FEBRUARY 25, 2003 - It's hard to believe that Nicolas will be 3 years old next month.  I can't believe how fast he's grown up.  Right now he is still a big drama king as well as the king of attitude sometimes.  He is still a big fan of dinosaurs and Buzz Lightyear, and enjoys watching the Buzz Lightyear movie or any of the Land Before Time movies that we've managed to tape.  The only problem with that is that he picks up on the dinosaur names and uses them quite often.  He has lots of toy dinosaurs and they have names such as "Tree Trunk", Duckie, Sarah, Spike and Little Foot.  He loves to repeat lines from these movies all of the time, so unless you've seen the movies over and over like we have you have no idea what he's talking about.

He's still a pinicky and infrequent eater.  Favorites are cup of noodles, mac and cheese, hot dogs, fruit and chocolate milk.  He now requests chocolate or regular milk depending on his mood.  We've started some potty training efforts, but so far it's pretty slow going.  He uses the toilet every now and then, but sometimes it's tough to make him sit there and even letting him run naked from the waist down doesn't get him in there with any frequency.  He'll just as easily use the floor where he's standing.

Other than that, he's very smart and can identify most colors and numbers.  I'm not sure how many letters he knows right now.  He's more interested in identifying his dinosaurs or his airplanes (which are snuffy's, big jakes, jay jay's and oscars after Jay Jay the Jet Plane characters) and enjoys watching Daddy play his Sega games with airplanes.  He's also taken a renewed interest in the computer since we handed our old computer down to him and gave him his own big desk.  He loves to sit at the computer and play several different games by himself.

Oh, let me not forget Superman, who is another favorite of his.  He carries around a toy superman with him quite often as well.  He's really enjoyed the big snow we've received this year and loves to put on his coat, boots and gloves and go outside to eat the snow.  He's been great with his big sister and even shares his toys with her, even though she can barely hold them.
 

NOVEMBER 13, 2002 - Nicolas is doing great so far and has adjusted pretty well to being a big brother.  He always asks where Noelle is and wants to see her.  He has held her a few times, though only for short periods of time.  The other day he even brought her teddy bear to her while she was in her swing, which was very cute.  He still has his moments of terrible twos, where he throws tantrums and refuses to listen to us.  However, he's getting better about a lot of things like eating and sleeping.  He's actually been sitting at the table with us at dinner time and eating some.  He's been sleeping pretty well again.  The other nice thing is that even though he isn't potty trained yet, and has shown no interest in the potty for us at home at all lately, he does tell us whenever he needs a new diaper and will actually lay on the changing pad himself and let his change him.  This is a big change from a few weeks ago where we'd have to chase him down whenever he needed a new diaper.  His new favorites these days are Dinosaur (the movie) as well as Scooby Doo and Batman movie.  He now knows the Scooby Doo theme by heart and can sing it.  He loves his airplanes and his cars and goes back and forth between them.  His favorite drink these days is now chocolate milk, though he will drink plain milk every now and then.  He's still very talkative and asks a lot of questions, especially "What's that Mommy/Daddy?"  He knows his colors and numbers pretty well and can even sing the ABC song.

OCTOBER 10, 2002 -I really need to start keeping track of funny kids stories.  I had two on my mind this morning, but I can only remember one of them.  You have to try to remember the funny times with a 2.5 year old, especially because of all of the tantrums.  So, last night we were reading Nicolas a book "Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs" since he's been on a big dinosaur kick for a day or so.  It's partially my fault, as I showed him a dinosaur sweatshirt I had for him on Tuesday night, and he wanted to wear it.  I told him he could wear it the next day, thinking he'd forget.  Well, yesterday morning as I went to dress him he looked at me and said "Dinosaurs Mommy", so I had no choice but to let him wear the outfit.  Luckily, it was just cool enough that he could wear it, but it was difficult to take it off him last night.  Anyway, we got to a page on the book with colors - Dinosaurs Red, Blue, Yellow and Green and we asked Nicolas what color each one was.  He got one or two correct.  Then, Nicolas decided to "read" the book himself.  He flipped to that same page and said "Color this Mommy/Daddy?" and kept asking until BOTH of us told him the colors.  Once we got all of them, he said "Good Job" and turned the page.  He did this a few times and I was just in tears.  It's amazing what they imitate, and he just loved being the little teacher to both of us.

