Fall Leaves

I know, I know! It has been way too long since I’ve written about Niko’s latest exploits. With the coming holiday weekend I will attempt to catch up on my entries so that everyone gets their Niko fix!

The most incredible thing about Niko lately is his exploding language skills. While he still just says one word at a time, he understands way more than we’ve been giving him credit for. He can pick up objects from across the room and bring them to you if you ask (comes in handy for having him bring me laundry off of the floor to put in the machine. He will drop clothes in the washer if I pick him up.). He will also “throw the ball to daddy” or mommy, and understands if I tell him that we’re going upstairs or downstairs together. If I tell him that daddy is almost home, he will go to the front door and look out the window for him. He will also bring you his shoes and socks if you ask him to.

Nikolai is a master house cleaner, and loves to sweep, pick up dust bunnies from the floor and wipe things off with paper towels. He also likes to share his food and milk with his stuffed toys. Yesterday, for the first time, he was pretending to eat food. He would pick up imaginary food from his pile of blocks and nibble it, and then give Colin and me a bite of it. It was hilarious!

Over the weekend he enjoyed playing in the leaves with our next-door-neighbors, his good buddies Gretchen and Otto. They shared some fantastic photos with us…

Tonight Colin and I are enjoying his birthday present, two tickets to see KU basketball at the Sprint Center. I haven’t been to a game there yet – we’re looking forward to seeing the new team live. Grandma and Grandpa are going to come watch Nikolai. They will get to see Niko’s new play table that we bought yesterday for him. We couldn’t wait until Christmas to give it to him, and it was awfully big to wrap. We put it together after he went to bed last night ….hopefully he will like it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT KATHERINE!!!

We miss you and hope all is well in Alaska!  Can't wait to see you this Christmas!  Lots of love from lower 48.

Future Leader

Hey Niko Fans -

Check out the candidate that Colin & I are supporting:

http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=370743&altf=Ojlpmbj&altl=Ivnqisfz

Thanks Bill, for clueing us in on this amazing option!

Hyde Park Homes Tour

Lots of you know that our house was on the Hyde Park Homes Tour last weekend. We've been bustin' our booties the past month to get the house clean and spiffed up. Thanks so much to my mom and dad for helping out, and for lending much of their art and other accessories to dress up the house. We think there were approximately 900 people who saw the house Saturday! Hopefully one of them will want to buy it from us!! Here are a few pics for those of you who haven't ever been by when the house is clean :)

Here is the 3rd Floor - our neighbor, Clifford Doyle, is an artist and lent some of his amazing artwork to decorate.

Bye Bye Baby Curls

As much as we loved Niko's wild hair and adorable curls, his bangs were getting a bit too long. So, it was off to Sports Clips on Sunday to get a new look. Although temporarily distracted with a lollipop, the tears hit before the first snip. Luckily Mom and Grandpa were able to hold Niko through much of the torture session, and Niko was pretty sure of himself once it was over.

Here he is struttin' his stuff with his new 'do. Grandma had to buy him some new shoes in a bigger size (6!) this weekend too. He looks so big and grown up!!

Our sweet rocker!

Niko was such a sweet little guy tonight. We went to Loose Park and Niko played on the playground and then we went on a little walk, and he said "hi" to everyone we passed and waved. He is now bilingual, since he also says hi to all the dogs we pass now with a cute little "woof." He has gotten really good at the slide, and has been working on climbing back up once he has slid down. Today for the first time he turned around at the bottom and marched right back up to the top of a tube slide walking upright! Colin and I were pretty impressed!

The photo below isn't from today, but is an awfully cute shot of Niko rocking his Led Zepplin T. I'm also posting it because he is pretty much off the pacifier now! We just stopped giving it to him for a few days, and he was completely fine without it. Now, if he sees one still laying around the house, he will pick it up and suck on it for a bit, and then just drop it and move on with more interesting things. So, this is one of the last photos of Niko with a pacifier!

Hair, baby!

According to Colin, Niko is trying to grow out his hair like his old man's was back in the day. Here's his 'do in all its glory!