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

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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.

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!

Nico says hi from the playground:

We have started renovating the basement — bye bye paneling, hello Murphy bed, drywall, and future guest suite!

Here’s the before shot:

Bye bye bar!

The end of day 2:

And finally, here’s a shot of the 3 of us from when my parents were in town — we brought them to the zoo.

Hope you’re having a great summer, and if we can’t get our slideshows up online, I’ll at least try to post single photos more often so you remember what we look like.

Here’s your glimpse of Nico almost in real-time — the most recent photos were just taken on Monday of this week!

In terms of new developments, he started doing sign language last month, which has really opened a lot of doors in terms of communication.  His first 4 signs were nurse (as in milk), water, siren, and helicopter .  Guess that’s what happens when a boy grows up in the city!  Other signs he does include:  banana, yogurt, cat, daddy, more, bye bye, eat, shoe, bird, and, perhaps my favorite is the sign he made up for music.  We hadn’t taught him one for music, but it’s so important to him that he made his own up!  (He bends his elbows so his fists go up and down as if he’s dancing or drumming.) 

His first word is officially “hot.”  He says it consistently for the fireplace and our space heaters.  We don’t know why that particular word was so salient for him — we don’t warn him about hot things (he’s cautious enough on his own) and his babysitter’s go-to word is “careful.”  But he says “hot” any time he is near the fireplace or the space heater. Even more puzzling is that he has decided he is the household “hot” police, so if we stand too close to the fireplace or the space heater (particularly the fireplace), he pulls our pant leg and drags us until we walk far enough away for his comfort.  While this is adorable, it means I can no longer hang out in front of the fireplace to warm up. 

He can also say “daddy” and “bye bye,” but he’s somewhat less consistent with these than he is with “hot.”  And he says “moo,” “hee haw,” and “oof” (for “woof”) when he sees, or we talk about, cows, donkeys, or dogs.  

He likes looking at the family pictures hanging in our stairwell and having us identify family members as he points to them.

He still loves the vacuum cleaner.  He requests that we vacuum periodically and while we vacuum he pushes around his vuvuzela, “vacuuming” with us.  It’s very cute. 

He’s got good stamina.  His babysitter regularly takes him out for walks and he’ll walk 8 blocks or more at a time.  I had him at the zoo yesterday and despite the fact that it was well past naptime, he walked from the farm at the bottom all the way up to the reptile house — straight uphill for probably at least 1/4 of a mile (1/3 of a mile if you trust google pedometer).  People at the zoo are constantly commenting on him and we have determined that it’s because you actually see very few little kids walking around there.  Most kids under 3 or 4 are in strollers — some little ones might be in slings instead.  But most aren’t walking freely.  Nico just toddles along, keeping pace with the grown-ups and thinking nothing of it.  He must really stand out because so many people have a comment to make about him.

He’s finally eating now.  Still not a ton compared to other kids his age, but he can put away more than 1/2 cup of yogurt or oatmeal in a sitting (when he feels like it), so that’s a good start.  He seems to prefer beige foods — oatmeal, yogurt, banana, pear, bread, sometimes cheese.  He won’t touch peas or most green or orange foods.  But he likes pizza and soup (no matter the color) and, of course, chocolate.

And, finally, he’s loving the music class we enrolled him in.  After the first class he started drumming along with beats.  After the second one he started clapping along.  Now he not only requests that we play music, but he actually requests a particular song sometimes by doing the motions associated with it (rocking forward and backward like a horse or wiggling his pointer finger, for example).  Jenny may be right — his future may have music in it!  He certainly loves it right now.

In other news, our bulbs are emerging from the soil so I expect we’ll have spring photos up before we know it.  We are all eager for spring around here!

Enjoy!

We started out with a small dinner party on his actual birthday.  Jenny was visiting from CA and she brought a tradition from her family — we put a bunch of items on a tray and the first one Nico picked up was supposed to tell us something about his future.  Items included a book, castanets (to represent music), money (coin and bill), a pen (red — could symbolize teacher or writer), a spoon (for cooking), a carrot (farming?  vegetarian?  it doesn’t matter – he didn’t pick it), a pig toy (again, not sure what it represented, but it didn’t matter because he didn’t pick it).  We thought this was a Chinese custom, but our friend Sam had also told us about his nephew doing this, and they’re Korean.  And we have a neighbor who’s Chinese and her family has never heard of it.  So we’re thinking maybe this is an LA pan-Asian thing and not so much just a Chinese thing.  (Sam and Jenny are both from LA.)  Nico didn’t even hesitate on his choice and he wasn’t interested in all that much other than the thing he picked.  Can you guess what he picked?  Look at the photos to see if you’re right.

