Month 18

Well, for a million reasons or maybe none, Nico didn't get a 12 Month recap like Benji did (although I do have to say I am quite proud of myself for having kept up with all the other 11 .. or maybe 10 months for Nicolas).

So to make up, I figured I'd do a Month 18.

This child is such a daredevil. He is fearless to the 79th degree. He climbs the slide in the back yard and goes down by himself as he squeals "weeeeeee". He climbs on things and when he gets to the top of the picnic table, the coffee table, the chair, the bed, the mowing tractor, the whatever it is, he looks at you and says "down! down!"

His favorite thing to watch is Little Baby Bum. The instance any of us (including Benji) say "TV", he says "ba bum! ba bum!" and heads for a chair in the living room. He has so many little songs that he sings throughout the day and does different dances for each one of them. His favorites are "rain rain (go away)" and "sun sun (mr. golden sun)" and "all through town".

He is so, but so so good, at following commands. Some pretty solid ones are "lay down to change your diaper" and "go to your chair to eat". But he understands pretty much everything such as "give that to Benji" or "take your cup to the sink"

Lately, I guess due to the change in weather, he's been obsessed with his jacket. He loves wearing his jacket and holding his jacket. We've started putting his wearable blanket on him at night, at first he didn't want to wear it and I told him it was his sleeping jacket. He got so excited to put it on and fell asleep saying "jacket" "jacket".

He loves his school and his teachers love him. He (thankfully) got over the biting thing... for a while he'd have an incident report every single day we'd pick him up where he'd bitten a friend. One time he bit someone more than once and the school called me. I was confident they were going to kick him out. But they didn't! His teachers are so fantastic!

He never took the pacie and he still sucks on his middle fingers on his left hand. The minute those fingers go in the mouth, the minute you better start praying if you are not already in bedtime or nap mode because all hell is about to break lose.

Whenever he poops he grabs his diaper and says "dai dai".. today he actually said "poo". I'm hoping this is foreshadowing to a smooth potty training experience.

He loves his brother and copies every.single.thing.he.does. Everything. Which is a good thing and a not so good thing. They love rough housing (apparently it's good for their gross motor skills... and self defense). They tackle one another like it's nobody's business. I'd say about half of the time, Nico is the instigator. No wonder when he first started going to school in July, one day I picked him up and one of his teachers says "Nicolas body slams the babies". Great.

He knows when to say no. And he means it. He's always learned to agree, he says "Yea" (and he means it too!)

Talk about copying everything his brother does:

An Afternoon at the Farm

Last weekend we were going to go to the farm after Norm got off work on Sunday. Then his schedule got crazy and we didn't go.

We rescheduled the plan for this afternoon and Norm was going to meet us there, but he got a VIP reservation and wasn't able to leave the restaurant. Considering we had already told Benjamin that we were going to go to the farm and Nico kept making animal noises, and this place has a super short window when they are open to the public, my mom and I went along with the plans.

We had such fun! We will have to see about bringing Daddy Norm along before they close.

Crossing over the bridge to go see the pumpkin patch and visit the animals in the barn:

We found heavy pumpkins! Nico shortly after this picture dropped his and said "Bye pumpum!"

Feeding the chickens!

There was a little pony named Andy that gave pony rides. Benji and Nico went for a ride. I initially got on the carriage with the boys and the handler politely told me that Andy can't haul adults...

There are just so many rides and fun stuff to do!

The corn box was so much fun... we had to do a crash course on how to play with corn, which involves to not throw it at other kid's faces. Don't.throw.it.

Nico took it upon himself to go swimming in the corn:

There is a huge sand pile with shovels and trucks and big tires sticking out of it...

We went for a hayride. Both boys were fascinated with the big hay bales and the tractors. My mom told Benji how his Nonno used to have tractors and fields and use to make bales like those... his little 3.5 year old mind was blown.

Then we found this cow... Benji practice milking it!

We had such a good time, and the weather was perfect, well, it was actually hot and Nico's face started to get red... thankfully I found a little travel sunscreen tube that lives in the stroller... so it was put to use!

All pictures here!

On another note, Norm and I are half way done with our Whole30!

The Concept of Chilly

Two nights ago we were preparing to make it through Hurricane Michael, who actually came through in the middle of the night (which we slept through) bringing lots of rain and 60mph wind gusts. We woke up to no power yesterday, but it quickly came back. Flashlights first thing in the morning was loads of fun!

Thankfully our backyard didn't flood and our fence didn't blow away. We had put everything up to avoid random flying things. Yesterday actually turned out to be a beautiful day in the high 80s with blue skies. 

