Nicholas Maravillas’ Blog

We all got up and out of the door early today to go to the zoo! Nicholas did great during the 90 minute drive and was excited once we got there. It was gray and misting/raining when we left but weather.com said that by 10am the sun would be out. We were counting on it! We arrived around 9:45am and still no sun. In fact it was a bit chilly so we put on our jackets and went exploring anyways! First up were the alligators. We were there just in time to watch them be fed. It was a little gross to see what they ate but everyone’s gotta eat, right? Nicholas was a little disturbed by it because he said “oh no, no no” when they threw the food! Our sensitive little man.

Then we saw harbor seals, a polar bear and sea lions. Nicholas liked watching the seals swim around!  The sea lions and polar bear were just chilling on the rocks and weren’t that interesting to him.

Then we saw the wanna-be penguins (puffins) and an arctic fox.  This is what Nicholas did whenever we let him out of the stroller- RUN!  Needless to say, Mom and Dad are tired tonight.

It seemed that most of the animals were napping when we went by, but luckily the black bears were out and about.  Nicholas insisted on calling them “cats”.

And then we saw what we think was one of Nicholas’ favorite parts… a BUS!  Yes, even a zoo has a bus.  We rode it from North America over to Africa.  He was pretty quiet on the actual ride but was super excited to see a bus up close and personal!

Once we arrived in Africa, we saw elephants.  They were far away but are huge so we could still see them pretty well.  There was a neat elephant statue that kids could sit on for a picture but it was metal and getting hot from the sun that finally came out (about an hour late, mind you!) so Nicholas wasn’t having it.

On the way to the lions, we saw what was probably a close runner-up to the bus.  A helicopter.  But not just any helicopter.  Oh no, this one was painted the same yellow-orange with black details just like a school bus!  So what does Nicholas think it is… yup, a bus.  He loved playing it in!

Once we tore him away from his flying bus, we saw Zoë’s very distant cousins, the lions.  They were sleeping and chilling.  Just like Zoë.  It must run in the family. Nicholas insisted on pushing his own stroller on the way to the zebras.  By that time, we would have loved for him to give us a ride!

We also stopped to see gorillas and chimps.  Sadly the monkey display was closed, we were hoping for some good laughs!  But Nicholas did get to see a gorilla up close (through glass of course) and then did a decent impersonation of a monkey.  He can do this better but this was the best I could catch on camera today.

One of the last exhibits we saw were the zebras. The first thing our son says when he sees them… “bus!”. They did resemble the bus, I’ll give him that. I guess we need to work on our animals. All in all it was a great day and I think we all had a good time. And now off to an early bedtime!

We took Nicholas to see They Might Be Giants in concert this afternoon. They’re a group that Matthew has liked for awhile, but they also do kids’ songs. So they had two shows, one for kids in the afternoon and an adult one this evening. We got there about 30 minutes before the start of the show, so Nicholas ran around the entire ampitheater for a bit.  Then he danced and clapped to most of the songs.  Sometimes he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the bass and all the screaming people, but overall seemed to enjoy himself.  We sat on the lawn, snacked, danced and had a nice afternoon together! Come back later for a couple videos of Nicholas’ mad dancing skillz!

We met up with our friends from playgroup, Holly and her little girl Riley. Then we found another friend, Jo and her sons Julian and new baby Keiran. We tried to get a group shot of the kids and this was the best we could get.
Nicholas was ready to go!

Does anyone have a guess as to what he’s saying here? He says it fairly often and we aren’t sure.

We went to the playground at Harris Lake Park on Monday since we all had the day off and were finally feeling better.  We had not been there in a long time.  Last time, Nicholas was just starting to walk and run around.  So this time was a lot more fun!  He ran around the huge open field chasing mommy and loved going down the slides all by himself!  He is such a big boy, ya know?

Nicholas decided that his vanilla yogurt with berries mixed in would make a good lotion.  He may be onto something, his skin was really soft even after I cleaned it off!

Nicholas loves to help around the house these days.  On his terms and time table of course, but most times that he sees us doing something he will jump in to help.  On Saturday, Matthew helped our neighbors dig a trench to lay down tubing to extend our gutters because we always have a swamp between our houses when it rains.  Of course Nicholas had to offer his assistance!

The other night, Nicholas wanted to help sweep.  Listen closely towards the middle of the first video to Matthew.  These boys crack me up!

And lastly, Nicholas and Daddy just having fun.

As Nicholas recovers from the bronchitis and roseola, we have been lounging around the house.  Yes, he apparently has roseola too.  We went back to the pediatrician yesterday (about 30 hours after the first visit) because he broke out in a rash all over his trunk, bottom and a little on his arms, legs and face.  Without even looking at him, Dr. Powell guessed roseola because the defining characteristic of that virus is high fever then a rash that occurs after a fever breaks.  Nicholas’ fever broke late morning on Tuesday… rash appeared at lunchtime.  As soon as the doc lifted his shirt, it was clear that it was roseola.  We love Dr. Powell but we’d rather not see him everyday!  He is so funny though. Anyways, little man is in better spirits and eating more.  His cough sounds yucky but that is a good thing meaning that the crap clogging his bronchi is loosening and going away.  The rash is supposed to go away by tomorrow.  Hopefully we can get back into a normal routine here soon.  Meanwhile, enjoy some pictures from the week!