Look who is 2!

Life has been so busy that there isn't even time to post about all the things Nic is doing. I may get better at it or we may take the post down as it has served its purpose. If you are reading this and would like it to continue, please let me know, otherwise it may go into the internet archives.

Nic is 2 and more fantastic each day!

USNWC

So what if Nic isn't old enough to go rafting at the whitewater center, he has his own version of rock climbing!
Nic, Daddy and I spent the day out there a couple weekends ago. There isn't a lot you can do out there with a toddler, except run him ragged on the rocks and trails, so that's what we did.
Nic has endless energy and isn't afraid of much (maybe just aligators and we have no idea where that fear came from).

Go Colts!

Finally Nic has a new Colts jersey! OK so Harrington doesn't play for them anymore, but the jersey was on sale!

It's Been a Busy Summer

Hello everyone!
Sorry we haven't updated you in a while. We've had a busy summer so far.

As you can see from the picture on the right, Nic went to his first baseball game on July 4th. He got not just one, but 2 souvenir hats! Unfortunately he was feeling a little puny that night with a little bit of a fever, but still got to have some fun. He also went to the Botanical Gardens with grandma and explored the orchid exhibit and splashed his feet in the fountains. I don't think one is actually supposed to splash in the fountains there, but who is going to get mad at my cute little man cooling off on a hot day?

Nic has also had a lot of daddy time as I have taught 3 workshops over the last 3 months. Luckily I have the next couple months off of those. Nic also had some grandma time over the 4th of July weekend. Within a couple hours they were both so enamored with each other it was tough to pull them apart.

Nic has also taken after his mom by becoming quite the trainer. He gets me up most mornings by 5am so we can go run. He may look little and cute and innocent and all that, but he is demanding:) We are up to 8 miles and hope to keep it up for a half marathon in November.
Other than that Nic has learned how to open doors and lock them too! He is becoming a little chatterbox and some of it we can even understand!

I hope you all are doing well too. More pictures to come.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

We have reached the stage where we have to be careful what we do, because Nic likes to mimic everything. For example, here he is wearing my running shoes and talking on his cell phone, while watching tv. I prefer the one where he is sweeping and dusting at the same time! Maybe soon he will be cleaning the house and making us dinner!

Our First Family Vacation

Nic, Ted and I went on our first family vacation last weekend to Colonial Williamsburg. We decided already that if we were responsible to teaching Nic the subjects he will learn in school, Ted would be the one to teach history.

So Friday morning we packed up the car and hit the road for a 5 1/2 hour drive. To pass the time we had books on CD, toys, snacks, books, and blankies. As we had hoped, we had an uneventful drive. See picture to the right of Nic is his big, comfy car seat when we arrived at the hotel.

First step was to get all our stuff into the room. As I put stuff up in the room, Ted asked if I was "nesting", "no" I said, "childproofing". Then Ted headed out for a couple necessary items (since we did have a kitcheonette in the room) which included milk for Nic, chips and salsa, beer and wine. We did have 5 1/2 hours in the car afterall.

Then we hit the indoor pool (the outdoor pool still hadn't warmed up to swimming temps) where Nic found 3 older ladies to completely charm and amaze with his swimming skills (not to mention how cute he looks in his swim shorts).

We figured since Nic is basically sleeping on the fold out bed in our room (no I won't explain all that here) that we didn't need to bring the pack-n-play and that he could just sleep with us. Unfortunately he didn't sleep too sound and flipped end to end and kicked us both all night. Ted can sleep through just about anything, but I am not so lucky. So most people come home rested after vacation and I came home needing some sleep. Oh well.

I think Nic had fun in Colonial Williamsburg. He's still too little to really enjoy everything, but he got to see some horses, some colonial reenactments, and sample some yummy gingerbread cakes. The best thing may have been the colonial hat we got him.

At Home at the Coffee Shop

Nic and I stopped at Starb*ucks the other day and he made himself right at home. He has managed to completely charm the women that work there. One gave him a cup of whipped cream the other day and well, needless to say he was a total, sticky mess when we left, but loved the treat.

