Mischief Managed

Each stage of Nick's young life has been both a joy and a challenge. There are aspects of each stage that are so amazing you wish you could have time stand still forever; while at the same time your skills as a parent and a person are constantly being challenged. This toddler (pre-terrible-two) stage with Nick has been no exception. His vocabulary and communication skills have exploded in the last 2 months. He now has a very distinct personality, knows what he wants, and does his best to communicate to you what that is.

Parts of the communication exploration are amazing. Nick loves to say " 'ellow" (read: Hello) and "Bye" even to perfect strangers. My favorite part of his "Bye" is that it is almost always followed by "muah" (with any elaborate hand swoop from the mouth outward). Having your baby blow you a kiss when you have to leave them, makes parting less of a sweet sorrow and more of a funny, precious moment. He also runs excitedly to you leaping into your arms when you return home which is quite possible my favorite moment of every day.

However, this new personality Nick is developing most definitely comes with a mischievous side. He is getting into any and everything and LOVES to play tricks on mommy and daddy. We try hard not to laugh when he does it, especially if he is pushing the buttons of the other parent, but it is almost impossible to not at least snicker when he makes this face that screams "Gotcha" (maybe the cutest face ever). Here are some highlight of Nick's pranks and jokes:

The other day Nick decided it would be hilarious to rip apart his bag of Pepperidge Farm pretzel goldfish. He went to the center of the living room, surrounded by the pups, grunted extravagantly and ripped apart the bag Hulk style. The puppies began gobbling up pretzel fish as though a giant pinata had been busted  before them. The real down side came when the dogs began trying to lick up all of the salt and almost choked to death from lack of water close by.

One of his favorite new tricks is to get on the sofa and turn the light on and off. It is like we have some kind of toddler rave going on in our living room, accompanied with explosive bouts of uncontrollable laughter. This prank results in Jeremy pulling the chain on the light to ruin Nick's fun, but actually the joke is on Mommy because later that day or the next she is too short to turn the light back on by the chain due to the vaulted ceilings in our living room.

Other antics are those just to get a rise out of mommy, which is pretty easy to do. Last night, we went to dinner with Aunt Kim, Uncle Brian, and cousin Eliot to celebrate Kim's Birthday. Nick ate and emptied all of his grapes out of the styrofoam container and began wearing it on his head, he quickly realized this trick was upsetting mommy so after I wrestled away the container, he began wearing anything within his reach as a hat, including his cheese slices. Despite the laughter by the entire table, Jeremy informed Nick that we are not packers fan, and that cheese as a hat is not appropriate :)

One Step Closer

I have been teaching the entire month of July at the University and have not had very much time to update about team Upton. We are just a little over 2 months away from the arrival of our baby girl! I could not be more excited about getting to hold her and meet her. Not to mention, getting to not be pregnant anymore is a pretty exciting prospect as well. I have been very fortunate this pregnancy with no complications, and a fairly enjoyable time overall. I think the second time around doing anything is always a little easier.

The crib and almost all of the furniture for her nursery has arrived and is put together. The last piece, her changing table, should be delivered next Tuesday and then I can get everything hing on the walls once we are certain about which layout is best for the room. I cannot wait to get it finished and post pictures for all of you. It has been so much fun designing a serene room for our little girl.

We still have not decided on a name for Baby Girl Upton (and no we don't know the name and have decided to keep it from everyone); we simply have not been able to come to a decision.

Camden Town

A few weeks ago I took Nick down to Camden to play with his cousins! He had the most fun, he is currently the youngest of a gaggle of cousins that rand from 5-16 years of age. Since he is a bit of a novelty he was flooded with attention. His 7 year old cousin Sarah followed him around allowing to have free reign of his MiMi's house for what must have been hours. He was fascinated by all the big kids and they were equally fascinated by him! They treated him like a king, he would sit down somewhere and then sort of point where he wanted all of the other kids to sit. He did some of his legendary dancing for them when he first arrived, which was also a big hit. My favorite moment probably came when he was coloring (one of his favorite new activities, sometimes he colors for an hour!) and he had Sarah sitting by him, and his cousin Forrest on the other side. Sarah got up and he was very distraught. He immediately pointed as his Deenie and then pointed at the chair, communicating to Deenie that he needed her to come sit by him. Meanwhile in the kitchen, Sarah told my cousin Deborah (her Aunt) that she came to get a drink while "those grownups were watching him!" She is so cute, I guess she realized chasing an 18 month old is a full time job and you have to get your breaks when you can get them ;)

WOW

As I have posted before, watching Nick get a grasp of the English language has been one of my favorite experiences of our 2nd year. Finally experiencing your child form words and associate their meanings is priceless. It also opens up their ability to follow directions and communicate with you on a level they have note been able to before. My favorite new thing that Nick says is WOW. I think he picked this word up from a show on Nick Jr. called Wow Wow Wubbzy. Hearing his little voice articulate WOW is cute enough as it is, but he even says it in the correct context, i.e. when he opens a drawer he knows he is not supposed to get into in the bathroom, or when I bring in groceries and put them on the floor to unload and he pulls out the goldfish, etc. It is awesome. My favorite WOW instance is when I recently rearranged his room into his big boy toddler room. I removed the glider which went into the nursery and I put the new table and chairs in there. He had been playing in the living room while I renovated his room and when I finish and let him come back there, he walked into the room and threw his arms out exclaiming WOW!! It was the perfect reward for me!