Halloween pictures

And some all dressed up for the holidays too.

Here they are.

Some more pictures

Don't feel like writing much -- sorry. We actually have a chance to relax for a while and maybe catch up on some TV. So for now I'll just give you some more Nicole pictures -- playing basketball, watching football, playing with her friend Ariela, getting a haircut and more. Enjoy. Click for pictures.

One more haircut video

At the beginning of this one, listen for how she says her name. She also says "choo choo," "bubbles" and "Mommy" on this one. And you can see the finished haircut.

Haircut video

Here's the first video clip from Nicole's first haircut. Look at how she's cooperating. And she makes a priceless face at the end.

To-Do #2

Incredibly frustrated with Shutterfly's new "work in progress" site. Definitely more work for me. Not a lot of progress. I was able to post pictures from our trip to Sedona, Nicole's first haircut and her first day back at school today. (For anyone tempted to order prints of the school pictures, I wouldn't. They were taken from another site and not high enough quality to make prints from.)

Video of the haircut will be coming another day when I have more patience.

Here are the pictures.

To-Do List: Item #1 complete

The technical difficulties have been resolved. The links to pictures on the right have been fixed, as has the link to the vacation pictures in the most recent post. I'm too lazy to go back and fix all the other posts, but you can always get to pictures off the link on the right (older ones available at the 'View all pictures' link). Thanks to Shutterfly for changing this without even a courtesy e-mail to tell us about the changes.

Note: As soon as I posted this, the new links stopped working. I'm fairly certain it's just a problem with Shutterfly now, and the links are OK. Please bear with us.

Technical Difficulties

Seems like Shutterfly is at it again. It looks like they've changed the links to the pictures, which means that when you click on a picture link from this blog you get an error message. Fixing the problem has moved up to the top of our "to-do" list, along with posting pictures of Nicole's first haircut yesterday.

Catching up from vacation

Here are pictures from Nicole's trips to Baltimore and the beach. Co-stars are Maggie, Madison, Lindsey, Erin, Justin and Kara. (I know my mom, Kelly and others have some more good pictures. I'll try to get them soon.)

It was quite a whirlwind tour that also included 2 weddings for mommy and daddy, and a side trip to New Hampshire. Nicole hung in B-more with Bubby and Grandpa during that part of the trip. They certainly enjoyed some extra time with her.

Nicole was great on the boardwalk, pushing a stroller, saying hi to all the babies and making friends with everyone. She was OK on the beach, was scared of the ocean and polished off a dozen steamed crabs. (Or maybe that was me.) She somehow even got her Grandpa to share his ice cream with her. Mommy and Daddy shared with her too. For someone who is under the 5th percentile in weight, she sure can eat.

These days, Nicole is missing her Mommy, who is away in Chicago. She's talking like crazy - the words she doesn't know on her own she will almost always repeat. It's amazing what having two brilliant parents will do for a child's vocabulary. She's recently learned funny, Chicago, money and she says some semblance of "watermelon."

Enjoy the pictures. Coming soon -- updates and pictures from a trip to Sedona, Nicole's first haircut, new bedroom furniture for mommy and daddy (no more mismatched dressers from college), pics from the pool (it's still blue!!!) -- and not too far off -- Ravens season. Nicole's got her Shannon Sharpe jersey ready. Gotta love hand-me-downs.

Finally some good news

Loyal readers will be happy to know that the pool and dishwasher issues from a few posts back look like they are solved. The dishwasher has a new motor as of Tuesday and hasn't failed us since. The pool is once again a lovely shade of blue, and has cleared up just enough that we can see the bottom. It should be swimmable just in time for us to leave for vacation. Hopefully it's still blue when we return.

Nicole is up to her wonderful tricks, although her friend Ava at daycare showed her up today when she said Nicole's name perfectly. Nicole pronounces Ava's name more like Wava. But Nicole has learned to say Costco and chocolate, two necessities in life.

