Going, and Going, and Going . . .

We’ve been very busy lately and it doesn’t look like it will be slowing down anytime soon. Other than a few small showers, the weather held up for the cookout this past Saturday. This was the first time Nicholas was going to interact with a large group of people. We felt like he did pretty well. There were plenty of kids there and I didn’t notice too many scuffles over the toys. There were a couple of cars to ride on there and they were definitely a big hit. We’re so thankful to Evan’s family for throwing this cookout to celebrate Nicholas’ arrival.







Nicholas also had another first on Sunday. We took him to church for the first time. I decided that for his first visit that I would go to the Nursery with him. Sometimes at home he doesn’t like it when we go into the next room, so I didn’t know how he would handle if we both left him there for an hour. I was pleased to see how well he played with the toys. In fact, he was pretty well-behaved until the very end. Some kids were coloring and he went over to their table. He loves to take things out of containers and put them back in. He didn’t realize that the other kids would not like it if he took the entire container of crayons from them. I tried to divert his attention to another activity, but when Nicholas gets his mind set on something, that’s what he’s going to do. So, there was a mini-meltdown.

Next, he moved onto a truck that caught his attention. Unfortunately, another kid was already playing with it. I tried to explain to him that he needed to share, but he wasn’t really interested in what I had to say. So, here came the major meltdown. He flailed his arms, screamed at the top of his lungs, and would not listen to reason. I looked at the clock and noticed it was about time for the service to be over, so I decided we should leave. I haven’t decided what I will do next week, but I am hoping to work on the idea of sharing enough that I can go to the service next week.

We also went to lunch yesterday to celebrate Evan’s birthday. Both Evan and I realized that our birthdays this year don’t seem as important as they have in the past. We decided to keep them low-key. I got Baskin Robbins while we were in Tomsk and we all went to Applebee’s for lunch to celebrate Evan’s. We were a little nervous about taking Nicholas to a sit-down restaurant after he broke the $3 glass in Tomsk, but Nicholas did very well. In fact, he never cried and pretty much cleaned his plate. We decided to go when it first opened, so there would be less people and less of a wait for our food. Because he did so well, we’re less apprehensive about going to a sit-down restaurant again. It does help that his drink was not brought in a breakable glass. :)

Finally, yesterday we went to Cleveland to celebrate my cousin’s son, William’s birthday. After a couple of minutes of becoming familiar with his new surroundings, Nicholas spotted a car to ride in and he was happy. He actually interacted very well with the kids that were there, especially 19-month old, Ethan (who is pretty much the same size as Nicholas). We had a really good time celebrating with family. And, of course, Nicholas was happy because there was cake.







Nicholas continues to make us laugh and brings a smile to our faces. In fact, today I overheard him talking to himself on the stairs. We don’t like him to play on the stairs, so I quickly went over to see what he was doing and this is what I found:





It’s hard to be mad when he’s being cute.

Well, I am doing my best to keep up with the blog. This particular blog was written over several days. It is hard to finish it when someone won't take a long enough nap. But, I am hoping that all the pictures helped make up for the wait.

Kristin