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| From 2012 June |
Think he likes it?
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| From 2012 June |
He went right to sleep tonight, even with how excited and wired he was.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the full bed just after it was set up:
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| From 2012 June |
Showing posts with label Photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photos. Show all posts
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Big Boy Bed!
The bed was delivered this morning, after Nicholas slept one night in a sleeping bag. He talked about the bed this morning when he woke up, and it was the first thing he mentioned when I arrived at school to pick him up. Needless to say, he was excited to get home:
Think he likes it?
He went right to sleep tonight, even with how excited and wired he was.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the full bed just after it was set up:
Think he likes it?
He went right to sleep tonight, even with how excited and wired he was.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the full bed just after it was set up:
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Put Me in, Coach!
Man, does this kid like baseball. I barely even had to push it!
A few weeks ago, rummaging through the closet, I found his tee and bat safely stashed for the winter and told him we could play now that the weather is nice. And it's his new favorite activity. We've played each weekend day it was sunny for about an hour each time. He loves hitting, he loves chasing the ball, he even enjoys taking turns.
Most impressive to me is how much he's improved each time. When we first bought it for him last year he was holding the bat upside down, and we had to do a little work on the proper way to hold a bat the first time we took the tee out this year. Now he's got it down pat:
And as I said above, he enjoys taking turns, in no small part because he gets to help enforce the rules that we established the first time (mostly at his impetus, I must say). So here's a photo of him taking joy in putting the ball back up on the tee:
And yes, he insisted on wearing sunglasses because Daddy was wearing sunglasses. Mine don't have Lightning McQueen on the side, unfortunately. Oh well. Finally, some video which opens with Nicholas doing his impression of his father doing an impression of his father (etc.) being dopey and pretending to hit the ball out of sight when, in fact, he missed:
A few weeks ago, rummaging through the closet, I found his tee and bat safely stashed for the winter and told him we could play now that the weather is nice. And it's his new favorite activity. We've played each weekend day it was sunny for about an hour each time. He loves hitting, he loves chasing the ball, he even enjoys taking turns.
Most impressive to me is how much he's improved each time. When we first bought it for him last year he was holding the bat upside down, and we had to do a little work on the proper way to hold a bat the first time we took the tee out this year. Now he's got it down pat:
 |
| From 2012 May |
And as I said above, he enjoys taking turns, in no small part because he gets to help enforce the rules that we established the first time (mostly at his impetus, I must say). So here's a photo of him taking joy in putting the ball back up on the tee:
 |
| From 2012 May |
And yes, he insisted on wearing sunglasses because Daddy was wearing sunglasses. Mine don't have Lightning McQueen on the side, unfortunately. Oh well. Finally, some video which opens with Nicholas doing his impression of his father doing an impression of his father (etc.) being dopey and pretending to hit the ball out of sight when, in fact, he missed:
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| From 2012 May |
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Super Bowl XLVI
Nicholas has been psyched about the Super Bowl for two weeks, to watch the Giants one more time this season. (I've created a monster ... mwahahaha!!!) He wore his Giants t-shirt today, definitely for the last time, assuming that he grows, you know, at all between now and September.
Anyway, it became a playoff tradition/superstition to share a spinach-artichoke dip appetizer before the game, and then to eat dinner in the living room with the game on. That may explain part of why Nicholas was so excited, but whatever. Here we are with tonight's spread:
Nicholas was only allowed to stay up until early in the second quarter, but he had a great time watching (not least because the Giants were ahead 9-3 when he went to bed).
He's also gotten the shutter bug ... bug. At one point he jumped up and ran over to the cabinet on which his camera sits, brought it over, and started taking pictures of the TV.
He was playing with the settings, which include all sorts of fun borders, fake hats, etc. that you can overlay on the photo. He very carefully selected this, and then took a blurry portrait of Giants coach Tom Coughlin:
What prescience from the boy! I'm just disappointed we can't stress our way through a game again for seven months! But he had fun and the Giants won, so it's all good.
Anyway, it became a playoff tradition/superstition to share a spinach-artichoke dip appetizer before the game, and then to eat dinner in the living room with the game on. That may explain part of why Nicholas was so excited, but whatever. Here we are with tonight's spread:
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| From 2012 Feb |
Nicholas was only allowed to stay up until early in the second quarter, but he had a great time watching (not least because the Giants were ahead 9-3 when he went to bed).