OCTOBER 7, 2002 -Nicolas is back on his airplane kick.  I'm not sure if it was the air show, or what, but Buzz Lightyear and Cookie Monster have been tossed aside and he is back to carrying his airplanes (Jay Jay, Snuffy, and Little Blue Airplane) as well as some of the helicopters everywhere with him now.  We did watch Toy Story once this weekend, but most of the time we are watching Jay Jay the Jet Plane episodes instead.  I noticed also that some of Nico's second line of molars are coming through or have broken through already as well.  He seems to be handling that pretty well so far.  I wouldn't have noticed it except that he was laughing this weekend and I happened to take a peek and notice 3 of 4 molar points sticking out in his top gums.  He is still eating pretty well for the most part, and pretty much makes his requests/demands known for foods.  He loves milkshakes, which I make myself with yogurt and milk.  He also loves pizza and hot dogs.

Other than that, he's still using the potty on some rare occasions, though I suspect he uses it more at daycare than he does at home.  He has told me he needed a new diaper every now and then, but will still tell me "NO" quite often when I ask if he wants to use the potty, so I don't push the issue.  Oh, and he's into a real bath kick now.  He requests a bath EVERY night now, which wouldn't be too bad except that he is impossible to get out of the tub once he's in there!  We usually give him one every other night, unless he really needs it more often.  He really gets upset if we don't let him take one now though.

Sleeping is going just great.  He's decided that he prefers to sleep with his door open though.  So, for the last 2 or 3 weeks, we put him to bed, close his door, he gets up and opens the door and goes back to bed.  Now we just leave the door open.  However, this weekend I put him down for his nap and he got up and closed the door AND turned off the baby monitor, which I only use during naptimes because I don't always hear him get up and he usually wakes up from naps pretty cranky.  He happened to wake up from that nap on his own, even got out of bed and came out of his room in a pretty good mood.  That's never happened, but it was nice to not have to deal with him being extra cranky for 20 minutes after he wakes up.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2002 - It's hard to believe it's been almost two and a half years since this little boy entered out lives, and I just love him more and more each day.  He does have some temper tantrums from time to time, and bad habits like yelling a LOT, especially when Frank and I are trying to talk to each other, and hitting from time to time but there are so many good moments as well.  Ever since his little day trip with Daddy last weekend to the playground at BWI to watch the airplanes, he is back into the airplane mode and has just about forgotten about Buzz and Cookie Monster.  He's been requesting to watch Jay Jay the Jet Plane instead of Toy Story.  I'm sure he still loves the characters.   It's so funny to watch him play with his toys and imitate Buzz by talking into his arm and saying "Buzz Lightyear to Star Command" (even though for a week he kept saying Tacoman and we had no idea that he was REALLY saying Star Command).

We recently watched Jay Jay the Jet Plane on tv, and Nicolas had his toy "Jay Jay" (which is a plane that looks NOTHING like Jay Jay) with him.  The planes on the show got stuck in the mud, and then Nicolas had his airplane "stuck" in our carpet, saying "it's stuck" and imitating the show.  It was too cute.  He does a lot of singing songs now and still loves to dance as well.  This morning he was watching TV and just dancing and singing to the music on the show.  It was just too cute.  Then in the car on the ride to work he was listening to music and dancing in his car seat, saying "dance Mommy" and "dance Daddy" to both of us.  It's time like that where you know exactly why you had kids to begin with, because they can just put smiles on your face.

