Nicholas at 28 months

Weight: 34 lbs

Height: Almost 3 ft!!

At 28 months, Nicholas is quite the catch. He enjoys bubble baths, long walks outside, cooking, holding hands in the parking lot, and snuggling after naps. He is an outdoors man and owns his own red convertible. He has great muscles and isn't afraid to flex them for the ladies. (He hears that chicks dig it.) He is an animal lover. He also loves his Mama and treats her right.

Talents:

• He can count to 15. (We make him count to 15 if he wants to get out of time out, so he gets lots of practice. It also is a little self esteem boost at the end of time out, because we always tell him how well he did at counting.)
• He can now recognize all the numbers from 1 to 10 about 80% of the time.
• He has become a great TV watcher. I love this new found talent. Joseph has been on his surgery rotation so it has been great because it gives me about an hour break in the morning and at night so I can actually get something done. He LOVES Mickey Mouse club house. Half our conversations are interrupted by him telling me, "I need to watch Mickey." I just respond by saying, "Yeah, you like Mickey." Then I just keep on going with our conversation.
• He has become really good at putting both hands on the side of the car while I unload Lexi. He gets lots of praises for this!!
• He loves singing time during nursery, and he loves to sing all the songs he learns. He knows The Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Wiseman Built His House Upon a Rock, Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, Patty Cake, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to name a few.

Other fun things about Nicholas:

He is my exercise coach. I try to load the kids up in the jogging stroller every morning when the weather is decent. I will start running and I'll hear him say, "Good job Mom for going super fast." When we get within sight of the park, he will celebrate and say, "Yeah! We did it. We are at the park."

At the park there is a very specific order when it comes to taking turns going down the slide. First, Steve the red car gets sent down. Second, Mom has to go down. I have to pretend I get stuck at the top of the slide, and Nicholas helps push me down. Finally, Nicholas goes down the slide.

Joseph taught Nicholas to thank me every time I make some food for him. He will exclaim, "Thank you very much for making this yummy food Mom." I always act EXTREMELY happy when he tells me this and tell him the best way to say thank you is also by eating your food. I think it is also cute when he tells me, "I need some [insert random food item] to put in my mouth."

Nicholas has always LOVED dips. Right now he is obsessed with ketchup and french fries. The funny part is that he will dip all his food in the dips we give him. Tonight, he dipped all his grapes in ketchup. When we went out to eat at Five Guys Burgers, he dipped his peanuts in the ketchup. Sometimes I will look over and his dip will be gone before he has even touched the item the dip was meant for. The other night we had stromboli and dipped it in spaghetti sauce. Nicholas just requested a spoon and ate the spaghetti sauce as if it was tomato soup.

Nicholas will suddenly decide he is done eating and get this panicky look on his face like he is claustrophobic and the walls are closing in around him. We are working on saying, "May I please be excused from the table." Right now all he can muster is, "I'm stuck. I'm stuck. I'm stuck. GET ME OUT OF HERE. GET ME OUT OF HERE."

Nicholas still uses a binkie during nap time and bed time. Sometimes I let him have it when we read a story before bed. When he talks with the binkie in his mouth it gets the binkie wet with spit. This upsets Nicholas and he will give me his binkie to wipe off.

I went to a Relief Society meeting and took Nicholas because there was going to be child care. I told Nicholas we were going to a hot chocolate party, because the activity was a game night with a hot chocolate bar. Now he ALWAYS wants to have a hot chocolate party.

Favorite Books:

• Thomas the Train
• Frosty the Snowman
• Puppy Present
• Hungry Caterpillar
• Mama Bear, Mama Bear. What do you see?

Grandfather Muhlestein and Nicholas at Five Guys Burgers enjoying Nicholas' favorite foods.

Nicholas spent 20 minutes giving this duck drinks, hugs, and a bath.

Nicholas' gingerbread house. It had a few more decorations on it, but Nicholas thought they could be put to better use in his mouth.

Nicholas working on his gingerbread house. He ate a whole dish full of gumdrops.

I took this picture before Nicholas and I headed down this huge slide at The Ark. I almost love going down the slide as much as Nicholas. I can get going REALLY fast on it!!

Nicholas loves wearing our shoes around the house.

Nicholas at the Bob the Builder exhibit at the Museum.

Nicholas' imagination turned this pipe into his "shooter." He is pure boy.

Nicholas' first rootbeer (aka root juice) float.