A first for Mama and Nico

Nico and I went to Austin to see Dada and wrap up some things with the new house. Now that the end is so close, it really has gone by fast! And of course, since I am just one of many great procrastinators in this world, I have managed to leave everything to the last minute.

I got back Wednesday. That is corrext, I said I. Not we. I left Nico with Vito for a week. Although, he will have lots of help from the rest of the family there. I knew it wouldn't be easy. Can't say that I've ever been away from him for more then 2 days. But this is a week.

I was devastated before I even left there! And then I started looking through pictures and came across this...





And this... (Dada, please get his hair cut!)





And then Vito sent me these...

I sure hope I can see through all of these tears long enough to get my packing done!

Here's some more. A trip to the lake, a day in the pool and Nico's cousin Maya and Lola watching a movie.

Happy Birthday Nico!

Dear Nico-

Wow how these last two years seemed to take forever to get to today. Yet, at the same time came way too soon.

I have been thinking about this letter for some time now. I knew it would be hard for me to write it without crying. Just because I love you so much and I have so much I want to say to you.

This past year for you has shown all of us so many milestones. You got the hang of that crawling thing and moved onto walking behind all of your push cars. Then you realized that you didn't need any of those and could walk all on your own. As for now, well you have managed to learn how far, how high and how fast those little legs of yours can take you! Son, may your legs continue to take you further and higher and through all of the adventures in your life.

This past year you became aware of your own voice. In so many ways. The inner and the outer voice. "Cracker" seemed to be your first and favorite after "Dada". Soon, everything was a cracker. But that was okay, I always seemed to know what you meant. The sign language you were learning helped you learn the words that followed. Every month that would go by, I could see you focus more on wanting to know what everything was called. Now, the learning process has gone from monthly, to daily and sometimes hourly. I love listening to you talk. It is such a comforting sound. And without fail, always makes me laugh with whatever word combination you come up with. Son, may your outer voice continue to bring joy, laughter and happiness to you and all of those who surround you.

While you were learning to use your sounds to make words, we encountered a few bumps along the way. Knowing what you wanted to say but not having the right words lead us to a large number of communication barriers, also known as tantrums. It was difficult for anyone involved. My heart would break for you because I could see (and most definitely hear) your frustrations. Trying to explain to an impatient toddler what exactly a minute meant was not easy. The ear piercing screeching you would make was used on many occasions as your tool to get me to realize what you were feeling. When you were tired, hungry, mad, angry, happy, scared or just about any emotion you didn't have a word for. Thankfully, we've both become more aware of how you express your feelings. You know how to tug at heart strings, get out of trouble and let it be known you are not happy, all by using those cute facial expressions. Son, may your inner voice continue to help you develop a strong sense of self. Don't ever run from it or try to hide it, it is there to help you be a better person.

Over this past year you have grown leaps and bounds. You have went from my needy, little baby boy to an active, little toddler. You have become self-teaching, like learning to use forks and spoons. You have become energetic and are always up for playing outside or taking a walk. You have become humorous, like when you know a tickle to the foot will make someone laugh. You have become independent, as I have learned by watching you let yourself in and out of the house. You know how to be productive and helpful. You have a sense of organization and order. While easily entertained by others, you are also easily engaged in activities by yourself. You have learned how to be a gentle sweetheart, but are always willing to wrestle around on the floor.

There is so much more to you that we have a lifetime to learn. I know that things may not always be bubbles and fruit snacks. But right now, this is who you are. And while moments may not always be picture perfect, they definitely are memorable. There are also moments that I hope my heart never forgets and my memory never erases.

You make me laugh and cry, sometimes all at once. You make me frustrated and elated. You can exhaust every fiber in me in one moment. Yet, when I need strength, it is from you that I get it.

You make me feel proud, hopeful, protective and encouraged. You never hold anything against me and easily forget my mistakes, even though I am not as reciprocative. Even through all of this learning and growing, doing things right and doing things wrong. The one thing that makes me the happiest is that we get to start each day together. Everyday, I get a chance to be a better mother to you. Each day for us is filled with so much potential. So not one day goes by that I am not happy, thankful or grateful to be able to wake up and have you as my son.

Here's to having a Happy Birthday and many, many more!

He's a Big Boy Now!

Nico had his first haircut last weekend. Vito needed one of his own, so I decided we would give it a go!

I was a little nervous. And I really didn't think it needed it. I mean it's not like he has a thick head of hair.

However, too many people disagreed with me.

So off came the locks. And now. Well, now my little boy really looks like a little boy!

Easter Break

Nico and I went to Austin for Easter and Daddy's Birthday! 35 already! That's half of 70. We had lots of fun. Nico basically had the time of his life. I mean constant companionship from somebody everyday. He played everyday with Lola and Maya and couldn't have been happier. He also had a great time playing in the cul-de-sac, whether it was alone or with the neighborhood kids.