We took him to the county fair this weekend and he got to ride his first pony, which he loved.  He looked so grown-up on that horse!  I think he would have even been able to ride a few of the other kiddie rides, but he was so tired that we opted to take him home rather than push him more.  He fell asleep in the car on the way home.  He asks questions every now and then and really knows so much more than we realize.  It's so nice to see things through his eyes sometimes as well.  His baby sister should be here in about another month, and I can't wait to see how he does with that.  Right now he's still such a Mommy's boy who loves to give me kisses and hugs that I just hope I don't lose that once I have another child to share my attention.

We recently received a note from daycare that he has been asking to use the potty since he's been watching other children use it.  That same week, Frank put him on the potty twice and he did manage to go for him.  Just a few nights ago, we asked him before bedtime if he wanted to use the potty and he said yes.  Frank put him on the toilet, and we thought it would be nothing (which we still praise him for, by the way) and sure enough he did pee a little bit and we were both so excited for him.  Last night we went out to eat and while sitting at the table he said that he wanted to go potty.  Frank too him in there, but he said he changed his mind so they just washed his hands instead.  Frank was glad because he said the restrooms were pretty nasty there.  Nicolas really has a thing for washing his hands and likes to do it as often as possible, sometimes in the middle of a meal.  He really does seem to be growing up very fast all of the sudden.

September 12, 2002 - Nicolas is still doing great and is still a very active and enthusiastic child.  He also appears to be the class entertainment at daycare.  It seems like at least once a week I hear about how he's been dancing or singing or just plain entertaining the other kids.  I've seen him in action.  He has no problem approaching complete strangers, especially children and introducing himself.  At the play area at the mall a few weeks ago he would climb to the top of this bridge and stand there waving and saying "Hi everybody" as if he owned the place.  We took him to a pool party over Labor Day weekend and it was all we could do to keep him from trying to jump into the pool without anyone there to catch him.  He even wanted to jump from the diving board.  He loves to eat steamed crabs with us when we have them.  I can hardly pick them fast enough for him...definitely my kid in that respect.  Every day he seems to get easier and easier to deal with and the tantrums seem to come less frequently.  While he started off last weekend with having a terrible night of not sleeping and ending up in bed with us, he's been fine ever since and now appears to be going through a growth spurt as he seems to eat more and more at dinner, and this is not a child who normally eats very much.  He usually asks for the same things...waffles, hot dogs, cereal bars or noodles.  He has tried a few new foods when we've gone out to eat but that's rare for him.  He is still addicted to the Toy Story movies, and really won't watch much of anything else.  He has both the scripts as well as the music memorized.  The other morning he was singing "You've Got a Friend In Me" as I put on his shoes.  I also noticed last night that he seems to recognize numbers.  He was pushing the buttons on our dishwasher, which has 2, 4 and 6 hour displays for delayed start.  As he pushed the button he actually said the numbers correctly as well.  He'll be 2 and a half in just over 2 weeks.

August 8, 2002 - Nicolas is just becoming less of a baby and more of a little boy with each passing day.  Sometimes I look at him and I could swear that he's changed overnight.  I'm trying to cherish every last minute of him while he still wants to be held and cuddled and kissed because I know it won't last much longer.  He picks up more and more every day and likes to talk in phrases and even ask questions at times.  He really enjoys watching movies, especially the Disney movies.  He likes 101 Dalmations, The Lion King, Hercules, Superman, A Bug's Life and Toy Story 1 and 2 so far.  Oh, and let me not forget Cinderella, which is not something Mommy forced on him.  He actually picked out the movie one day and requested it, by name.  He still loves his toy airplanes, still likes having his blanket every now and then, and now also loves his new Buzz Lightyear action figure toy.  He's still not a big eater, and some days it takes all my effort to get him to eat anything at all.  He's doing great in school, though he is learning some not-so-nice new things.  His recent utterance of the phrase "Shut Up" to both of us comes to mind.  For the most part he's just the teacher's pet there, although at times I've heard that he can be a bully when the older kids get in his way.  Hard to believe that one, but I have seen it in action.  He also is starting to get into reading again, or at least letting us read to him at night.  Favorites include "I'm a Big Brother", "Moo, Baa, La-La-La", and "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom".  He's had a few recent spells of waking up in the middle of the night, which I think is due to nightmares.  It's not too often and most of the time once one of us comes in to comfort him he goes right back to sleep.  I'm not sure he really understands that in just over 2 months his baby sister will be here.  He enjoys reading the big about being a big brother, and if you ask where his baby sister is he will point to my stomach, sometimes saying "Nite Nite Baby Sister" but I know that he really doesn't know the life change that will take place when she actually arrives.  He'll still be my little boy and I just hope I'm successful in letting him know that so he doesn't feel left out at all.  He also really loves the Wiggles and we hope to be able to take him to their live show here in Baltimore in November because I think he'd really enjoy that.

