We had a great time in Lancaster, PA, last weekend, even though the weather was not so great. We went on lots of rides and saw the most amazing model train display ever at the Choo Choo Barn.

Here’s a few videos of rides at Dutch Wonderland.

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You may need to turn your volume up a little on this one to hear Nico counting.

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When Nico and Brady were visiting Grandma and Grandpa in August, they were very excited to be together!

At the tender age of 21 months, Nico has his own room.  More photos will come once we’ve put the finishing touches on it.  But this morning Nico sat on his bed for 45 minutes just reading to himself.  I managed to sneak in and get a photo before he saw that I had the camera and I just had to share it. 

Normally he does this downstairs while I straighten up the kitchen and putter around, but it was nice to have him do it upstairs so I could be on the computer.

The morning after I posted the photos of Nico’s doll, Frank got up with him and let me sleep in.  (I had stayed up too late because I wanted to get the doll finished.)  He told me that Nico was eating breakfast, just like normal, when he suddenly turned around and looked at the red chair and saw the doll sitting there.  Frank said his face lit up and he begged to get down, and then he ran over to the chair and grabbed and hugged the doll. 

When they came upstairs (all 3 of them), Nico squealed and ran over to me to show me the doll.  He’s been watching it in progress and was eager to play with it (although he seemed to understand that he had to wait until it was finished).  I asked him what the doll’s name was, and he didn’t even hesitate before telling me it was Didi.  So thank you for your suggestions (Crazy Chester, Kenny, Pat, and Chris were the suggested names), but Nico seems to have named the doll on his own.

Why Didi?  Nico has a friend on our street who is a year older than him, and who he idolizes.  This little boy has a 4 month old baby brother, who Nico also adores.  Their nickname for the baby is Didi, so it’s no surprise that Nico wanted his own Didi to play with.

As for Didi, he’s looking forward to visiting Grandma and Grandpa Degan soon because Grandma has promised to make him some clothes that are more appropriate for summer!

I had grand plans in July of updating our blog with lots of our latest projects as we made progress on them, so we could return to the days of having a blog that was about all of us and not just Nico.  But here we are in August, and I’ve finished the project I was going to post in progress and both Frank and I have finished a couple of others.  So, better late than never, here’s the first of a few projects that have kept us busy recently. 

Let me introduce Nico’s new buddy! 

He has really taken to his baby (the same doll his cousin Brady has), but I wanted him to have one that he could do more with.  I like the idea of Waldorf dolls because they don’t have much in the way of facial features, so it’s easy for a kid to pretend that their doll is happy/sleeping/crying or whatever else their imagination tells them the doll is feeling.  But Waldorf dolls are really expensive!  So I made my own. 

I’m not the seamstress my mom is (she made my wedding dress, beading and all, if you remember), but this doll only involved hand-sewing — no machine.  I managed to make a shape that looks very doll-like despite all the improvisation I had to do.  (What’s a running stitch anyway?  Or a crewel needle?  Turns out, it probably doesn’t matter – the doll looks ok.)  Here’s a photo of me attaching the doll’s head.

Next up, we need a name for him.  I keep thinking Charlie, but I don’t know why.  Any ideas? 

Here he is wearing a newborn outfit that Eloisa, Archer, and then Nico all wore.  I would have passed it down to Hudson, but he’s already in 6 month clothes!!!

We took Nico on his first camping trip this weekend.  It was so fun, we’re going to do it again in a couple weeks!