5 months ago, Nicholas and Daddy started swimming lessons. Here is a shot from their very first lesson:
Grandpa LaGreca met the other LaGreca boys at the pool yesterday, and took some great shots of everyone. 5 months later, here are my boys in the pool:
Do you notice a difference?
Here is a link to the entire album of Swim Lesson Pictures.
We blinked……….and all of a sudden, Nicholas is 9 months old. Everyone said it would happen. As I write this post, I am thinking about all the people that have told me “he will be 1 year old before you know it.” I know it’s true, it goes very fast and there is nothing you can do to slow it down. BUT, what we can do it take a deep breathe and treasure every single day. Sitting down to write these entries is a great opportunity for me to think about what we have today, instead of thinking about what we will have in 3 more months.
It’s been 10 days since the last post and HOLY COW have things changed! It’s a whole new game at the LaGreca house. First of all, Nicholas eats chicken bones..and loves them:
This is the second time he had a chicken bone and this time Auntie Meg caught it on camera. He was just like the dog – did NOT want to give up his bone. We took it away a few times just to check on the end to make sure everything was still safe and he let us know he wasn’t happy about it!
The BIG news from the past 7-8 days is that Nicholas can pull himself up now….on everything! Here is the first shot I snapped of him standing in his crib.
Yes, he had been crying. He really hates to sleep. Now that there is a whole new world out there (2 feet tall), he doesn’t have time for sleep. (Thanks goodness I asked Joe to lower the crib mattress 2 nights before…I had a feeling this was coming).
Now that he can pull-up on everything, our house has been transformed into a jungle gym. Ha ha. Everything he sees, he wants to grab and stand up on, including the empty Costco Wipes box – he loves that thing (I think all kids love boxes, right?) And with this new talent/skill, also comes more scrapes and bruises 
I think he has 3 different bruises on his face right now, and it’s just awful. I know he is ok, but people are going to think the worst about us!
Here is a shot from this past Sunday. Nicholas’ Grandma (Joe’s mom) found this super cute Hawaiian shirt at a second hand store and I just love it!
Usually in the evenings, we let Nicholas climb all over us (to wear him out before bath and bed). Joe thought he might be able to catch a few minutes of recorded TV – but Nicholas had other plans….play a little game called “Capture the remote control” – both boys paused and looked at me long enough to get this shot:
Speaking of TV – I have to mention the other BIG news. We finally canceled our cable TV. That’s right…no more TV for us. I must admit, part of me is a little sad. There were definitely a few things I enjoyed watching (thanks to TiVo for recording all these years). But, there is a bigger part of me that can’t even believe how much it costs to have cable TV. I think our bill was nearly $50 a month. That is totally crazy! Maybe it makes sense for people that watch a lot of TV, but there are many, many days that our TV doesn’t even get turned on..for the entire day. Nicholas doesn’t watch any TV and we don’t have time…so, why spend the extra money every month? It was the right decision. (Many of you are shaking your heads right and saying “how in the world are they going to get by without cable?”…we stopped going to the movies years ago and we are still alive…we got TiVO 5 or 6 years ago and haven’t seen a commercial since then, somehow we manage to survive…I think we will be ok without cable.
There are a few other pictures I added to the JULY ALBUM.
That is the word (or two words) that describes our life. I know, how could we think it would be any different than it was BEFORE we had a baby? It’s not like we thought things would “slow down” once we had kids. Interesting how things work out. When you have kids, you give up a lot of things that you used to do or had the freedom to do. But, not to worry because there is a LOAD of “other things” that will fill up that time, and any other time you might have. And, that, my friends, is why I am, once again, behind on the blog.
I have not forgotten to take pictures though, so there is a new July album you can check out. Here are a few shots that will help get you up to speed on what we have been up to lately.
An afternoon trip to Costco (yes, we are there often)…
A new found love – Cherrios. Nicholas and I were at the zoo one afternoon.
Walking by the beach in Carlsbad after dinner with my Dad at Pizza Port (yummy!) He was blowing bubbles in his stroller…he has a lot of attitude these days.
Caught under his toy – he crawled in there all by himself while we were cooking dinner one night.
That is Nicholas in a nutshell….
Who needs fireworks when you have an 8 month old little boy?
How in the world did the 4th of July already come…and go? It’s the middle of summer! And summer sure is moving quickly, don’t you think?
As of July 2nd, we did not have plans for the 4th. Mom decided she & Eric were going to come down for the weekend…but we hadn’t made any plans to do anything. So, being the “planners & hosts” that we are..we put together a BBQ/party. We had a few people over and ended up with 5 babies crawling around in the livingroom, splashing in the little pool..and we couldn’t escape the afternoon without a kid accident (even a little blood shed..but all is ok).
Nicholas started out the day READY to party! Ha ha. He proudly raises his arms to show his 4th of July outfit. Proud to be an American – no doubt about that! (See – 4th of July Album for all the pictures)
Julia and Nicholas had fun splashing around in the little pool outside. At least it cooled them off (and entertained them for 10 minutes or so). This was before the blood shed (a toy fell on Julia and her tooth cut her lip).
Meanwhile, Kevin makes this “parenting thing” look easy!
And you all wonder why my son has so much energy. Well, the secret it out…
Here are a couple other pics from our holiday weekend:
And finally…how can you not LAUGH out LOUD at this picture? Nicholas now owns his very own sunglasses…but, he won’t keep them on, so he had to be pinned down to get this picture. Every time I see this picture, I crack up!
