Our Little Turkey

I had wanted to embed a slide show of pictures of Nico, but I couldn't seem to get anything to work! Operator error...doubtful. Internet's revenge...possibly.

Instead, I will have to be happy with posting the old way, as I used to when I first figured out how to blog. (Now, I can't seem to stop!)

We went to my Dad's house for Thanksgiving. Nico had a lot of fun running around somewhere new. Grandpa had lots of places to run off to! Nico instantly noticed the remote control cars in the garage. So, my Dad was pretty excited to get to show him those. But that didn't last long because the remote operator (aka Grandpa)crashed the one car into the curb and that was the end of that.

It was fun to see (and have) Nico in a good mood! Here's a few pictures. And I have also posted the link below so you can view all of them. Hope you all ate way too much!





http://picasaweb.google.com/Janah99/Thanksgiving2008#slideshow



Other than that, Nico has really turned into a toddler. He wants to do everything on his own, then scream about it when it doesn't work out. He wants to play everywhere, especially outside and then wants to scream about it when it's time to come in.

He is into repeating a lot of things he hears. He loves music and dancing and singing. He laughs at everything and cries at even more! Ah, yes the temper tantrums are lovely and all too frequent. But then he pulls out that little toothy smile and I can't help but give in. Dada is a push-over for it too!

He loves airplanes, cars, trucks, motorcycles...anything with wheels. He likes to sit on the dog like he's a Shetland Pony. He loves to sit on the back of the couch and watch the birds out the window. If it's round and looks anything like a ball, he wants to hit it, throw it and slam it! He's also quit the hide-and-seek player!

There's a partial update. I could probably write a few more paragraphs about everything he does, but I will save that for another day.

Here's some more since I haven't posted in a few weeks.


http://picasaweb.google.com/Janah99/ExtraPics#slideshow

Enter this Contest!

I already did this on my other blog. But for each valid blog you get an entry!

And unfortunately I have no control who wins. But at least it's worth trying to win!

So this website Baby Snazz, is giving away 20 free pairs of Baby Legs!!!
They are the cutest things ever! Nico wore them when he had to wear his hip harness.
But they are so much more functional than for just that.
Good Luck! And if you post this contest on your blog you get another entry!

Just a Post to Post

Nico has just been too much lately! Not a day, or night, goes by where he isn't making us laugh. At the same time, not a day or night goes by that he isn't testing our patience to the limit!
I thought by now, I wouldn't hear myself say every - single - day "watch this, watch this." It's something new all of the time. His latest stunt (which I have been waiting to do to my own child, since my parents started doing it to me) is retirieveing whatever you ask him to get. If something is on the floor, it just takes a point and "Nico, pick that up" and then you can say "Bring it to mama/dada" and BAM! It's the greatest thing to him because then we say "thank you" like it's a party and clap an he is super excited. And it's the greatest thing for us because now we can go back to being lazy, which we have always enjoyed doing. heehee.
I just wanted to write a little post and add on some pictures from tonight. He wore an outfit that I think is cute today (but the crap-tastic camera I used didn't make it look so cute) and then he had some yogurt, or "yo-go", for dinner. Oh, and the other day I was sitting on the stool at the coffee table "working". The second I got up, Someone moved right in on my spot! Sorry for the messy house and laundry in the background!

