Nicki And Adam's Family Blog

Everyday is notable for a 23 month old? Correct? Here are a few good ones: -Charlie seems to be trying to kill himself lately. Within the last 5 days he has: opened a bottle of goo-gone by himself (luckily I caught that right before he took a sip!), hung from a treadmill and fell (cut his lip), and put his hand on a heater that he has been told 100's of times is "hot." Didn't really get burnt at all, just officially learned the meaning of the word "hot." Maybe be will stop calling ice cream "hot" now. -Adam leaves for work at the same time that I do. We have a one care garage/driveway, so he pulls out first. Adam turns right to leave, I turn left. Each day, Charlie watches Daddy's care leave (while we are in the car behind) and says, "bye bye daddy!" Pretty cute! -Charlie has been throwing toys lately. We are trying to nip it in the butt. Yesterday, he threw one, I looked sternly at him and said "so sad, you get a time out....

We went down to the Chicago area in Mid-February to visit some Trisha and Kevin Johnson who live there with their 2 little ones (Cara and Ellie). We had a great time, but had to cut it short when Charlie came down with a nasty little fever and a yucky cough. But, in the meantime, he had great spirits and went to a wonderful children's museum. Here are some pictures of Charlie learning. He has a very intent face as though he were actually figuring it all out! Grocery Shopping Finally, a computer he can't break, or tear the X key off of! Bright and beautiful smile. He LOVES water and anything having to do with it! Of course Mommy put Charlie on Stage! ....And we had to add some make up as well :) 

What will March bring for Wisconsin this year? In like a lamb: And out like a Lion:

I have had a bit more time on my hands since being a stay-at-home mom. Lots of time to search Pinterest for some neat ideas. Here are pictures of some of my creations: 1.) Learning to Crochet. I did it, finally! I made this Elmo Hat for Charlie. He loves it and wears it all the time. The hardest part were the eyes. The eyes took me longer than the entire hat combined. I think I made at least 3 pairs until I found the set that would match. 2.) Educational Materials: Some really cute ideas on how to teach kids colors on Pinterest. Charlie, at the moment, calls everything "blue." I am not worried he is color-blind (although his Papa on Adam's side is), I want to try to teach him this at some point. Here are two projects that I am working on. They will be finished as soon as I can get the hot glue gun working again ;)

I was reading in article in a magazine how parents are now helping their children right their resumes, checking their "Linkedin"'s and sometimes even accompanying them to an interview. As I read this I just about dropped the magazine in the commode. Really? Resumes? Interviews? Huh?? When did our culture become that which enables our children to the point where our children cannot do anything on their own? At what point did we forget about teaching independence in lieu of getting the best grades (ie. parents doing the work instead of students).? I was raised, albeit crazy in some of your minds, to be fiercely independent. Fiercely. I remember up until the point of going to Kindergarten in which my mom would say "to your bedroom, time to play by yourself, see you in 2 hours." And that I did. I had the BEST imagination and I played school or house or you name it with all my stuffed animals. I also had parents that NEVER did anything for me that I couldn't ...

I almost have a 2 year old! Where did the time go? Here is what Charlie is doing: Sleeping: He is still an excellent sleeper. We have occasional "blips" where is cries in the middle of the night (but we ignore unless it is longer than 5-10 minutes) and very occasionally cries when we put him down (maybe once every 2 weeks), but overall he cannot WAIT to get into his bed. Naps are still going well with an occasional "blip" here as well. Sometimes if he sleeps in (until 7:30 or later) he has a hard time going down for a nap and thus doesn't. It doesn't worry us too much as he is generally still very happy the entire time. He just spends his 2 hours in his crib practicing his jumping skills. Eating: This has gotten "slightly" better. He has started to eat about 3 peas and maybe 4 blueberries every now and again. It did take me at least 10 times of introducing this food item to him and him denying me. He still loves guacamole, hummus, and my ...

Sorry for the delay on writing the conclusion to the Vegas story. My laptop computer has been on the fritz (time for a new one..) and I HATE typing on my IPAD, thus, no journaling was done. Day three of Vegas started out with sleeping in, breakfast up in Bruce's sweet, and continued from there. We headed out to the Gold Coast with Mom and Dad for some Bingo and Craps. Let's just say that we got "crapped" on in all areas. However, we were ever so slightly lucky at the slot machines. Adam and I walked back to our hotel (about a mile walk) and met up with Bob and Gene for a quick bite before the Packer Playoff game. Of course, we watched the majority of the game in Bruce's suite, which was pretty sweet (the room, not the game). Then began the final cocktail hour of the weekend before dinner. Again, it was a lovely time despite the disappointing loss to the NY Giants (although they did end up winning the Super Bowl). We then headed over to the Range Restaurant whi...