Nicholas Maravillas’ Blog

We have lots of new pictures to share from this week’s adventures. Enjoy!

Sometimes while I am making dinner, Nicholas cleans out the pantry.  On this day he happened to find an open box of tea bags.

Nicholas has this new thing and we aren’t sure where he picked it up.  But at mealtime, he’ll straighten out his arms with his little fists, scrunch up his face and look at you.  It is so funny! He likes it when you do it back to him.  I was able to catch Matthew doing it, please excuse his mouth full of food!  But when Nicholas does it, you need to do it back right away! It was too cute not to share!

Our air conditioner unit broke last week, so Papa (and Nana of course) made a last minute “service call” all the way to NC.  Nicholas and I played outside before they arrived while it wasn’t blazing hot yet.  He could spend all day, every day outside if we’d let him.  He chases me around the house now carrying his sneakers saying “pway! pway!” (play).  It is down right adorable.  While we were outside, Nicholas stole my chair.  And he refused to get out and sit in his!

While Nana and Papa were here, we made another trip to the airport park. Nicholas loved it again, but took a pretty nasty tumble after he tripped on the sidewalk. He bumped and scraped his head, nose and knee. Poor guy has two scraped knees and bruises all over his legs between that and his many tumbles!  Sometimes his little legs don’t go as fast as he wants or thinks they can.  We all went to lunch afterwards and Nicholas paid.  He insisted.

Tonight was 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins.  We could not pass that up!  For 31 cents, Nicholas even got his own scoop of vanilla.  It was cold at first then he liked it.  He made lots of funny faces!

We met our playgroup at the RDU Airport Observation Park today.  Nicholas had a BLAST.  It was windy, which of course started us off on the right foot and the weather was perfect.  Nicholas enjoyed the wind in his face and got very excited when a plane took off or landed.  Then he clapped for it!  It was adorable.  Unfortunately he didn’t spend too much time playing with his friends because he was too busy running around checking everything out.  Which meant I didn’t really get to chat with my friends either, but thus is the life of a toddler mommy I suppose.  Enjoy the pictures and video! We are definitely returning there with daddy soon!

Yesterday, Nicholas was so upset once we got home.  He was crying, super clingy and just a mess!  If I held him, he wanted down.  If I put him down, he wanted back up.  Threw his sippy away, not even a binky helped.  Trying to play with him seemed like an insult as it just made him more upset.  We thought maybe he was teething.  I went ahead and worked on preparing dinner while Matthew tried to console him.  While getting a bag of veggies out of the freezer, the frozen waffles fell out.  Nicholas was quick to snatch up the bag, take out a waffle and begin chowing down!  It was the one thing that had made him happy in the past hour so we let him have it.  And he certainly enjoyed it and even came back for more.  Then it dawned on us- maybe he was hungry!  He had had a snack at Ms. Irene’s house around 3:45 but I guess it wasn’t enough!  Oops. He proceeded to eat a good dinner and went happily to bed.  Oh well, at least we have a good idea to try when he does start teething again! I told Matthew we need to have a “checklist” up on the fridge to go through next time Nicholas throws a fit so we cover all of our bases.  It is hard to gather your thoughts to figure out what is wrong after trying several things all while a screaming toddler is trying to climb your legs like a koala… frozen waffle will certainly be on that list!

The weather has been really nice lately so we’ve been spending more time outside.  Nicholas LOVES to be outside!  He loves to run up and down the sidewalk, kick his ball, play in his sand table, watch bubbles and explore what little grass we have in the yard.  He usually pitches a fit when we have to go inside.  It is easier now that we can just pick him up (kicking and screaming) and bring him in but I imagine it’ll just get more difficult as he gets older.  Thinking about it, this is how I see my evenings going in a few years…

Me: Nicholas, dinner is ready.  Come inside!

Nicholas: aw man, 5 more minutes, Mom?

Me: (5 minutes later) Nicholas, come inside now please!

Nicholas: 5 more minutes, Mom?

Me: Nicholas Matthew, now!

I can’t wait.

I guess I can’t call them “well baby” visits anymore since very little about Nicholas is “baby”. Anyhoo, little string bean weighs all of 22lb 4oz, is 33 inches long and still has a huge noggin at 19.5 inches around. His stats are 20th, 92nd, 95th percentile respectively. So he is tall, big-headed and skinny for his age. He only got one shot today so that wasn’t so bad. Doc was very impressed with his gross and fine motor skills. I expressed concern about his (what I thought was small) vocabulary but the doc wasn’t concerned at all. He said that actually 3-5 real words was “normal” for his age and not to worry because his comprehension was excellent. He said by age 2 he’ll be talking in paragraphs and we’ll be telling him to be quiet!

