Nicholas Maravillas’ Blog

Matthew got to celebrate his birthday two weekends in a row this year!  His parents and Oma came down last weekend and we all went out to dinner.  We went to Lucky 32 and it was so good!  Nicholas and Matthew patiently waited for their food by coloring and playing with stickers.

Then Nicholas helped Grandma open her birthday gift.  It was a few weeks late but the dumb snow kept postponing our visits.  He wasn’t too impressed with it since it wasn’t a train or truck, but she seemed to like it.  

By that point it was way past bedtime, so Nicholas went to bed.  Then we cut into a delicious apple spice cake with caramel sauce.  It was so very yummy!  Of course, Grandma and Grandpa couldn’t leave without some outside play that weekend.

That last one was when he was pushing his wheel barrel with sand that he insisted belonged in the front yard.  It really wasn’t that heavy.  He was just being dramatic!

Matthew’s actual birthday was the 26th and my parents and brother came down.  We went out to dinner at a local pizza place and despite waiting a long time, we had a good time and Nicholas was so patient!  He passed the time eating goldfish and sprinkling cheese, salt and pepper in my water.  He added some cheese to Papa’s beer which surprisingly he still drank.   I decided against finishing my water because it was pretty gross by the time Nicholas was done.   Then we came home for cake.  The heating element in our oven blew out just the day before so I couldn’t bake the cupcakes that Matthew requested, so I bought a small cake.  A birthday boy needs something to put candles in!  When I said its time for cake, Nicholas climbed into his chair, put his hands in his lap and patiently waited for us to cut it.

The patience didn’t last long.

Nicholas got a good bit of frosting before we lit the candles and cut the cake.  That seemed to be his favorite part as he only ate one bite of actual cake!  He really didn’t want to help blow out the candles.

Fortunately my dad was able to fix our oven and I baked the cupcakes on Saturday.  Matthew and I also got to go on a real date Saturday night!  Nicholas had a blast at “eat and play” with Nana, Papa and Uncle Matt while we went to a Japanese steakhouse and Hibachi restaurant and a movie.   Dinner was fun and delicious!  Certainly a neat experience.   After dinner, we went to see Avatar.  It had been so long since we last saw a movie in a theater!   Avatar was so cool.  Awesome technology and gorgeous colors.

All in all, I think (hope!) Matthew had a great birthday!  :)

You are the best Daddy ever! You do so many cool things with me and make it so much fun. I love you!

Your kiddo,

Nicholas

Nicholas got another haircut today!  His hair seems to grow pretty fast, his last trim was at the end of November and it was already out of control.  Poor kid because he HATES having his hair cut.  He hates the combs, sitting still, the clippers, the buzzers, the cape, everything about the process.  Lollipops and trains don’t even help.  Luckily we’ve found a very patient, sweet lady at a local place that tolerates us!  She does a really good, fast job.

Before pictures-

After pictures.  Please excuse the applesauce on his chin. -

We spread out the Valentine’s fun all week this year!  Nicholas was invited to two parties, one on Wednesday and another on Friday.  He ended up with a lot of cute valentines from his friends… but his favorite is still the Cars one that he gave out!  Although his good friend, Connor (pictured below) also has a love of all things Cars so he got the same valentines!  Nicholas also got some awesome things from his grandparents, including a new choo choo, a George book and chocolate goodies!

We spent the actual day today just hanging out at home.  We had some fun with pancakes this morning, got pizza for lunch then Nicholas worked out with Matthew and I in the afternoon.  It was so funny to watch him kick and try to do jumping jacks along with the cardio video!  I made braised short ribs with risotto for dinner.  It was actually pretty good!  We all exchanged valentines, including a Monster Truck box of chocolates for daddy.  One guess who picked those out!  I got my surprise on Friday- a beautiful little potted rose bush from Matthew.  I just love it and it was such a sweet surprise!  All in all, it was a great day!

At his 2 year check up, I had to fill out a questionnaire to track Nicholas’ development. Things like is he saying 2-3 word sentences, picking up small objects like a bead, stacking 6 or more blocks, etc. One section was about problem solving and asked if he went to get something to stand on if he couldn’t reach something he wanted. He wasn’t at that point so I checked “not yet”. Well, he is now! First it was the box of wipes but today he chose a slightly less sturdy stepstool. But he was so darn cute about it that I had to take his picture!

