Christmas

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We had a great Christmas in Eugene (pictures here).  Christmas Eve was a day to remember: mom made a beautiful pumpkin pie for Christmas and set it on the back porch where a greedy little squirrel promptly came over and nibbled the entire top of the pie; Nicky grabbed onto a string of lights on the Christmas tree and somehow managed to short out all four strands; when we were trying to figure out what he had done, one of the bubble lights broke and spilled its permanent red dye all over the newly remodeled wall and baseboard; and then the dog jumped up on the counter during dinner and ate the roast.  Luckily we got all of our bad luck out of the way on Christmas Eve and had a perfect Christmas day.  Nicky loved all of his presents, and he got everything he asked for and more.  The only thing he didn’t get for Christmas were his two front teeth, but I think those might just be delayed by a day or two (hopefully!). 

The best part of the weekend was getting to hang out with grandma and grandpa and the uncles!  Nick also loved playing with Jack the Dog.  Since he can’t say “woof” yet, we taught him that dogs pant, so the whole weekend he wandered around the house after the dog panting.  He also had lots of fun learning the concept of “bye”.  He loved closing the gate and yelling “bye” and waving at us over and over: [flickr video=5308086996]

Jack the Dog was a little jealous of all the fun Nicky was having.  After watching Nicky sitting on my lap on the tire swing he thought it was his turn and jumped right up, unsolicited, on GranDougie’s lap: [flickr video=5309413897]

Thirteen Months

IMG_4728Thirteen months old (pictures here)!  So many changes this month. 

Around Thanksgiving he really picked up on walking and now he walks everywhere.  Life is so much more fun when you have your hands free to hang onto things when you motor around the house!

His babbling is so getting so much more complex now.  He definitely thinks he’s telling us things and gets pretty frustrated when we don’t get it.  He’s ready to be able to communicate with us.  Soon enough, little man!  He knows all kinds of noises now – monkeys, lions, elephants, sheep, kitties (of course) and motorcycles.  It’s amazing how fast he picks up new noises!