[Nicolas] Cooker Baby

We started Christmas day with our good friends uptown, Harley and Jake, who were happy to share their new toys with Nicolas: and some old toys: and not a toy at all, but still very interesting (sharon even played a little for us, much to nicolas' delight): Then we moved on to the Negrotto's for the annual family Christmas party, but Nicolas conked out on the way: We made it in after an hour-long nap in the car, and enjoyed some great food and quality time with the Negrottos. Here we are with Uncle Lee: We also got to see cousins Tré and Jennifer and meet their new baby Jacob. When we finally had to say goodbye, Nona gave us a big kiss: and we headed back to the hotel for dinner (see "gumbo" in Christmas recap, pt. 1). After dinner, we topped off the evening at Fulton Street - a new attraction built by Harrah's: where it "snowed" every hour on the hour: right next door, inside harrah's hotel, they had a huge gingerbread house: and a really cool throne

until the next xmas recap post: Aunt Delilah and Uncle Lee got Nicolas Shrek the Third for xmas, and now he eats lunch and dinner with the DVD box on the table. he likes to scrunch up his face like Shrek too.

We drove down to New Orleans to visit friends and family for Christmas. Our hotel stay at Le Pavillon was wonderful: Nicolas enjoyed the lobby furniture and he and Mary loved the Christmas decorations: and he was mesmerized by the fireplace in the hotel restaurant: And this guy was hanging on the wall in our room, which was also kind of fun: Nona and Pa-Pa stayed with us for a night and Nicolas walked them through the lobby on our way to dinner on Christmas Eve: On Christmas Night, we ate at the Crystal Room - the hotel's restaurant. Nicolas couldn't wait to try the gumbo, but he let me take his picture first: then he dug in, and didn't stop until his bowl was empty: After dessert, Nicolas wanted to go look at the Christmas tree, and a nice couple who was dining near it offered to take our picture - they weren't drunk, we just need a better digital camera: more on our Christmas, New Orleans Style vacation coming soon . . .

He looks subdued, but my mom said he was having a great time, kind of expecting Santa to read him a story.

he kind of knows his left from his right ... and at the end he's starting to recite the 5 little piggies nursery rhyme...

his new favorite song/video:

we are having so much fun with this little guy:

a few more from nicolas' trip last week:

nicolas spent most of last week with his grandparents in oxford, ms. we just got some pics in today. enjoy:

a bit groggy from his afternoon nap, nicolas grasps the concept of decorating a christmas tree:

mary and i spent the past week in new orleans, while nicolas stayed with his grandparents in Oxford. we saw him for the first time since Sunday last night and he seemed to have a wonderful time. we should have some pics and video from his visit soon, but in the meantime, here's some more dancing for you:

he loves this song and loves to dance to it, but can only take so much videotaping:

today was our sitter liz's last day. she's been amazing with nicolas - encouraging him to draw and read, and always teaching him fun stuff (like salsa dancing for instance. you'll see a few of those moves he learned in a future post). at any rate, we're grateful to her for the time she spent with nicolas, and for staying with us as long as we did, despite a grueling class schedule at Vanderbilt. We hope she can come back and visit some time soon. We'll miss you lots Liz!

last week nicolas started counting for us. well, reciting numbers in order, actually, which is kind of close to counting. a first step, nonetheless:

i had a great birthday last week. nicolas helped me celebrate by not taking his eyes off the cake and eating as much of it as he could before we took it away. he and mom got a little dressed up for halloween too: and our neighbors edwin and karen brought their daughter sophie over for some trick or treating. Nicolas got a kick out seeing his friend dressed up as a bumble bee, while I'm sure she enjoyed his young Buzz Osbourne (of the Melvins) look.

nicolas spent some time with his grandma these past couple days and she helped him get ready for halloween, with some great new books and lots of help with his first pumpkin.

i think this was filmed before our recent new orleans trip. with yogurt on his face, nicolas insisted he drink from his cup, by himself, for the first time. no lid, no straw, no help. we were bracing for a mess, but he did great - offering a sip to me, mommy, and the lightbulb:

we took nicolas down to new orleans with us earlier this month on a business trip and to scope out a possible move back. the weather was beautiful and it was so great to be back home, especially staying in the french quarter and eating at some of our old favorite places. nicolas enjoyed it too. here he is at our favorite sushi spot, kyoto, trying to master chopsticks: the next night we treated ourselves to some fabulous classic new orleans cuisine at Mr. B's, where nicolas ate a little bit of everything we ordered: and then we spent our last morning in new orleans with breakfast at petunia's. well almost. unfortunately the service was way too slow that day (apparently a cook had quit that morning), so i had to take nicolas out before we got served - he had reached his patience limit for the morning and was starting to lose it. before his meltdown though, he did have to time to help mary finish off her tomato juice: I think he literally drank over half of it. we're looking f

fall seems to have finally arrived here. it was a gorgeous day in nashville today, so we took nicolas back to radnor lake this afternoon. as we hiked along the path, we saw 2 young deer cross ahead of us on their way toward the lake. nicolas was so excited he almost scared them off. he mimicked petting them as they walked, and he seemed to really want to touch them. so we had to explain (as best we could to an 18 month old) that you don't pet wild animals. he seemed to understand and we watched for several minutes as the deer drank from the lake. it was a really nice way to end the afternoon.

After a long day at Culture Fest this past weekend, Nicolas was beat, but we had an awesome time:

Nicolas passed his 18 month checkup this week with flying colors. he's gotten a little taller and leaner and seems to be in great shape overall. He had fun playing with some of the stuff in the exam room, shed a few tears on the scale (he hates getting weighed there), and then showed off with some animal noises for dr. ladd. And we were all relieved that he didn't need any shots this time.