He's also gotten the shutter bug ... bug. At one point he jumped up and ran over to the cabinet on which his camera sits, brought it over, and started taking pictures of the TV.
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| From Nicholas Camera |
He was playing with the settings, which include all sorts of fun borders, fake hats, etc. that you can overlay on the photo. He very carefully selected this, and then took a blurry portrait of Giants coach Tom Coughlin:
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| From Nicholas Camera |
What prescience from the boy! I'm just disappointed we can't stress our way through a game again for seven months! But he had fun and the Giants won, so it's all good.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Nicholas at the Wedding
Sarah and I realized that at least half of the people who read the Chronicle were present when these photos were taken. So this one's for the non-Uncle Brian and Aunt Shayna family and friends. Sarah may post a more complete account of the weekend (or I might, who knows), but for now, we wanted to give you a glimpse of Nicholas in his tuxedo:
Here's the whole family outside the wedding venue just before the ceremony, all of us looking dapper:
And here's one of Nicholas surveying the dance floor at the reception:
Here's the whole family outside the wedding venue just before the ceremony, all of us looking dapper:
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| From 2011 October |
And here's one of Nicholas surveying the dance floor at the reception:
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| From 2011 October |
Think he was tired?
A great time was had by all, especially Uncle Brian and Aunt Shayna. Nicholas was exhausted by the end of the weekend, but how could you trade a few hours' sleep for the adoring attention of aunts, uncles, and cousins?
EDIT: Photo credits go to Grandpa Richard (below) and his friend Rob (above photo).
EDIT: Photo credits go to Grandpa Richard (below) and his friend Rob (above photo).
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Take Me Out to the Ballgame . . . and the Zoo
You would think that going to the zoo would have been the highlight of Nicholas' weekend, but then we one-upped ourselves by taking him to a baseball game the following day.
In our efforts to explore our new surroundings and pile in all sorts of fun before Joe leaves for Philly, we spent Saturday morning at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, RI and Sunday afternoon at a Worcester Tornadoes game. They were both activities that scored pretty high, high enough we plan to go back to each, but the humidity and scorching sun did make them a little less fun than otherwise.
We liked this zoo better than Franklin Park. The layout was better, there were more animals, and many of the animals were close, like we've gotten used to at the Baltimore Zoo.
As Joe said, you know it is a good zoo because we were at a zoo in the heat and he wasn't complaining. In fact, he was even smiling.
The baseball game was also fun, mostly because Nicholas actually got really into pieces of it. He sat and watched close to 2 innings and had enough fun searching for the mascot and eating stadium food that we stayed for the entire game. Yes, I am shocked too. And he can now identify the pitcher and batter and explain that the pitcher throws the ball and then the batter tries to hit it. He has no interest, however, in what happens after the batter hits the ball.
But, by far his favorite parts were the mascot, a dog named Twister
the hot dogs
and the clapping.
And, for some reason or another, a few innings after we had him pose for a couple pictures
he decided that we needed to do more, and went down to stand on the stairs and insisted I take a picture. (he's looking directly into the sun here)
He then made Joe join him
Not that I'm complaining or anything.
UPDATE (JOE): Sarah left out a very salient detail. Nicholas was very surprised to learn that everyone knows the words to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," but was overjoyed that we all got to sing it together at the 7th-inning stretch. So much so that we continued to sing it, over and over, until sometime in the bottom of the 8th (that's about 20-30 minutes for the non-baseball fans). And then we sang it several times on the car ride home. And again coming home from school this afternoon.
In our efforts to explore our new surroundings and pile in all sorts of fun before Joe leaves for Philly, we spent Saturday morning at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, RI and Sunday afternoon at a Worcester Tornadoes game. They were both activities that scored pretty high, high enough we plan to go back to each, but the humidity and scorching sun did make them a little less fun than otherwise.
We liked this zoo better than Franklin Park. The layout was better, there were more animals, and many of the animals were close, like we've gotten used to at the Baltimore Zoo.
