Nicholas Maravillas’ Blog

Nicholas has a new love in his life.  Spaghetti.  He shovels it in and says ‘mmmmmm’ the whole time he is eating it.  Tonight we went the safe route and he ate shirtless.  Then he ran around working off those carbs.

We hope that everyone had a lovely holiday with your family and friends.  Today is a day to reflect upon the many blessings we have in life, and boy are we blessed here in the Maravillas home.  Matthew and I are so thankful for each other, our thriving, beautiful son, our supportive family and friends, our beautiful home and good jobs.  I pray that we continue to live each day keeping in mind how blessed we are and try to give back to those less fortunate.  Especially in these scary economic times.

I know you really want pictures though, so here ya go! Enjoy!

Nicholas woke up from his nap just in time to see Santa arrive in Herald Square during the Macy’s parade.  He even waved at the TV!  It was really cute.

Nicholas and Papa played some pan drums while we finished preparing dinner.

Turkey and all the fixins!

Nicholas’ Thanksgiving dinner- turkey, green beans, cranberry sauce, sweet taters and stuffing.  He loved it!

Tryptophan is kicking in…

That’s all.  Rock on, baby.

I had a wonderful birthday!  FIrst, Matthew surprised me with flowers before I headed to work for the afternoon.  Then he and Nicholas met me there for dinner.  My co-workers loved to meet Matthew and see Nicholas.  They also surprised me with flowers.  Then the three of us went out to eat at a local barbecue place- yum! We headed home and my boys gave me my gift and beautiful cards.  Miss Irene helped Nicholas make mommy a card and he also picked a super sweet one out with daddy.  I just love getting ‘mommy’ cards!  Then I was totally surprised by their gift- a spa gift certificate!!! I have never been to a spa so I am super excited.  I am going to schedule an appointment for a 60 minute Swedish massage, a manicure and then a pedicure.  Two and a half hours of pampering solely focused on me! Oh, I cannot wait!  It was so sweet of my boys to splurge on me (knowing that I’d never do it for myself!).  Nicholas also gave me a fantastic gift- he took 2 good naps without a fight!  He had been napping terribly lately but yesterday he went right to sleep without crying and slept for at least an hour both times.  It made me so happy!

Later on last night, my parents and brother came into town for Thanksgiving.  It was a little late so we celebrated with them tonight.  Mom made me a delicious roast beef dinner and Matthew made a lucious double chocolate torte.

My brother got me a couple of CD’s I wanted (I <3 David Cook!) and mom and dad got me a gift card, a sweater and a beautiful Christmas centerpiece.  It looks so nice on our table.  Nicholas helped me open the presents.  He even delivered one to me!

I am also enjoying my new Vera Bradley bag from the Maravillas’ and Oma.  All in all, it was a fabulous birthday!!! Thank you everyone for all that you did to make my day(s) wonderful!

We had a fairly quiet day today.  Nicholas helped me sort coupons in the morning.

Then he went out with Matthew to do secret mommy birthday stuff.   It must have been pretty exciting becuase he fell fast asleep on the way home.

Then he wrestled with daddy on the couch.  By wrestle I mean that Matthew laid on the couch while Nicholas climbed on him and then tossed himself down into the pillow.

Lastly while I was making dinner, the two of them decided to read together.  I use the term “read” rather loosely.

Wow, what a weekend.  Matthew and I are full of joy thinking about this past weekend.  There are just so many people that love us and Nicholas.  We are so very blessed with amazing friends and family.

We decided to have him baptized at Matthew’s home church in Hampton, VA rather than ours here in NC.  Yes, having it in NC would have made it easier on us, but it would have been a lot harder on everyone else.  So we drove up to Hampton on Friday night.  Then on Saturday we had ‘pre-Thanksgiving’ dinner at the Maravillas’.  They were gracious enough to invite my cousins from NJ who made the trip down for the baptism, as well as family friends and Nicholas’ godparents.  It was a really fun evening to have everyone together and to share lots of yummy food! Nicholas tried turkey and stuffing for the first time.  He wasn’t a fan of the turkey, but loved the stuffing and some sweet potatoes.

He did marvelously with so many people, most of them being unfamiliar to him.  He laughed, played, cruised, danced and generally put on a good show! Mom got him this obnoxious… I mean adorable, reindeer that plays yakety sax.  Sadly for Matthew and I, Nicholas loves the darn thing and has figured out how to turn it on and does a happy dance when it starts up.  Sorry the video is sideways, not sure what happened there.

Sunday was Nicholas’ big day.  He woke up early, which worked out because he took an earlier nap which then didn’t interfere with church. His Grandpa made him special pancakes that he happily gobbled up for breakfast and then he watched Tom and Jerry with Grandma. I also took some cute shots of him while eating breakfast.  He is such a nut!

