Nicky's first joke

I keep forgetting to tell everyone this, but on the way home from our trip last weekend, Nicky told his first original joke.

We were passing by different animals. Horses "Horsies! Neeigghhh!" and "Cows! Mooooo!" was coming from the backseat.

Then we hear, "Doggies! Mooooo! Heh, heh, heh!"

We thought that was pretty funny at first, and then when we heard that chuckle we realized he'd done it on purpose. His first joke!

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That was on the way back from our 4 day trip down to south florida. We went to visit a whole bunch of folks. My sister Jessie had flown down to stay at Liz, Jodi and my mom's house for the week, so we wanted to see her (and them!). And we just found out last week that my grandfather has lymphoma, so we wanted to get down there and see him too. He'd only seen Nicky a few times, and so we really felt we needed to get there to see him more. We stayed two nights at Liz's place and then a night at my Aunt's house near my grandfather.

Nicky got to meet my two youngest cousins who are just 6 and 9 years old. He had a ball playing with them. And it was great to see so many folks I haven't seen in so long. I think the only other time we'd been all the way down to Pt. St. Lucie was when Nicky was 3 weeks old and my grandmother passed away.

It was a really nice visit, and they all encouraged us to come again soon. We returned via the Turnpike and miraculously it only seemed to take us 3 hours to get from Pt. St. Lucie all the way to my inlaws house in Citra/Ocala! (They were so nice to watch our three dogs while we were away.) I think we must have traveled through some kind of time warp to do that, but it sure makes it seem like an easier, more doable trip! I think we might be able to swing a few more weekends down there over the next few months.
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While we were down there, we found out my cousin James' son is being baptized this next weekend in Jacksonville Beach. So we're now planning to finally get up there to see them for a day trip. It only takes a bit over an hour to get there, and we STILL haven't met his FOUR children yet. What kind of a cousin am I? He's got three girls, the oldest and then twins, and a boy who is just turning one. His oldest I believe is about four, and the twins are right around Nicky's age I believe. Nicky should have a ball playing with them Sunday. We picked up a few little gifts for them today, and I can't wait to see them.

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That leaves one more family set I haven't seen in, oh, forever. My cousin Alexis is married and has a daughter who is, geez, like five or something! And I haven't met her or Alexi's husband yet. Lame! Well we're finally going to get up there and see them.

Tom and I were planning a trip to North GA this fall, and then we decided to take my mom, and then we found out that Liz and Jodi were planning on going in November anyway, and so now we're all going up together a bit before Thanksgiving to visit for a whole WEEK! I'm so excited! I don't think I've ever taken a week off work except for being sick or having surgery...or a baby.

This will be almost like a real vacation! We'll still be visiting family (which I call a family trip, but not really a vacation) but we're renting a house for the week. It's a little 2 bedroom place right on Lake Lanier (which I hear is more like pond lanier right now, but still). It's cheaper than staying at the Amicalola lodge and it's right near where my sister Jessie works. She'll probably stay with us most of the time too.

This will be the first time we've been to GA since Nicky was born. It'll be a long drive, but I think he'll do fine. We'll just have to make sure to bring lots of distractions. And maybe the laptop and a movie.

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The only other thing I can think of is that Nicky seems to be allergic to cats. We noticed that last weekend when he was sneezing and getting hives on his face in the houses with cats. He loves kitties though, and so we just washed his hands and gave him benadryl.

Actually come to think of it, this week he's been pretending to be a kitty. He meows and scratches. Which I think is pretty cute. But the best thing is that I can get him to eat sometimes by calling "kitty kitty kitty" and holding out food. Hey, whatever it takes!

We were doing this with his happy meal at McDonald's tonight. We'd taken him there to play on the playground after shopping for James' kids at Toys R Us. Nicky was so good in the store, even though I didn't really buy him anything. (Well except for a really cute little book that I remembered from my childhood: There is a monster at the end of this book)

He had a ball at the playground. It was one of those giant tube-like things where once they're in there you're not going to be able to get them out till they want to come out. But the weather was gorgeous, not hot for a change, the sun was setting and he was the only child there for most of the time. So really it was like a giant fun playpen and Tom and I actually got to sit and eat while Nicky wore himself slap out. He wasn't interested in the food at all, until he came close and meowed. Then I called "kitty kitty kitty" and held out a french fry. He ate most of his fries and burger that way.

Maybe if he IS the kitty he won't feel so bad if we can't GET a kitty later on.

Yeah, probably not. Well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. With our three big dogs I'm not seeing any other animals coming into our family for a while.

(Aren't those famous last words? Knock on wood for me!)