Forgotten photos

I have two cameras. One is small and fits into my purse. The other is a really nice camera that takes much better pictures, but it's huge. I used to get the big camera out a lot, but it broke recently. I didn't have it for a while as it was being repaired, and I got in the habit of just using my small, compact camera.

Jenn asked me to bring the big camera down to Max's birthday party this weekend. I decided to empty the ginormous memory card so it would be ready for a ton of pictures. I discovered a whole bunch of forgotten photos!

Some family pictures from the fall (taken by Jennifer Knight. Thank you, Jenn!):






Some Halloween pictures:





Some naked bum pictures (Nicholas), but I won't post those here :)
And some pictures of Nicholas being cute and weird:

Birthday Cake

I love my husband. He's handsome, intelligent, strong, manly, AND, I just found out, he BAKES!

For my birthday, he asked if I wanted him to bake a cake. I was SO excited! I know it sounds strange, but that was the best gift ever. I can't put my finger on why the act of him baking a cake was so awesome for me, but it was. He got me a gift too, which I loved, but the cake was definitely the best part of my birthday this year.

It was delicious. He made a tres leches cake with mango topping. Mmmmmmm..... we devoured it. In fact, after Mando plated his masterpiece, I snapped some photos. By the time I was finished with the photos, Mando's bowl looked like this.

Just pictures

I brought out my big camera the other day and just followed him around. He's just so darn cute.

Distracted by birds. Very intent on figuring out how to catch one.

With Max's car....that's a whole story in and of itself. Suffice it to say that Max found this car at an estate sale and Nicholas REALLY wants it. He steals it every time we go to their house. Luckily Max has not noticed that we've been taking it and returning it. I don't know how much longer we can keep up the charade, though. Nicholas thinks it's Lighting McQueen and he carries it around saying, "Ka-chow" (which really comes out, "shou! shou!" with an index finger pointed at my face).

He likes to touch every car as we pass it in the parking lot. I'm just waiting for him to set off a car alarm.

Gargling or Perry the Platypus

Nicholas makes this sound a lot. I'm fairly certain he's imitating Mando's tea and salt water gargles that he does when he's sick (which has been a lot lately), but there's a slight chance that he is imitating Perry the Platypus from Disney's Phineas and Ferb.

Feng Shui

When I was in college I found a book on the basics of Feng Shui on sale at Barnes and Noble. It is a REALLY simplistic look at the fundamental ideas of using Feng Shui and energy flow in your home or work place. After reading the book, I always wanted to learn more, but I never put in the time or energy. A few months ago I pulled the book out again and re-learned about kua numbers and lucky directions. I remember figuring out that Mando and I are in the "West group" and Nicholas is in the "East group." They say that the crown of your head should point toward the East/West while you sleep to improve your mood/health.

After reading this, I promptly forgot about it.

A few months ago Mando rearranged all of the furniture in Nicholas' nursery. It just feels so much cozier and comfortable in his room. Ever since we moved the furniture, Nicholas has been consistently sleeping all night, every night. And his naps, which used to be so erratic and frustrating for me, are now consistently every day at the same time, for two solid hours, sometimes longer. It's been WONDERFUL!

I just assumed that it was because he's getting older, and he must have just learned how to sleep. But as I was thinking about it, all the Feng Shui stuff came back to me....hmmmm.

Coincidence that his head now faces EAST while he sleeps?

Updates

Nicholas' new favorite toy (other than his cah) is the cutting fruit/food from Melissa and Doug. If you haven't seen this toy, it's amazing. BEST TOY EVER. Not only is it a food toy (which is always a favorite for me), but it teaches kids hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. I also love it because when I'm cooking dinner, I can set him up with his little cutting board and wooden knife and he cuts while I cook. Sometimes I like to set him up with a butter knife and my little cutting board and a banana. He'll stand right next to me at the counter and cut his fruit while I'm chopping vegetables for a salad. I love when we can do things together--- it's way more fun than trying to ignore him as he hangs off my legs and screams for attention.

We have a digital piano as the "centerpiece" of our living room. I give lessons twice a week, and the rest of the time I pretend I'm a great pianist whilst I butcher the children's hymns. Every week for FHE we open with a hymn. It's my favorite time of FHE because Nicholas knows exactly where we keep the three hymn books that we got as wedding gifts; whenever I sit down at the piano, he runs to the bookshelf, grabs a hymn book, runs to the sofa, climbs up, opens up the book in his lap, and then begins to wave his hand and sing. I LOVE IT! We play FHE during the day sometime just so I can see him do this :)

He also likes to sit on my lap while I help him play "Mississippi Hop Frog." I wish I were a "Tiger Mother" who could teach him to start playing the piano as soon as he's two, but I don't think I have the stamina. Here he is at the piano with his friend Sam Kelsey.

These are just cute pictures:

On the merry-go-round that they put at the entrance to all the grocery stores out here just to make shopping with a toddler THAT much more difficult. "No, we can't stop right now, but we can get on as soon as we're done."

"Your wife....is she uh, you know? Nudge, Nudge wink wink...Know what I mean, know what I mean?"

I finally fit in my wedding dress again :) Somehow changing a poopy diaper becomes much more magical when you're in your wedding dress.

Llama update

I went to Wilson Farm yesterday to pick up my first farm share of the season. We got out of the car, and Nicholas looked around him. I said, "Remember Wilson Farm? This is where we saw the llama!" His eyes grew wide and he said, "AMA! Bok!" as he hit himself on the head.

Cahs

I know it's just because he's learning to talk and not because he's growing up in New England, but I love that Nicholas says "cah" and not "car." He fits right in :)

Speaking of cahs, Mom brought Nicholas one of the ride-on car toys she had back in Batesville. Mom and Dad came out for a visit last week to help Jenn move into her new house. I think Mom should be a professional mover-inner... I can't believe how quickly she went through all those boxes! Whew! Anyway, Nicholas LOVES this little car. He whines to take it with him everywhere he goes. Whenever I say, "Let's go out!" he grabs his car and pushes it to the door, waiting for me to join him. Sometimes I'll indulge him and help him carry it down the stairs and into the car. Other times I have to pry his fingers off of it and haul a kicking screaming child down three flights of stairs to the car. And once in a rare while, I'll actually carry him while he's still ON the car. He tried to take it in the bathtub with him yesterday, and he always tries to bring it onto the changing table with him when I want to change his diaper.

The other day we were headed to Jenn's house, so I let him bring his car. He refused to let go, even while he was in his car seat. He promptly fell asleep, but he was still holding on to the car as if it were a life preserver.



At the next red light, I reached back to move it from his lap to the seat next to him. As soon as he felt the car move, his eyes snapped open and he looked at me as if I were a thief in the night stealing the crown jewels. He screamed as loud as I've ever heard him scream until I let go. Then, after one last contemptuous glare at me, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

I couldn't help but laugh. So, thanks, Mom, for the cah. Nicholas loves it :)