May 23, 2001 -  almost 14 Months Old - Nicolas just continues to do some of the coolest things, but as he learns how to communicate with us his temper does get in the way sometimes.  We took him to an amusement park for the first time on May 19th and he did great.  He  didn't get as much
 of a thrill out of the rides as I hoped he would, but he didn't get upset either. He tolerated the long day without his nap very well too.  He was a big flirt as usual as he charmed two "older women" (about 5 and 7 years old) while we waited for the rest of the family to ride a roller coaster.  He walked right up to these two girls, babbled to them, they laughed at him and he laughed right  back.  Then he had his "in" and he continued to "talk" to them and laugh,  then he would run around and they would chase him and he loved every  minute of it.  In other developments, I'm trying to get him to begin to use utensils, though I haven't had much success so far.  He would rather just  bang on things with the fork and spoon.  I fed him spaghetti-Os for dinner one night, and tried to balance a few on the spoon for him and show him he
  could eat from it.  He found it funny for the most part.  It's going to take a while for that skill.  He still loves to climb and loves for anyone to chase him around.  He's also in a major mommy-mode right now, nobody else will do  many times.  I'm sure he'll grow out of it eventually.

June 4, 2001 -  14 Months Old  Nicolas just gets more and more like a child and less like a baby every day.  It's sad in a way, but also very exciting.  He loves to run around the house, and is still trying to climb things.  Most of the time, he does know his limits, and he usually waits until someone is nearby before he attempts any kind of steps or stairs.  He loves to practice sitting on things, which is cute.  He takes the cushion out of the rocking chair in his room, puts it on the floor, and sits on it.  He also likes to sit on the dog when he's laying on the floor, and so far the dog tolerates it pretty well.  He can identify a few objects,
especially some of the Disney characters on the wall in his room (Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto) so we should have him primed and ready for when we go to Walt Disney World in September!  He is starting to throw more baby tantrums when he doesn't get his way, but we don't give in (usually) and try to distract him with other toys which doesn't always work, especially when he's tired.  He is now starting to imitate us more and more, if you do something he will usually repeat the action which is cute.  He also repeats some things we say, but it's never very clear and we still haven't heard him say anything that we can clearly identify as a word.   He says da-da lot, and it's usually to da-da but not always!

June 13, 2001 -  nearly 14.5 Months Old  Nicolas is now beginning to communicate with us a little more.  When he wants something to drink, he will go into the kitchen and pull on the refrigerator door while crying until we hand him his sippie cup of milk.  He says Buh-Bye a lot more now, especially when prompted, and waves to himself.  I think he's starting to associate Ma-Ma with me and Da-Da with Frank, but I'm not completely sure of that.  He tends to say Ma-Ma more around me.  He now screams in a very high-pitch whenever he sees a cat, and then proceeds to chase them.  I don't think the cats are too pleased about that one.  He is also starting to get out attention more and more by grabbing our hands and pulling is to wherever it is that he wants to go.  If I'm sitting in the living room, and he wants me somewhere else, he takes my hand and walks me into his room or our room so he can play on the bed.  We gave him his own pillow in his crib now, but he doesn't always sleep on it.  I did that because he loved to climb onto our bed and lay on our pillows.  He loves to sit in his room or on the living room floor and "read" his books.  When it gets quiet and I go looking for him, I usually find him sitting on the floor reading a book, flipping pages and babbling to himself.  He seems to be able to identify certain favorite books, if we recite the lyrics he can pull out the book, then he climbs into our lap to read it to him.  Now he wants us to read the same book over and over again, which we usually do at least 3 or 4 times.  He has been to the pool and the water park and absolutely LOVES the water.  He was up to his chest in the both the wave pool and the kids pools and he would have kept walking if I let him I'm sure.

July 31, 2001- 16 months old - Nicolas is just doing great!  His 15 month stats were 20lbs 15 ounces and 30.5 inches long.    Most of his 8 new teeth have broken through but he's still working on them.  His communication skills get a little better every day, although the only words he says are ma-ma, da-da and buh-bye.  He points to things when he wants them and can follow directions like "want to take a bath?" which makes him run right tothe bathroom door and "want something to drink?" which takes him right to the refrigerator.  He is a little monkey who likes to climb onto and into everything and anything.  He's really getting better at walking "with" us instead of away from us.  I notice that he even stops at the curb most of the time because he needs our help to step down and knows he isn't allowed to walk in the street without holding our hand. This week he'll take his first plane trip, a 5.5 plus hour cross-country trip to California to meet his great-grandmother for the first time.  We have plenty of new toys and books to keep him entertained.

Aug. 14, 2001- 16.5 months old - Nicolas survived his first plane trip accross the U.S. from the
east to west coast.  He got to meet his great-grandmother for the first time as well as some of his dad's cousins.  He did have a screaming/crying fit in the airport for about an hour before we departed for Calfornina, and another 10-15 minute session in the air about an hour before we landed on our return flight. For a total flight time of 10 hours, I count that as success!  He has perfected his climbing skills, he can climb just about anything these days and quickly at that! I think he's going to give me a heart attack, I'm so afraid he'll fall off something.  His latest word, said just a few days ago, is "HI".  He greets us many times when the door opens with a big "HI!".  He LOVES to give kisses and hugs, and lately he gives a few big kisses followed by "BYE-BYE".  He's definitely got a temper when he doesn't get his way, I'm not looking forward to age two and three when it gets worse!

