Von Badinski Christmas

Oh my, its been 3 weeks since I posted. Need I say, we have been busy?
So here is an update on our Christmas.

Nic visited Santa at the mall and, well "visited" is kind of euphemism here. He actually saw Santa, approached Santa, and then decided Santa was scary and proceeded to scream his festive little head off. Later that day at a Cost*co he "visited" Santa again in the same way he "visited" him the first time. Oh well, we tried. If I had managed to get a picture of the "visit" it would have matched the picture of my "visit" to Santa years ago. If you think about it though, Santa is a little scary; big man with a beard dress in an odd costume, wanting you to sit on his lap. Under any other circumstances we would tell our children not to get within 50 feet of a person like that. I don't blame you Nic. You may also feel the same way I do about clowns.

Despite not telling Santa what he wanted, Nic received many presents. He got a football, toys that make noise, toys that move, toys that "bark", toys that roll across the floor, toys that he is still too young for and that doesn't include all the stuff he got for his birthday. So much in fact that he can sit on the living room floor surrounded by his toys and give them about 2 minutes of attention each and play for a good amount of time. Got to love the toddler attention span!

Nic saw an aunt, an uncle, a grandma and grandpa, numerous cousins, some second cousins (I think that is the technical relationship) and some other in-laws of various relationships.
It's interesting that prior to Thanksgiving I look forward to the disruption in my schedule for the holidays. I get tired of the usual schedule and want it unusual for a while, but by the time Christmas is done, I am ready to get back to the usual.

Today is New Years Eve! Yippie, we are going to PAR-TAY! OK, maybe not. I think we will have a toast, play with some toys and give a round of kisses and hit the sack - possibly before midnight.
Tomorrow we will welcome 2009 and a whole new set of wonders and amazement from the super baby!

Second Cake

The practice with the first cake paid off for Nic as he ate and smeared and ate and smeared cake very well at his party. He has cake in his hair (thanks Rachel), he has cake on his bottle and his arm and everywhere else within his reach!
Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us and for all the presents that Nic is thoroughly enjoying. We all had a wonderful time!
If you haven't done so, take a minute to scroll down to the first picture and then scroll back up. It's amazing to see Nic grow through his first year.

Reflection

A year has passed since Nicolas was born so it is time to reflect.
Here are my thoughts (in no particular order) on this past year.
1) This year has brought the most dramatic and wonderful change I have ever experienced.
2) Nic is a genius.
3) Pregnancy and childbirth was the most wonderful experience I have ever had. It still gets me emotional when I think of his head coming out (yep, I said head coming out - it was amazing).
4) My home has gotten messier with each addition (cat, husband, dog, child) and each year I care less about the mess.
5) I can see how motherhood isn't for every woman.
6) I must have had a lot of time on my hands before I had Nic.
7) No matter how tired I am when he wakes me up in the middle of the night, I still love to kiss his sweet little face.
8) The jobs that pay us may be important (some more than others), but this is the most important job I will ever have.
9) My weekly e-mail about my baby's development said "toddler" today - eek, I have a toddler!
10) If you hurt my child...well I won't put it in writing, but you know...
11)There is no love greater than this.
Thank you to everyone who helped me get through this first year. Thank you for keeping up with us. We will continue this blog into the next year and many after.

Happy Birthday Nicolas!

Yesterday was Nicolas' First Birthday!!!!!
We were so busy yesterday we didn't get time to post so we must do it a day late.

Tomorrow is his birthday party! I will post pictures from that later. We did already have a pre-birthday cake for him at my mom's house over Thanksgiving so he has experienced the hands into the cake part. With that practice he should be ready to dive in mouth first!