The LaGreca Family

I am back…and man, I leave the blog for a few weeks and Nicholas turns into a different kid.  He is days away from turning 1 (had a birthday party this past weekend) and just this week, he started WALKING!!! (Oh and he is about to cut tooth #8!)

I was just going through the pictures from the last few weeks and I am definitely behind, (there is no way I will get caught up, so I will just have to skip that last 2+ weeks of photos…or maybe, I will post 1 or 2 from each event. We will see how much time I have this week).  That’s what I get for working so much….and getting ready for Nicholas’ birthday party every night until 11pm!

Since this post’s title is about him NCL walking - I have to post a picture that proves it.  (We do have video, but again..I haven’t learned how to post it on the site…it’s still on my list of things to learn).

Nicholas’ Grandma (my mom) got him this awesome Mickey & Friends Firetruck for his birthday. He loves to push it around and ride on it. This morning, he was walking all over the house with it.

More pictures coming soon…..Have a “SPOOK-TASTIC” week!

I just read this on a friend’s blog and who doesn’t LOVE a game? I guess it’s not really a game..but kind of. And, what’s even better….it’s a game that requires people to leave comments on my blog. Just what I love! Read on…

**Memory Lane** The tag that gets everyone involved. Here’s how you play:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory of you.

It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you!

Yah!! I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with

It’s really hard!

Just when you think you have things under control….what do you do? You go on vacation and mess up the entire schedule/routine. And not just a vacation in the same time zone - we are 3 hours off PST. Ouch! Our plan was to keep Nicholas on CA time….well, that was out the window on Day 2. Keeping him up late (10pm EST) wasn’t hard since we were already out anyway - and his normal bedtime is 7pm-8pm PST. BUT - what we didn’t think of was the sun coming up. Nicholas thought it was time to get up around 6:30am EASTERN TIME. I will let you do the math on that one..it was very painful for Mommy and Daddy.

I don’t have a lot of time to write, but I am trying to upload some pictures to keep you all updated. And hopefully, that will make it easier when I get home.

A couple of other things to note about our trip so far:

(1) You know you are in Buffalo with the LaGreca family when dinner is served on this plate:

(2) There really is nothing like Niagara Falls. And we got to bring our friends, Kristi & Sishir, for their first time! (Of course, it was Nicholas’ first time as well)

-And we went on the “Maid of the Mist” - Nicholas’ first boat ride! (Yes, I was a little nervous)

(3) Kan Jam - a fun game you can only play when you have a big enough backyard. I am guessing they don’t even sell it CA since all of our houses are squished together!

(4) Donuts….cake….pastries….chocolate….custard….I could go on an on. They are serious about their sweets here.

(5) Thunder & Lightening. Holy cow. I wish I could have caught last night’s storm on the camera. It was unbelievable! Joe was running from the front door to the back door to watch. I think it started raining around 7pm last night and it’s 3:30pm the next day…it was still raining 5 minutes ago. No wonder everything is green here.

(6) And, in case we didn’t all know this before..Nicholas loves the water. He is a little fish.

(7) We caved…..Joe and I finally caved….Nicholas had his first ice cream at the Fair. If it was going to be before his 1st birthday…this was a good time. The Erie County Fair is a summer memory for Joe’s many visits to Buffalo. You can imagine how the ice cream went over with the boy…..after all, he is my son…

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.