Since his birthday was on a Thursday, we had his parties on the following weekends.  The Saturday right afer his birthday we had a morning party and an evening party.  We had initially planned on the morning one being for kids and the evening one for adults, but we had a mix at both parties and having two different ones made it so we were actually able to visit with everyone at both. 

We wrapped up Nico’s celebrations with a trip to NY the following weekend where Aunt Denise and Uncle Robert hosted his family party.  Almost all the family came from near and far to celebrate with him and he had a great time with his cousins.  Grandma and Grandpa got him a cassata cake which he enjoyed throwing on the floor.  Frank’s slices ensured that the cake designed to feed 40 people disappeared in half that many tummies.  Mmmm!

Please excuse all the close-up shots and the multiple cake shots…4 parties means 4 different opportunities to show him getting cake all over his face (or not…).  Enjoy!

Christmas has been fun so far this year, and it’s not quite over for us yet.  We’ll be celebrating a belated Christmas with my parents and Danny, Morgan, and Brady this weekend.  We began with an early Christmas (combined with first birthday party for Nico) on Long Island.  We spent Christmas itself here in DC, enjoying Christmas Eve dinner with Aunt Lee, Uncle Tommy, Matthew and Carrie.  Then we had Christmas morning to ourselves and enjoyed watching Nico open his presents and play with his new toys.  And we went to Sara, Aron, Salome and Cyrus’s house for Christmas dinner on Christmas Day. 

Photos from all of our Christmas festivities are here.  The next post will be all of Nico’s various birthday parties, so stay tuned.

He was obviously thrilled with himself — he started laughing hysterically and clapping and became really hyper.  Then he bit my shoulder.  Sigh.  We’re still working on the biting thing…

Next time we’ll try to get a video.  We were too excited to go find the camera.  But it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway – he was too excited to reproduce his achievement last night.

Nico had a great time with both of his great aunts.  And he particularly had fun with Lauren, who had as much fun playing with him as I had playing with her when she was a tiny little girl.  She swung him around, helped him practice walking, read to him, and kept him entertained for hours past bedtime.  He also loved playing with 5-year old Cadel, who has developed tons and tons of patience as a big brother.  He would build towers for Nico, not complain when Nico knocked them down before they were finished, and start over with a new tower (over and over and over).  Quinn is lucky to have such a great big brother!

We thought Nico might start walking before the trip, and when he didn’t, we were sure that he would take his first steps for his Chicago audience.  That didn’t happen, though.  He’s standing alone for longer and longer periods now (sometimes for the whole length of a book as we read to him).  But tonight we think he took his first half-step.  Frank was reading to him and he took one step toward the book, planting his foot before his hand reached the book.  It’s only a matter of days now, we’re pretty sure.   Batten down the hatches, he’s about to move! 

Here’s another link to the Chicago photos, in case you didn’t click that earlier one.

Nico had his 9 month visit this month, complete with vaccines for 5 diseases (diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough, HiB and polio).  I had thought he wouldn’t be able to get them because he still has the sniffles (going on 3 weeks now…), but she thought he’d do fine.  And he did — he had less of a reaction this time than he did last time (no fatigue, redness, or heat at the injection site).  His stats are :  19 1/2 pounds, 29″ long, and 18 1/2″ head circumference.  Back at 7 months he was 18 pounds, 12 ounces, 28 1/2″ long, and had an 18″ head.  So he has definitely plateaued, although really he has outgrown all of the 9 month clothes and is wearing 12 month now, so that 1/2 inch and 12 ounces made a big difference.

We’ve taken advantage of this early fall weather with lots of walking trips to various libraries and parks.  And we had a great visit from Aunt Denise, Uncle Robert, and Daniel and James earlier in the month.  Nico loves watching his cousins!  We also had to say good bye to our good friends Lara and Beth and their daughters Caroline and Cassie.  Beth got a great job out in WA state and they packed up and moved out there last week.  Nico will miss having a secret admirer (Cassie) and we’ll miss the whole family.

Nico has been doing well with eating, but we’re not out of the woods yet.  His latest trick is to eat two or three slices of banana (in small pieces) and then toward the very end, choke and throw up everything he’s eaten.  We’re taking a little break from food until his sinuses clear out, thinking that maybe his throat is just too swollen for all the stress of food.