Halloween 2008

Halloween night has come and gone. I would say for the most part, it went off without a hitch. Even after being at school all day, Nico was in a good mood. We didn't have much of a problem getting his outfit on. But of course, he just wasn't having the hat. At least in the beginning. Without wearing it, you couldn't tell what he was. The coustime was a little bear. My little Teddy Graham. That's what he reminded me of. I told people he was a mushroom, an M&M and even a roll of carpet. The costume reminded me of the condo carpet. All shaggy and soft. We walked around with him in the stroller for quite sometime. But once he decided he wanted to walk, he walked forever! The first house he walked up to on his own...well it was priceless. I wish I had taken vidoe. The lady was sitting on her porch. He walked down the sidewalk and climbed up the step, looked around, she handed him a bag of M&M's and a lollipop. He took it and was ready to walk away as content as could be. Then when he realized what the lollipop was he wouldn't let it go for anything. My mistake I suppose! BUT, it helped me get pictures with his bear hat on! We got a lot of "Awww, he's so little and cute!" I guess I didn't realize that he is fairly young to be walking around trying to trick-or-treat. And I was very surprised at the number of kids who wanted to stop and watch him. They were all very nice and polite. They moved out of his way or waited for him to wobble by. Good job parents! Not that Nico owned the sidewalk, but he also has no concept of stopping to wait. I threw in some pictures of the rest of the gang. Dada had his own little bag filled with adult goodies. Well, they actually didn't fit so he held them. One in each hand.



Here's the link to the picture album if you want to view the pics in a bigger format:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Janah99/Halloween2008

The Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of the year! I'm surprised that I haven't come across more Mom Blogs with these seasonal pictures.

We went to the Victoria's Garden Pumpkin Patch with Uncle Ryan, Auntie Crissy and Sammi on Saturday. What a beautiful day! They had the typical things you see everywhere - petting zoo, pony rides, hay rides, tractor rides, gigantic bouncy slides. Oh and pumpkins. The kids had fun. Nico was just excited to walk non-stop up and down the rows of corn. And Sammi (thankfully) wasn't really interested in riding much of anything. Except the ponies, and Crissy quickly explained how diseased, disgusting and dirty they were. =)

So here are all of the pictures I took and that I uploaded from Crissy's camera.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Janah99/PumpkinPatch#slideshow

Here a some more that I didn't add to the gallery:


This is a special one for Auntie Lili. He is a "pickable" skin picker!


P.S. Happy 6th Anniversary Babe! I love you!

The Cute, the Bad and the Messy

Here is Nico talking on the phone to Nana & Papa. He is SO like Dada. Neither one of them can sit still and talk on the phone. The walking around is a must!
The Cute


Here is what I had to clean up three times on this day. I know it's my own fault. He just likes being in the kitchen with me a lot, and it's the only thing I don't mind him playing with...well unless I have to clean it up three or more times.
The Bad

Here is what happens when you let Nico eat franks 'n beans:
The Messy

And here's his new zappado's - which he tripped while wearing every third step!
And the Cute again!



Take care!

This One's for Papa!

Okay, well for Papa and anyone who loves to just watch Nico, no matter what he is doing. It started out with Vito just recording him with a messy face. But he was in such a good mood that he was talking up a storm. And he had spaghetti sauce all over his face, food all over the tray...just thought it was funny to see him doing what he does every night at dinner. It's a little longer than most videos (1:59 minutes - schedule that in the calendar!), but at the very, very end is a special surprise for Papa! We practiced a lot more after the camera was of, so pronunciation is getting better!

P.S. Sorry for the crappy feed, this was a camera from Vito's work and it doesn't display things as nicely as mine. On the flip side of that, it is a heck of a lot easier to upload things!

Happy Autumn!

Es ist Oktoberfest Zeit!

Well, this entire post will be translated into German. Just kidding! This weekend was the Octoberfest in La Mesa. We didn't go to the big party Saturday night. But we managed to get a couple of hours in on Sunday. Of course, when we left we said the same thing that we did last year..."next year we are NOT going." The food at all of the mini-fair mobiles is just horrible. I don't know what we were expecting, but it's never worth the calories or the money. Although this year we did manage to have a brat and kraut. Okay, so I had a hot dog and Vito had a Cajun Polish dog. They weren't as bad as some of the other stuff we had. And unless you are into crafting, collecting nic-nacs or just over paying for something you can get at Boutique a la Target, there really is no other point in being there. Of course the beer garden, yes, there is that. But with a 16 month old it isn't quite the same as it used to be.


