Cuteness

I came across a bunch of really cute videos and photos from the last few months that I had forgotten about. Thought I'd post them as a hodge-podge way of catching up in my blogging.

In September we took our first trip to the Zoo here in Boston.  I'm not sure if it was the Franklin Zoo or Stone Zoo.  We had a lot of fun seeing the animals, and they have a few places to play scattered around the zoo, which Nicholas loved.  There was even a tiny train he could ride all by himself!

"What do the flamingoes do, Nicholas?"

Nick and Mando being flamingoes.

At the end of June 2011, Nicholas was playing out on the balcony with his cars.  All of a sudden he came running in with a really excited, almost panic-stricken look on his face.  "Ma, come!  Car!"  I thought for sure he had dropped one of his cars off the balcony.  I had been waiting for that to happen for many months.  But when I got out there he started pointing and clawing at the boards.  It seemed like he had dropped something down between the cracks, but none of his cars were small enough to fit down there.  For the longest time, I couldn't figure out what he was trying to say.  He became more and more agitated, whining and whimpering the word "car" over and over again.

I looked exactly where he was pointing...

I still couldn't figure it out....

Then I focused beyond the boards and realized that he had seen THIS car sitting in a bucket on the balcony below us.  He wanted me to get that car so he could play with it.  I swear this kid could find a car on a desert island.

This was Nicholas' favorite thing to do every time I turned away from an open refrigerator door.  This was the first time it happened, I'm sure my laughter encouraged the repeat performances.  I actually didn't know where he was at first because the door was almost completely closed!  When he flung the door open, I started laughing SO hard and I grabbed the camera.  Taken in May.

March 2011, helping Dad do "gárgaras," or gurgling.

I don't know how he found my rubber gloves, but one morning in May I walked into the bathroom to discover him "cleaning" the tub with my gloves on.  So cute.

We have a ritual that we must go through every time I attempt to leave the house.  Has anybody heard George Carlin's rant about "stuff?"  It's funny...and it is exactly the mindset that my son has.  Every time we leave the house, he HAS to bring some of his "stuff" with him.  Usually it's cars, but every once in a while he'll surprise me by asking to bring something totally random.  Like this day when he insisted on bringing Santa.  Oh, and wait....

A package of my pantyliners.

Pantyliners and Santa... definite necessities for going to the grocery store.

I remember when Katie and I were the butt (no pun intended) of many jokes in high school because we always bent over without bending our legs.  Neither of us realized we did it, but apparently when you do it in a short cheerleading skirt, the whole football team DOES notice.  I took this picture as evidence that it must be a family trait.  :)  

Feeding the birds by the swan boats in Boston (I forget what the park is called) in May.  Alyson Edmunds was out in Boston visiting--- I wish I had a picture to put in, but I didn't take one!  We loved having her out here!

What's better than one binky?  TWO!  July 2011

I love this picture because I have a picture of Grandpa Luke holding me in a box in this exact same way.  Fond memories of being small enough to fit in a box.... *sigh*  July 2011

I seriously thought this was poop when he first came running up to me.  This was during our small adventure with potty training in October.  I had been waiting for him to poop all day.  Luckily, it was just brown marker :)  I never did find the marker, and even luckier, his face was all he colored.