The last month or so...

The last month has been... busy!

At the end of August I started two online classes, Nico started swim lessons again, we've had friends visit, we've been out of town, and Matt has been volunteering and refereeing soccer games all over the place.

At the end of September, my college friends Liz, Meredith, Allison and Amelia came to visit for their reunion weekend (10 years!). It was fantastic to see them, and catch up, and just spend a little bit of time with them after such a long time! And I went running with Amelia & Meredith, which was a challenge, but it was also great. And Nico got to play with Amelia's kids - Charles & Jamie.

Story time with Charles, Jamie & auntie Amelia

Nico also got his first official haircut. My mom will cringe at me calling it his "first haircut," but I refuse to call her sneak attack when Nico was 9 months old an official haircut (I know, maybe childish). So, his first haircut. We went to see Jessica, who does my hair at City Slickers. They put a cape on me and Nico sat on my lap, holding a couple of combs, and held very still - he was fantastic, and the haircut looked great (without getting rid of all the curls!). 

First official haircut

And earlier this month I (finally) go my Nico tattoo! For a while I've known that I wanted to get a physical representation that commemorated my baby, but I wasn't sure what I wanted. I liked the idea of including his name, but I didn't want something completely obvious. And then I discovered what an ambigram was - a word or symbol whose meaning remains the same no matter the perspective. I liked the idea of a wrist tattoo, so this worked out perfectly: an ambigram of "Nicolas" that you can read in either direction. So, three weeks ago, I went to Inmortal Ink & got my tattoo & I love it :)

Ambigram tattoo

And then there was the weekend when Matt left town (he was helping with a high school retreat as a chaperon) and I got lots of Nico time all to myself - something that can be overwhelming and exhausting, but fortunately it was a quiet weekend, so it was lovely (but also exhausting!). We snuggled in bed after he woke up, spent the mornings baking and playing in our pajamas, took the dogs for walks (Nico still loves his stroller, Bob), and spent time in the park.

Playing at the park

Watching the ducks

And two weeks ago we went to the Oregon coast to Manzanita with our good friends Tim & Lynn, their family, and some of their friends. It was a great and relaxing weekend! We had a bonfire on the beach the first night (cause the grown-up boys needed to be manly and build a fire). We had crab. And drank amazing wine. And walked and played on the beach. And Nico & I went on runs along the coast. And we scavenged (hunted?) mussels & had them for dinner (yum!!). And Matt went fishing with the boys (and even though they only caught one salmon, it was still fun and delicious). 

Nico was the youngest and the only boy in the group of kids. Which meant that the three 8-year old and two 5-year old girls had a fantastic time playing with this live doll, while Nico was in heaven chasing the girls around the beach and up-and-down the stairs. Matt & I had to take a few deep breaths to calm us down which watching him flying down the stairs, but there were no accidents and now he's an expert at crawling backwards, so I guess that's a good thing.

Saaaaaaaand!

Hanging out with the girls

So yes, we've an exciting and exhausting last few weeks, but they've been great. 

When Nico was born a friend told me that there's always something that you love about every phase in your kid's life, but that her favorite age with her son was 18-months. And I totally get it! Nico is now 19 months, and the last few weeks have been just amazing. Working with him as his stubborn personality (he is Matt's & my son after all) develops and he constantly tries to test out the limits is definitely becoming harder all the time. But at the same time, it's amazing to watch his little personality develop, and watch his curiosity and his discovery of things. 

He is always active, always on the move. And talking up a storm, and even though most of the time I have no idea what he's saying, there are more and more words that he says clearly - both in English & in Spanish. And it amazes me to see how he understands both languages already. We'll see how it continues to develop, but I'm glad that we've introduced both of them from the beginning.

Also, daycare! He's been at Kid's Place for almost two months now, and he loves it - which makes me so happy. The first couple of weeks were rough. He obviously enjoyed it, but he would cry every time that Matt or I left. And even though rationally I know that he probably stopped crying the moment we were out the door, it was still hard to deal with it. Now, he barely has time to give me a kiss good-bye at the door before he's off running inside to find his friends - he is in the little kids' room with four other boys!

Cuddle-roo

And that is life right now. Busy (it feels like we're constantly running around from one thing to the next), but good (for the most part :)