July 9, 2002 - Nicolas is just growing up so fast it's hard to keep track of him.  It's amazing to see things through his eyes because he just notices things that we just don't see.  He's really getting good at recognizing shapes and colors, and his favorites these days are triangles and the color green.  We just got back from a week's vacation in Myrtle Beach, and once again he did great, even sleeping until 6am or later most days.  He did, however, tend to wake up and just wander into bed with us a few times.  We'd leave him there for a bit then put him back to his own bed, since he was sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the room with us.  He enjoyed spending time with his grandparents, uncle Bill and aunt Maria.  He LOVED the water, had no fear of the beach or the pool.  He also enjoyed riding the carousel, which we did quite a few times.  He did great for a few of our dinner meals out and even enjoyed the Dixie Stampede show there, as long as there were horses on the field in front of us.  At dinner one night, he had a pair of metal nutcrackers used to crack crabs.  He was using it like chopsticks to eat his fries, then put it on the table and proclaimed "TRIANGLE MOMMY".  It was so cute.  He thought the candles under the melted butter were fascinated, and wanted to sing "Happy To You" (minus the birthday part...don't know why he leaves that word out) and blow them out.  He's good at blowing bubbles now and is an expert climber of just about anything.  He loved to jump into our arms from the side of the pool and to swim in the ocean.  In the morning I gave him apple jacks cereal, and he proceeded to pick out only the green ones, pointing them out to me.

In other news, he absolutely LOVES computers.  I thought he'd still be too young for it, but after seeing him at daycare one day I decided to setup my old laptop with a few kids CDs that I purchased.  Nicolas will now sit in front of the Fisher Price Toddler CD, he knows which icon to click to start it, and what to click on the screen to go back to the main screen to choose different activities.  He can sit there for quite a while, playing the games and talking out loud as they praise him.  It's just amazing how well he does with a mouse at such a young age.

He's still a mommy's boy, though spending a week at the beach with Daddy helped them bond a little more again.  Frank finished his swingset/fort and he loves to play on that in the evenings as well as go for walks around the pond and see the geese and ducks.  Oh, and just a few weeks ago he figured out how to removed the doorknob cover from the inside of the door to his room and he can now unlock doors as well.  So, now when he wakes up in the morning, he walks right out of his room and into our room and stands by the bed waiting for us to get up and get him something to eat or drink.  He still enjoys all kinds of fruits and noodles and hot dogs, but we're always trying to expand his food tastes whenever we can.  He seems to say or do something every day that just amazes me and I just really enjoy watching him grow into a little person.  He still has the occasional tantrum, with hitting, but it's not too often and I usually try to distract him from it.

June 13, 2002 - School is still going well and Nicolas continues to grow up way too fast.  We went to the beach with my family May 25 - June 1st, 2002.  It was nice that Nicolas got to spend so much time with grandparents and uncle John.  He just loved playing with Uncle John, talking to his grandma and pop, and just spending time with all of us.  We purchased new bedroom furniture for him about a week or two before we went on vacation, so he's been sleeping in a real bed instead of a mattress on the floor for a while.  This helped with vacation, as he slept on a twin bed there and did great, except for the fact that he was up at 5:30am every day, a full hour before his normal waking time.  He loved the beach and especially the pool.  It was hard to get him out of the water, even when he was cold and had blue lips.  He had no fear of it and loved to try to swim with mom and dad's help.  He also enjoyed taking walks on the beach with his wagon.

