Crazy Boys!

Nicky and Kellen love playing together, but this weekend was the first time that Nicky was confident enough in his crawling to really interact with Kellen.  They had such a blast chasing each other around the house.  I think Nicky was happier than I’ve ever seen him and it’s clear from the way that he looks at Kellen that Kellen is his idol!

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North Carolina

We just got back from a fantastic long weekend in North Carolina to celebrate Uncle Nick’s career achievements (pictures here).    We’re all VERY proud of Nick’s accomplishments and we were so glad that we could be there to celebrate with him.  Nicky was a super trooper and was a perfect angel on the long flights and at all of the late night meals and the various graduation events.  I think he was just in seventh heaven with all the attention he was getting.  He showed off all of his skills crawling all over uncle Nick’s beautiful house, eating teething crackers and sharing them with the moose sock puppet we brought on the trip, practicing pulling up and getting ready to cruise, and doing some very serious analytical work practicing hanging his toys on the curtain rods.  We had such a good time seeing everyone!

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Nine Months Old

IMG_3468What a month (pictures here)!  This month was full of firsts.  Nicky has mastered crawling – he was stationary one day and then crawling from one end of the house to the other a few days later.  By now it’s hard to imagine that he’s only been crawling a few weeks — there’s almost nothing that will stop him and we have to keep a close eye on him all day long.  Hugo’s also keeping a close eye on Nicky, but surprisingly not out of fear…those two have hit it off amazingly and Hugo is super tolerant of any kind of petting Nicky gives him.  The cutest is when they crawl side by side with their heads together like they’re plotting some mischief.  IMG_3207

Among the other firsts: pulling up, finger food,  and (finally) practicing “ma-ma-ma” consonants (that last one has been one of my favorites!).  Nicky’s also started understanding a few words here and there, which is fun because we can finally start to communicate — even it’s only by getting the appropriate response when we say “wiggle”.  What a lot of things to learn!

Jet Setting Baby

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Nicky had a remarkable first this week – he came with me on a 24 hour business trip to Oregon.  He got to see uncle Andrew and uncle Coleman for a little bit and spent the day playing with grandma while I went to meetings (poor grandpa was stuck in jury duty).  He and I both loved seeing everyone but we’re also both exhausted from our excursion. 

We learned a few important lessons: 

  1. Nick does not like room 1002 at the Westin in Portland.  Every time he passed through the door he started whining.
  2. Nick does like playing in the water fountain/wading pool they have in downtown Portland.   It was so cute watching him try to catch the water that was shooting out of the fountain.
  3. Nick is much harder to fly with now that he’s mobile.  He’s not content to sit still in your lap and play with the fun toys you brought – he wants to move!
  4. Nick can be a very good boy when he stays up late.  We went out to dinner with the uncles and grandma on Wednesday night and were out a bit later than normal.  Nick was busy charming the whole restaurant and wiggling his little head like mad to make sure all the attention was on him despite having visibly sleepy eyes.  What a trooper!
  5. Nick can be a disaster when he stays up late.  On the plane ride home on Thursday night (second night of staying up late), Nick was an exhausted, screaming, puddle of tears and refused to sleep at all on the plane.  Yes, I was that mom and he was that baby…yikes.  The poor guy next to us just found out that his wife is 6 weeks pregnant but I think after traveling next to us he is probably having second thoughts. 
 
I think Nick and I will be paying the price for the next few days until we get some good recovery sleep under our belts.  We should be back on track just in time for our next flight to North Carolina!  At least daddy will  be with us on that flight!