Special Delivery

Nicholas had 2 Halloween cards waiting for him today. Due to his after-dinner crazy behavior, he only had enough attention to open one, but boy did he love the fuzzy ghost and the confetti from Gammy!

New words of the day:

"Mommy, careful" which I've even heard repeated a few times while driving

"Funny!" he says when he thinks he's being funny - its super cute!!!

New Wheels!

Look who got a new set of wheels!

He rides around the house with his "soap friends" (update on green froggy - he's missing 2 legs now. I don't know what we'll do when these guys melt away completely).
Nicholas has been in the car since the moment it came through the door!

Pop-porn!

Nicholas is real decisive on his requests for meals and snacks lately. Today, he went to the cupboard and took out the popcorn bowl and requested "pop porn!" He's so excited the entire 90 seconds of cook time - there on his stool.

Beaming with excitement!

Out of the Mouth of a Toddler

While passing an area of dense trees that had lost their leaves, Nicholas starting screaming, "oooo, big dicks!" I of course had no idea what he was talking about, but quickly recognized his "dicks" means "sticks." I asked him to show me and he pointed to the trees and repeated his comment. He sure has a point that trees without leaves look just like big sticks. I love it!

Lately, he's obsessed with comparing things, like big and little, sorting and labeling everything by color and loves to announce when its getting "dark outside" so he needs to use his ghost lantern. We'll see how Halloween goes, since he now has the term "no too scary."

Nicholas is so glad to have Daddy home now and just loves the tractor book he brought him from VA.

The Half-Naked Cowboy

While we were all down in the basement, Nicholas and Gammy made up a little show (and yes, it involved Nicholas dancing without pants on the coffee table...with a cowboy hat on!).

Gammy played "music" by tapping a box on the table and Nicholas performed!
This cowboy has some great moves.
Oh Buddy, this was priceless!

Poppy to the Rescue!

There's nothing like starting off your Sunday with the sump pump alarm going off - when the man of the house is in another state! Mommy and Nicholas managed to get to the culprit, but weren't at all successful beyond that. All Nicholas could repeat was "noise!"

Thank goodness Poppy saved the day... and the basement!

Nicholas stayed close to Poppy...
and got to practice some more tool skills.
We can't thank you enough Poppy!
Nicholas has been asking for you all evening, "Poppy, where you go?"

Zoo Boo

Friday night, Poppy and Gammy joined us for a night at Zoo Boo!

Poppy surprised Nicholas with his first light-up wand. Nicholas showed all the animals his lights (and then threw a huge fit when I needed to take it away at bedtime). He woke up saying, "Poppy, where are you? Oh, green lights, oh red lights where are you?" I'd say the highlight of Nicholas' night was exploring with Poppy.
They checked out all the spooky displays.
(note his light wand is still with him)
Yes, there was even a giant blow-up decoration, which totally made his night. The ultimate topper: chasing Poppy down the ramp!

Thanks Aunt Angela & Uncle Jim!

Aunt Angela and Uncle Jim recently went to a wedding in Austria. They brought Nicholas back some adorable little animal soaps. At first, they were the perfect thing to keep him on the potty, but lately, he's been carrying them around everywhere. I figured I need to get a picture of them, since they are slowing starting to disintegrate.
Thanks a bunch guys.

I just love my "green frog, orange fish and yellow ducky!"

Nicholas' First Babysitting Job

Boy was our house rocking when we watched the Vierra kids! Even the big boys got into playing with Nicholas' favorite toys.

As always, the little kids played so well together.

Take time to smile for a picture - not this boy when there's still some pegs that need to be placed. Oh, he is so industrious!

After baking cookies, feeding all these little faces, staying on top of a recently potty-trained one get to the bathroom a million times and getting just one down to bed, Mommy is pretty sure we won't be having a family of 4 kids - Mommy is still recovering from this night!

Bye Bye Daddy

Friday morning, Daddy flew to VA to see Grandpa John. Let's just say Nicholas was not happy Daddy was leaving - but got over his upset when we saw a plane take off. All weekend whenever he hears a plane, he asks "Daddy, where are you?"

Bye-bye Daddy, hello survival mode!

Surprise Visit By Poppy

After Nicholas refused to nap at the sitter's on Thursday, Mommy was really worried about how the afternoon would go. We were playing in the backyard when we saw a surprise visitor - Poppy! Poppy and Nicholas chased the wind to make his pinwheel spin. He gets so excited for a good twirl!

Nicholas' imaginative play has been taking off. He was playing in his sandbox when he said "I need to eat." He took the sifter, went over to the table and stirred his "yummy food" with his glow stick.
When he brought his glow stick to his mouth he reminded me "pretend."

Your visit couldn't have been on a better day Poppy - you made our afternoon!

We've created a monster!

After months of waiting for Nicholas to find his voice, we now have a full-blown chatter box who just doesn't stop talking. The stuff he comes up with lately is hysterical. Tonight we went to Friendly's for dinner and he started demanding ice cream the minute we were in the restaurant. From there we hit Target and he was requesting "pop corn" at the sight of the bull's eye sign (so I guess my popcorn occupier the other week for a long Target shopping trip is going to be my latest downfall). He can tell any diners near us all about the "detectors" in the place and point out "Mommy's eye brows." He's obsessed with telling us the color of everything he comes across and is a crazy back seat driver who enthusiastically calls out the color of every light in sight, like "green light, go!" "oh no, red light" and my favorite "green arrow!" Daddy still melts these days for his compliant "oh sure!"

Ghosted!

After our haircut, we grabbed dinner next door at Moe's. We decided to try our first body art painting. Nicholas requested "a ghost, please."

Later we did a little shopping and suddenly noticed Nicholas had a white upper lip. Shortly after he was yelling, "Ohhhh ghost! Oh no!"
I guess that's what happens when you kiss a ghost!

Haircut #3

With Daddy at his first night class, Gammy went with us to get Nicholas' third haircut. He was engrossed with the video they play, so our wonderful stylist was able to get right to work.

Gosh, they know what they're doing at Snipits!

He was so cute as he shrugged up his shoulders when the back of his neck was buzzed.

Finally, Nicholas got a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
Job well done.

Maybe next time Nicholas will tolerate the smock so he won't be full of baby-fine hair.

Farmer Zoey

Gammy brought Nicholas a farmer hat for his upcoming barnyard birthday bash. He wasn't too interested in wearing it, but insisted that Zoey give us a fashion show.

Zoey is such a good big sister!

Trucker Mouth

Tonight Daddy was passionately telling us a work story when he used a curse word (yes, I know its hard to believe, especially on that topic of conversation). Guess who picked up on the new word and repeated with perfect articulation! After we both were hysterically dying inside, Daddy replaced his statement with "tool" and Nicholas luckily repeated that one (just not with the same enthusiasm).

Let's hope this goes nowhere beyond our dinner table.

Our Little Firemen

Daddy captured Nicholas' excitement at the firehouse last weekend.

Randoms from this weekend...

So I admit the ironing board has been in the middle of the family room for nearly a week - but how could I take away Nicholas' private fort! He's been loving it - can't you tell?

Once we found him hiding under the table cloth, he snuck behind the board to continue to operate his RC car in private.
Finally he makes an appearance!
Daddy was proud that Nicholas enjoyed a slice of beer bread.
Daddy asked, "does this count as his first beer experience?"
Will these bottom teeth finally come through? It looks likes something is brewing.
Ouchy!

Our Neighborhood Halloween Bash

We had a gorgeous day for our annual neighborhood Halloween party. We showed up fashionably late due to naptime, so we had to make our own parade on the way there.

There were so many fun games to play. Nicholas was instantly drawn to the apple bobbing station - which he has been really interested in his favorite Curious George Goes to a Costume Party book.

The older kids came over to show him how to really bob, but it just ticked him off because they took all the apples. Sorry, Buddy!
~ My little Curious Nicholas ~
He gathered treasures in his pumpkin basket.




He loved using the magnetic fishing pole to bang the tent poles - it was really cute!

This year, Nicholas was much more neater eating his sucker (thankfully!)

We were having so much fun we didn't want to leave! Nice pictures, Daddy!