The pics are Vito getting us a funnel cake. Which looks just lovely, but there just wasn't enough sugared powder on it! Nico trying a bite, he thought it was okay. A fantastic picture of me and him - this picture is for sure going on my So Not Mom-a-licios blog! And right before we left Dada chased Nickers all around. Ich hoffe, dass Sie die Bilder genossen haben!

Blog Design Contest

To all of my fellow family members, friend and blog friends. I found this contest via day spending reading everyone else's blogs. Anyway, she is giving away a blog design if you enter by tomorrow. I wish I had known about it sooner. Click on the link and she gives you instructions. And if you have a blog and post about this contest on you blog you get another two entries! So thanks to Hilary for running the contest!

http://scrapblogdesignsbyhilary.blogspot.com/2008/10/contest.html

My 10 Things

During one of my many blog perusing sessions, I came across another family type blog. Well her most recent entry was the ten things she loves most about her son. How sweet! Of course, at that instant I felt like a mean mom because lately my nerves have been shot. ***side note - today Nico was in a great mood! are the teeth finally done being a sore subject?!*** Anyway, I thought that it would be a really nice thing to do for my son - let him know my favorite 10 things about him. Here they are (man, I hope I don't get sappy and start bawling!) & (these are in no particular order):
1. The teeth! I can't help but do anything I can to get him to flash me those jumbo sized tic-tacs!
2. Hearing him repeat a word that was said, especially when I think he isn't even paying attention, and then hearing him repeat it through out the day. I really can teach him!
3. I love his neck!!! It is soooo the best place to plant as many kisses as possible within 15 seconds - because that is about all of the time you have before he wiggles out of your arms!
4. Believe it or not, him walking is the greatest! Mainly because NOW he will walk right over to you and grab out for a hug! Irresistible!
5. I like his little camera "ham" poses. Once that camera comes out, he knows what it's for.
6. Another of my favorites is to dress him like Dada. Obviously shopping has long been a compulsive addiction of mine, and it has now been made worse because I love the little man clothes.
7. This may be an odd one to some, and may be not at all to others, but...the smell of his breath. I do not have a reason why. It must be a mom thing - at least I hope because I don't want to be a weirdo.
8. His name. I don't know why we struggled for so long (uhh, until 2 days after he was born!) to come up with something. I'm glad that we named him Nicholas, but Nico has really grown on me. They really do grow into their names.
9. His fuzzy, ducky hair! Yes, I know that there still isn't much of it. However, what he does have...OMG, it's like the softest down feathers you have ever snuggled with. What makes it so great is when you are holding him and he rests his head on your shoulder. Then, I just nuzzle my face in it.
10. Probably my most favorite thing that has to do with my son is Time. Yep, because when I think about time, I think about the future and it makes me excited to wonder what new things he will do that will become my new favorites. Ahhh, when he's good it's great, and when he's not so good, I still love him!

