ABCs

Nico singing his ABC's; Harvard here we come! He is so precious and I am such a proud Momma.

Pumpkin Patch

Today we had took our annual family outing to the pumpkin farm. Nico had been looking forward to picking our B-I-I-I-G pumpkins all week. The minute this morning when he work up, all Nico could do was talk about going to pick out pumpkins. Nico had a great time taking a hay ride through the farm, jumping on the bounce houses, and finding each of us our own pumpkin. Halloween is getting closer, and our little guy is very excited about it!








As you can see from this last picture, Nico had had enough of me taking his picture! He is too funny!

In the LIfe of Nico

So what's been happening in the life of Nico? I can't believe how big my baby boy is getting. I know all parents say their kids are great, but seriously, Nico is amazing! He surprises us all the time. Nico is now singing his alphabet song, knows all his letter (upper and lower case), most of the letter sounds, and can count to twenty on his own...just to name a few things.

Of course Nico is an almost 3 year old, so we do have our typical tantrums anf fits, but nothing time out does take care of. Nico has a special chair in the corner, which he frquent to when necessary. The great thing about it, is that he understands that his behavior caused the consequence.

One of my new favorite pastimes is to watch Nico socialize at school. One day I went to pick up the little man and I observed him initiating a chase game, aka "I'm gonna getcha game." Then on the way out, he waved at and hugged two friends good bye. On another day, one in which my Mr. Mann was dressed to a tee, he walked into class and received not only many oos and aws, but received hugs from friends who were very excited to see him. This made my mother's heart melt. Nico now talks about his friends and what they do at school when he gets home. For someone who sees 10 year old who don't even have these little social skills, I feel so blessed and do not take these "normal" skills for granted.

Nico has been getting ready to become a big brother. He enjoys listening to the babby's heartbeat with the home doppler we have, and gets even more excited than he did in the past when he sees a baby. Nico also likes to share the big news with people and tell them that there is a baby in Mommy's tummy. About a week ago Nico even felt the baby jump around, and it was so funny to see his big saucer eyes look up at me with such astonishment.

Here are a few recent cute pictures.

Got the Music

Here is a cute clip of our little man "getting down." For those of you who are Toy Story 3 fans, you will recognize the Spanish Buzz music playing in the video. Nico loves this music, and unlike his Mommy seems to really have some rhythm.

BIG News!

The picture says it all!


After a year plus of TTC for baby #2, after enduring 3 IVFs, 2 IUIs, 1 miscarriage, lots of needles, tears and money, we are FINALLY expecting our second miracle! The word miracle actually seems like an understatement after what we have been through, but we feel so incredibly blessed that Nico is going to be a big brother...to his little SISTER! Yes, that's right, we are actually far enough long in the pregnancy that we found out we will be meeting our first daughter come some time around February 3rd! She has all her fingers, and toes, and everything looked perfect at the today's ultrasound. I don't think I could ever ask for more...we will have one outstanding, and precious inside and out, little boy and a beautiful little girl as well! I thank God everyday for this awesome miracle and for making me wait for who I know will be the perfect baby girl to join Ed, Nico and I. Now I just can't wait to buy our little girl's first hair bow!


For all my IF sisters, I am praying for you daily.

Austin Bats

Last weekend Nico and I met Gigi in Austin for a little R&R. We did discover that with the 110 degree weather, there is not a whole lot to do with 2 year old, but we managed to still have some fun. One thing we decided to do which was new for both Nico and I was head out to the Congress Ave bridge and watch the bats fly out in large masses at sunset. For some odd reason up to a million bats make their home underneath this bridge and April through early fall of every year these Mexican free-tailed bats bring quite a few spectators to the Congress Ave bridge each evening.

The three of us ate dinner at the Radisson Hotel right on Lady Bird Lake and after dinner we walked to the bridge to sit and watch these night fliers take the sky. Here are a few pictures. Take notice of the last picture with the dark looking images/clouds in the sky..these are the bats.

Moving On Up

Nico has had some major changes lately. First, about a month ago, the little man graduated from speech! His SLP evaluated him again in mid-July and Nico's receptive score went up (which had already been above the mean) and his expressive score sky rocketed to be above the mean! Both Lauren (the SLP) and I were so incredibly proud of Nico and the hard work he has put in. I know Nico will miss speech therapy. He really enjoyed going and loved "playing" with Lauren. We do go back for a final evaluation in January to make sure he has been making progress on his own.

Another change is that Nico has moved up to the next class at his school. He is now in the Early Preschool II class. We had Meet the Teacher Night a couple of weeks ago, which was fun. There was face painting, train rides and snow cones for the kids. This past Monday Nico had his first day with Mrs. Short and Ms. Mouton. Although, he absolutely loves Mrs. Cooth, his EPS I teacher, he was looking forward to moving down the hall to Mrs. Short's class.

Monday morning, this mommy was more nervous than her little guy. I walked Nico into the classroom and he went straight over to his friends and got started in the activity. No tears....at least not on Nico's part, just a "bye Mommy." My little man sure is growing up and I couldn't be more proud of him.

Here are a couple pictures I snapped on the way into school on Monday morning.

Potty Trainng

The last few weeks since returning from our last out of town family trip, I have really tried to buckle down on potty training with the little man. After just a couple short weeks and just being consistent in the training, Nico is now potty trained. We had to make some sacrifices, such as staying at home during the day instead of going out to do fun things and even camping out downstairs to stay off carpets, but it was worth it...of course candy and stickers also help! It was pretty tough getting Nico to poop in the potty, and this little smarty kept me to my promise of buying a big red car for him once he did poop in the potty. Sure enough one morning, Nico surprised me, did his deed, came running into tell me what he did and then exclaimed he wanted his big red car. We were then off to Toys R Us for a big red car. Nico is very proud of himself and I love watching the excitement and the pride in himself when he pottys and then shares it with us. Mommy and Daddy are also very proud of our little man; he is growing up so fast, but so beautifully. We couldn't have asked for anything else.

Family Pictures

Last week Nico's older brother and sister, EJ and Amber, were both in town, which is now a rare event. We took advantage of this and got some much needed and overdue family pictures.

Swimming

Sadly, this mom fell short and Nico did get the chance to take swim lessons this year. However we have gone to the pool a few times in the neighborhood and whenever out of town we took advantage of the pool. Nico enjoys being in the pool and loves water. He is still a very cautious boy and will certainly not go under water on his own will or just jump right into the pool. Hopefully, next year I can get it together a little better and Nico will be able to take some swim lessons. Here are a couple of videos of Nico swimming with Daddy.