Chef Nicolas

Nic has developed a talent for "cooking". Tyler F. has got nothing on Nic!

As If On Cue...

I was reading through my book "What to Expect: The Toddler Years", thanks to my sister in law, Susan, for loaning it to me. It seems I had not read any of "what to expect" since month 12 when I finished "What to Expect the First Year" and had been going on intinct and the seat of my pants (as they say) since then. So for the 16 month update the book says that this is when toddlers get into the "temper tantrum" phase. Yep, temper tantrums, anywhere, anytime, for any reason.... The book says that the parent must let the toddler know that they are there for comfort and reassurance and to just let them get through it. The next morning, as if on cue, Nic starts throwing the tantrums. Now I am comforted knowing that he is a genius as he is already reading my books, but not happy with the new phase he has entered. Since then he throws them at least twice a day and generally because he hasn't been allowed to have something he wants - like styling mousse or a cleaver. So he proceeds to let me know how mad he is at me and that life is unfair and he is going to scream and swat at me until I give him the cleaver. Of course, I am thinking that not only is it not safe for him to play with a cleaver, but not safe to give him a cleaver when he is already swatting at me.
The good news is that he is healthy this week, let's keep our fingers crossed for more weeks like this.
The other good news is that I got the "flippers" I have wanted! "Flippers" are flip flop slippers. Yes, you are correct that it doesn't take much to make me happy at times. However, we have wood and tile floors in the house and even in the summer they can be cold on the toes. Full toe coverage slippers would be too warm, but flippers are just right. I have also found that Nic's bath time is a great time to get a foot soak before doing the at home pedicure. Money may be tight but a girl's got to have painted toes!

A Long Week

It all started on Monday night. Nic woke up with a nasty croupy cough and runny nose. When I got up Tuesday morning it was evident that I would not be bringing him to the Y. Ted was able to work from home for the day so that I could work and train my 6 clients scheduled for that day. When I got home Ted told me Nic had been miserable and that he had to wipe green stuff out of his eye. Tuesday night was full of NIc waking up with a croupy cough and horribly runny nose. Wednesday I had to cancel my 2 clients to stay home with Nic. More brown stuff out of his nose and green stuff from his eye with the addition of a 103 fever, so I called the pediatrician and talked to the nurse. We were scheduled to come in Thursday morning.

My mom was also scheduled to arrive in town Thursday morning. Of course you can't know when a child will get sick and schedule around that but the timing was not good. So into the pediatician's office we go with Nic looking totally miserable. Diagnosis: ear infection in both ears, sinus infection, eye infection and croup. Oh joy! Poor little man:)

Off the the pharmacy and then off to the airport to pick up grandma.

Oh in the meantime, Wednesday night I wake up with a sore throat, body aches and uncontrolled shivering. Oh joy!

So we pick up grandma and I inform her of all the fun illnesses infecting the house she will stay in for the next 4 days. I let her know of the highly contagious nature of pinkeye and to wash her hands frequently. In true mom fashion she is up for the challenge and happy to lend her support for the ailing mom and Nic.

With body aches, shivering, fever, and headache I can only figure that I have the flu. But I think, well I 've had a flu shot, it shouldn't last too long.

Nic takes all his medicine like a real trouper and gets better little by little over the weekend and thoroughly enjoys the love of grandma.

Friday night we settle in to watch a movie and I feel that my eye is itchy. I go wash off my eye make up and not more that 30 minutes later I feel the watery eye and see some puss in my eye- oh joy. For the first time in my life, I have pinkeye.

Saturday night is miserable for mom and Nic (and Ted who is kept up by Nic). I wake up Saturday to a scratchy voice and still feel aweful. Luckily Nic seems to be doing better.

All plans for fun and games have been scrapped for the weekend except for the consignment sale where we got a ton of stuff for Nic for a fraction of the regular price.

Sunday rolls around and Nic is back to himself other than an occasional cough and booger. Me, well I am glad I have e-mail because I have lost about 75% of my voice.