After an abbreviated nap, we got him all dressed up and off we went to church.  We (well at least me and G-mama Kathy) didn’t realize all the things we’d have to do during Mass, but we got a great tutorial right beforehand from the pastoral associate.  Carol and Father Bob were fantastic. Everyone ended up doing great, even Nicholas!  He didn’t cry one bit as Father Bob poured the water on his head.  He didn’t even seem to mind the oil from being anointed.  He looked a little confused at first but never fussed.  We are so proud of him!  He was so tired on the way home, but stuck it out for a little while longer to enjoy his party.   Everyone came back to the Maravillas’ for a reception.  Nicholas again did really well, especially considering his lack of nap.

I swear his outfit was long pants.  It fit him a couple weeks ago when we tried it on him, but all that Thanksgiving food must have put an inch or two on him because in all the pictures they look like shorts!  Oh well, he was still adorable. If anyone has pictures from this weekend, please send them to me.  Most of my pictures didn’t turn out.  The Church is actually sending me a CD of ones that their photographer took, but I’d love to see yours in the meantime!

Love,

Nicholas

and Happy Veterans’ Day! Thank you to those who served and are serving to keep our country safe and free.

Nicholas is really sick this time.  He slept pretty restlessly last night and woke up with a fever.  It has stayed between 101-102.  He is so pitiful! He has never had a temperature that high before.  Needless to say, we made a visit to the pediatrician this morning.  His exam was perfect- no ear infection, his lungs were clear, etc.  So to be sure, they pricked his finger to check his white blood cell count for infection but that came back normal.  We left with a diagnosis of a virus and instructions to push fluids, rest and tylenol/motrin.  It is 2pm and he is on his 4th nap of the day, which if you know my son, that is NOT like him at all.  We spent a little bit of time earlier watching my favorite (soon to be his!) Disney movie- Lilo and Stitch.

He sat there with me for 30 min before falling asleep, yet another sign he feels terrible… he never sits still!  The doc seemed to think he’ll be all better by Monday.  I hope so because this sick baby stuff is hard on me too!  Although, I will admit that I love how extra-snuggly he is!

Edited to add that his fever spiked at 103.4 this afternoon! But after a dose of baby motrin and a tepid bath (thanks, Christa!) it has gone down to 100.2 for the past couple of hours.  He was awake for about 3 hours this evening- longer than he had been all day!  He is asleep for now and we’ll see what the night brings us.  Hopefully he is getting over whatever it is that has upset his little body.

Nicholas has recently decided that about halfway through dinner he does not want to eat from a spoon.  So, last night he ate his pureed squash and zucchini with his fingers.  Amazingly he did seem to actually get some of it into his mouth.  It wouldn’t be so bad to just give him all finger foods to eat if only he’d eat more than cheerios!

Enjoy the pictures… I have laundry to do!

Love, Nicholas

(the other side of that paper says happy birthday!)

Nicholas is 10 months old! And as of today, he can stand all by himself.  He did it for a whole 30 seconds!  We hear that the next step is walking… oh boy!

We had a very big day of Halloween fun.  This morning we went to a party at Ms. Irene’s house.  She will be Nicholas’ new babysitter.  I got to hang out with other mommies and Nicholas got to play with some other kiddos.  We had a lovely time and then he took a 2 hour nap!  We should go to Halloween parties more often.   Here are some shots of him in his party shirt.  I decided to delay the costume torture till this evening… but he was still festive!

After his fantastic nap, he enjoyed some pre-trick or treating Cheerios while sporting his Halloween bib.  I just love his face!

Then we tried to paint his pumpkin.  This was another thing that fell into the category of ’stuff mommy is way more excited about than Nicholas’.  We think that when he is in the highchair, he expects to eat.  So when I put paint all over his hand and plop an inedible pumpkin in front of him he is understandably not pleased.   We’ll try again next year!

Then we ate dinner and got him all dressed up for his first trick or treating! He wasn’t thrilled about the costume but wasn’t completely upset so it was alright.  We figured it is a parental rite of passage to dress your baby up in a ridiculous costume when you can still get away with it!  I think Zoë was relieved I didn’t try to dress her up again!  I was originally worried that his outfit would be too warm but it was a perfectly chilly fall evening so it kept him nice and toasty.  He surprisingly kept the hood on too.  We just strolled around the block and visited some neighbors who loved him.  It was fun!

After we put our exhausted little lion to bed, I sat on the porch with some hot chocolate to pass out candy.  I had a great time watching all the kids and dropping candy into their bags, pillowcases and pails.  I loved watching the parents wait at the end of the driveway for their witches, zombies, princesses and vampires to run back thinking that one day I will be where they are.  It was yet another moment when I realized just how blessed I am in life.  I am married to the love of my life and best friend, we have a gorgeous son, live in a beautiful home in a great neighborhood, we have wonderful, supportive families and friends and we both have good jobs.   Life is good.

Happy Halloween, everyone!