Nicky’s Rules Of Eating

  1. Three spoons are required for eating baby food.  One for each of Nicky’s hands and another for mommy/daddy to supplement. 
  2. Forks are preferred over any other utensil (including fingers).  Anything can be eaten with a fork: applesauce, peas, you name it.  It just takes a bit more perseverance. 
  3. Once an item is on a fork or spoon does not mean that it has to stay there.  It can be transferred to the mouth by hand if needed. 
  4. Mom and dad are NOT allowed to put fork food into Nick’s mouth.  He will do it himself, thank you. 
  5. Bigger is better.  Carrot spears are infinitely more preferable than cut up carrots.  Same goes for cheese sticks and any other number of foods.
  6. When eating something delicious, always say “yum” after every bite.
  7. And don’t forget, if you don’t like it, it belongs on the floor.  As far away from the high chair as possible. 

[flickr video=5351338082]

Children’s Zoo

IMG_4792 IMG_4780

We spent a cold, wintry day at our local children’s zoo this weekend (pictures here).  All the zoo animals were hiding from the cold, so that part wasn’t very fun, but the kids rides were awesome.  Poor Nicky was a little terrified the first ride he went on, until about half way through when he realized how much fun he was having.  By the second ride he was practically pushing us away so he could get busy steering his fire truck and ringing the bell.  By far the highlight of the day was the petting zoo:

[flickr video=5363511561]

14 Months

IMG_4854 Wow…this month was hard (pictures here).  Nicky has learned the art of the temper tantrum!  I’m sure it’s an important step to growing up and becoming independent, but do we really have to go through all that?  I was hoping we could just skip straight to the end result…and now you tell me it just doesn’t work that way?  🙂

It wasn’t all bad though.  Nicky has started crawling into our laps whenever he can and has (finally) started giving us kisses.  In fact, as I’m writing this, Nicky climbed up onto the couch by himself (a first) and climbed right into my lap to start happily boucing like cowboy riding a balump-a-lump (aka horse).  We love our little cuddle bunny! 

He’s talking so much more and is making lots of noises that sound very close to actual words.  His first word was “bye-bye” and he says it with a cute little wave.  He still loves motorcycles, but has also added trucks, buses, and airplanes to the things he loves.  When he sees something particularly cool, like  a blimp, he shouts out something that sounds a lot like “Oh wow!”  I can’t wait to hear what else is going to come out of his mouth.

Saturday Adventure

Some families might like to take it easy on Saturday morning, maybe sleep in a bit, have some coffee and read the newspaper, but not us.  By 9am today we had already called poison control and completed a visit to the ER.  For two separate incidents.  Oy. 

First, we were a bit overzealous with the antibiotics for Nick’s ear infection and through a little miscommunication, both of us gave Nick his morning dose.  We freaked out and I frantically called poison control while Sam put his fingers to work looking up advice on the internet.  Both sources assured us Nicky would be fine and we breathed a sigh of relief. 

But during that time, Nicky was playing alone in the kitchen.  Not unusual, but we soon realized that we were hearing a different noise than we were used to – it sounded like he was playing with popcorn kernals in a metal cup.  We went to investigate and sure enough, Nicky had discovered a package of childproofing supplies (oh, the irony!) and had managed to open it up enough to get all of the screws out.  He was busily organizing the 20 or so 1/4″ long and VERY sharp screws into measuring cups.  Oh. Crap.  Right then he picked one up and stuck it in his mouth.  We got that one out, but there was no way of knowing how many others he’d stuck in there, so we were off to the emergency room.  One hour and one x-ray later, Nicky was certified foreign-object-free.  Phew. 

Remember when we used to sleep in until 9am?