Here are photos from the first 2 weeks of September.  In the last few photos you can see him enjoying his right to vote.  He was shocked to learn, however, that the members of Congress on our ballot don’t actually have a vote.  Next up, photos of Nico demanding representation!

In terms of Nico’s developments in August…he turned 8 months old, ate some cantaloupe, and started grinding his teeth, which is a sound worse than fingernails on a chalkboard!  He also ate some peaches and rice cereal, but got pretty sick when we gave him egg yolk.  At the very end of the month he actually asked for some food by making up a sign; then he successfully swallowed some banana pieces!  That was a huge step.  (He’s regressed some again, but we’re optimistic that he’ll eat someday.) 

Enjoy the photos!

He turned 8 months old while we were traveling, and we realized that at that point he had been in 12 states already (plus DC, of course).  He did a southeastern loop in early spring, visiting VA, NC, SC, GA, and FL.  Then on this trip we did a northeastern loop, covering MD, DE, NJ, NY, MA, NH, and CT.   At the end of the month, he added PA to the list — those pictures will come soon.

Enjoy this batch of pictures.  Frank has a great video from a couple of weeks ago when we discovered Nico knew how to dance.  He’ll post it soon!

Photos from our trip are here.

Happy summer and enjoy!

This video shows Nico and Frank toward the end of a very long screeching match.  You’ll notice Frank’s clenched hands — he learned this from Nico, not the other way around.   Nico’s noises seem to come from way down deep within and he has to squeeze his hands and tense his muscles to let them out with their full force.  Enjoy!

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There are 7 videos in this playlist. Press the four arrows button at the bottom right of the video window to view in full screen.

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Nico made tremendous leaps and bounds all month long!  Here are some highlights:

• He started the month with 2 teeth and finished it with seven!  4 on the bottom and 3 (plus one about to come in) on the top.  Poor little guy had 4 top teeth pushing and shoving to come in all at the same time, just after 2 had come through on the bottom.  The good news is that there are only 20 total, so he’s getting a lot of the hard work out of the way early on.
• June 8th – Nico had his first babysitter this month.  I had been staying up until 2 or 3 AM writing and then getting up with him around 9 every day and trying to write if he took naps.  But I could see that there was no way I could keep up that pace and also that even with that pace I wouldn’t meet my deadlines.  So I found a babysitter to come for 4 hours a day, two days a week.  I still spent most of the month working until the wee hours, but having her here for 8 hours a week made a huge difference!  And she’s great — she is going to grad school in the fall for speech/language pathology and she knows sign language, so she’s signing with him and spends a lot of time reading to him and teaching him new things.  I haven’t worked up to leaving him alone with her yet, but it’s great to have here there while I work.  An added benefit is that I can just go downstairs if he cries or needs to eat, so I don’t need to pump or anything.  So far it’s really easy and quite a lifesaver for me.
• June 9th – Nico turned 6 months old!
• He makes a ton of sounds now, although it’s way too early for any of them to mean anything.  For a long time “guh” was his main sound.  That was replaced by “buh.”  Those are still his two favorites.  But “dadada” is now a very popular one.  And he says “kuh” “wuh” “yuh” “ha” “fuh” “tuh” “puh” “suh” and “juh.”  Now that he’s got those top teeth, he loves feeling them against his lips so he says a lot of “vuh” and “fuh.” 
• He still won’t eat any food.  At all.  If anything goes in his mouth, he gags and gags and gags until he throws up.  This proved to be a good thing a couple of times when he ended up with paper in his mouth (part of the binding of a board book, part of a paper napkin at a restaurant…).  He gagged and we swept the paper out.  But he really should be eating by now.  We’ll be talking to his pediatrician about this on Friday at his 7 month visit. 
• He crawled backward for the first 2 weeks of June, but couldn’t figure out how to go forward.  On June 14th he crawled forward for the first time.  He still doesn’t go too far, though, even though he can.  He figured out how to sit back up from crawling on June 24th, so now he likes to go a few steps and sit down, go a few steps and sit down.  Mostly, though, he just wants to stand up.  He’ll pull himself to his feet from our legs if we’re sitting on the ground or from anything that’s about 6 inches off the ground.  He climbs up the coffee table and the couch.  And he balances on his own — often just holding on with 1 hand so he can do something with the other one.  He is getting more and more stable every day and we think he’s going to forget about crawling and go straight to walking.  He always has wanted to be vertical… 
• I keep telling him about all the advantages of staying a baby for a while and telling him that the faster he grows up, the sooner he’s going to have to get a job.  But he doesn’t care.  He just pushes those teeth through and tries to stand up and forgets all about being a baby.    It makes me sad — he’s growing up too fast!
• June 14th was a big day for 2 other things too.  He seemed to understand when we said “where’s the cat?”  He’d stop what he was doing and look around until he spotted the cat.  He could care less about “where’s Daddy?” or “where’s Mommy?”  But “where’s the cat?” elicited an immediate reaction without fail, every time.  That day he also showed a real interest in reading.  I was sitting on the floor with him next to a bookshelf and we were reading his all-time favorite book, Pajama Time.  When it was done, he pulled himself over my leg, hung out on his belly on my leg, grabbed a book off the shelf with one hand, and brought the book back with him as he came back to sit on my lap.  An adorable fluke, right?  That’s what I thought until he did it again.  And then a third time.  He was deliberately selecting books and bringing them back to me to read, waiting until the end of the story, and doing it again.  Eventually he was more interested in just pulling the books off the shelf, but he started by wanting me to read to him!
• He is getting much more demonstrative with his love.   He gives real hugs and “kisses” (which are just huge slobbery messes as he puts his wide open mouth against our cheek or chin and holds it there until we are sufficiently soggy).  He’ll often hug my neck, pull back to look at me and smile, and then hug me again.  It melts my heart every time!
• He started having mini temper tantrums this month.  He suddenly gets angry if we take something away from him and cries if we don’t substitute it with something else.  He has also cried if we redirect him from something he wanted to do.  I used to have a hard time picturing him as a toddler having a tantrum (even though I knew it was coming).  Now I can totally picture it — and it scares me!
• My parents came to visit at the end of June, helping with big house projects and watching Nico so I could work.  It was extremely helpful and he had a lot of fun with his Grandma and Grandpa.
• To those of you still reading (and I have been assured that it’s more than just the grandparents who read to the end), thank you for indulging me in sharing these minute details about my little boy and enjoy the photos! 