It was a nice break for me to have Vito pitch in with Nico when he could. He is still really busy with his new job, but he loves it. And that means a lot!

I managed to make it to the design center for the new house and pick most of the things out. But there is still stuff that now I am wishing I had waited on. It feels like it's never going to get here...the house being done. Or even started. We definitely have out hands full between the two of us and being in two states!

I didn't take many pictures while I was there, but here are some from Easter. Nico had a little crush on one of the neighbor girls. It was cute. Although, little Annabella at school will be sad. She is on him like white on rice. Or brown on rice if that's the kind you eat.

The train picture was the day we took the 3 cousins to Zilker Park. They have a train ride there and it was the perfect day for it! Nico loves trains so we thought he would really get a kick out of riding one. It wasn't until about half way through that he realized he was actually on the train. Then he was "choo-choo'ing" the rest of the way.

Hang Time with Daddy

Vito came into town for a last minute visit. We had a great weekend! No plans, no "To Do" list, no work. Just relaxing and spending time together. So of course what else is there to do when the weather is beautiful? Head on out to the park!





Sorry Dada, I managed to delete the slide pictures from my Flickr account. I don't understand how I can't get the hang of pictures and videos! Nico talks up a storm now. Granted you can only understand about a quarter of everything he says. But he's trying real hard to communicate with us. It's pretty easy to make him laugh too. Hopefully he'll have his Daddy's sense of humor...or maybe we don't want that?

Move Over Baby Toys!!!

Nico has made his way to the toddler toys at the park! Vito and I have tried to get him to go down the slide when we take him to the park. He really had no interest in it. He was just fine climbing up and down the stairs and getting trampled by the other kids.


That was until today. I would suggest muting the music and don't set the voulme too high.

I think that it may have felt odd to him to try and go down on his bottom. So he kept trying to crawl up from the bottom. Once he was half way up I would tell him to slide and he loved it. After 3 times, he ran around to the back and I thought for sure he wouldn't go down. But once he went down on his belly, there was no turning back.


Good job Little Buddy!

An Apple A Day....

The other day, at snack time, I had asked Nico if he would like grapes or an apple. Well he decided to grab the apple. I asked him for it and told him I would cut it up. To which he replied, "No." He started trying to bite into it and was having no success. I again asked him for the apple, but he was not about to give it up! So he left the kitchen and got comfy on the couch. And much to my amazement, this is what I saw when I came into the living room.





Of course, all I could think of was if there was a way I could get it from him so that I could wash it off. That's right! I didn't even get a chance to rinse it. But, he was being so good and looked so cute that I decided a few germs weren't going to be the end of the world!


He's something else now-a-days. For the most part, he's pretty fun to have around. He loves to sing the ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Mary Had a Little Lamb and Old McDonald. He knows how to count to five, and thanks to "Da-deee" can also count in increments of five up to fifteen. If you say "Give me 5!" He will count them out for you!


He is very lovey and cuddly, but definitely has his days. He has gotten very good at name associate with both sides of the family. I can pull up a picture and he knows who they are. All in all he is your typical little toddler boy. Only cute as a button!

Car Fun

So I am having trouble with Blogger...what else is new...and my video camera. Guess that means I get a new one.

Here is another video of Nico. This is a Christmas present from Uncle Ryan, Auntie Crissy and Sammi. He. loves. it.

Of course, it doesn't fit all that well in the living room, but he manuevers it all over the place, so I guess there is "just enough" room to play with it.

The next video I post, he'll probably already have his license as quick as he's growing!

Hi Dada

Nico is just growing by the minute. I already have the feeling that he is going to be sick of me by the time he is 13. He has a face that I could kiss every 60 seconds! He's just so yummy!



Things have been okay since Vito has been gone. The first couple of days were the hardest. It was Dada this and Dada that all. day. long. But you'll be glad to know he doesnt' ask about you at all now honey! Just playing. He is still confused because Vito's truck is right in front of the house, and its like he's just waiting to see him come up the steps.



And without further ado, here is some video for Daddy. And of course, for everyone else too.

Some late Christmas pictures

I have so many pictures to go through from Christmas and New Year's. But yet somehow, a lot of them didn't turn out. So I am going to start with these. I have been neglecting this blog and will have to start keeping up on it so Dada can get his Nico fix for the next couple of months.

I am hoping to start taking ore pictures of our ever growing toddler. He 20 months old, and going through all of those phases. He's funny, he temperamental, he laughs, he cries. Some days are never ending, and some days end too soon. The other night I was fortunate enough to be the first to get an "I love you." That was the best early Valentine's Day gift ever!

That's it for now. But I promise to come back and update more!

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!