She not only can say chocolate, but she's pretty good at eating it. Hoping to get her up to the 5th percentile in weight, we try to pile on the calories. Lately it's been chocolate pudding (Ding! as Nicole says). She also insists on doing the spoon herself. She's not bad (for her age) but the result is still worth sharing. Here are pudding pictures and more.

Is there something less than the lightweight division?

We all know that July 4th is our nation's birthday, but did you know that on July 3, Nicole turned 15 months? She celebrated the day by going to summer camp and playing with Ava & Sydney (Kevin and I get a kick out of Nicole & Ava saying "bye" to one another) then going to the pediatrician for her checkup. She stands at nearly 2 1/2 feet (30 3/4 inches - 50th percentile) and weighs in at a whopping 18 pounds 8 ounces (still not quite 5th percentile). Nicole won't be sitting forward in a car seat anytime soon.

Our pool saga continues, but our pool guy (yes, we caved and hired a professional) seems to think that we'll be swimming in it by August. This is fine with me since we (or at least I) will be traveling the majority of July. I hope our dishwasher repairs don't drag out as long as the pool repairs have.

Until next time.

Prodigy?

This morning at breakfast, Nicole was holding up one finger as she often does, pointing at my cereal. So I said, "One." Nicole immediately responded, "Two." Jessica and I just looked at each other dumbfounded. There was no way that had just happened. So I said one again and ...

Two!

I tried three, and she said something that sounded like four. We were never able to get that far again, but if you say one, she says two.

Maybe this is normal and those of you with kids older than Nicole are laughing at us, but we were quite impressed. Plus, considering she's in Jewish day care in Phoenix, she'll probably master 1 through 5 in English, Spanish and Hebrew before she's two.

This has to be a record...

Two picture posts in the same month, and the month is barely half over. Considering that Nicole is currently sporting a nice shiner that I've yet to take pictures of, I know there will be another photo opportunity shortly. (Yes, my Father's Day highlight was Nicole tripping over my foot and going face-first into the coffee table. But she's OK and doesn't seem to be holding it against me.)

Jessica (and Nicole's teachers at school) are into doing cute things to her hair, so we have some pictures of that. Also, we had a brief moment where our pool was blue, clean and functional, so we took advantage of it one beautiful Sunday afternoon. Pictures of that also, and you'll love Nicole's outfit. Mine, not so much. Unfortunately a busted pipe this weekend (seems there's a lot of that going around here) has the pool out of commission again, but it's on the mend and we should be up and running again soon.

Here are the pictures.

Budding foodie

Although she may not look like it, Nicole loves to eat. And from her choices of favorite foods these days, I think we have a new foodie on our hands. She enjoys kobe beef hamburgers and hamburgers we make from beef tenderloin "chain." She's not afraid of spice as evident for her love of guacamole, flautas, or fish tacos (wait, do fish tacos from Rubio's bring down her foodie quotient?). And, much to my surprise, she loves the Barefoot Contessa grilled salmon salad, complete with capers, dill and red onion.

As far as we can tell, there are only 2 problems to all this. First, Nicole decided that she detests Kraft macaroni & cheese right after we purchased the Costco family pack. Oh well, the boxes will survive until she changes her mind -- even if that's in college. Second, because she prefers mint chocolate chip ice cream to vanilla or fruit flavors, it means there is less for us.

Catching up

How long has it been since I last updated the blog or posted new pictures? Well, the big batch of pictures I'm putting up now include photos of two separate visits by my mom. So either I've been slacking, or someone's been spending a lot of her retirement in Arizona. (OK, it's both.)

One thing you might notice is different about Nicole in some of these pictures, especially the later ones, is that she's vertical. That's right, she's walking. She started at the beginning of May, so the correct answer in the poll that was once on the site was 13 months. If that was your choice, you get a special prize. She's constantly on the move now, and it's fun to watch.