Cousin's Day

Last night we took Nico and his cousin Sammi to the Disney Playhouse Live Tour. What should I start with first? It was okay. I think it was a little under-produced for carrying the Disney name in it's title. I expected more from it. On the other hand, it was so much fun for Vito and I to take them. Sammi just had a blast! Poor Nico...I feel like that's all I say lately. He watched most of it, but he looked miserable doing it! Geez, will these teeth please just come in!!! Draining, just so draining for all of us. After the show, we went to Denny's to eat. Sammi wanted to go. And we had no energy left from dealing with Nico to take them to Chuck E Cheese's. So I made a special call, and found out that they were actually closed until next week because the pizza ovens were broke. Is there a reason I needed to create such a detailed faux phone call for a 4 year old? I think it just made me feel better not to let her down with the truth. Then we came home (finally and thank God!), where my son continued with his miserableness. At last, bath time! We were on the home stretch to putting him to bed. I feel bad that I wanted him to go to bed so badly, but he was also not letting Sammi have any fun with us. Once he was down, Sam and I decided that we were going to put curls in her hair. She's been wanting to use my Velcro rollers so bad. My plan was to put them in her wet hair, dry her hair while rolled and Voila! Well, once I had them all in she informed me that she didn't like the blow dryer because it is too loud. I tried to explain that her hair wouldn't curl if we didn't dry it. Uncle Vito to the rescue! She gave in when it was suggested that we would use the blow dryer on low AND Uncle Vito would hold her hand through out the whole ordeal. Perfect. Anyway, we did what we could, but it was still a little too damp to hold much of a curl. I did the best I could. She made it very clear with the look on her face when we were done - "Uh, where are the curls?" Busted. But with a little twisting and looping and a bobby pin we made something happen!
Then, this morning we walked to the park, went to the craft store, came home and made Nana a special surprise and then Sammi was off to soccer! An event filled day! I took a ton of pictures, so I am posting the link back to Kodak again so they can be viewed as a slide show. P.S. I have had some requests for the funny face...which is actually Dada's drunk face when playing poker. Nico's is from teething, but it still seems to run in the family. It's not that I think it's adorable - because it's not all that cute -it's just funny.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?UV=644582073390_562468740308&mode=fromsite&collid=41871001308.650229740308.1222544631600&conn_speed=1

Window Shopping Day

Today, I decided Nico and I would make a quick trip to Old Navy mid-morning. Well, now that he is a little marcher that's all he wants to do. I made the mistake of taking him out of the cart to let him wander a little...I couldn't get him back in of course! After that, I figured we would walk over to Barnes and Noble. Thought this might help him burn off some of that energy. And the timing was perfect because it was getting so close to nap-time!!! So these are just some pictures of him walking, window shopping and sitting in one of the "big" kid chairs at the book store. What a totally cute moment, and I almost missed it because I was too busy trying to pick out a puzzle. I was right next to that chair, he walked over, and climbed up into it himself. Then I realized he thought the puzzle was a book and he was trying to open it. How did he know to climb into the chair to read a book?!

15-month-old Update/Pictures

I uploaded some pictures of Nico on my Kodak Gallery file. Here is the link if you did not get the email - http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=j8gwvdo.4q8m14as&Uy=-63zn5f&Ux=0&UV=265022990124_215024730308

In other news, the Baby Gap Casting Call contest is here!!! I am so excited. It's a shot in the dark, but fun to still enter pictures. Of course, I missed the Photo Tour. It was today at the mall. They have a professional photographer there to take pictures. That would have been cool. You can still enter the contest. I haven't been on Gap's website lately, so I don't know if you can enter the contest via their site. If you go to my profile page here, you can email me and I can forward you the email I recieved. Or I suppose it is just as easy to Google it. Anyway, ages 0-10. I think it's up to 4 pictures you can submit. There's 4 different age catagories. Get that camera out and take some pictures! Enter all those cute kiddies!

Blog Updates

Okay, here is a random blog....
I have been getting inquiries as to why I follow blogs that aren't my close friends or family.... well, because I like them I suppose. I enjoy seeing what antics other mothers go through. Because it's usually the same as what I am dealing with at the time! So, that is my only reason. Also, for my Amato friends, I have tried to comment on your blog, but it is only available to team members. My sister-in-law thinks that I have made you up. So here is my comment..

I love the new background and picture of Brayden, and I enjoy seeing that our sons do just about the same things at the same age. Keep that cutie smiling!!!!

Auntie Lili....you should really update you blog with new pics of my youngest niece...I mean seriously, it isn't that hard to take a couple of snaps of the kid and post them. We don't even need you to comment we just want to see her! And my other girl Maya! Miss you all!

More video

I am struggling to load any of my videos, so I had to create another post. The second video is him getting caught in the baggy drawer basically.

Video Marathon

Here are some videos we have been saving up of Nico. Most of them make us laugh. Hope you enjoy them too!

Hit or Miss...