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| From 2011 August |
 |
| From 2011 August |
As Joe said, you know it is a good zoo because we were at a zoo in the heat and he wasn't complaining. In fact, he was even smiling.
 |
| From 2011 August |
The baseball game was also fun, mostly because Nicholas actually got really into pieces of it. He sat and watched close to 2 innings and had enough fun searching for the mascot and eating stadium food that we stayed for the entire game. Yes, I am shocked too. And he can now identify the pitcher and batter and explain that the pitcher throws the ball and then the batter tries to hit it. He has no interest, however, in what happens after the batter hits the ball.
 |
| From 2011 August |
 |
| From 2011 August |
 |
| From 2011 August |
But, by far his favorite parts were the mascot, a dog named Twister
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| From 2011 August |
 |
| From 2011 August |
the hot dogs
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| From 2011 August |
and the clapping.
 |
| From 2011 August |
And, for some reason or another, a few innings after we had him pose for a couple pictures
 |
| From 2011 August |
he decided that we needed to do more, and went down to stand on the stairs and insisted I take a picture. (he's looking directly into the sun here)
 |
| From 2011 August |
He then made Joe join him
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| From 2011 August |
Not that I'm complaining or anything.
UPDATE (JOE): Sarah left out a very salient detail. Nicholas was very surprised to learn that everyone knows the words to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," but was overjoyed that we all got to sing it together at the 7th-inning stretch. So much so that we continued to sing it, over and over, until sometime in the bottom of the 8th (that's about 20-30 minutes for the non-baseball fans). And then we sang it several times on the car ride home. And again coming home from school this afternoon.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Midwest 2011 Day 6
Today was mostly another travel day.
We spent the morning in Louisville and Nicholas and Grandpa O. had a great time as I worked to get us packed up and out the door. Whatever the game is they were playing at lunch, it was apparently hilarious.
The plan was to drive as far as Dayton, spend a couple hours at the Children's Museum there, then drive the rest of the way to Ottoville. Between leaving a half hour late, lots and lots of construction and blinding rain, we didn't make it to Dayton until an hour before the museum closed. I debated even stopping at that point, but I'm glad we did. We were rushed and Nicholas would have liked more time, but it was a good hour.
After our experience in Wheeling, I walked in and immediately thought, "Now this is a children's museum." The substance of most of the sections went over Nicholas' head because it was aimed at older kids (and with a very strong environmentalist bent), but he could do probably 90% of the things, even if he got something completely different out of the activity.
The water table is a go-to favorite:
He loved the slide and each time he started down he proclaimed, "Here he comes!" I must have said that some other time.
But by far his favorite section (even above the meerkats) was the recycling> section which had a large truck, which he proclaimed to be a garbage truck. He kept going back to play with all the different buttons and levers.
Nicholas was upset to leave, but was soon pacified by the knowledge that we were going to see Aunt Stacy. We made it the rest of the way no problem, and Nicholas quickly warmed up to anyone who was willing to play basketball with him. He did have a couple incidents (such as falling off a short brick wall and tripping down a cement step) because he was so tired, but in the end the only damage was two scrapes. And now he is sleeping peacefully, where hopefully he will stay.
Nicholas has had so much fun with everyone on this trip and spent the drive today happily proclaiming that we were going to different people's houses. He would yell out that we were going to Emily's house, then Aunt Mary's house, then Grandpa O.'s, then Grandma and Grandpa M.'s. I am glad he is having such positive experiences with everyone, but it does make me feel bad that he develops these relationships and then doesn't see them again for 6 months. He has also started asking plaintively to go home, although he is quickly distracted from this by reference to any of the people he has spent time with this week.
But for now we are pretty stationery for at least a couple days.
We spent the morning in Louisville and Nicholas and Grandpa O. had a great time as I worked to get us packed up and out the door. Whatever the game is they were playing at lunch, it was apparently hilarious.
 |
| From 2011 June |
The plan was to drive as far as Dayton, spend a couple hours at the Children's Museum there, then drive the rest of the way to Ottoville. Between leaving a half hour late, lots and lots of construction and blinding rain, we didn't make it to Dayton until an hour before the museum closed. I debated even stopping at that point, but I'm glad we did. We were rushed and Nicholas would have liked more time, but it was a good hour.
After our experience in Wheeling, I walked in and immediately thought, "Now this is a children's museum." The substance of most of the sections went over Nicholas' head because it was aimed at older kids (and with a very strong environmentalist bent), but he could do probably 90% of the things, even if he got something completely different out of the activity.
