Weekend Recap

We stayed relatively close to home this weekend and Nicholas was somewhat crankier than usual because he was really tired and did not sleep well last night, but despite all that, we had a good time and Nicholas got some fun exploring adventures in.

Yesterday morning my mom joined us on a hike at the park we like just a few miles from our house. Despite his protests, Nicholas spent most of the hike in the backpack. He did not like this, although he protested less when I was carrying him, so I got the 25-pound weight for a lot of the time.

He did better at tolerating being in the backpack when we gave him things to hold and feel. So we passed up acorns and other seed pods, as well as leaves of different colors. And at a few points we let him get down and walk, which he loved. It was challenging terrain for him, but he did a pretty good job as long as he was holding Grandma's hand. For a while he was holding my hand too, which gave him better stability, but then he discovered that he could stop supporting himself and not fall because we were holding him up. And that was too cool, so he kept doing it and so going down to his knees. And so he was down to one hand.

At one point while he was walking, Nicholas and Grandma played with the bark on a dead and fallen tree. As you can imagine, Nicholas was captivated by this.

From 2010 October

This afternoon we went down to my parents' house so Nicholas could see Grandpa and Uncle Andrew as well. He was most excited about Andrew. He helped us clean the apartment because we told him we couldn't go see Andrew until we had picked up and vacuumed. And so he'd help pick up for a few minutes and then shout for Andrew. By the time we finished cleaning and then had to pack up stuff to take down he was losing patience with us. He was then very sad when we arrived and Andrew wasn't home yet. He kept going over to the baby gate and looking down the hallway towards Andrew's room and calling for him.

From 2010 October

But he had a good time. He helped my Mom and I snap beans for dinner. Well, he desperately wanted to help so instead of dropping the beans straight in the pot, we put them in a pile and he moved them to the pot. He learned to say "green bean" during this effort and was fascinated when my mom opened one up to show him the beans that are inside. Here he is after that lesson, trying to figure it out in typical Nicholas fashion. He took each bean out of that pod and then tried to put them back in.

From 2010 October

The little boy is up and crying for the second night in a row. I think it is the temperature this time of year. It gets cold overnight so we put warm pajamas on him, but when he first goes down his room is pretty warm and stuffy. But if we put him in summer pajamas to start he wakes up freezing in the middle of the night. But it is so temperate that it seems absurd to pay for having the climate control going. Anyway, that is my cue to go.