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.