One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

After going to the Grapevine Seaworld aquarium a few weeks ago, Nico has been crazy about FISH! Any time he sees something that even resembles a fish, he gets so excited and squeals "ish ish ish" and follows it up with puckering of his lips. It's one of the cutest things he does.

 

 

In order to make our little Nico happy and give him his fill of fish, we have gone to 4 different pet stores... just this week! It's our new thing.

 

 

One of the days, he was very adamant about having his golf club with him in the car. He was attached to it for a few days and wouldn't let it out of his sight. He actually slept with it for one nap. Ha!

 

Christmastime in downtown Grapevine

This Saturday, we went with Dave and Cindy to downtown Grapevine for a Christmas festival, shopping, and dinner at Esparza's. It had a lot of kid activities that Nico enjoyed and made for a great day!

 

He kept checking out Santa on stilts. There were kids dancing and it took him a few minutes to show off his dance moves too.

 

 

He loved this giant oranament and just kept pointing to it and saying "ball!"

 

 

 

 

 

He had fun and rode nearly every car and bike there.

 

 

 

Once it got dark outside, there was a show with the tree lighting and music. I think this was Nico's favorite part. He danced to the music and starred in amazement at the tree and lights.

 

 

 

It's so fun to introduce Nico to new things and to live through his eyes, especially around the holidays!

Quality cuddling time

Now that baseball season is picking up, this means more Mama and Nico quality time!

 

 Nico cuddled up with me on the couch for 10 min and watched some kid shows. Our previous record was maybe 30 seconds. Not like I want him to watch much tv, but I think it's cool to sit and hang out with him every now and then. 

 

 

I am totally in my glory here, soaking it all in. Couldn't be any more in love.

 

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

 

This past weekend, we put up the Christmas tree and decorations! It's always one of my favorite days of the year when we put up the tree and start listening to Christmas music. Nico has been fascinated by the tree. He has done a good job of not messing with it... so far! We still decided to keep the ornaments on the upper 2/3 of the tree, just to lessen his temptation. 

 

 

 

 

This week, he has started pointing to it and saying "tree" with such excitement. He also can answer "ho ho ho" when we ask him what Santa says. He's so cute. This is going to be the best Christmas yet.

 

 

Sunday funday at a new park

On this 80 degree, December day, we just had to find something outdoorsy to do. Soooo....... we took Nico to the park! David stumbled across an area that has 3 adjacent parks during his random driving through neighborhoods. (The things you get excited about as a parent...)

  

  

 

 

    

 

 

 

 Nico had a really fun time today! Seems like he enjoyed the slides the most. He ran around nonstop and was grinning ear to ear the entire time. Such a beautiful day with our beautiful boy.

 

Hi!!!

So after David's long weekend of being a Master Chef and my lack of desire to unveil my hidden talents in the kitchen, we decided to go to Chili's for dinner on Monday night. I gotta brag on our little guy, he is so well behaved in restaurants. He sits in his highchair throughout the meal, isn't too loud, and stays fairly well entertained. (If we keep food in front of him at all times, he just continues to cram it in. That's ultimately the plan we go with. We are so lucky.)

 

Today, in my usual, biased parental opinion, he was extra cute. He felt the need to say "hiii" to everyone that walked by. Literally, every person. A few of the lucky ones even got multiple, loud pitched hiii's as they walked by, if they chose not to promptly respond.

 

Gotta love his cheery, social personality.

 

 

 

Thanskgiving break

Thanksgiving was looking a little different this year! My parents' home of 27 years was no longer home. My parents made the move down to Austin a few weeks ago, after my dad received a job offer that he couldn't pass up. Sooooo.... the party was at our house for a handful of days!  

 

 

My family arrived on Wednesday, and we did some celebrating for my mom's 59th birthday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following day was Thanksgiving, so we (and when I say we, I mean David) did alllll of the cooking! He actually wouldn't let anyone come near the kitchen. He deep fried a turkey and it was delicious. The turkey situation was a little stressful at one point since the oil took an extra few hours just to heat up. Not sure if it was the wind or what. It ended up being worth the wait though!

 

 

  

 

Great Grandma Phyllis was our guest for today, which made the holiday a little extra special. Nico warmed up to her well, and she got to spend some quality time with the little guy.

 

 

We spent the day watching football, eating, watching more football, and eating some more. My mom had made a few pumpkin pies the day before, and that is always one of the things I look forward to most about Thanksgiving. Well, and the hanging out with family part too, I suppose. :)

 

We continued the fun on Friday, and a handful of us went out for a few beers early that afternoon at the Londoner. The big plan of the day was to go to Uncle Neil's house for a family get together. Nico and Caitlyn play pretty well together and are cute to watch. 