Oh, and he was proud of us for doing time outs, espeically for biting. Actually, Nicholas put himself in time out last night and again this morning for biting Matthew and I. Not sure how we feel about that one but we are impressed he “gets it” nonetheless. I suppose we are still perfecting that practice.

All in all, it was a good check up! We go back in 3 months.

We went to VA for Easter weekend this year.  We had a great time!  We went for lunch on Saturday at a local pizza place.  Nicholas shamelessly flirted with the waitresses the entire time!  They were eating it up too… but really, who could resist that smile?  Then we rode the carousel.  Downtown Hampton has this neat indoor carousel near Oma’s place and where we went to lunch.  This was Nicholas’ first “ride” of any sort of amusement ride.  He wasn’t crazy about it but wasn’t upset either.  The controller didn’t turn on the music, which we think would have enhanced his experience, but maybe next time.  He seemed to have more fun running around afterwards.  Oh and he is holding his Nana’s calculator.  Not sure how that happened.  Thanks, Oma for the tickets!

We all went to dinner at Nana and Papa’s house that night.  Mom made beautiful, and delicious, cupcakes for dessert.  Nicholas was a big fan and had to show off his big cupcake belly.

Apparently, Nicholas was really excited about the Easter bunny and was up at 4:30am this morning.  I finally got him back to sleep around 6:30am but then we were running late for church.  So he slept for about an hour more and we met everyone at Mass a bit late.  After visiting with friends there, we headed back to the house for Easter baskets and an egg hunt.  Nicholas made out like a bandit from his grandparents and the Easter bunny! All sorts of goodies, books and toys.  He enjoyed playing with them on the way home and even had some chocolate bunny for dessert.

Grandma and Grandpa got Nicholas some plastic weapons, er, yard tools.  He wanted to whack, er, show the rake to his Uncle Matt.  Watch out!

The Easter bunny brought Nicholas some neat bowls that suction to the tray so he can really feed himself.  He thought he was hot stuff tonight at dinner!

It was a bit chilly but we still had an egg hunt outside.  Luckily the sun was shining and it was still a gorgeous day for his first hunt!  We put treats in the eggs to entice Nicholas a bit.  He didn’t get the concept of collecting them in his basket.  Instead once he found one, he brought it to the nearest person to crack it open so he could chow down!  We stuffed them with goldfish, animal crackers and some beloved puffs.  He is carrying his daddy’s childhood Easter basket in the last picture.  Doesn’t he look so handsome?   We also took a family picture.  It actually came out really well!

After his hunt, we headed out for brunch.  It was yummy and I am surprised that Nicholas even ate after all those goodies!  But he did and by that point was super tired.  We hit the road by the afternoon and now we are home safe and sound.  Thank you Grandma, Grandpa, Oma, Nana, Papa and Uncle Matt for an awesome weekend! Love you all!

Nicholas continues to put his lego box on his head. He loves to play peek-a-boo with it and then place it on your head to do that same. He cracks himself up!

Little man also has learned a new word- “NO”.  When you tell him “no-no”, he shakes his head and says “nooo”.  Half the time he continues to do whatever was the “no-no” was in the first place, but oh well.  The other night Matthew was trying to put his pajamas on him while I was holding him.  (Nicholas is a koala at bedtime and is attached to my hip… makes diapering and pajama-ing very interesting!)  Apparently Nicholas wanted to sleep in his diaper alone because every time Matthew tried to put his arm in the sleeve, Nicholas looked right at him and said “NO” then laid his head back on my shoulder.  It was funny but slightly annoying all at the same time!

I hate to admit it but Nicholas is a biter.  Our kid is “the biter”.  Crap.  Ms. Irene had to put him in time-out twice this week for biting a baby.  He doesn’t do it to be mean and we think he just gets excited and thinks he is kissing but he does it with his teeth.   He even left a mark on the baby girl’s head!  Her head!  Poor thing.  The actual assault was after 2 warnings from Ms. Irene.  So off to the time-out (the bottom step of her staircase) with Nicholas.  She said he didn’t get it at first but then obediently sat there for a bit (less then a minute) and came out when she said he could.  The next day he bit a baby boy and bought himself another ticket to time-out.  Maybe it is making a difference because today he attempted to bite baby girl again and after just one warning he backed off and didn’t try again.  We’ll see.

I have had Mr. Bubbles’ bubble bath for awhile but keep forgetting to use it.  Well, we decided to try it last night.  Nicholas was less than impressed.  He didn’t want to sit down at first then he didn’t seem to like the bubbles on his hand.  We managed to get a couple smiles out of him but overall it wasn’t a hit!

His 3rd molar has popped through. It is the top right one. Only a few more and we are D.O.N.E with teething! I am not sure who will be happier, Nicholas or Matthew and I!

He is still coughing and has a runny nose but seems much more like himself. His eating is gradually getting better too. Thank goodness for spring weather so we can open all the windows and air out the house!