Stay tuned for photos from our visit to NJ and also for our Memorial Day BBQ photos.

Nico turned 4 months old in April and 5 months old in May.  Does it make me a bad mom to be combining 2/5 of his entire life into one slide show and bullet list?    Here are the highlights from the 2 months (It’s a long list and we figure the grandparents are the only ones who will read the whole thing!):

April

• He sat up unsupported for the first time at 16 1/2 weeks (April 3rd).  Frank sat him up — he didn’t sit himself up — but this was the first time he didn’t topple over.  You may have seen that video — it happened while my parents were in town for the Cherry Blossoms.
• Because he could suddenly sit up, we put together his high chair on Easter.  We expected to keep the high chair in its box until he turned a year old or so, figuring he wouldn’t be able to sit up.  But at 4 months he was arching out of the Bumbo seat and it turned out that he LOVED the high chair.  Actually, he loved it for a full 2 months.  We could put him in there any time we wanted to get anything done in the house.  (Now he’s on to us, though, and he’ll only hang out there while we eat.)
• He started rolling to his side to fall asleep during his naps.
• He had his 4-month visit with the doctor and weighed 16 pounds, 2 ounces.  He was 26 1/4 inches long.  He surprised the doctor by being able to sit up on his own.  (She didn’t believe me when I said he could, so she took him and sat him on the exam table and he stayed.)  He was due for vaccines at his 4 month visit, but Frank was home sick so she wanted to hold off and give them to him when everyone was healthy at home.  
• The doctor shocked me by telling me that he was exhibiting signs of readiness for solid food (sitting up, being interested in food, and maybe a couple of other indicators).  She wanted us to start giving him things like banana, avocado, sweet potato, squash, apple and pear between his 4 month and 6 month visit.
• I wasn’t ready to start him on solid food this early, but because we trust his doctor we gave him a couple of tastes.  You may have seen his introduction to banana in the videos Frank posted a few days ago.  We also gave him some apple in a little mesh bag.  He didn’t really like either.  (It’s gotten worse now — if we try to give him food he gags until he makes himself throw up.)
• I quit one of my 2 jobs and had my last day at work on April 16th.  He came to work with me at my second job for the first time on April 19th.  Of course, every time he came to the 1st job, he slept for 3 of the 4 hours I was there and was perfectly quiet and still the rest of the time.  My first day at the second job?  He found his voice and shrieked in delight for an hour straight — while I was on a conference call.  I’m pretty sure they all thought I was lying when I told them how mellow he had been at the other job.  Fortunately he’s still allowed to go back there.
• I got a job as a grant writer at another local nonprofit, which I can do entirely from home.  I kept the 2nd job, which I do for 10 hours a week — 6 from home and 4 from the office (with Nico).
• I started doing some volunteer work for my midwives, and of course Nico joins me there as well.  He has very little say in how he spends his days, when you think about it…
• He sucked his thumb for the 1st time in April.  (4/19)  He still prefers the pacifier, though — I don’t think the thumb is big enough to satisfy his need for sucking.
• When he was at my office playing on the floor, I looked over to see him grab his pacifier and pop it into his mouth, and then sit there playing and sucking away.  It was pretty cute.  It’s amazing that he can recognize the pacifier — no matter which one we use — and put it in his own mouth the right way.
• He started bringing his feet to his hands in April in classic happy baby pose.
• His first 2 teeth broke through on April 23rd — at 4 1/2 months.  He got the 2 middle bottoms ones first.  (He has since gotten the 2 next to them and his middle top teeth have been on the verge of breaking through for several weeks.)  He didn’t get fussy until the teeth broke through the surface.  Then he was less smiley and definitely visibly in pain for about a week while they kept pushing their way up into his mouth.  Hyland’s teething tablets help, as do Boiron chamomilla 30C tablets (crushed between 2 spoons first) and ice in his little mesh bag.