Today we woke up to 56 degrees and the high only got to be 71. At least it was sunny. Yesterday we were in shorts and t-shirts with no shoes on. Today we were in long pants, jackets and shoes with socks.

Trying to explain the concept of chilly weather was tough this morning. Benji wanted to put on his "globs" (gloves) and hat because "it's about to snow!". So we had an extensive discussion about how when it is "chilly" we wear long pants, short sleeves and jackets and that's it. When it is "cold" then we get out the hat and gloves. When it is "freezing" it's about to snow. 

Happy Fall Y'all! 

Home Hair Cuts

"They" say parenthood will push you out of your box and all your comfort levels. You will take risks. You will be brave.

Well, today I lived up to all that. I YouTubed "how to cut toddler hair" and went for it. Here's a 3-second sneak peak:

I've always heard of those moms that cut their kids hair and sew their clothes and I never quite understood. And then today it happened, I had had enough of the crazy hair (which actually just got cut about 3 weeks ago... must be those good ole Flinstone vitamins) so I cut their hair.

I'd say I did a quite alright job for being the first time...

The Things He Says #87

As we are saying night prayers:

Me: Hail Mary, full of _______ (pause to give Benji the opportunity to continue)
Benji: Butter
Me: ................................

Motherhood super powers (or maybe the Holy Spirit) came upon me and I kept a straight face and told him to get it together.

Making the Best of It

Norm's schedule requires him to work on the weekends but at least he's off (pretty much) every Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesdays are always hectic because I leave super early to go to Atlanta and come home right at bath time (if we are lucky, I'm home by dinner).

So we have to cram our family time in whatever tiny windows the week gives us. A consistent tiny window is Wednesday afternoons when we usually get to pick up the kids together from school and do something fun afterwards.

Yesterday we walked in Benji's classroom right as he was doing a craft! As soon as he saw both of us walk in you could see in his little face all the feelings... he wanted to jump up and come home but he also wanted to keep working on his craft. So his teacher invited Norm and I to help him. And so we did!

He was making a tiger - because the theme of the week is Jungle - so he already had the glue down on his paper plate and was working on tearing the orange paper and gluing it. So we helped him tear the paper and put the small pieces of paper on the paper plate to create the tiger! 

Another Break

The last break was 6 months, this one was 5 months. Life is busy. There has been so much happening since April 20, 2018. There have been so many moments that I've thought "Oh! I need to blog about this!" and (obviously) that didn't happen.

Could it be that Nico learned how to walk and run and hasn't stopped since?
Could it be that Norm started a new job as Executive Sous Chef (which means working nights) in May and I've been doing bedtime on my own since?
Could it be that Summer was ridiculously busy at work planning a weekly garden-wide event, 8 concerts and 500 weddings remotely?
Could it be that Nicolas was home until about mid-July before starting full time daycare?
Could it be that after bedtime is over (8:30pm) I still have to go downstairs, clean up the kitchen then come back upstairs to wrap up work and/or look at the bills/finish laundry/iron chef coats [insert house chore]?
Could it be that we went to N. Myrtle to visit family and introduce Shagging to the boys?
Could it be that our best friends came to SC from Denver and I braved to take the boys on my own overnight and Benji caught a fish and we went on a pontoon boat?
Could it be that we went to Tybee Island and had a fantastic weekend that ended up with Michelle being hit by a car (whose driver was going too fast and was distracted) as she was trying to cross the street and had to undergo emergency leg surgery? (broken leg)
Could it be that we have ended up in the walk-in clinic every time we've gone to the beach because Nico ended up with a 102 fever? (tonsillitis)
Could it be that Cali girl fell while she was boarded (while we were at the beach) and broke her leg which was a glimpse to us learning that she actually had bone cancer and shortly we had to let her go run with Pellet?
Could it be that Juan Ma was home from NYC for a few weeks and to this day Nico still calls for him just about every morning?
Could it be Hurricane Florence and Norm's parents evacuating the SC coast?
Could it be the Whole30 we started today?
OR
Could it be that our home computer is old and slow and when I finally get 10 minutes at the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a thinking cursor while I open the browser and try to upload pictures to the blog? (Because of Mel Robbins and the 5 Second Rule, I have no choice but to blog on the work computer.... shhh)

Who knows.

We need a new computer.

Or maybe, just maybe, life is happening so fast and just about every instant is immediately trampled by somebody getting knocked on the side of the head and therefore requires running to get "the cold" from the fridge.

I have to slow down and capture it. I think I succeeded this past Saturday: