Happy Birthday Mama

We celebrated Maureen's birthday on Thursday at the Aquarium of the Pacific. We also decided to stay at a hotel nearby since we knew we'd be too tired to go home after the Aquarium. The boys loved the hotel. Enjoy

Friday Morning

As we drove back to Los Angeles from Long Beach, we stopped at a pumpkin patch in Culver City.  Maureen is enamored with it and I'm just indifferent about it.  I like Mr. Bones in WeHo, but I always get overruled in such matters.

Things were fine in Culver City aside from a school field trip.  There was this annoying little boy named Felix and I think he had lice.  I hope he didn't, but if either of the boys gets lice, I know where it came from.  And, I know the school Felix goes to, so I'll be able to track him down and out him as a dispersal vector for lice.  Revenge will be mine.

The Hotel Inspector

Someone really enjoyed staying in the hotel room when we were down in Long Beach.  He liked the bed, but more importantly, he liked watching Dora the Explorer dvds on his portable dvd player.  That really helped us save the day since we didn't have On Demand or DVR at the hotel.

Aside from that, he was a menace on the rooftop pool.  I had to bring him back to the room because he was getting too close to the edge of the pool.  Additionally, he kept on going into the bathroom because he wanted to take a bath.  As you know, he's quite clean and loves taking baths.  He actually gets upset if we skip a tubby.

Still, he slept well and behave well with the snack tray.  He didn't touch it.  We can't say the same for his older brother.  Thanks to John, we purchased a can of cookies for $4.50.  They weren't great and they sure weren't worth the money.

The funniest part of the room that there was a wall of clear glass next to the door that created a slight hallway.  Guess who ran into it two or three times?  That's right, our little Nicholas.

Ask and You Shall Receive

As we were shopping at the Trader Joe's in Hollywood, we walked by one of their friendliest employees, Willie.  We always say hi and he gives us cool samples.  When Nicholas saw him, he started screaming, "ICE CREAM CONE!  ICE CREAM CONE!" since Willie gave us samples earlier in the year of their tiny little ice cream cones.  Sure enough, Willie was more than happy to oblige little Nicholas Twist.  Willie did ask if it was ok since it was only 9:30 AM.  I told him, "It's never too early at Trader Joe's for samples of anything."

Aqualad

Our Nicholas just loves taking baths.  He actually gets quite upset if he skips a day.  He's very clean like that.  In any event, he loves taking bubble baths and putting bubbles all over the place.  He especially loves putting them on his face.  Thankfully, they don't sting his eyes or we may have issues like John used to have with hair washing.

Birthday Party Fun

Look Who's Driving

We stopped in at China's Ralph's today to pick up some provisions for Mami and Papi's house this week.  I told the boys that they had race car shopping carts and they were not disappointed to see this cart.  After a while, John decided to kick back and leave the driving to Nicholas who loved every minute of it!

A Member of the Peanuts Gang

We joking call him Pig Pen because he's always in such a messy state, but this is proof.  Look how he sticks his tongue out as he is concentrating.  If that isn't a characteristic of the Peanuts kids, then I don't know what is.  Thankfully, I was at work while this was going on.  Had I been here, I probably would have been saying something like, "Stop that!" or "Nicholas, NO!!!"  He must think his middle name is "No" since I say it so much after saying his name.

Born to Read

Nicholas LOVES books.  He enjoys to listen to any story at any time of the day.  He also loves to pick up a good book or magazine and just go to town with it.  At this point, I know he's just memorized things, but he's very smart.  Sometimes, he'll just say things or pick things up really, really quickly.  I'm fearful that he'll be grown up before we know it.  

Party at My Gym

We went to a birthday party at My Gym today.  Our Nicholas was a little shy at first and didn't want to interact with anyone.  He only wanted to be held by Maureen.  After about 20-minutes, I took him into the play area and dropped him into the ball pit.  He eventually warmed up to the experience and started to bury himself in the balls.  He even started to walk on all the gym equipment.  He's a far cry from John.  John wouldn't have done this at 22-months, but our Nicholas sure has no problems!

Quite Shocking

Last week, we took a trip to Costco and headed to the fruit cooler.  As is his custom, John asked me to crack open the strawberries we were going to buy in order to eat one.  As I was closing the container, guess who asked me for one?  Yes, Little Mr. I Only Eat French Fries, Chicken Nuggets, Pizza, and Bacon aka Nicholas asked me for a strawberry!!!  I gave him one and he took a small bite out of it and then proceeded to drop it on the floor.  He's taking true baby steps in expanding his menu.