E is for Ernesto

Maybe we're just going to have storms that start with vowels hit us this year. Ernesto turned out to be a light rain for us. Thank goodness! The university stayed open, but I was just too nervous to go in to work. Everything was indicating that it was going to stay a tropical storm all the way through Florida, and if UF changed it's mind and sent everyone home at noon, I was going to be driving for an hour south INTO the storm. So I called in and stayed home with Nicky and Tom. Jessica was with us too. It was fairly uneventful though. We didn't even lose power! YAY! Hey, that's a BIG thing for us! Even when there isn't a named storm coming through. ;)

New movies on the blog. Nicky took to peas just fine, but seems to have developed an aversion to carrots. Or maybe they just don't go together as well as Forrest Gump said... I also have a short one on there of Nicky learning the joys of cold applesauce. He wasn't sure to start, but I think he likes how it feels in his mouth now. I also added a few pics to August from Ernesto-day. Nicky is just too darn cute!

He's able to get on his hands and knees and rock now, and I'm betting he'll be crawling within a week! More videos of that to come!

The bathing beefeater

Nicky has gotten really good at grabbing things and bringing them to his mouth for chewing! We spent some quality time this weekend together rolling around and playing with letters and soft blocks on his bed in his room and he's just getting closer and closer to crawling and sitting on his own. I did take some video last night of that, but first I had to upload his first beef-eating experience (I count beef as being the same as veal as far as allergies go, so I'm not waiting 3 days on that one.) and a new bath video from Saturday. I can only do two videos at a time, so you'll just have to wait till later this week for the rolling videos. ;) They'll be worth it.

So galavant over to see the two new movies and the three new photos I put up today. He's growing up so fast!

How do you like them apples?

Well Nicky seems to like apples just fine! We had a face at first, but he soon figured out that apples are pretty darn yummy. And I have a video of it up on the photobucket account of course. ;)

Finally it's the weekend! The first week of classes are always stressful, but sheesh! I'm looking forward to lots of Nicky-love this weekend! AND I'll try to get more pics to you soon!

Ok, NOW he likes them

After the first banana fiasco on Monday, we tried them again on Tuesday, but this time Tom used his mixer to really puree the heck out of them. Add this to the fact that the bananas were even riper and sweeter, and Nicky loved them! I still think he likes pears better, but see the new video of Nicky enjoying the bananas by clicking on Nicky's Movies on the right of this page.

I also went ahead and linked the third part of Nicky's first attempt at bananas. He was just too cute making those faces!

Now we just have to figure out what we'll try next! Maybe another vegetable. I'm sure green beans are getting old. Maybe peas next.

Going Bananas!

Or as my mom might say "banana-cakes." :)

Nicky tried bananas for the first time yesterday and I'd say he has strong feelings about bananas...we're just not sure what kind of feelings. You'll just have to watch the videos! I actually have 4 videos of this first banana meal, but I've only been able to upload the first two so far. I added a new link to the right that takes you directly to "Nicky's Movies" in the photobucket album. So you can just click there and watch. I'll try to upload the parts 3 & 4 by the end of the week.

Over the weekend Tom, Nicky and I went on a roadtrip to St. Augustine. We drove about 2 hours to get there and Nicky stayed awake most of the time. Then we drove to the fort there and looked around. I ended up feeding Nicky in the courtyard and Tom walked around the top of the fort. Tom met the canon-man who is actually a military weapons historian and had a great history conversation while I kept Nicky happy. It was so HOT! Luckily there was a nice breeze through the courtyard, so as long as we stayed in the shade it wasn't too bad.

Then we loaded back in the car with the idea of parking and walking through the town, but we ended up deciding on going to the beach first to cool off. So we drove another 30 minutes to St. Augustine Beach, parked, slathered on sunscreen, changed into sandals, changed Nicky, put on his hat, packed a diaper, wipes, water, and two towels and walked to the beach. Nicky got to dangle his feet and legs in the surf and I got my rolled up pants wet. We looked at pretty shells and tried to keep the waves out of Nicky's face. One wave got his diaper all wet and startled him for a second, but a quick cuddle made it all right. He looked so cute in his little white hat, but we forgot the darn camera! Grr! Guess we'll have to just go there again sometime!

We stayed at the beach for about 20 minutes and then walked back to the car. We put a fluffy towel in the back of the SUV and undressed Nicky and watered him down with bottled water to get all the sand and salt off, then changed him into a fresh set of clothes. Tom and I rinsed off too. Nice use of bottled water...

