End of the summer updates

The summer is drawing to an end as Labor Day rolls around again. Hopefully, some cool air will blow through and allow Nico the opportunity to play outside more. This little guy absolutely loves being outside even if it is to do nothing but sit in the front yard and wait for Daddy to drive up from work (which is something we now do everyday). Nico occupies himself searching for airplanes, scouting out birds, collecting rocks and flowers, creating beautiful art work with sidewalk chalk or chasing down bubbles.

In other news...Nico seems to have adjusted well this past week to his new school. I am not going to lie, the first week was tough. Partially because Nico does not want to separate from me and partially because he did happen to get sick. Perfect timing as usual. After getting attacked by ants in Houston and just days after starting at school, Nico came down with a fever, an eye infection and a bit of a runny nose. Thankfully, I already had him on antibiotics due to the ant bites. Thus, this past week Nico was feeling great and his teachers said he did very well each day! On the other hand, it is possible that whatever infection or cold Nico had, he passed it on down to his dear old Mommy. I have been miserable, barely making it to work and back, but am very happy that my little man is adjusting. What can I say? My world is not my world anymore; it is Nico's world and if Nico is happy, then I am happy.

Finally, some updates on the speech therapy. Nico has had 5 sessions of therapy and it is going very well. Our big obstacle was determining if it was most productive for me to come in with Nico or leave him alone with the therapist. After he started school, I decided I thought it would best to go in with him. There was already too much separation anxiety going around; why create more? Nico has made lots of progress. He is not about to recite the Emancipation Proclamation, but he is now imitating words or at least approximating them when asked and he has started to say more functional words!

Here are some cute recent photos. Enjoy!

Nico and Daddy, both wearing their Chicago 1/2 Marathon shirts.

First lolipop! Not sure about this.

Just goofing around and being super-cute and awesome...as usual.

Such a happy boy! Life can't get much better than this.

Sitting on an AIRPLANE! Someone was in awe!

Even the small things

Lately, even the smallest things about Nico make me smile. The tiny "o" his mouth makes when singing along with any song, every time he laughs out loud at the same part in Toy Story, the way he hugs his Woddy doll to him with affection, when he says "uh-oh" at the most appropriate times, and the spontaneous hugs and kisses both Mommy and Daddy get from this precious boy. It seems like Nico does something new, something even cuter, and something even more brillant every day.

It amazes me to watch Nico try to help Daddy fix things around the house. His own screwdriver in hand, he is always right there next to his Daddy attempting to be handy. Nico always wants to have the same two books read to him every night before bed, I love how he takes my hand now and leads me to where he wants to go and how he frequently wants to hold hands when walking. It's the small things. I love this little guy right down to his first freckle!

Splash Day at School

Today was the final, but Nico's first splash day for the summer at school. He went to school all decked out in his swim wear ready to have some fun in the sun. Since the little man is still apprehensive about his Mommy leaving him, I stuck around for a bit in order to make sure Nico actually had fun during the activities. Little did I know that Splash Day was not going to start until well after snack time! Lucky Nico had his Mommy with him at school for over two hours! I had some fun reading and playing with Nico and his new friends, and I am hoping that Nico seeing his Mommy in his new school environment for such a long period of time will help his transition even more.

Here are a few pictures from Splash Day.

School Days

Summer has come to end. At least it has for those of us who work in the glorious field of education. With the start of the new school year, it is the start of me going back to work full time. I have mixed feelings about this, but I have to do what is best for my family. In the long run, this is going to be so incredibly great for us financially, but it is just going to take some adjusting.

Plan A was that Nico was going to stay home with a live-in nanny while I went to work; however, that plan did not go quite as well as I wanted it to go. The nanny is gone, and for the first time EVER it is just MY family in MY house. It does feel very nice.

Plan B is now in effect. Nico started last Thursday back at the "school" where he attended when he was an infant for about 4 months. Nico is in the older toddler room now and starting in just a few weeks it will be just him and 7 other children. I really like his teacher, and I love that I can choose to watch my little man all day long if I like on the Kiddie Cam.

Nico is not too sure about this new arrangement yet, but the more I watch him in the classroom environment, the happier I am about making the change from Plan A to Plan B. Although there are quite a few kids in the room, Nico tends to gravitate towards the teacher. Instead of playing with the kids, he wants to be with the adult in the room. In addition, our precious son is not a champ at sharing toys. I can't imagine waiting to put Nico in a school environment until PK or even K! Nico needs to learn make friends and socially interact appropriately with other kids his age, and he is not going to pick that up by being at home with me. I think this is going to be good for him...and hopefully for me too.

I wish I had some photos to post of Nico at school, but I don't think it would be very appropriate of me to take pictures since other people's children would be in them as well. So, here is a couple of picture of Nico in the car right before we went in on his first day.

Ride'em Cowboy

Nico is a true Texan! Mommy is so proud. Watch this video of my little Nico riding his new pony that Gigi got him.