Other than that, Nicolas continues to talk a lot and is a very social child.  He's not afraid to talk to strangers, especially other children.  He loves to sing these days, especially "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Jay Jay the Jet Plane".  I find him singing it by himself quite often.  He repeats anything, so we're very careful to screen what he watches.  He can count to 10 on his own, though he doesn't do it too often, and he's starting to identify a few colors as well.  Mostly he still loves airplanes and trains and of course the animals at home.  His favorite foods seem to be hot dogs, waffles, any kind of pasta or noodles, french fries, milkshakes and milk, grapes, cheese and cooked baby carrots.  It's hard to get any other vegetables in him, but I do try.  Oh, and he loves Superman now, thanks to his dad, as well as "AH-MAN" which is Batman.  He has his terrible two moments, usually when he's tired or hungry, and those are never fun.  He does tend to hit a little more these days out of anger/frustration, but again it's usually when he's also tired.  There are days when he's very cooperative, and days when he's just not at all.  He still loves to cuddle and give hugs and kisses and he can even now talk on the phone and carry on some kind of conversation, even if you don't know what he's saying.  He does listen and respond when someone is on the phone with him.

It's hard to believe that in just about 4 months there will be another little person running around our house.  I think Nicolas will be great with his baby sister, he seems to love all children and I've seen him around other babies.  I'm still enjoying this one-on-one time with home, and I hope he never feels neglected once someone else has our attention at home.  I feel very blessed to have him and I often wonder how we got so lucky.

May 14, 2002 - Nicolas is doing great in his new school, and is finally getting used to the dropoff idea.  This week he finally started going to the other teachers and letting me leave without too much of a fuss.  He's talking now in 2 and 3 word sentences on a regular basis, and he repeats just about everything.  He makes requests for food and drink on a regular basis.  Last week he started going to the freezer in the morning, saying "stuck" and getting me to open the door, and pointing to the "waddles" (waffles) for breakfast.  Just last week I heard him count to ten on his own, without anyone prompting him, which was really neat to hear.  He loves his airplanes, trains and blocks and often asks "where airplane" when he can't find one of them and starts searching for it.  The other morning he woke up calling "Daddy?  Anyone home?" and he's still great at going to bed.  He loves to brush his teeth, and asks for both his toothbrush and toothpaste.  I'm not sure that it's really brushing, more like chewing, but it's a start.  He loves the new fort his daddy built for him, and is always saying "Come on Mommy/Daddy" to get us to play with him, then "Ready, Set Go!" when he wants us to slide.  I can understand just about anything he says these days, and it still amazes me the things he comes up with on his own or that he can remember.  He's such a little chatterbox and I love to listen to him and try to carry on a conversation with him.  He still loves to give "big hugs" and kisses, but is starting to hit a little more these days out of frustration.  Getting him out of the tub these days is getting more difficult, this child just LOVES the water.  I can't wait to see him at the beach or in the pool this summer.  I'm still considering buying him some kid of toddler pool or sprinkler to enjoy at home.

April 18, 2002 - Nicolas is now two years old!  He started a new school on April 1st and he's doing just great there.  He is adored by his teachers and classmates.  Yesterday as I picked him up from school, about a dozen older kids from one of the other classes chimed "Bye Nicolas" as we left and the teacher there said to me "he's very popular."  Wow, it's just amazing to hear that.  He is more and more vocal with each passing day and is parrotlike many times.  I've often heard things like "Oh shoot" out of his mouth...thank goodness we choose our words carefully around him.  He still loves airplanes and trucks.  The Lion King is his favorite movie, but I've broken him of the habit of having to watch it every time we are in the minvan finally.  He also loves theWiggles and still loves to sing and dance.  He's still a love bug who gives lots of kisses and hugs without any prompting.  His new trick is jumping off our furniture.