  

 

What started as a family get together turned into a surprise going away party for my parents, planned by us! It was very informal, and guests came throughout the night. I think about 10-15 people came all together, including a handful of my dad's work friends, some of Neil's friends, and a few other couples that they had known through the years. It was hard to find a good time to get all of their friends together with them moving near the holidays, but this turned out to be a nice little surprise! Dave and Cindy came over for a little while and then took Nico back to our house so we could stay a little longer.

 

On Saturday, my dad, Ryan, David, and I started the day out at Top Golf. I just love that place. My golf came is improving! It just happens to be at a very slow pace. Then, we mainly just hung out at the house and had Uncle Neil and Caitlyn over for dinner. As if David hadn't cooked enough awesome food this week, he grilled steaks and made TBP's! 

 

My parents and Ryan went home on Sunday and our little Thanksgiving break came to an end. It was cool all being under one roof again! Looking forward to the same at Christmastime!

Parenting fail with paint

In an attempt to be one of those crafty, creative moms, I actually made Nico homemade finger paint using flour, food coloring, and water. He's all about making messes with food, so I figured that this idea would be a hit! Well, I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking when I decided to do this, but in retrospect, I now know that it was a ridiculous idea. I don't recall his hand ever touching any of the poster board that I had ever so nicely taped to the sidewalk. Instead, he wanted to spill it all over (which only created a slippery mess for him to fall on) and run down the sidewalk with it.

Anyway, I get an A for effort, right?

Our Friday afternoon


We had a fun little lunch at Mi Cocina today with a nice view by the pond!



 



He was so excited to find these ducks! "Duh-duh-duh"



15 month old Nico

Nico had his 15th month checkup earlier this week, and Dr. Menchaca confirmed that he is indeed a perfect little angel.

Height: 32.25 (81%)
Weight: 23 lbs, 6 oz (33%)
Head circum: 18.5 (44%)

As you can see by his stats, we have a tall and lean guy. Who's child is this, anyways?!

The appointment was brief. We were encouraged to wean him off of his milk bottles and switch to sippy cups, which we already knew we were supposed to, but had just been minimally trying. It's hard to want to fix something that's not broken, since he does so well with the bottles. Much to our surprise though, he drank out of a sippy cup right after the appt and has since. We do have a milk snob on our hands though, as it must be warmed. I still have the fresh image of Nico looking at me with an attitude and abruptly handing back his milk after I gave it to him cold a few weeks ago.














15 month old Nico is so much fun. I am starting to notice more and more how excited I get over the littlest things. They are things that a non-parent would not understand how someone could get so excited over. Some examples that come to mind include...

• His ability to communicate "more." He will repeat "mo mo mo" while he flaps his arms and bends his knees. 
• His cute little animal sounds and recognition. Ooooh for cows. Hoo hoo hoo for monkeys. And the funniest pig impression that cannot be communicated by words. He recognizes a few other animals like duck (duh duh duh), brown bears, and doggies. 
• His eagerness to fist bump and high five, which are very important in our sports oriented family.
• Occasionally saying ewww when he goes #2 in his diaper.
• His sleeping positions. Normally he is sprawled out, but I had to go in and take a pic of this one with his little booty in the air. 

I say this every time I talk about him but one word describes him.. happy! He is always smiling and laughing! He has such a loving, easy going personality that I hope sticks with him all of his life. He loves books, carrying his broomstick around the house, anything to climb on or put in his mouth, being outside, and rides in the car (now that he can finally see the world in his new carseat.) We say that he is always very busy, because he will play with his toys for seconds at a time, and then he's on to the next thing. Did I mention he has nearly ALL of his teeth. Yep, a total of 16.

Couldn't be any prouder or love you more, Nico.

Happy Halloween!

We went out to Grapevine with our little monkey to surprise Dave and Cindy for Halloween. It was a very funny surprise actually. We had Nico standing up at the door with a little pumpkin pail, and David and I ran and hid around the corner. (Shockingly, Nico actually stood at the door. I would have lost that bet.) When Dave opened the door, he was like, "Aww, aren't you cute! Here ya go!" and put some candy in Nico's pail. Then he kinda looked around. After a few more seconds, David came around from the corner and Dave immediately looked down at Nico in disbelief. Dave said he thought that this kid seemed too young to be by himself and wondered where in the heck the parents were. Ha ha! (I don't blame him though, the monkey part hides his face pretty well. I won't give him too much grief for this one.) 

 




 

Nico tugged Sadie's collar around, repeatedly saying "doggie."






He wasn't going to let go of that candy!






 

And he kept trying to eat it with the wrappers on!

 














Nico ate a bunch of candy and stayed up wayyy past his bedtime. I'd say it was a great Halloween for him!