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.