We were going to drive down the beach and eat at a restaurant, but Nicky said he was DONE! He was so pooped and just needed some sleep in one place. So we skipped out of town. I ended up feeding Nicky a bottle and pears in his carseat as we drove home when he woke up hungry. It worked well. I tried giving him ham, but he didn't want any of that. Pears went down well though. ;)

So that was our first real roadtrip. Just for the day, and I think we were only gone for about 6-7 hours tops. It was truly a "ROAD" trip since I think we spent most of the time in the car. Probably spent about 2 hours between the fort and the beach and 4-4.5 hours in the car. But Nicky was reall very good. Just pooped. He slept from about the time we got home until 7 the next morning. About a 12 hour stretch. Poor kid was wiped out. But I think he had fun at the beach.

And NOW we're eating Carrots too!

My little cutie bug is eating CARROTS! He didn't even make a face. We of course have a movie of the first carrot meal on the photobucket account. Click the link to Nicky's Photos on the right to see.

I also added a bunch of pics to a few different months. You'll just have to look around in there. The black and white pic above for example was from June.

We're eating PEARS now!

Well Nicky now has added pears to our list of foods! I know, we were going to do bananas next, but the Gerber bananas sucked so bad and I hadn't gotten to the store for fresh ones. So now a typical dinner has been Veal pate with green bean casserole and sweet potato souffle, with pear glace for dessert. Or in common vernacular veal, green beans, sweet potatoes and pears all mushy and bland from Gerber. I've added a video of his first meal of pears to the Nicky's Photos link on the right.

Nicky is also getting a lot more tummy time with daddy during the day. Daddy lets the pups outside to play and then puts down a blanket or sheet on the livingroom floor where they can roll around and play. Here's a typical photo of Nicky on the floor. You can probably tell they've been rolling around....



Just today Nicky discovered the joys of rattle socks. Tom took a little video so I'll have to see if it is clear enough for the blog. He was kicking up a storm! He wore his little self out, so now he's napping before dinner. What a sweetheart he is!

The many faces of Nicky

Well, I just uploaded a whole bunch of August images. JM went crazy with the camera on Sunday and these are AMAZING pictures! I'm pretty sure you'll have to agree with me on this. ;)

I also uploaded some video today showing Nicky's first reactions to green beans last week, and then we started veal this week. He wasn't too into that at first, but mixed with bites of sweet potatoes and green beans, veal seems to be a hit too. We were going to try bananas next, but I gave him one bite and then tried it myself. The gerber brand of bananas SUCKS! I threw it all away. They add citric acid or something to keep the color, but it was way too acidic! Blech! So we did veal instead. We'll do bananas this weekend, but we'll mash them up fresh for him with formula. He'll love em I'm sure!

On the mobility front, Nicky is really into rolling now. On Tuesday morning Tom called me on my way to work because he'd gone in to check on Nicky and Nicky had scooted to the corner where Wendel (his rainbow worm) was and then grabbed him and rolled over. He was so proud! Here's a pic I asked Tom to take!

I've organized the photo album!

Ok, well I've organized the digital photo album that's online. My computer files are still a mess and I still don't even have an actual photo album, but it's a start.

Now the good news is you can click on Nicky's Photos and choose a month and see all the photos of Nicky (and anyone else I happened to photograph) in that month. I have the movies all in a separate folder so that if you're using a slow connection you won't accidently click on a movie and lock up your computer for a year.

The bad news is that all the photos I have inserted in the blog are now showing broken links until I get around to fixing them all. Fat chance of that anytime soon I'd say. So to see Nicky (and he's definitely worth seeing!) you'll have to click on Nicky's Photos on the link to the right.

Hopefully this will be worth the effort of organizing. It was getting a little crazy with over 10 pages of photos.

Sweet Potatoes

Well Nicky has been introduced to the wonderful world of FLAVOR! Sunday Tom and I caved in and gave him sweet potatoes. See the 2 part video by clicking on Nicky's Photos to the right.

He was pretty amazed and not sure about it, but he seemed to enjoy the experience. We gave them to him again later Sunday and on Monday and he liked them better each time. Now I just have to go back to the store to get more! After 4 days of sweet potatoes we'll introduce something else. Any suggestions? We have a lot to choose from!

Apples
Bananas
Carrots
Green Beans
Peaches
Pears
Peas
Squash
Sweet Peas