Nicholas Maravillas’ Blog

Nicholas turns 15 months old today!  For some reason that sounds so old to me.  Sadly he is sick for this “month-day”.  Poor kid hasn’t felt great for a few weeks now.  First he had molars coming in, then a cold, then an ear infection and now a yucky virus.  I took him to the doctor yesterday since he’d had such a high fever (103+) all weekend and has been barely eating.  And if you know anything about our little boy, you know that he LOVES to eat.  The doc wanted to take a blood sample to rule out a bacterial infection since his exam was basically normal.  Bacterial infection was unlikely since he was already on antibiotics for the ear infection but the doc wanted to be thorough given his high temps.  When the nurse pricked his finger, he didn’t even cry! Not a peep!!  He was sure proud of the camouflaged bandaid too.  Such a brave little man. His fever has been lower since yesterday so hopefully he is on the mend.

He really is growing up so fast these days.  He is a total joy and the constant bright spot in our lives.  His learning is moving at a record pace and he is doing something new every day.  Here are just a few highlights of his new talents.

* “Where’s your belly?”  If you ask Nicholas this question, he will lift up his shirt and pat his big ol’ belly with a huge grin on his face!

* He wants to share everything.  Food, toys, shoes, anything!  It is so sweet.  And if you don’t notice him trying to offer you something right away, he will take your hand, open it and place whatever it is he wants to give you in your hand.

* He likes to play ball.  If you throw a ball, he  will chase it and bring it back.  Yes, our toddler plays fetch!

* This kid spins all the time!  He seems to be spinning in circles every time I turn around, whether there is music or not.  Of course giggling like crazy the whole time!  I think he says “ashes, ashes” when he does it sometimes but again, I am not certain.  Referring to “ashes, ashes, we all fall down!”.   He doesn’t get the falling down part though.

* He has figured out how to grab doorknobs and lock them.  In fact one evening while I went out to the grill to flip a steak, he locked me out!  Thank goodness Matthew had just gotten home and let me back in.  The next day we bought child-proof covers for all the doorknobs!

* Nicholas can go up and down stairs.  He has been going up for a long time now, but now he has mastered going down.  He can do it by crawling (same action as going up) or holding your hand and walking down.  I didn’t think his legs were long enough to make the height of the stairs but he can.

* He is too tall for his own good.  He can reach high enough to get things off of the counters and tables.  Now he brings me his empty sippy cups while I am doing dishes so I can wash them.  Very helpful!  Oh, and he likes to clean!  He takes dish towels and wipes off the cabinets, bookshelves, floor, anything sitting still!  It is so funny.  He was “cleaning” the floor of the doctor’s office yesterday with a tissue.  It was sweet but gross too!  He is also sweeping more with his broom.  No idea where he picked that up since he rarely sees us do it!!

* He talks a lot but most of it is toddler-talk and we grown-ups just don’t understand.  At least once a day we say he needs a “talk bubble” over his head.  He is especially talkative at the dinner table.   His expression is growing and you can tell that whatever it is he is trying to tell us, he really means it.  So far the distinguishable words we can tell are: “oh boy”, yay, hi, bye, dada, mama, ohhhh (when he knocks a block tower over, something falls down, etc.).  I think he says “I see you” and “what’s that” but I could be wrong.

* Waving expert- He waves and says “hi” to anyone who comes in.  He loves to say hi to Zoë when she comes into a room and to Daddy when he gets home everyday.  It is so precious!

* His comprehension is through the roof.  We had no idea how much he has picked up just by observing us do things.  For example he puts his thermometer in the vaseline jar (like I do when I take his temperature), he loves to put lids on bowls, he uses his spoons to stir pots, he cleans up after himself by putting blocks in the basket and puts his clothes in the drawer.  He also tries to put his socks and shoes on, is helping us more with getting him dressed/undressed and brushes his own teeth every night.

* He has a blankie!  He was attached to his blue bunny. And that was mostly my doing as I put it with him for every nap and bedtime in the hopes he’d sleep better.  Which it did.  But now he has chosen his own lovey- a silky, fuzzy blue blanket.  It was in his crib as a cover for awhile and a few weeks ago he decided that he cannot go to sleep without it.  It is definitely a comfort item and apparently a milestone as it is considered a “transitional object”.  Meaning it is something to help him gain independence from Mommy and Daddy.  Our big boy!

I am sure there are more but that is a lot for now.  Overall he is just awesome and brings a smile to our faces every day! Here are a few recent pictures!

Love,

Nicholas

PS- Mommy says these pictures are getting harder and harder to take because I just won’t sit still!

The weather was beautiful, so we spent a lot of time outside this weekend. I worked on the garden a lot, weeding them and getting them ready for this year’s plants. Nicholas finally got to play in the sandbox he got from his grandparents. He loved it! He also helped me mix some dirt in the garden. Maybe next year he can plant some veggies of his own!

Bubba has another ear infection and nasty cold with a cough. Can we say “snot bubbles?” Bleck! Last time the antibiotics helped really fast so hopefully he’ll be back to his old happy self again soon. He has been pretty pitiful lately.

Nicholas’ second molar has popped through. This one is on the top right. Poor little man hasn’t had a good week so far between this molar and then his schedule got a bit thrown off. Ms. Irene’s boys were sick so he got to spend time with Ms. G while we went to work. He loves his Ms. G but it just wasn’t his normal routine. And to add insult to injury, this morning his has a fever and congestion. He hasn’t been sleeping well either… so we are all tired! I can’t wait for his teeth to finish coming in. Teething BITES.

We have spent a lot of time outside since the weather has been so nice. Nicholas loves playing outside and running around. Yesterday in his travels, he fell in the driveway and got his first skinned knees! I am sure the first of many to come. He is so tough and only winced when he first landed as he caught himself on his hands. Which we all know hurts! I actually didn’t even notice his knees till later on during a diaper change. Sorry the picture is blurry, he won’t hold still.

He thought it was strange and then funny that I was taking pictures of his legs while he was in his highchair.

Sit back, get some popcorn and get ready to enjoy some great videos of our little man!  He has so many new tricks lately and we have caught them all on camera.

While at Nana and Papa’s house last week, he figured out how to take a cup and get a drink from the water dispenser on the fridge.

He also learned “down”. Kid has quads of steel!

Ms. Irene taught him “cheers”. It is too funny and he loves doing it!

And this video doesn’t really showcase his trick of putting his own bib back on. He was doing it but by the time I got the camera he figured out that it was more fun to throw the bib up and just laugh.

The weather has been absolutely amazing the past couple of days.  So of course we had to take Nicholas swinging!! We packed up a lunch and spent Sunday afternoon at the park.  Nicholas ate lunch in his wagon, along with his daddy.

Then Nicholas ran around the playground.  Not the tot lot of course, but rather the big kid one! Man was I nervous chasing him around.  Those 8 year olds couldn’t care less about the 1 year old at their feet!

We were able to steer him back to his size playground where he enjoyed the swings and the bouncing pony.

All in all it was a good day with my boys! I am one lucky lady!

Matthew got to extend his birthday festivities for one more weekend!  His parents and Oma came down to celebrate with us.  After gifts and playing all day, we all went out to eat at a yummy local Italian place.  We dined on pizza and Nicholas had his favorite- spaghetti!  Then we had chocolate cobbler for dessert. Delicious!

Hope you had a very happy birthday this year, Matthew!