May

• I got to celebrate my very first Mother’s Day and it was great!  I got breakfast in bed, flowers from the yard, a trip to the Brookside Gardens (even though it suddenly decided to get cold!), and dinner out.
• He had an off-cycle doctor visit at 5 months for the vaccines he had missed in April.  He got his second round of DTaP and his first rounds of HIB and Polio.  She said she didn’t need to see him again until he turned 7 months now.
• He started getting ready to crawl.  I think one of the videos Frank posted was of him on the bed pushing over his feet to land on his tummy.  He tucks one foot, pushes off the other, briefly goes to one knee and then flops on his belly.  As the month progressed, he got better and better at getting himself into position and started doing a plank pose or a mini downward facing dog.  But he hasn’t figured out how to go forward yet — he just goes in reverse or rolls over.
• We went to my parents’ house in NJ and Frank’s parents came to visit as did Uncle Danny, Aunt Morgan, and Cousin Brady.  The boys had a great time together and the grandparents got their fill of the grandkids.  It was a nice weekend.
• He caught a cold and we had to bring him to the doctor for his second sick visit (the first was in the winter when he got RSV).  This time he acted much sicker than he did that time, and the doctor thought it was that his sinuses were putting pressure on those top teeth. When we started treating the teething pain with the homeopathics, he returned to his normal self right away.
• When he babbles, he consistently makes a “guh” sound.  By the end of the month he had added “kuh” “tuh” “fuh” and “puh.” 
• By the end of the month I couldn’t count on Nico being in the same place I had left him.  He spins, moves backward, and rolls and it’s always a game to find out where he’ll be when I come back.  We have installed outlet covers and know that our days of a non-child-proof home are numbered.

I’m still loving being home with him and feel extremely fortunate that I’ve been able to find jobs that are flexible — both in terms of when I get my work done and in terms of bringing Nico with me.  It’s amazing that I can find such joy in being home all day with a boy who can’t say a word to me.  But he makes me laugh all the time and we have a lot of fun at home, going for walks, and meeting up with friends.

There are 9 videos in this playlist.  Press the four arrows button at the bottom right of the video window to view in full screen.

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You can see photos from their visit here.  The magnolias were in full bloom at the garden behind the Smithsonian Castle.

Once in FL, we went to the beach, the baseball stadium to see a Cardinals pre-season game, and the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary.  Nico had 2 sets of grandparents spoiling him and he showed off for Grandma Schipani by rolling over for her for the very first time.

Enjoy the photos.