The water table is a go-to favorite:
 |
| From 2011 June |
He loved the slide and each time he started down he proclaimed, "Here he comes!" I must have said that some other time.
 |
| From 2011 June |
But by far his favorite section (even above the meerkats) was the recycling> section which had a large truck, which he proclaimed to be a garbage truck. He kept going back to play with all the different buttons and levers.
 |
| From 2011 June |
Nicholas was upset to leave, but was soon pacified by the knowledge that we were going to see Aunt Stacy. We made it the rest of the way no problem, and Nicholas quickly warmed up to anyone who was willing to play basketball with him. He did have a couple incidents (such as falling off a short brick wall and tripping down a cement step) because he was so tired, but in the end the only damage was two scrapes. And now he is sleeping peacefully, where hopefully he will stay.
Nicholas has had so much fun with everyone on this trip and spent the drive today happily proclaiming that we were going to different people's houses. He would yell out that we were going to Emily's house, then Aunt Mary's house, then Grandpa O.'s, then Grandma and Grandpa M.'s. I am glad he is having such positive experiences with everyone, but it does make me feel bad that he develops these relationships and then doesn't see them again for 6 months. He has also started asking plaintively to go home, although he is quickly distracted from this by reference to any of the people he has spent time with this week.
But for now we are pretty stationery for at least a couple days.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Wordless Wednesday: How'd That Happen So Fast?
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| From Peanut's Blog |
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| From Nicholas Is Born |
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| From 2010 May |
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| From 2011 May |
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Daddy Day Care
Nicholas's day care was closed today for Easter Monday, so he and I are having a fun day at home (so fun that he collapsed into his crib exhausted ... here's hoping for a long nap!). I'd initially planned to run a few errands, like going to Target and the grocery store, and maybe, just maybe, taking him to the zoo—a huge sacrifice for me, if you know how I feel about zoos.
But we ended up doing that one better: Alice came over to play for the morning! Her daycare was closed today too, but unexpectedly, so I agreed to watch her for the morning so Katie could get in some extra work. We had a very fun morning, but I realized about 10:00 that when you're accustomed just to one child, dealing with two is just exhausting.
On the bright side, we had a very good morning! Alice felt right at home immediately, though after about 10 minutes we had a little hint of possible trouble as she realized that her Mommy hadn't just gone out to the car, and was actually gone. But her mood brightened when I showed her one of Nicholas's puzzles (the one with animals), and after that it was almost entirely smooth sailing. We played puzzles, we played basketball, we rode horsies, we read books, we watched 10 minutes of Thomas the Tank Engine (I just needed them to calm down!), we had grapes for a snack, we had cheese sticks for a snack, we sang songs, we read more books
They also posed for one picture because they had cutely decided to sit next to one another:
There were some funny moments, which is great because they mostly developed out of Alice and Nicholas interacting with one another. My favorite was the two of them sitting on the couch as above. Nicholas started to rock in order to hit the back of the couch with his head. I looked at him and said, "crazy boy!" Alice got a look of glee in her eyes, started to rock herself, and announced, "I'm a crazy boy too!" Oh, those kids.
They both wolfed down lunch—macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, peas and carrots, pears, and milk, of course—which was great. Makes life much easier. I realized when Alice arrived that we'd forgotten to bring up the booster seat from the car, which made things a little trickier. But Alice gamely tried to eat while sitting just in a real chair while I scrambled to find something that could substitute for a booster seat (by the way, we've found one reason that it's bad they don't make phone books anymore). I eventually came up with something:
Don't recognize that? It's a 6-pack of rolls of toilet paper. Firm yet soft—perfect for a chair!
The morning wore me out, but in a good way. And it did Nicholas in: he's been napping peacefully for two hours, better than he has in several days.
NB: I only titled the post after the awful movie because it showed up in the TV listings while I was eating lunch. I chose not to watch it.
But we ended up doing that one better: Alice came over to play for the morning! Her daycare was closed today too, but unexpectedly, so I agreed to watch her for the morning so Katie could get in some extra work. We had a very fun morning, but I realized about 10:00 that when you're accustomed just to one child, dealing with two is just exhausting.