So here we are on Wednesday morning and I feel about 75% back. Still a cough and a little stuffy but compared to how I was, I feel good. Nic is back to his charming, busy self. Now it's time to get him back to sleeping in his own bed. Oh joy!

Protective Eyewear Needed

Tuesdays are long days for me. Not 16 hour long like I used to have, but 5.5 hours of training and 3 hours of driving (yikes I hadn't added up the drive time like that before). Anyway, its a long day and my 4th client of the day didn't show up. I hate being idle, I'd rather be training than hanging out waiting. Well it turns out she sent me an e-mail ealier that morning to tell me she was sick. However my stellar internet service wasn't recieving messages that morning and it has yet to be delivered. So it is still floating out in electronic no-mans-land with all the text messages I send Janice.

Generally by the time I get home Nic and Daddy are asleep, but not last night. Nic was WIDE OPEN. So around 10:30p I headed downstairs for a little warm milk nightcap for the little man then I head back upstairs for a quick daiper change. The second I lay him down he starts kicking, screaming, turning over....so I struggle to get his wet diaper off and get it into the diaper pail. Then as I am coming up from pulling out a baby wipe I get hit in the eye with something. I reflexively swat "it" away and look up at Nic to see just what he has thrown at me when I realize that he is peeing - IN MY EYE - and my hair. I get out of the stream of pee and watch as he pees on the floor and think - maybe I should cover that thing up. So I cover it up and when I remove the cover a couple moments later, he starts peeing again. Ugh. Finally the water works stop, I get him dressed and soak a bit of pee off the carpet. We have a carpet shampooer - I think to myself and move on to the bedroom. I wash off my face and dab my pee-soaked eye, pull my pee-tinged hair up into a knot and head to bed.

This morning I told Ted about it. He just laughed and said 2 years ago there is now way I would have gone with bed without showering all of that off. I just told him that showering would have delayed sleep for at least another 20 minutes and that was just too long. Priorities sure do change, don't they.

Ah Motherhood

Today started out like a typical Monday at 5am.
Unfortunately that changed quickly. Nic just wasn't being himself. He didn't dive into his milk and bananas at breakfast. He was just kind of grumpy. Intermittently grumpy even; playing one minute and grumping the next.

I went back and forth over whether or not he was sick or just grumpy and whether or not I should find a sub for my morning classes or just hope he got over it. I had determined that it was most likely just an upset stomach since he spent a lot of time running in the grass and picking up stuff from the grass and putting it in his mouth.

While I was on the phone trying to find a sub for the first class, Nic went about playing and trying to grab the phone and I thought - you aren't sick, you just want attention. So we went to work.

Not a good thing. He didn't get over it, he was grumpy and warm and refusing to eat. Here comes the guilt. I shouldn't have brought him out today, but its too late now. I mean to would totally walk out of class and say "sorry" if my child was sick or hurt, but I hate to cancel if I don't totally have to. So I pick him up after class and he is all mopey and the ladies in the childcare are kind of acting like "why did you bring him in here"? Don't get me wrong, they are sweet ladies and they do a good job taking care of him, but its not always easy to make that call. One of them said to me as I left that is was a good thing I didn't have to work again until next Monday so Nic could be home. So I said, well no, actually I work most days of the week just not there.
I do thank you all for taking care of my little sick one. I will bring you cookies next week.

So anyway, Nic and I are off of work tomorrow so we can go to the doctor.
I get to bring a stool sample (Nic's stool actually, not mine) in with me. The doctor wanted to check for any blood in the stool. So I grab a little plastic cup and head upstairs to Nic's room, open up the diaper Ge*nie and dig for the last 2 nasty diapers (did I mention the diarrhea?), open them back up and scoop out a little poop. I used a plastic spoon too. I thought you might want to know that for the next time you eat at my house.