That's seems to be Nico's behavior lately, and it's wearing me down. When he's in a good mood he is just so darn cute and precious. But when he has been screaming for 20 minutes non-stop, every other 20 minutes, all day long, I often find myself thinking "How do I have any hair left right now?!" Of course, the fits are becoming more pronounced, louder, longer and more often during the day. Yesterday was no exception. We decided to take a little car ride downtown after lunch. Took a nice walk around the marina by Sea Port Village. It was enjoyable up to the point where I made the mistake of taking Nico out of the stroller. Well, all he wanted to do was push the stroller. I let him for a few minutes, but then it was time to start heading back. That didn't go over so well with him and he let us know. I must say this is the first time he has ever thrown a major fit in public. It came with ear-piercing, spine-tingling, face-cringing, screaming, plus tears, and the board stiffening posture. Poor Vito, he was really embarrassed. Not that I wasn't, but if we were both worried about all the people standing there staring at us, then there would have been no one to take care of the little alien baby I was holding. So we tried to turn the corner in between some buildings. I guess I was hoping to be a little less obvious. But, it didn't matter. Vito had been trying to get Nico buckled into the stroller, but because Nico kept acting like a stiff board it was becoming increasingly difficult and I think the tension was just becoming unbearable for both. It was at that exact moment that I made this decision and stated it out loud "We have to strap him in. I really don't give a ____(insert explicative here) about anyone else right now." There you have it. And I really didn't. AND had anyone said one word or rolled their eyes for me to catch...they would probably have walked away the ones crying. I think I realized that all of those people had the option/chance to walk away and not have to hear him. But did they consider that WE couldn't just walk away, and now we had to listen to it for half of the walk back?! Like that was something we were looking forward to. Also, if Vito and I really weren't making a valid attempt to try and calm him down and control him, then I would expect the undeserved snickers, etc. So as my favorite comedienne Kathy Griffin would say "Suck it!" I feel better now. I really needed to get that off of my chest. Especially since there have been so many tantrums lately. Oh it is just so mentally exhausting. But that is probably one of the main reasons we stay home so much, so that the rest of society doesn't have to deal with it. Believe me, I cannot stand hearing an out of control child. What makes it worse is when the parents do absolutely nothing. If you are making at least half an attempt I might not think nasty things in my head. That's part of why Vito and I will get up and go if Nico's behavior gets to that point. Anyway, as I sit here and write this, the Little Man himself is side-stepping over to me with the cutest grin on his face. It's just about enough to make me forget all about yesterday...at least for now.



In other news, Vito and I went to the Jack Johnson concert this weekend. It was fun. My first concert since I was 19. Just about as long for Vito. His set was a little shorter than I would have hoped for, but I am already dying to go back to any concert that interests me! Summer is quickly and obviously coming to an end. So sad. But that is the beauty of living in Southern California...the weather, no matter what season, is never bad! I'm totally excited about all the new shows on TV starting. Last night we watched Prison Break. I think next week are when more shows start....Grey's, Housewives. Not sure what I'm so super excited about, but let's hope it's worth it! I can think of more to go on about, but gotta go get the baby off of the toy chest!

Weekend Update

What a fun weekend! Our bro-in-law, Uncle Cody, came into town for the weekend. He is helping consult on the opening of a new restaurant in La Mesa. Vito's friend, Phil Giordano, has a brother Gabe, who just bought a restaurant and has totally renovated it. It has been re-named and is known as Gio Restaurant. So their Grand Opening was Friday night. Vito and I went out and bought some new duds. Auntie Crissy, Uncle Ryan and Sammi baby-sat for the night. And the rest was a night to remember. Ton of fun! My friend Regina met up with us...I don't look like I've been drinking do I? The rest of the weekend we all just hung out together for a little R&R!



So Neekers is loving the fact that he is getting the hang if this walking thing. He's so close and he finally knows it! This video is a little longer and of course his best walking is at the end. P.S I learned how to add a play list so you can listen to some tunes! Dang I'm getting good! And if you don't want to hear the music, but still want to hear the videos, scroll all the way down to the bottom and pause the playlist. Thanks!