On the bright side, we had a very good morning! Alice felt right at home immediately, though after about 10 minutes we had a little hint of possible trouble as she realized that her Mommy hadn't just gone out to the car, and was actually gone. But her mood brightened when I showed her one of Nicholas's puzzles (the one with animals), and after that it was almost entirely smooth sailing. We played puzzles, we played basketball, we rode horsies, we read books, we watched 10 minutes of Thomas the Tank Engine (I just needed them to calm down!), we had grapes for a snack, we had cheese sticks for a snack, we sang songs, we read more books
They also posed for one picture because they had cutely decided to sit next to one another:
 |
| From 2011 April |
There were some funny moments, which is great because they mostly developed out of Alice and Nicholas interacting with one another. My favorite was the two of them sitting on the couch as above. Nicholas started to rock in order to hit the back of the couch with his head. I looked at him and said, "crazy boy!" Alice got a look of glee in her eyes, started to rock herself, and announced, "I'm a crazy boy too!" Oh, those kids.
They both wolfed down lunch—macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, peas and carrots, pears, and milk, of course—which was great. Makes life much easier. I realized when Alice arrived that we'd forgotten to bring up the booster seat from the car, which made things a little trickier. But Alice gamely tried to eat while sitting just in a real chair while I scrambled to find something that could substitute for a booster seat (by the way, we've found one reason that it's bad they don't make phone books anymore). I eventually came up with something:
 |
| From 2011 April |
Don't recognize that? It's a 6-pack of rolls of toilet paper. Firm yet soft—perfect for a chair!
The morning wore me out, but in a good way. And it did Nicholas in: he's been napping peacefully for two hours, better than he has in several days.
NB: I only titled the post after the awful movie because it showed up in the TV listings while I was eating lunch. I chose not to watch it.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Happy Easter
We had a very busy and very fun Easter weekend. Most of Saturday was spent getting ready for Easter. (Well, after Nicholas and I spent an hour and a half playing at the public library in the morning.) Nicholas helped me make the batter for the bunny cake and then learned the wonders of licking beaters.
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| From 2011 April |
The prep was fun, but for some reason the cake completely fell apart when I tried to dump it out of the pans. I have neither the creativity nor the domestic ingenuity to be able to turn this mess into a bunny cake.
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| From 2011 April |
So I did what any desperate woman would do . . . I baked another cake. And this one turned out much better:
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| From 2011 April |
But since I couldn't waste a perfectly good cake, we had two Easter cakes:
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| From 2011 April |
And then, because we are a little bit crazy, we let Nicholas help dye Easter eggs. Here is the video of the first couple minutes of the adventure.
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| From 2011 April |
Nicholas did a really good job overall. There was one egg, however, where we got complacent and didn't remind him "gentle, gentle, gentle" the whole time as he put it in and he started to set it in nicely and then suddenly lifted it up and dropped it in, splashing green dye everywhere. Using the muffin tins instead of the mugs for him worked incredibly well because he could just roll the eggs around in the dye. His hands got pretty gross, but I was able to get all the color off before church this morning, so no harm.
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| From 2011 April |
Today he woke up to discover that the Easter bunny had brought him a basket. And man did that boy dive after the chocolate. In this video I was trying to get him to talk about the Easter bunny and what he got, but as you can see, he only had interest in one thing:
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| From 2011 April |
I never got around to buying Nicholas an Easter outfit and had come to accept that he was going to wear a polo shirt and khaki cargo pants. Then I remembered the box of hand-me-downs that we hadn't broken into yet because it was all 2T stuff and mostly summer wear (hand-me-downs from a cousin who lived in Texas). And sure enough, in that box was this snazzy suit, perfect for Easter:
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| From 2011 April |
Doesn't he look cute? Here he is with his Daddy after church:
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| From 2011 April |
Because we were in the hall for the family mass and Joe was cantoring, after everyone had left Nicholas was allowed to play the piano for a minute.
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| From 2011 April |
Seriously, look at that form!
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| From 2011 April |
Although I personally think it is the shoes that make this picture.
This afternoon Nicholas woke up to a delightful surprise--Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Andrew, and cousin Mary were here! We then went outside to have an Easter egg hunt. And Nicholas got really into it. Holidays are getting so much more fun as he gets older.
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| From 2011 April |
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| From 2011 April |
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| From 2011 April |
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| From 2011 April |
Mommy with her little boy:
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| From 2011 April |
The Easter bunny brought Nicholas some balloons in his basket, so after everyone left we played with balloons for a bit.
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| From 2011 April |
There are a couple videos of our balloon play, as well as a bunch more pictures of the weekend in the April Gallery.
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