Most of you know that I have a short attention span which got even shorter after the baby. This is why I left eggs boiling on the stove long enough to boil all the water out and cook the eggs to the bottom. I think that day I had gone up to change Nic and ended up bathing him because it was so bad. So I scoop some poop and sit the poop cup on the little half wall around the stairs. Then I think, gosh the house smells like vomit. Oh did I forget to tell you that I got vomited on today? Now I have been baby vomited on, but not toddler vomited on until today. And it was a doozie. All over my back and shoulder, down my shirt, all over Nic, all over my jeans, etc. So I was upstairs putting the vomit clothes in the washer and sorting some other clothes, then went out in the hallway and thought - why does it smell like poop out here?

Snow Day!

Nic got his second snow day today. On his first snow day he was a little sick too so he didn't get to play in the snow, but today we went outside.
I like snow days in the south, because often you get to stay home. Well, Ted had to go to work on both snow days but Nic and I got to stay home.
I think it is supposed to be 60 over the weekend - another reason to like southern winters!

In My Own Words

Hi my name is Nicolas, Nic if you like. And this blog is all about me (actually a lot of it is about my mom disguised as stuff about me).
Next week I will be 14 months. They count my age in months still (good thing they gave up on the weeks). Life is pretty cool so far. Here is what I have found out.
1) I don't like being sick, but sneezing is fun and when I am sick I get LOTS of attention.
2) I am really good at walking. I can even run now. Pretty soon I will beat my dad in races too.
3) I like carbs! Bread, waffles, bagels, crackers,etc. Not too fond of chicken or turkey, despite how many times Mom tries to give it to me.
4) I love TV. Nog*gin is the best, but I will watch just about anything. When the TV is on the rest of the world ceases to exist.
5) I like my dog. She lets me pull on her ears and tail and smack her in the nose. She also helps me eat my food. Anything I don't want I throw on the floor and she cleans it up.
6) My Mom is funny. She does funny dances for me and sings silly songs.
7) My Dad is the best to sleep on. Sundays are great for napping on the couch.
8) I have tons of toys but the "tupp*erware" cabinet is more fun.
9) I throw stuff when I get mad. Dad says I get that from Mom.
10) I love my carseat. It's a great place to take a nap.
11) I am a genius or at least that's what my mom tells me.
12) I'm happy I have all of my friends and family to help with my growing up process.
Nic

How I Stay In Shape...

I was reading the covers of the tabloids while at the grocery store today and there was one about a particular celebrity and how she stays in shape. Granted she has a great body, but I thought....Ok so you are a 40 year old actress with boat loads of money. Yes, you may work long and hard on your movies, but I am sure you are given time to workout. Then of course you have months if not years off since you made a ton on your last movie and can equip yourself with a big ol' home gym and pay an awesome trainer to whip you into shape. You probably don't have to hit wally world for groceries since you can pay top dollar for all organic this and that. And if motivation becomes and issue, you realize that being in awesome shape is your job which you get paid millions of dollars for and are suddenly motivated again. The picture was of her apparently jogging barefoot on the beach - more motivation there. But she was wearing white linen shorts and a tank top with what appeared to be a regular bra underneath...hmmm. Sorry Jen, I have seen pictures of you in a bathing suit, you need a jog bra and go get some running shorts. No, she wasn't running to workout there, maybe running from the photogs. You probably know who I am talking about and she didn't get that body running on the beach like that.

So why am I writing about this? I don't know, I guess since fitness is my business it irritates me when magazines make it seem like doing a couple exercises on the ball will get you there. Getting into and staying in shape is hard work. Especially for the average woman who is working and taking care of kids and the house and whatever else may be on her plate. The average woman who can't afford to buy all healthy organic food and put together a fantastically balanced meal every night. The average woman who at the end of the day may only have the time and energy left to get the family ready for the next day.

Oh yes, you may think, sure Dana easy for you to say when I have lost more weight than I gained when I was pregnant. Well I am fortunate that I get paid to workout at least a couple hours a week and several more hours I spend in the gym working other people out. On top of that I have either been given (genetically from my dad) or over the years developed one heck of a metabolism or the fact that the hours I am not working in the gym I rarely sit down. But with that said, I know that I am not typical and for most people it is a constant battle.

SO I guess I want to say, let's stop looking to these celebrities for the answers or for how we should look and get down to the business of making positive steps each day.

OK, getting off the soap box.