I have to laugh that the post after I say how much Nicholas is learning so fast and just how smart he is, is this video… I just love this kid.

It hasn’t been too long since his 2 year general update, but Nicholas has made so many strides in his language since his birthday that I wanted to note them.  He seems to have improved so much in such a short time.  We can actually have fairly coherent conversations with him.  I swear he does something new every day.  It is so cool!

- He is saying things like “where Zoë is” and “there she is!” all the time.  ”Is” is a new addition to his vocabulary.

- He is regularly using “I” in sentences to express his wants.

- He is saying his own name! This may not seem like a big deal, but he has referred to himself as Bubba for as long as we can remember.  That is his nickname but we don’t want him going to school telling the teachers that his name is Bubba.   Anyways, I pointed to a picture of him today and asked him who that was, to which he replied “Nih-s!”.  Granted its not that close to Nicholas but its not Bubba!  We think he even referred to himself as “me” tonight too.

- He’s repeating us more often which is so cool!  Still not “love you” but we keep trying!

- His enunciation is improving everyday.  He usually calls Thomas the Tank Engine “dom”.  But the other day he added an “as” making it “domas”.

- He is learning so many letters!  I think he can recognize all of them, but definitely knows certain ones better than others.  He can even tell you a word that starts with a certain letter when you point to it.  I.e., if you show him an “M”, he will say “M. Mama!”.

- He can count up to 2 objects.  He starts over after 2 (1 bus, 2 bus, 1 bus) and seems upset when we suggest going on to 3.  Maybe when he turns 3 he’ll be more open to the idea.

- He is really getting to know his colors too.  About 95% of the time if you ask him to point to a certain color he will get it correct, but he doesn’t always say the color when you just ask “what color is __?”.  But he is getting better with that.  Especially if the object in question is orange.  He will always tell you when something is orange.

We really are so proud of how far he’s come and just know he’ll keep learning and growing!

It was yet another cold, rainy afternoon here in NC, so to pass the time Nicholas and I made cookies.  He is very eager to help us nowadays with anything- emptying the dishwasher, cooking, sweeping, etc.  so I am always trying to think of things he can safely help with in the kitchen.  I decided to put him in charge of the flour today… what made me think that would be a good idea, who knows.  We moved his table to the kitchen and I set him up with a pyrex cup, a measuring cup and a big mixing bowl with some flour in it.  He happily dumped flour in and out while I mixed the wet ingredients in the stand mixer.   When it came time to add the flour, I helped him actually measure and dump it into the mixing bowl.  We ran out about 1/2 cup short, so I got a new bag out of the pantry.  Nicholas tried to close the lid of the newly filled flour canister, but it was too heavy and too close to the edge of the table.  It fell.  Crashing into many pieces and taking about 2 pounds of flour with it to the floor.  First thing I hear, “uh oh, mess!”.  I reply, “yes honey, its a mess!”.  I love this kid.  Anyways, I quickly swept up most of it to get rid of the sharp ceramic pieces and we finished up the dough.  Then Nicholas had to add the chocolate chips.  The most important part!  He took his time to make sure every single chip made it in, he didn’t even eat one!  First he used a spoon, then his fist but soon realized that just dumping the whole bowl was the most efficient way to do it!  We scooped the dough onto a cookie sheet then he patiently watched them bake in the oven.  He even helped me clean up by wiping his table and sweeping.  He is such a good boy!  Afterwards, we both enjoyed some of our delicious creations!

I think our tradition of Nicholas holding a birthday sign for loved ones is coming to an end, or at least evolving of sorts. He just won’t sit still AND hold a sign AND smile long enough to snap a picture.  So we improvise.

We tried to get him to look up and smile when drawing on the sign… but no dice.

We tried to have him sit in his big boy chair and smile with the sign… again, no dice.  But at least he’s holding it.

We tried just holding the sign near him so at least he could be smiling with it in the general vicinity… but still, no dice.

Finally we scored a slight victory when he showed Grandma her sign over Skype!  They had a nice chat.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!! We love you!