End of Summer Recap

Hi. I'm back for a "comprehensive" update. I realize mostly family reads this blog and you know much of what's going on day to day, so sorry nothing really new, but it needs to be recorded before it gets away from me. I've been really terrible about that, but the last few weeks have been rough. We'll just leave it at that.

There are so many things going on as we close out summer and several big events coming up in the next few weeks. Nick starts preschool tomorrow! *sniff**sniff* My little brother, Huy, is getting hitched in a couple and Biscuit is arriving in less than 6 weeks.

Some of these may not be in chronological order, but I'll keep putting it off if I have to mess w/ that. Shall we?

**Biscuit**
Poor girl, my whole family calls her that. I'm sure she'll pay Nicholas back ten fold. We had a 3D ultrasound about a month ago, but haven't been able to load them since we had no scanner. Much thanks to the Kaisers for helping us out in that dept! So here are a couple of pictures of her. You can see she's contemplating ways to torture us in the first picture. The second picture is a bit distorted, but it's of her playing with her foot. She was doing that during the entire ultrasound. How cute is that?

Don't believe I mentioned it before, but we have decided against actually naming her Biscuit and are going with Abigail. We'll probably just call her Abby. Now if we can just decide on a Vietnamese name.

We are so excited about her arrival. I am doubly excited not to be used as a punching bag by her. I didn't think it was possible, but she moves more than Nick did. She hates it when I sleep on my right side and lets me know it. Scott is working on the nursery right now. I'll post pictures as soon as it's done.


**Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn...**
We went to Dallas a couple weeks back and stayed in a hotel for a few days. It was Nick's first time and he loved it. He would alternate between calling it the hotel and the "trip house." I think he loved the fact that his grandparents and aunts and uncles were just a few doors away. He had every one's room number memorized the first night. Getting to swim and staying up late probably didn't hurt either.
Here he is in his own bed. Neither Scott nor I wanted to sleep w/ him. He's a
kicker.
That evening's entertainment. Can you tell he doesn't get much attention?

Kissing up to his Grandad and Uncle Bo

**Charles E. Fromage**
My brother, Huy, and his fiance, Shannon, took Nicholas for a night out on the town at Chuck E Cheese. They will be moving to Michigan at the end of the month and was trying to work in some quality time. Nick was so excited, he could hardly contain himself. We will be sad when they move. Nick never mentions one without the other. Thanks for the fun night!

**Betty Crocker Makes an Appearance**
Nick and I had a hankering for cake the other day and decided to bake one. He's getting pretty good at helping me around the kitchen. Next to letters, numbers and painting, it's his favorite thing. Scott was home from work so I asked him to help me frost the cake. I was mostly hoping he would keep Nick out of my hair so I could finish cooking dinner. It was Scott's first time frosting a cake, and I will have to say I was very impressed. Nicholas "helped" by licking the frosting off of his own spatula. Don't worry, his spatula didn't actually touch the cake, though he did attempt to dip it in the frosting jar for to refill a couple of times.

**Last Game of the Season**
We went to our last Natural's game last Monday. Well, I thought it was the last game, just found out they made the playoffs. Woohoo. It's been a great season and we looking forward to many more games next summer.

The Kaisers. Not sure where Haley is, probably busy harassing the the visiting team. Thanks for joining us. It was fun!

For the record, I only had a hot dog, hamburger, fries, cotton candy and hot chocolate.

Finally, what would an update be without a picture of my little man painting? I practically have to strip him naked nowadays when he paints. He usually takes the fingerpainting one step further and paints his whole body. This typically signals the end of his painting session.

The kid is obsessed w/ colors and mixing them to make new ones. There is a song about the colors of the rainbow called "Roy G. Biv" from They Might Be Giants. He sings this song incessantly. He is a bit put out by the fact that there is no purple in the rainbow and decided to change violet to purple in the song on his own.

Whew! I think that's it. His first day of preschool is tomorrow so I'll have pictures and an update very soon.

Our Little Terror

After a nap the other day, Nick got his long promised chocolate cupcake. I snapped several quick pictures. One in particular made us laugh. For some reason, the other image came to mind.

Natural Alarm Clock

We taught Nicholas a while back how to tell time on the digital clock. I regret it almost every morning. He will come in and announce that it's time to wake up.

Nick: "Mommy, what time is it? Time to get up."
Me: "It's not time to get up yet. Mommy's not getting up until 7."
Nick: (after looking at the clock) "You have 16 more minutes."
Nick: (after a minute) "You have 15 more minutes."
Nick: (after another minute) "You have 14 more minutes."

