Fun but Exhausting

Nicholas and I had a wonderful day, but I'm beat. I had planned to get some work done tonight but since it is already 10 and I can barely keep my eyes open, I'm going to write a blog post and go to bed instead. I would yell at myself, but I don't have the energy.

Joe is in Boston for the weekend so I have Nicholas all to myself. Not a big deal, I figured. And it wouldn't be if it wasn't also the weekend (when we catch up on everything household related) and a weekend after we've spent weeks (okay, maybe months) just treading water. The bottom line is that in addition to the normal daily stuff I have laundry and an errand list a mile long to tackle. But I'm not really complaining because I finally get to spend time with Nicholas, who is just downright fun these days. I'm just going to assume my defense will go fine next week even if I don't get around to reading those last few books . . .

Anyway, so what did we do today? We started off the morning by going down to hang out with my parents. The original plan was to go for a hike, which didn't end up working out, but we did go for a walk around the neighborhood with Nicholas in the hiking backpack carrier to try it out. He felt like he weighed virtually nothing, which was nice, but I miss being able to see him. But he seemed to mostly enjoy it (especially when he saw neighbors' dogs, since he has decided he loves dogs), and he had a lot of fun playing with his ball and truck with my parents. That boy and his ball--he is a tad bit obsessed.

Then we came home, both took a nap and then did an epic Wegman's trip. The trip didn't start off well, since the fact that our entry ramp is closed for construction doubled the travel time. Nicholas is happy to chill in his carseat for a 10-minute trip, but 20 minutes starts to get on his nerves, especially on a day when he has already done two 30-minute drives. So he was really mad at me for the last part of the ride, but quickly forgave me when I took him out of the car. He then proceeded to be absolutely delightful . . . for the entire hour we were in the store.

He is just able to make so many more connections now. This is the first time he noticed the train that runs on tracks along the ceiling and man did he think that was cool! And he was very happy to hold items I gave him without putting them in his mouth or throwing them on the floor, which meant he could have new "toys" to play with as we went.

And I really don't think it is a coincidence that the item he was most excited to hold onto was the box of cornbread mix. We got some cornbread when we picked up BBQ a couple weeks ago and he loved it, so I figured I could get one of the mixes and whip up a few bisquits for him. Well, as soon as he saw the picture on the box he started smiling and laughing and wanted to hold that box the rest of the time.

He also got really excited about the balloons and pinatas when we walked past the little party section. He was reaching up for them, clearly asking for one. I was actually tempted since he was being so amazingly good and patient, but resolved instead to get him a balloon for his birthday. Don't worry, he will only be allowed to play with it with very close supervision, but he was just so excited by them!

When we got home he just wanted to get down and play with his ball and trucks and he was laughing so much that I couldn't resist playing with him. We put the Derby on and Nicholas thought the horsies were fascinating. I'm not quite sure what this kid's deal is with animals, but he seems to like them a lot right now. (Hence my resolve to take him to the zoo one day this week.) And it prompted him to temporarily forget his ball and remember about his rocking horse and go play with that for a bit. I doubt he made the connection between that horse and the ones on tv, but I think when I kept saying "horsey" about the horses on tv that prompted him because he connects that word with his rocking horse.

I then ate ice cream while he ate dinner (I am going to be so sad when he understands what ice cream, candy, and soda are and I can no longer have them in front of him), gave him a bath, put him to bed, made my own dinner, did dishes, went back down to the car to bring in the non-perishable groceries I hadn't messed with while carrying him, finally squeezed in a shower for the day, and realized my evening had disappeared.

But we sure did have a fabulous day. On tap for tomorrow is church, Target, and Babies R' Us. I really wish we could just go play at the park, but the boy is completely out of diapers at daycare so errands it is.

And, yes, I've been taking pictures, but I can't post them without Joe's computer, so look for those on Monday. I even have a video of Nicholas showing off his new "real" crawl.