• Nico’s first night alone with Daddy while Mommy went out with the ladies to celebrate Sara’s birthday
• A trip to FL to see the grandparents (those pictures are coming tomorrow)
• His first vaccine – DTaP #1
• His first board meeting — he came with me to PreventionWorks to discuss important things like fundraising and board development
• His first day at work — he came with me to NYAC and was a perfect angel, sleeping for 3 of the 4 hours I was there every time he came
• His first time sitting up for a few seconds unsupported
• A visit from Aunt Marie and cousins, Tara, Nick and Dana (those pictures are coming in a couple days)

I’m going to post a new slideshow every day this week so you can see them all in bits and pieces rather than being overwhelmed.  Of course, if you want to cheat you can go to our website and see everything there — they’re all up.  Otherwise, enjoy your daily blog posts from us this week!

Today’s slide show is from February.  It’s (thankfully) hard to remember what it was like to be buried under all that snow, now that I’m sitting here in a tank top with the windows open.  Nico, too, is much happier in the warmer weather.

Highlights from February include:

• Lots and lots of snow (did I mention that already?)
• Nico’s first visit to the pediatrician since he was born (for his 2 month visit).  He was 13 pounds, 12 ounces and 24 1/2 inches long.
• Nico’s first serious illness — he got RSV but fought it really well.
• Lots of time spent in the Botanic Gardens, soaking up the humidity to help him breathe easier.
• A visit with Cousin Ruth and her whole family at Cousin Matthew’s house
• Nico discovered his feet when we were at Suzanne’s (sweltering hot) apartment.  It was the first time it had been warm enough for us to have him sit around with no socks on!
• With all the snow, our trash hadn’t been picked up for over 3 weeks.  I was feeling very smug about using cloth diapers since our trash wasn’t really piling up….until our washing machine broke, that is!  Fortunately we got a new one delivered within 24 hours and it works like a charm.  So we were not buried in diapers…just snow.

If you can’t see the videos above, click here.

We’ve gone shopping, taken the bus and the metro, and met Daddy for lunch.

On Tuesday this week, we went to Daddy’s hockey game.

We’ve also had some friends over.

And, of course, we’ve taken lots of close-ups at home.

We’ve put together a little slide show with a whole bunch more close-ups and other photos.  It’s overkill in terms of the number of each kind of picture, but it’s so hard to choose just one of each!  This photo set is really for the grandparents (and anyone else who can’t get enough of Nico).

I haven’t put any up from the hospital — his birth photos are here, you’ve seen a couple of videos, and really, the time we have spent with him at home is so much better.  Plus our camera malfunctioned on the last day there and we lost lots of the pictures we had taken.  In fact, when we got home, Frank jumped out of the car and ran inside to get our other camera while I hopped in the back seat to get Nico ready to come home for the first time.  Good thing we had a second camera!  So anyway, these photos start with Nico’s arrival home and move forward from there.

Nico’s Homecoming

It seemed like he was in the hospital for an eternity, but really it was just a week.  We were thrilled to bring him home on December 15th.  And if you look closely at his face, it looks like he was pretty happy about it too!

Nico’s First Week at Home

We spent most of the week staring at him, but we did manage to take a few photos.

Christmas in DC

I wasn’t feeling up to a car trip and we were worried about exposing Nico and his fragile immune system to a lot of people, so for the first time ever we spent Christmas alone in DC.  We weren’t lonely, though!  We spent the afternoon with Billy and Joe and their brand new (one year old) twins.  (For those of you following their story, the adoption is final and the boys are officially theirs!!!)  Then we enjoyed a scrumptious dinner with Gina, Chip and family.

Nico Meets the Family

Since we couldn’t travel for Christmas, Nico missed out on meeting his aunts, uncles, cousins, and other grandparents.  So everyone convened at my parents’ house in NJ because it’s closer for everyone than driving from NY to DC.  Danny, Morgan and Brady came down from Poughkeepsie.  Marie, Frank, Nick, Dana, Denise, Robert, Daniel and James came from Long Island.  And my mom outdid herself cooking for crowds of baby admirers.  It was a great way to spend New Year’s.  On New Year’s Day the 3 of us left NJ and met Frank’s parents in DC. They stayed with us until the 4th and got to spend a lot of quality time with their newest grandson (and their favorite son).  Earlier than this, Nico’s Great Uncle Tommy and Great Aunt Lee came to visit with Cousin Matthew.  Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos of him with them.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Nick is doing great and we expect that he will be coming home with us tomorrow (Tuesday).  It is really hard to leave him at night and we’re very excited to have him home and untethered from all the machines.  In the past few days we’ve had a few hours where the monitoring leads have come off and we’ve had a wireless baby, and it’s been real nice.  It’s amazing how much you can come to appreciate a small thing like that!