Sept. 18, 2001- 17.5 months old - Nicolas returned from his first trip to Walt Disney World.  He did great on the plane and in the parks.  He absolutely loved all of the characters there, and seemed especially fond of Chip & Dale.  He really enjoyed walking around the parks by himself and especially playing in the rain and in the fountains.  Nicolas is always singing and dancing and having music playing just about everywhere he went in Walt Disney World had him breaking into a dance all of the time.  Right now he can "sing" three songs:  Ba Ba Black Sheep, The Goodbye Song (from Bear in the Big Blue House) and Knick Knack Paddywhack.  He seems to hum others as well.  He's still only saying Hi and Bye-Bey, almost everyt sentence sometimes seems to end in "go byb-bye".  I think he even said duck when I pointed them out to him at our hotel in DisneyWorld.  he says CHEESE when you take a photo of him.  He also likes to count, even though he doesn't say the numbers.  He seems to know the order of them as when you get to seven it's always a 2-syllable sound he makes and he knows when you get to ten also.  I'm sure he'll be talking soon enough and probably in complete sentences because he's always babbling.

Oct. 8, 2001- 18 months old - Nicolas is still doing great and he adjusted quite well to his new room.  After all the turmoil he's been through this summer, with vacations every month and moving, he's handled it all quite well.  He had his 18-month checkup on Sept. 28th where he was 21 lbs. 6 oz. and 31 inches long.  He got one shot, and did pretty well.  He has added nite-nite and Mommy to his vocabulary.  I hear Mommy all of the time now and it's great!  He seems to try to repeat things sometimes when I say them to him.  I'm sure it won't be long before he begins to catch on to new words. He's trying to say kitty and doggy and even attempted banana once.  I'm trying to teach him how to go down our staircase now, and I can get him to go down on his butt most of the time, but would rather he crawled down backwards.  He loves the fact that he can turn on the water faucets in the bathtub of his bathroom now and he can flush the toilet.  He still has a great personality and a temper at times too.  Some weeks he handles the word no much better than other weeks.  He's trying to drink out of cups now without sippy tops, but I don't let him try too often because he also loves to just dump the water out of the cup.  I give him a small amount of water in a glass or cup without a lid sometimes, and he does quite well with it.

Nov. 7, 2001- 19 months old - I don't know how many words Nicolas has in his vocabulary now, but he is definitely trying to repeat words a lot more often now.  When we get home in the afternoons, we walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail as he repeats "maal".  He is obsessed with airplanes and we can't drive anywhere without him pointing out every airplane in the sky and screaming "AIIIRPANE!".  On Halloween we took him to the house across the street and as we walked up the driveway he said "TICK OH TEAT", although he didn't say it at the door.  He really enjoyed all of the kids at our front door more than anything on Halloween.  He does say "Peas" and I've heard "Welcome" a few times too, although he doesn't always do it on command.  If you ask him if he wants something, he shakes his head now and says "No, No" but then holds out his hand, so No-No means Yes as well as No to him.  He knows the difference between the clock and the cuckoo clock and he can point out both of them.  Last night he learned how to jump, and he would jump up in the air on the floor and land right on his butt.  He found it so funny!  He still loves to sing, and he has definite music preferences.  It's impossible to drive anywhere these days without him pointing at the radio and grunting "uh uh" until you put on a song he likes.  We have a few CDs we have to rotate through some of the same songs over and over for him.  We purchased a minivan about a week ago which Nicolas seems to really enjoy, especially because he can walk around inside it and push all kinds of buttons.  He's seen the entertainment system once but doesn't seem to remember that it's there, which is good because I'd hate to have to pop in a movie everytime we drive somewhere.  He is definitely better at the stairs, and about a week ago I realized just how smart he is when he comes to steps.  We were at the LaVoie house, and they have a deck outside with about 4 or 5 steps.  Nicolas walked over to the steps, realized there was nobody there to hold his hand, then sat down and scooted to the edge of the top step and went all the way down the steps on his butt.  I was so impressed!  He's getting better at using his fork and spoon while eating, but still prefers to use his hands most of the time, it's just faster for him that way.

