Scrapping...

I'm finally finishing up Will's Baby album. My version of the traditional baby album plus the next couple years. Okay - maybe just one more year. If I can get through the 2nd birthday, I'll consider the albums done!

I ran across some seriously cute photos of my two little guys that I wanted to post here....

Will

Nicholas

With the Curls....After the Curls

I finally gave Nicholas a hair cut....

My Cute Kids

Here are some recent snapshots of the kids being silly and cute...

Will is practicing his weight-lifting & balancing while Sophia balances a tray.

Will absolutely loves to wear his black hat and cap while playing with his hobby horse. Probably the best $10.00 I've ever spent.

Sophia posing as a model ... in a t-shirt & baggy pants:)

I sure hope he doesn't have a future in acting...

Nicholas is just too cute with his curls and stripey sweater.

The Amazing Nicholas...

Nicholas Joseph at 12 months


Sophia - Nicholas - Will

Before I forget any and all of the amazing things my little 12 month old is doing, I had better blog them.

1. He has figured out how to slide off of my bed on his tummy, feet first to the floor.

2. Next are the stairs - I fear. He likes to walk up to them - if the gate is not up - look at the stairs going down and sit down. This is usually when I scoop him up & carry him down. He wants to go down by himself!

3. Our "new" old-fashioned school desk with attached swivel chair is in the kitchen next to the table. Nicholas loves to climb up on the school seat to "stand" at the table. This is one thing I can not baby proof. It is too heavy to move around, can't gate it off and covering it would do no good. He is pretty good at it, so keeping my fingers crossed & hoping his Guardian Angel is doing overtime for him.

4. He remembers that the Thomas the Tank train toys are kept in a storage box under the gecko's table. So he crawls behind the tablecloth, pulls out the box and dumps it out all over the floor!

5. His most ingenious acrobatic act is pushing the couch cushion up, so he can get a knee up on the couch to pull himself up and stand triumphant on the couch. Now, neither Sophia or Will did this because we used to have a couch cover. After many washes, it's seams finally gave way. S&W didn't even know we had couch cushions! Now, I have to keep a blanket tucked into the couch and anchored under the feet of the couch.

As I am writing this, he is sitting on top of the little picnic table. AAAGGHHH! But he is very good at it. As long as we doesn't STAND on it, he will be fine.

He is beginning to say Mama, demands his own banana if he sees the big kids eating them and has his 8th tooth coming through. My baby is getting to be a big boy.

I haven't cut his curly blond hair yet though:)

Two Funnies from the weekend...

On Saturday, Nicholas awoke from his very long nap, crawled out of (my) bed without a peep or a plop, and I found him sitting at the top of our short staircase to the living room. I don't know how long he had been sitting there. Looked like he was contemplating crawling down the stairs. More amazing than funny - I guess. I even had the baby monitor on - and still didn't hear him. Usually, when he wakes from any nap, he lays crying in bed until I come to get him.

On Sunday morning, I tried to have Will put a quarter in his pocket for the collection at Mass, but he didn't want it. Later, I heard him talking in the other room about quarters, so I assumed his Daddy had given him a quarter. As the collection basket neared us at Mass, I looked at what he was holding - foreign currency! I have a collection of foreign coins from pre-children trips. Sophia likes to play with it. He found one & put it in his pocket! I knew we would have major melt-down if he was not allowed to drop it in the basket, so in went the Queen's money! Good thing Michael is on the collection-counting-committee at Church. He was able to retrieve the coin without too much suspicion;)

It is official - Nicholas is a WALKER!

You know your little one is a proficient walker when he can stop in mid-stride, glance over his shoulder at you while grinning and then keep walking forward ... without falling on his rear-end.

I am desperately trying to catch a few moments of his first steps on a video clip but no success yet....

Nicholas is a walker ... and a climber!

My 10 month old is becoming more and more mobile. This past week he has been taking tentative steps between furniture & people. He can climb the staircase so quickly & quietly - that sometimes he is up on the next level before I even know it! I think by Thanksgiving Day he should really be getting about even more!

This may have been the shortest 10 months ever.

my little Wildcat...

Here are some pictures of my cute little Kansas State Wildcat, Nicholas! We are having a little return of the sun so it is waming up in the afternoons. He probably won't fit into this 18 month outfit when he is actually 18 months next summer!



Nicholas snuggling with a bunny.
Okay - I added the bunny for the sake of the picture.
I couldn't resist.

HHHEEERRREEE's Nicholas crawling...

Nicholas has really taken off crawling today. Here is a clip of Sophia enticing him to crawl to her.

Oh yeah and there is alot of sound from me orchestrating the video and talking to Will in the background. Sorry!

Nicholas is on the mmmooovvvee....

Nicholas has officially moved from a stationary baby to a mobile baby! I set him down in one area of the living room this evening and the next thing I knew he had made it into the kitchen. Then, also this evening, I set him down in the bathroom doorway to help the older kids get into the tub, turned around to find him crawling right for the tub to join them.

It is soooo cute to watch a baby beginning to crawl. It is more of extend the arms, hop-scootch the knees forward. So darling!

Post pix of him soon.....