Little Stinker

He's not even nine months old yet, but he already knows how to push my buttons!

Nicholas NEEDS to get out of the house every day or else he goes stir-crazy. Days when I push the outing back a few hours, he will start whining and pawing at my legs like a little puppy that needs to go out OR.... he will tease me.

Today he was in a teasing mood. There are only two things that I tell him continuously not to do. 1. touch the floor lamp (he's knocked it over so many times it's all dented and will only turn on with enormous force)
2. put things in his mouth--- especially paper.

He's come to recognize the pattern: touch the lamp, see Mom's funny reaction, continue to touch the lamp, get picked up and carried away. Or: eat paper, mom will take it away and put her fingers in my mouth.

So what does he do? I was on the couch returning an important e-mail when he crawled off down the hallway. He does NOT usually do this--- he doesn't like to crawl out of sight--- so I expected him to come crawling back around the corner any minute. But he didn't....uh-oh...and it was silent...UH-OH. I quickly got off the couch and scurried around the corner to see him sitting in the doorway of Mando's office (a place he knows he's not really supposed to go...that and the bathroom) WAITING for me! I kid you not! He saw me, gave a little squeal, turned his back to me and bolted straight for the lamp. Then he sat right next to the lamp with his hand hovering next to it, but not touching it--- like Nemo when he's about to touch the boat. He just looked at me and waited for me to say something with this huge grin on his face! Little stinker. When I didn't say anything, he grabbed the lamp and then looked right at me and paused again.... I was a little curious to see what he would do, so I didn't say anything right away. So he took the other hand and grabbed the lamp, paused, and looked at me again! Finally I gave him what he wanted and said, "Nicholaaaaas...." and looked at him with me stern expression. He laughed and immediately started clapping his hands.

Later that afternoon I was in my bathroom brushing my teeth while Nicholas played in our bedroom with a puzzle. From the bathroom you can see the foot of our bed and the rug where his puzzle was, but you cannot see the head of the bed or the nightstands. While I spit, I saw Nicholas disappear behind the bed from the corner of my eye. He crawled over to my nightstand, grabbed a piece of paper which I foolishly left in reach, crawled ALL the way BACK to the foot of the bed, sat down facing me, and held the paper up for me to see. Then he sloooooowly put the paper toward his mouth, eyes on me the whole time. I said, "Nicholaaaaaas...." and he smiled and took a huge bite out of the paper. I said, "What do you haaaaaave?" And he laughed and stuck out his tongue with the paper sitting on it and waited for me to come and fish it out of his mouth!

I was shocked at how he was taunting me! It was pretty hilarious :)

Lately

A few weeks ago we went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It was pretty cool. We used the pass from the Public Library to get half price admission, and we were really glad we did. It was a neat museum, but not worth full price (in my opinion). The best part was the part near the end with room upon room of stuffed animals. There were whale skeletons hanging from the roof, giraffes (which are huge), apes, monkeys, hummingbirds, leopards, etc. etc. Everything you can imagine. It was especially cool to see an alpaca and a llama standing right next to each other. I've always wondered what the difference is between those two---and when they're side by side it's quite apparent. (the llama is huge compared to the alpaca...and the alpaca has tiny feet).

Afterward, we decided to grab something to eat because we figured we'd hit traffic on the way home. Unfortunately, in the twenty minutes it took us to order and eat (I know! Impressive, right?) it started POURING rain! Even though we were parked only a few feet away, we figured it was best to wait it out. Usually monsoon-type rainstorms come and go pretty quickly here. However, it just got worse and worse until, pretty soon, there were sirens on every side and the gutters were filling up like rivers. We saw entire trash cans floating by. Then the words "Flash Flood Warning" started echoing around the restaurant on cell phone conversations. Luckily the World Cup was on and they had a TV over the bar, so Mando was entertained :) Finally we saw a slight let-up in the rain and made a dash for the car (actually, Mando insisted on going out first, backing it ON TO THE SIDEWALK so I only had to run about 3 feet with Nicholas...ay). I wish I could have taken more pictures because it was pretty incredible. The tunnel (I have no idea which one, so don't ask) was completely flooded and there were people abandoning cars and swimming out by the time we got there. This was all I captured.
And it was actually after all the rain had stoppped....sheesh.

I bet you thought there was going to be a more interesting end to that story. Too bad!

Nicholas likes to get in the pack and play that we had set up for Jenn's kids to nap in when they visit. It's SO cute to see his little face peeking out over the top with two little hands on either side.
Los cholitos

Nicholas got his leg stuck in this little wire/bead thing (what are those called?) and instead of whining and crying...he just kept on crawling around looking for stuff to put in his mouth, dragging the toy behind him. I found him slowly making his way from the living room to the kitchen where he found a lime to suck on. Funny little guy :)

Who can resist a laughing baby video?

Eagle Eye Mando

Here's how our conversations usually go after church on Sunday afternoons:

(As Nicholas plays with his toys...not sleeping, and both of us watch him wishing he were sleeping)
Mando: Love, why don't you go take a nap?
Liz: That's okay, I slept in today...why don't you go take a nap?
Mando: nah, I don't take naps.
Liz: (very surprised and a little sarcastic) Since when?
Mando: Remember? I don't want my body to get used to taking naps because then I get really, really tired at work at that time.
Liz: Oh...okay. (Exit stage left to do something else while Mando watches Nicholas)

Liz returns five minutes later...
Liz: Mando, you're practically asleep; just go take a nap! Seriously, I don't mind.
Mando: No...that's ok. I'm just watching him with my eyes closed.

Five minutes later:
Nicholas heads out the door....
Even as I type, Armando sleeps on the floor---refusing to admit that he's taking a nap :) And lest you all think I'm just being funny and this is a one time event:

Fun Things with Jenn

I love living near Jenn because she's always doing fun things with her kids. She's like my own private travel agent for the Boston area--- she plans everything, I just have to show up :) I am still in awe at all the things she does with her three, very active, children.


We went to the Frog Pond last week. It's this cool wading pool for kids in the middle of the park. It's only like two feet deep and it's really big and the kids just run around in it---kind of like a fountain, but without the squirty things. We also rode the swan boats (little boats with a big swan on the back that houses a little man paddling the boat like a bicycle) and saw the ducks. (I thought they were talking about real ducks....but it was these little statues :)

I went to a bench to feed Nicholas and after a few minutes Becca wandered over and stood on the bench next to me. Which effectively ended the feeding because Nicholas wanted to stand right next to her. Isn't this cute?
Then Max wandered over and it turned into a little party!

We went to Wingaersheek beach last week too. It's this great beach with rocks and tide pools. It's really soft sand and shallow water and the waves come in softly so the kids could go out really far and still be fine.
Nicholas loved sitting in the surf, but he enjoyed eating the sand more.

In fact, he got tired of me swatting his hand away from his mouth (as he shoved in handfuls of sand) so he abandoned hands all together and put his face directly into the sand and started inhaling it. I couldn't get a picture of that....for obvious suffocation reasons :) But I wish I had taken a moment to get an after shot becuase he had a little sand beard that went from ear to ear and nose to chin.

When Todd came to visit, we took the kids to the Minute Man National Park. It was so cute to see Max gliding along on his little "motorcycle" as we walked down the path.
Todd got a little bored, though :) Here he is trying out some of the wooden toys in the gift shop.
Mando and I went back to the park on Monday to take a little walk with Nicholas.

We've also been down to Jenn's several times for dinner and a barbeque.
Fun times :)

Armando

I don't know which made me laugh louder: hearing Nicholas belly laugh at Mando, or seeing Mando pretend to be a dog.