And the first tree goes up...

Grammy brought Nicholas over a special treat - his own tree for his bedroom!

Nicholas just loves his tree and surprisingly has been wonderful about not touching it or unplugging it when he's supposed to be sleeping. I chuckle to myself everytime I see the big glow coming from under his doorway at night.

A long awaited smile from William gives his seal of approval!

Grammy, thanks for watching Nicholas during William's appointment - your help is always greatly appreciated!

Lights on the Lake

With relatively "nice" weather of mid 40's, we bundled up to walk through the speak preview of Lights on the Lake. Nicholas was on his best behavior waiting for this event - you know this boy and lights!

We figured Nicholas would need to keep walking to stay warm, so we forewent bringing the double stroller to keep William snugly in his carseat. Nicholas loved hitchin' a ride on the stroller...

and up on Daddy!

I'd say William stayed nice and bundled! It was extra nice that he slept the entire time too!

Happy Birthday Boys...

Sunday we celebrated Poppie's 54th birthday and William's half-birthday!

Just in case Poppie's old lungs couldn't handle the creative math candle arrangement, Nicholas was right there to help blow/spit/drool...whatever was necessary!

Poppie, you sure are special to us. Nicholas just adores you and gets so excited when we are able to get together. We love you and wish you a fabulous year ahead...and many more to come.

(and yes, William is still swaddled for sleep - its so funny to see him all bundled up)

A Special Show & Share

As part of family month, Nicholas had to bring in an item belonging to Mommy or Daddy to share. When I asked him what he wanted to bring, he thought for a second and replied, "Daddy's snowblower!" After getting his bubble burst on that one, his second runner up was "Daddy's tools." Daddy shared a wrench, to which Nicholas also insisted on bringing his two wrenches. Let me tell ya, there was a whole lot of enthusiasm to get to school this day...

When I picked him up, Nicholas told me he needed to go to the playground and fix the playset with the wrenches.

He came up with his elaborate pretend fixing plan and even attached his plastic adjustable wrenches onto the playset and carefully balanced Daddy's...can you find them?

The Knack

According to Daddy, this is our future with a certain someone...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw

"MY Fort!"

We went to a playgroup where the kiddos got their own moving box fort. Nicholas couldn't wait to get it home and has been in it ever since (no exaggerating!). He was most upset his artwork was not showing up on it. With Daddy at night class, we figured we'd make a big old mess and paint his box.

Let's just say this was still at the neater part of the project. Nicholas was covered and fortunately so was the box in the end. He has thoroughly enjoyed making decorations and coloring on his box since.

Morning at the Park

November 18th

Another gorgeous day to be outside! We had some errands to do across town, so we hit up a different playground and park.

Nicholas did a little jig on the "stage."

He had quite the successful duck call at the pond...

Happy Boy!

Obsessed!

As if its not depressing enough to have to make room for the snow blower back in the garage, Nicholas is absolutely obsessed with it. He's been sneaking out to "check on the snow blower, just to make sure it doesn't need me... or needs to be fixed..."

I just had to capture this, to have on hand when he's 16 and takes over the snow blowing responsibility.

Wegman's Treat

So, my son is the one in Wegmans tantruming because he wants a bag of bulk nuts...not candy or junk food, shelled nuts! He held onto his 50 cent bag of nuts all through the store like it was a bag of gold (unlike how well he held onto the shopping list for me). He yabbered about his plan to "get these nuts out of the shell" all through the store. Of course, this plan involved tools!

I was able to get all the groceries and William in the house and the groceries put away and dinner started all while Nicholas worked on smashing his nuts. Eventually, I gave him a clue to get the nut cracker.

Nicholas kept William well entertained through all this.

In the end, Nicholas told me he liked the white nuts the best, but the "little cute brown ones were okay too." This boy just loves nuts! Let's hope William doesn't turn out to be terribly allergic to them, since that would make Daddy and Nicholas very unhappy.

Intro to Empathy

Monday afternoon was "one of those non-nap days" for Nicholas. During a long and drawn-out time-out, it was hard to tell who was more upset, Nicholas or William. I had to try to keep Will in another room and he was still so upset just hearing his brother upset.

William's New Friend

William's now at the age of loving Zoey. He watches her from across the room, reaches out for her when she's near and chuckles when they connect. It's really precious to watch.

Super Popcorn!

Aunt Elaine and Uncle John gave us a special Halloween treat - an ear of pop corn! It was the perfect treat for family movie night.

The boys got a kick out of watching the entire bag jump when the bottom kernels popped.

Nicholas got a real kick out of this - and we all enjoyed it! Thanks Aunt Elaine & Uncle John!

Baby Multi-tasking

Peek-A-Boo

Nicholas gets the biggest belly laughs from William when he plays peek-a-boo with him.

(video to come soon)

The other day, Nicholas asked me, "what does peek-a-boo mean?" You gotta give him credit for thinking that one through and realizing it doesn't make much sense!

Playground Fun with Grammy

November 11th

Nicholas has been asking to go to the "red, white and blue playground near Grammy's." Veteran's Day was beautiful to join Grammy there!

Boys Get Sticky

For a school assignment, Nicholas needed to decorate a big turkey feather that was supposed to involve all family members. We decided to try Karo syrup prints. Nicholas just loves this project - he calls it rainbow syrup and went straight to work.

Against my wishes, he used the food coloring all by himself and did a wonderful job with it.

William joined in the sticky fun too! He loved it for about the first 3 minutes...

but when his arms started sticking to the tray, it was game over for him!

A Treasure of a Day in CNY

November 9th

It was a gorgeous 65+ degree day and we took full advantage. We picnicked at Willow Bay...

hit the playground...

got to snoop at the men setting up Lights On the Lake

(Nicholas was in heaven!)

(This picture is purely for Nicholas. The guy waved to him and Nicholas acted like he won the lottery.)

We had plenty of time on the swings...

and Nicholas scootered all the way to the Longbranch bridge.

He loves that new scooter, Grammy & Poppie!

William just loves the playground swings!