at me and said, “Mommy, Poo-Poo”. We ran to the bathroom, took off his pull-ups and he went! We both yelled and yippie’d; we gave each other high-fives and we did a happy dance. After, he put a sticker on his poo-poo board and I gave him a Wiggles band-aide for a reward. I have never been so happy to see a brown thing floating in the toilet. I thought my son was a genius. To my non-parent friends (and family): Yes, I know. Life has changed a bit since my 60 hour work weeks and happy hour hang-outs. My experience today however was better than any bonus I ever saw from corporate life.

Thought the shirt was appropriate.

Our Son, The Wonder Boy.

Some quotes from the past few weeks. We love this stage in his development. It’s amazing to see how he views the world around him. Fun times.

* (While playing trains with his daddy) “Hey! You broke my toy. Dat not nice. Say you sorry.” (Daddy didn’t really break it, he just took a track section apart)

*(Watching Lion King - part where Mufasa dies) “What happened to his daddy? Did he get an owie? He need a band-aid?”

*(Asking if he went potty) “NO! I went not!”

*”I’m Happy” (said this after he and daddy finished making grass angels)

*(Mom and Dad trying to come into the middle of the ABC’s song). Big voice: “NO! NO! WAIT YOUR TURN!” Smaller voice: “Nicholas only!”

*"What the Heck??" (Guess Mom and Dad have to start watching what they say)

Our Superhero!

I wish everyday was Sunday.

I must admit, being an older parent has it’s privileges. Time has managed to tame my A-type personality and I am no longer obsessed with the trivial. I know I appreciate Nic more because of my new found calm. Though John has always been mellow (and when I say “mellow”, I mean Jedi level mellow), it took Nic to make me appreciate the, “watching the grass grow” mentality. Sunday is our family day. It’s the day we’ve chosen to show Nic “life” and all the wonders it has to offer. We show him things everyday, but on Sunday, he gets Mom and Dad - all day. We schlep him to tide pools at 8:00 a.m. (that’s right, cause that’s when the tide is low), we take him to the local farmers market (he hand picks his own strawberries for snack), or we go to the beach to build sandcastles (and also feed seagulls stale bread). Last Sunday we took Nic to Bonfante Gardens http://www.bonfantegardens.com/. It’s a cool place for kids around Nic’s age. It’s an even better place if you have a WOW season pass (you don’t have to pay the $40 admission). This pass includes Great America admission as well and I highly recommend it for anyone with a family (best $100 bucks we’ve ever spent). Bonfante Gardens is a place where the grown-ups appreciate the gardens and the kids appreciate the rides. It also has a water park section that helps cool down hot minds. Just something to think about for your , "Sundays”. Bring a small towel and lots of batteries for your camera.

C is for Cookie… and cake, and chocolate, and candy, and CRAP!

The older Nic gets the harder it is to control what he eats. Easy enough when we’re at home, but pre-school, play dates and parties have put a thorn on my, “no junk food” rule. Don’t get me wrong, the occasional treat is fine, but it shouldn’t be the main dish. With the exception of jumping out from behind a bush and grabbing the offending food out of my sons hand, I ask this question: how do you stop a 2 year old from having JUST sweets at a party? Somehow people associate sweets with happiness, and they mean well (I guess). They like to see Nic’s face light up when they shove junk into his mouth or a treat into his hand. Don’t people know that sweets are like crack to kids. They’ll do anything for the next mouth full, sit on your lap, give you a hug, give you a kiss… sit up, bark, roll over. It’s bad enough trying to control the culprits with the polite, “STOP FEEDING MY SON CRAP!”, but now Nic knows what this stuff is and he asks for it, or worst, he’ll help himself to it. It seems I may be losing the battle… but hear me now, I’m GOING to win the war.

School projects already?

My 15 year old nephew was assigned to tap his parents memory for some of his childhood facts. What were my first words; when were my first steps; what were my favorite toys, blah, blah, blah. All the things a new mom can recite in her sleep. However, after 2 kids, 15 years and countless other memories, his mom’s answer was, “I forgot”. A response I’m sure my nephew wasn’t expecting. After I laughed out loud and I did the verbal equivalent of finger shaking, my sister told me, “You laugh now… but wait. You’ll see. You’ll forget too”. Me?? forget??? Never! Maybe other moms, but NOT me. After the ego subsided, I realized she was right. Against my will, time has blurred some of the “smaller” milestones my son has managed to cross. So, in preparation for future school projects, here are some Nic-isms:

On Love:
We saw a cat that was obviously scared and he went up to it and said, “It O.K., your mommie comin’. She’ll be right back”.

On Encouragement:
When he tries something new or if the task is just beyond his abilities and he can't quite get it, he doesn’t cry, he smiles and says: ALMOST!

On Vanity:
When he likes an outfit he’s wearing he stares in the mirror, points to himself and says, “I’m sexy”.

On Sharing:
(ear piercing, window shattering scream) NOOOOO! DAT MINE!! MOMMMMIEEE ~ HE TOOK MINE TOY!!!!

Hey, I didn’t say he was perfect.

Jumping on the bandwagon.

For several years now John and I have been reading our friends and families blogs with great interest. Getting a snippet of everyone’s lives in CliffsNotes version was great, it just wasn’t for us… until now. A friend of ours said, “The blog, it’s really not for you, it’s for Nic. He can look back and read all about himself back when”. A sort of online baby book if you will. Hmmmm, we thought, yet another way we may fail our son if we don’t jump on that bandwagon. So, here we are, the first installment of “Nic – Back in the Daze”. We’re a bit behind – you haven’t read all about his first words (which were: WOW, YUP and AH-HUH) or his first steps (taken two weeks after his first birthday), or how all four of his molars came in at once (hell week in a whole different perspective), but we’ll do our best to catch up.

For now here is Nic’s scoreboard at 2 years and 4 months:

*Stands at 37 inches tall and weighs in at about the same.

*He knows that a wallaby is, “like a kangaroo” and he can tell the difference between a hexagon and an octagon.

*He’s done Disneyland three times and Disneyworld once (we are SO Disney’d out) and in his short life, he’s been on a plane seven times.

*When he’s looking for something he says, “Where my shoes R” because I always say, “Nic, where are your shoes”.

*His favorite pastimes are doing push-ups with daddy (too cute for words) and eating his weight in mandarin oranges.

That’s it for now. Keep coming back and keep scrolling down, Nic’s life is sure to be a journey!

An obligatory shout out to our friend Sharonda - Thanks for the great advice.