Nov. 19, 2001- 19.5 months old - Nicolas continues to expand his vocabulary and repeats words all of the time now.  His favorite words now are "UP" when he wants up on something, "UCK" when either he is stuck or a toy is stuck, "MILK" when he wants milk (and don't even think about trying to offer something else in it's place, as I found out this weekend), "VACUUM", and "MICKI".  He also says short phrases, such as "HERE GO MOMMY" and "THERE GO MICKEY".  He says PEAS most of the time when he wants something.  At daycare, there is a baby there with him named ALEX and he does say "ALEX".  He also knows the word HOT, which we mention whenever the fireplace is on.  He has another word, "NINA" which he says all of the time.  I don't THINK it's actually my name, but I'm not sure, as sometimes it's followed by "MOMMY!".  I actually heard him say it while pointing to a banana, so maybe that's what it is, but I'm not sure.  Nicolas just loves to chat, he can spend an entire day saying "MOMMY" until I answer and then when I say "YES NICOLAS?" he will spew out a string of words and syllables and I have no idea what he's saying most of the time.  Sometimes it's "GO BYE-BYE" but who knows what he's talking about.  He knows how to point out our eyes and nose, and will go get his shoes and socks to be put on if he's asked, as well as his jacket, another word that he knows.  Just listing it here, his vocabulary seems to be so extensive and it happened in such a short time.  He's getting pretty good about drinking out of a regular cup now, so we are trying to offer it more often with his meals instead of a sippy cup.  He also seems to be doing much better with his spoon, but still not mastering the fork yet.

Dec. 17, 2001 - 20 months old- Nicolas has had his first major illness of the year, and I'd say the worst one so far in his life.  He picked up some kind of nasty virus which emerged on Sunday Dec. 9th by giving him a fever of 104 degrees.  On Monday, the fever managed to cause him to vomit a few times, so he couldn't even keep down medication to drop the fever.  The fever lasted until Wednseday and was followed by a rash and then diarrhea, which caused a severe diaper rash.  He's finally recovering, but it's been a long week for him as well as us, as our happy baby has just been miserable.  His vocabulary is still increasing and he repeats things quite often.  My favorite thing right now has to be when he says "THE END" which is whenever we close a book but it's also used in other situations that come to an end, such as when a song is over or a toy stops palying.  It's so cute!  He has met Santa twice so far this year, at private parties, and so far he isn't very keen on him.  He's definitely showing his temper and frustration a little more these days, but often he responds pretty well if you ask him politely to stop something.  Not ALWAYS, but often.  He's a very smart kid who definitely has preferences now to what he will eat, listen to on the stereo, watch on tv, or even play or read.  He's become very affectionate lately, and is always giving kisses and hugs freely.  Such a great boy!

Jan. 28, 2002 - 22 months old- Nicolas is still a very affectionate and talkative child!  He seems to really repeat just about everything these days, so we really have to watch what we are saying.  You just never know when he's going to repeat something.  On Friday, January 18th we let him sleep on a twin mattress on the floor of his room for the first time.  It didn't go over very well, he woke up twice and had to have me in the room with him to fall back asleep.  We tried again on Sunday Jan. 20th and it went much better.  As of today, he's been sleeping on the mattress ever since.  We plan to move his crib out of his room this weekend.  Another new thing was that his daycare reported on Friday he actually TOLD her "poop poop" and when she checked he had a dirty diaper.  He told me the same thing a few times this weekend, though not EVERY time, but it's a start.  Maybe for his 2nd birthday I'll invest in a little potty seat for him just in case.  Other than that, he's very obsessed with the vacuum cleaner, and for the last week has been rolling it out of the closet every chance he gets.  His favorite phrase seems to be "vacuum all gone".  He got to play in the snow for the first time on Saturday Jan. 19th, though he didn't seem too thrilled about it.  He wanted to help daddy do the shoveling and then tried to build a snowball to throw at the dog.  One of the great things about Nicolas' expanded vocabulary is that he can tell you things that before I had to try to figure out.  For example, he was standing in the kitchen this weekend, dropped his milk and began crying.  Then he started saying "toes" so I knew he must have dropped it on his foot.  He also tells you when and where he has a boo-boo and can name several body parts, on both people and the animals.  He sings the ABC song, though not very clearly and he still misses a lot of letters, but it's a start.  He knows his granpop and refers to him as "bop!" a lot.  Last week we were driving down the road that takes us past the neighborhood of Frank's parents, and Nicolas said "Bop!" like he thought that was where we were going.  This is really an exciting stage of development for him, despite the crying fits and tantrums that he has from time to time.  He'll be two in exactly two months!

March 18, 2002 - 23.5 months old- Nicolas  just such a loving and wonderful child. He's been sick for the last few days, and I believe he's also working on some molars.  Still, whenever I end up coughing, he looks at me and asks "Ok, Mommy?"  He's been up a lot the last few nights, but luckily I'm able to comfort him with a hug and cuddle, give him some milk and put him back to bed with no complaints.  He's napping much better on his mattress, though sometimes he gets himself so worked up when he doesn't want to nap that I bring him downstairs, put on a favorite video (currently Jay Jay) and we watch one episode until he calms down then he goes down for his nap much better.  He's always giving me hugs and kisses lately and he's talking up a storm.  He still has his temper tantrum moments when he doesn't get his way, but he's so good the rest of the time and listens so well other times that I really can't complain about a few bad moments.  He's very cooperative a lot of the time, still loves to go for walks and hold hands, and is getting much better at asking for things when he wants them (like milk, hot dogs, water, bananas).  In 10 days he'll be TWO!