Happy Spring!

Happy Spring All! I've always been a fan of spring, but this spring has been extra special because of all the things we have to celebrate!

We had a fun Easter weekend. We colored Easter Eggs on Saturday afternoon, well...Bill did. Nick wasn't really that into it, but Bill did a fabulous job! On Easter morning Nick had a fun time finding his Easter basket and all the goodies inside. He was very distracted by both the chocolate and the bubbles. Which to pursue? More bubbles or more chocolate. This is one of the really hard decisions Nick has had to make recently! We spent the afternoon of Easter at my sister Jill's house with my nephews, Jill's mother in law, and my Dad and Gretel. We had a really nice time eating great food, relaxing and watching the Masters. Here are a few shots of our spiffy little guy on Easter!

Nick's birthday was later in the week and we began the day with a special waffle breakfast. Nick spent all day with Bill and then we went out to Red Robin for dinner with a small group of friends. Have y'all ever been to a Red Robin? I had only been there for lunch before and didn't realize they would have a big lifesize Red Robin there to greet the kids. Not a big deal, right? Oh, no, no, no. Poor little Max who was with us was quite traumatized by the big red bird. I wasn't sure he was going to make it to the table but he eventually did. He did spend most of dinner under the table, but he ended up having an OK time, poor guy. I was just thankful that Nick wasn't afraid of the bird as well! The servers serenaded Nick with their Birthday song and of course I didn't have the camera ready (bad mom!) and they brought him a sundae which he absolutely loved. Every time he took a bite of the ice cream his eyes would get really big and he would kind of shake his head, it was pretty funny.

On Saturday we attended our neighborhood Spring Festival which included an Egg Hunt, Moon Walks, Face Painting and a Petting Zoo. The Egg Hunt was hilarious. Nick was way more interested in watching all the other kids pick up eggs than to pick up eggs of his own. I was finally able to convince him to put some eggs in his basket and he kind of got the hang of it but then he was more interested in opening the eggs than finding more eggs. I think it was really overwhelming for him. We keep telling ourselves that next year at the ripe age of 3, he will really be into all this stuff, we shall see!

After the egg hunt we stood in line for the Moon Walk because at the Irish festival Nick had gone in so we thought for sure he would want to do it here. Not so much. We waited in line for about 10 minutes and by the time it came to actually go in, he would have nothing to do with it! We knew he wouldn't do the face painting so we headed for the petting zoo. In the end, he really just wanted to run around the amphitheater.

After the Spring Festival Bill's family came in from Northern Virginia and we started the 2nd celebration of Nick's birthday. I think I'll save that for my next post because this one is getting really long!

Have a great week everyone!

This Should Have Been Written 2 Weeks Ago!

It has been almost a month since I last blogged. I can't really explain the absence, except I just haven't felt like doing it. Similar to why I haven't been running on the recent cold, rainy mornings we've had lately. Enough excuses, I'll try to hit the highlights of the past few weeks.

I suppose the most exciting news is that Bill has a new job lined up! YAY Billy. This is really great news and we are both very thankful because its such a tough economy and its a job Bill is really excited about. There is just one catch, the job is in Maryland. So, the plan is that Bill will live in Maryland during the week and come home on the weekends. He has two friends from his former employer that are also going to be working at the same place so they will hopefully be able to get an apartment together. He is probably going to start in early June but they are still working out the details. We know that this will be tough on Nick. We're planning to contact our Social Worker to see if she has any advice on how to ease this upcoming transition.

Nick has been sick on and off for the past 2-3 weeks. Nothing too major, although early this week he had a 103 fever that didn't respond that well to Tylenol. He is on antibiotics now and doing much better. He is definitely sleeping more soundly and for this we are very happy!

Nick continues to grow like crazy and he is talking alot...we just don't know what he is saying. His appetite comes and goes, its frustrating but I have learned not to try to force it. If he doesn't want to eat, he isn't going to eat, it's very simple. The worst habit he has picked up and seems to be taking a long time to shake, is spitting. He is still spitting and he still thinks it is hilarious. We have tried many ways to try to break him of this habit, and they are working on it at school too. So far, nothing seems to be working. We'll keep plugging away.

We are preparing for Nick's second birthday, next Thursday, and then the following Wednesday is one year from the day we first met him. We have alot to celebrate in the upcoming weeks!

I'm going to close with some pictures from the Irish Festival we attended a few weeks ago. Nick got to experience a bounce house for the first time. He didn't bounce though, he just sat there, mesmerized. I'm hoping he'll be able to bounce at our neighborhood Spring festival in a few weeks. He also almost had his face painted, but didn't really like it so he had his hands painted instead. Bill got his face painted as well as a special bonus! The best part were the firetrucks. We spent a long time at the fire station, looking at the trucks and running around. Enjoy.