She's still very talkative and displaying quite the vocabulary. Mostly, though, she likes to bark like a dog. She loves her doggie books and knows a dog says woof woof, so she says woof woof whenever she sees a dog. But not up close - she still panics when she sees one up close. Some of her favorite words are book, bubbles, shoes, socks, uh oh, bye bye, moo, baa, yellow, peekaboo, mama, dada, what's that, banana and plenty more I'm forgetting right now.

She's also doing much better at swim lessons (not indicated in the pictures in this post), enjoying the swings at the park and playing with her slide, chalk and bubbles out on the patio. She can't wait to come to Baltimore in July and see everyone.

That's about it for Nicole. Her daddy has started his new job in Internal Communications at APS (the big Phoenix electric utility) and everything's great so far. More updates to come on that in the future. And here's the obligatory promise to post more frequently ... this time I mean it. I hope.

Here are the pictures.

The birthday post

It's hard to believe it's been a year already. Nicole's grown so much. So has her hair. And her vocabulary's catching up. She says dada and mama (dada came first, so it's not just because I'm the one writing), banana (well, just nana), book, nose (at least the no- part), more, bye bye and hi. We swear she also says "What's that?" when she points at things, but we're not kidding ourselves.

Nicole's birthday celebration got off to a great start. Not only was the day before her birthday the end of a little stomach illness, but she welcomed her new friend Genevieve Sala into the world. Then for her birthday, Uncle Howard, Uncle Neil, Aunt Lauren and BFF Maggie were in town. You may remember what happened the last time Nicole and Maggie got together in Arizona, but this time was much more civil. By the end of the night they were having a great time playing together.

Nicole enjoyed playing with her birthday cake. It was coconut, which was delicious, but white frosting and a pale baby don't make for great pictures. We'll do chocolate frosting at her party. That'll show up much better.

Other than her words, she doesn't have too many new tricks. She still won't walk on her own. She does great when holding on to someone, and she'll stand up on her own. But then she just sits back down. She loves to climb, which keeps us on our toes. And yes, she's still crawling by dragging one leg across the floor. Keeps us from having to sweep, though. She started swimming lessons last weekend. She's had two so far and has cried for about 58 of the 60 minutes. She spent one of the other two minutes pulling out Daddy's chest hair, and the remaining minute swimming. Hopefully she'll start warming up to it soon. She has to; we live in Arizona. And she's spending most of the summer in the pool whether she likes it or not. Speaking of pools, Nicole fared much better in the NCAA tournament this year. She was 7th out of over 900 at one point after a few rounds. But her Final Four teams of Michigan State, Louisville, Xavier and Georgetown (based on her visits to East Lansing, Louisville, Cincinnati and D.C. this past year) didn't come through for her.

For those that are concerned with Nicole's parents and their residence, the repair work on the house begins tomorrow. We hope to have the first floor work (carpeting, painting and kitchen cabinets) done by the end of the month. The upstairs carpeting and painting will follow, and more pictures will follow that.

I hope that by holding off the links to the pictures until the end that you've read this update. I'll try to write more frequently so the updates won't be as long. Meanwhile, here are some pictures we took in late March that we have not yet shared. And here are the pictures from her birthday.

Productive night

Here are the "before" pictures of the house. The captions should explain what you're looking at. Hopefully the repairs, painting, carpeting, etc. don't take too long and we can get the fixed-up, furnished "after" pictures done soon.

Click for the pictures.

Finally some pictures

We take a break from Flood Watch '08 to bring you some long overdue pictures of Nicole. These span from late January through yesterday. You can definitely see the changes in her even since the last batch of photos, which were around Christmas and New Years.

Nicole seems on the verge of walking and talking. She stood up once or twice on her own, but usually has to hold on to something. And she'll take steps if you're holding on to her. She says da da and bye bye and plenty of other things we can't make out. It's hard to believe she'll be one in a few weeks.

Click here for the pictures of Nicole.