This goes on until I can't take any more and get up, which is usually before 7.

Night, Night...

No real update here. I'm trying to figure out the scanner right now. I'll have an update in a couple of days.

Just a few pictures we took before bed tonight.

Our Favorite Pastime

If you know my husband, you know that he is a baseball nut. And that's a bit of an understatement. Since we've had Nick, Scott has been anxiously awaiting the moment he could take Nick to his first baseball game. We got a new minor league team last year, the Naturals. So Scott thought he'd take Nick to his first official ballgame last July. They lasted only a couple of innings, w/ very little baseball watching to be had. Nicholas did get his first taste of cotton candy. I was so very happy I was not there to clean up the mess.

First baseball game last July

All decked out courtesy of daddy after the first game this year

Well, we tried again this year, and Nick loves going to the games. It's such a beautiful ballpark, super family friendly, and kids get in free. There are big bouncy things and a playground for the kids. My favorite night is Monday night with dollar dogs, a light crowd and great seating. Throw a few friends in the mix and it doesn't get any better than that. Scott loves the giveaways. We've managed to hit a couple of them. A particular favorite was the mini bat giveaway. Much to Scott's chagrin we were only able to snag 2 of these highly desirable objects. The versatility of these bats, decoratively speaking, is mind boggling. That's why it's still sitting in a corner of our office.

We are undecided on a place of honor for this wonderful work of art.

One of our favorite moments from the games this year included Scott snagging a foul ball. He only had to knock over a couple of kids and an old man, all that while holding Nick. To be fair though, that old guy was pretty agile. But our favorite moment has been Nick running the bases. Every Sunday after the game, they allow the kids to run the bases. He absolutely loves this. The first time he ran the bases, he ran the opposite direction. It was so awesome to watch. Although he's gotten hang of it, we still get a kick out of watching him do it. It's just one of the best things ever.

Dog Days of Summer

Nick has been out of MDO since mid-May. I jokingly complain about it, but this summer is really special b/c it's our last one together before Biscuit arrives. Here are a few things we've done to pass the time this summer... playing on his new swing set, doing arts and crafts, swimming, casting a few spells, helping daddy do manly stuff, drinking cream soda for the first time and running around naked. I won't post a picture of him in the buff, but let me assure you, this last one is a particular favorite of his. Notice that a lot of the pictures are taken inside. He gets outside, but it's too hot for my pregnant self to go chasing him around w/ a camera. Sit and shoot (in the A/C) is more my style. I have noticed after looking at these pictures that there are no pictures of me and Nick. I'm gonna have to remedy that.

Playing on his new swing set ...

He's waiting patiently while his swingset is being put together

Doing arts and crafts...

Swimming...

With his little buddies, Eli and Uriah

Casting a few spells...

Seriously, how cute his he?

Doing manly stuff around the house like helping daddy and chugging cream soda...

He got tired of helping w/ the toolbox, so decided to draw instead

Seven Dollar City

Scott took a day off work to take Nicholas to Seven Dollar City aka Silver Dollar City in Branson. They took off early in the morning w/out me. Normally, I would have joined in their adventure, but it was one of the hottest days so far. There was no way I was even going to attempt it. So I was able to run some errands and then relax at home. Although based on what Scott told me about Nick's reaction to everything, I wish I had been there to witness it myself.

When they arrived in Branson, Nick could hardly contain his excitement. Branson has often been described as Las Vegas w/out the gambling. That's what I've heard anyway. Scott did manage to make a wrong turn and was reminded of that the entire day. Looks like Mommy was there in spirit after all.

Here's a picture of Nick as they pulled into Branson...

Majority of the kiddie rides were pretty tame, so Nick was able to ride them by himself. Although he did go on the "big swing", "giant boat" and roller coaster w/ his daddy. Since they went during the middle of the week, it wasn't as crowded and they often had their pick of rides. They also had a huge indoor area w/ several large tables set up with all the crafts a child could want. Nick enjoyed the crafts, Scott enjoyed the a/c.

I think this moment best described how much fun he had spending time w/ his daddy. They were sitting down sharing a sno cone and out of the blue he looks at Scott and says, "daddy's the best daddy in world!" It was so sweet, though I'm sure the sugar rush might have had a little to do with it. All in all a fantastic day. He played so hard that he passed out in his car seat before they even pulled out of the parking lot.