We'll keep you posted on the flood aftermath. I will soon post some of the pictures we have of the house. We'll call these the "before" pictures. They are from before we moved in, but it will give you a sense of what it looks like. After all of our repairs are made and we're fully situated, well give you the "after."

We shall build an ark!

We awoke to quite a flood yesterday. Seems the supply line from the toilet in the downstairs bathroom burst sometime Tuesday night / Wednesday early morning, spraying water throughout the first floor of our house. After a few hours with a wet/dry vac Kevin got most of the standing water out of the house. We got a plumber out ASAP and the insurance company sent over a disaster clean up crew who got to work. They attempted to salvage the carpet in the living room & dining room, but after a while they gave up and decided to remove the carpet along with the kitchen cabinet & bathroom vanity "kick boards". We're living at Hermvy's house for a few days while de-humidifiers and fans try to dry out the house. Anyone have suggestions on paint & carpet colors? Oh wait, you probably want to see pictures of the house to decide, and maybe even some of Nicole too, right?! Well, I'll try to remember to pick up the camera & computer at the house today and see if we can't squeeze that on to our (i.e., Kevin's) to-do list.

Slight delay . . .

But when we have to spend the morning with a wet/dry vac to clean up a huge flood in the first floor of our house, it might be a little while longer until those pictures get posted! Ahh, the joys of being a homeowner.

Just a quick post to say

I'm sorry. I've been meaning to post pictures of both the house and of Nicole. Who knew working and moving and parenting would leave so little spare time? Anyway, with the NCAA tournament coming up, I have a self-imposed deadline to get pictures posted. Because if I don't get it done before basketball starts, I won't get it done until April. Maybe this weekend? Hopefully. Stay tuned.

Home Sweet Home

Wow, what a whirlwind 24 hours it has been. First Bubby and Grandpa arrive from Baltimore for their "grandkid fix" (we have no delusions that it's the warm weather or even us that's attracting them to Arizona), then we find out the offer we put on the house (on January 14, mind you) was accepted! It's going to continue to be a crazy few days, since the deal is contingent on us closing on February 25. So we'll drag Bubby and Grandpa along with us as we do the house inspection, look at appliances and who knows what else. I'm sure that's exactly what they wanted to do during their visit with Nicole.

Soon we'll have over 3,100 square feet of space (most of which is located in the mater bedroom), plus a gigantic backyard (with pool and built in BBQ!), which is mind boggling given in the tiny space we've been living in since July 1. We can't wait to start entertaining and have everyone over. And for you out-of-town folk, it's a 4 bedroom, so we have space for you, too!

Just in case

It occurs to me that I put up some pictures in the links on the right that I never mentioned in a post, and some of you might have missed them. Well, here they are. They are from early December and our first day in Baltimore, as well as a few of Nicole's cousins (and aunt and uncle) that my parents had.

Finally

It's only been about 3 weeks, but I'm finally posting the photos from our trip to Baltimore. There are quite a few, and I'm only posting a fraction of what we took. So enjoy.

Meanwhile, Nicole has been sick for a lot of 2008. Just a bad cold. Must be these rough Arizona winters. But she's much better now and back enjoying day care. She weighed in at 15 lbs, 12 oz at her 9 month checkup (5th percentile) so we've upped her food and are trying to fatten her up. She's doing great with it and loves all the new things she's eating -- yogurt, cheese, eggs, chicken. She also had her third tooth pop through, her first up on top.

And for those who care about me and not just Nicole, I start a job this week. I'll be an editor for an educational publisher working on their online classwork. It's a 6-month stint, but a lot can happen in 6 months.

Here are the pictures.

Excuses, excuses

Nicole came down with a nasty cold somewhere between Baltimore and Phoenix, and has been home since, with the exception of a half-day at day care yesterday (after which they decided no matter how much they had missed her, they were sending her home). Needless to say that's kept me from having much time to post, let alone deal with photos. But as her snot is clearing up I see some blog updates on the horizon. So stay tuned.