Our Kid is a Giant!!

The journey begins....

ps, these are totally out of order, but I am in a hurry!!!

Here is the little man napping with Daddy on the way from ATL to NYC (Isn't he cute???)

Hello?? Hello? Yes, have your people call my people, I am in the air!

I must say, I am not overly impressed with airport food and plastic utensils!

Sleeping off my jetlag...

I'm getting up here one way or another! Well, Plato says that Necessity is the Mother of Invention, and if you can't trust Plato......

Kaktus's family brought me wonderful toys...only I am too tired to play with them right now!

Mommy and I playing and singing in the car.

Check me out in my cold weather clothes, I have never worn this much stuff in my whole life!

Hmm, never had a pickle before.

Wow!!! A whole week of "firsts"! This is my first snow and it looks cool!!

Not too sure about this, this is kind of cold and slippery....

Before the snow, Darek works on his spiral with Mark with the only American football in Poland.

Getting pretty good!

Back home stateside, TomKat is teasing me!!

Aunt Sandie shares nicely!

Boo! Go away, I'm naked here!

I love my cousin Darek.

Well, we just had our 17-18 month check up and Nicky is healthy as a horse (thank you God) and in the 79th-92nd Percentile in height, weight and head size! He was cute as a button, even though he got 5 shots and mom and dad both cried right along with him! My camera is broken since I spazzed out and threw it across the room but I have a few cute pictures from Poland and dinner at the house with friends. Nicky was a baby angel on the way to and in Poland. The trip was a little less exciting that usual due to illness and errands, but still wonderful since we got to see our family and friends. Our next big event is the Friends Christmas, hosted by Jules this year on December 16th and I will have a new camera by then so I will post both the pictures and the incredible menu on Monday (Jules must be nuts!!)
Happy birthday to:
Savannah 12/8
Lindsey and Cameron 12/13
Aunt Millie 12/20
Mommy! 12//21
TomKat 12/26
Brendon 12/28

and welcome home to Aunty D and Laura!!

Love you all and Merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!

Ok, really, any mom who says Halloween with a kid between baby and toddler is fun in INSANE! We spent two hours doing the mommy-daddy hunch trying to keep Nicholas from killing himself in traffic while sweating to death in his blanket-y Halloween suit. BUT, he sure was cute!

Got my candy, I am outta here!

It's the Puppy!!!

Hmmm, my first Twix bar, YUMMY!

Practicing my catwalk!

I love running through the park!!

Whasssss uppppppppp????????

Growing up!

I Like to Color!

I am totally faking a nap here...

My sleepy little angel.

Oh Geez, that ball is coming in fast!

I could figure out how to climb this thing!

I wish the rain would stop so I could go out and play, but mommy is really happy about the rain and keeps babbling on about a drought. I don't get it!

I don't feel good mommy, my tummy hurts.

Going to Grammys

Our little man is getting so big! Nicky is just running rampant, charging ahead and chasing cats and climbing on everything! He is so cute and is speaking in sentences (really rude ones like "I want it" and "I'll get it" "gimme" and "move".) He is so much fun to be around right now. For Halloween, I think he will either be the same thing he was last year - a duck - or a chicken with his head cut off if the head doesn't fit. C'mon, it is a cute costume and mommy has to work and doesn't have time to search the world over looking for an expensive new costume! I'll update after Wednesday!

September Is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

Below is a site for Charli Ann, a sweet little angel girl whose mommy was on one of my mommy teams. I remember her posts and questions and her refusal to accept that everything was ok with her baby when she knew it wasn't. If she hadn't persisted, who knows where Charli would be now. Sometimes, with all of the charities in the world, it is hard to know which one to devote your time, money and energy to. I've decided to stick close to home and concentrate my efforts on kids. After following Charli and her family's journey, I have finally found a charity I feel really good about. Please, meet Charli and please help if you can.
alli

Charli Ann

Hi! My name is Charli. In March of 2007 I was diagnosed with a form of childhood cancer, neuroblastoma. There have only been 42 cases of this in Nebraska from 1994-2004. Thank you for coming to visit my site and showing your support! GOD BLESS YOU.

http://www.brenda-chad.blogspot.com

There are a ton of breath-taking statistics out there about the lack of funding, the enormous amount of children who will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and the number of children who will die because of cancer this year.

The community of Childhood Cancer warriors, has not had a new drug introduced for more than 20 years. Yet, there are new medicines for the common cold all the time.

On average 10 children will earn the wings, loose their battle, to cancer EACH DAY. Do you know ten children? Makes it more real, doesn’t it?

Please follow the links to learn more about how you can help and click on the icon to the right, which will take you to a link that will enable you to sign a petition asking your legislators to increase funding for more research on childhood cancers.

http://www.curesearch.org
http://www.cancerwarriors.org
http://www.alexslemonade.org

My Big Boy

Apparently, I should have had Nicky wear shoes a little more often as a child! I am a fan of naked shoeless baby so the only shoes he has really worn are the soft little Robeez and I have sent my child into the world unprepared! He got a pair of those cute little old-fashioned baby shoes from Grammy and I dressed him up adorably in his little overalls with matching socks and his new shoes and set him down, and he promptly fell over...and rolled...and whacked into the closet door. It seems he was stumped by his new shoes. After pulling on his shoes for a few minutes and then wailing for a few minutes he decided that he would go for it, and he promptly fell over. Like a dog in a sweater he was completely unable to walk and very annoyed at the whole process. Being a very bad mommy, I was kind of excited - I had my baby back!! He stayed where I put him and held his arms up waiting for me to pick him up and love on him. I know, progress is good and I want him to be functional and all, but it was nice to to be "mommy" again. He has just been unbelievably cute for the last few days.

What a long strange trip it's been...

Happy Birthday Nicky Beans! Wow, what a year, who would ever have suspected that Mark and I would not only have a baby but would find it so incredibly entertaining? A little over a year ago Mark and I were heading to the hospital with no idea what to expect to find out what brand of little bundle of joy we were having. At that point, all I really wanted was an epidural (and maybe a milkshake) and for my feet to return to human. By three o' clock we were a whole new type of family and now, a year later, we are another type of family still and looking forward every day to the constant daily change that becomes part of your life once you have a baby. Just this weekend Nicky, who has been tottering around for a while now, took off and started really walking. He had his first bacon and egg breakfast. He learned how to say both "Wow" and "Whoa" and added to his "UhOh" and "OK" commentary on the state of his life. He learns things in giant leaps, seeming not to be paying attention until suddenly he just starts doing something new like he has been doing it all along. It is amazing to watch. A grin and a giggle has become our favorite way to start the day and more than makes up for his reluctance to go to sleep at night. For all of you that have shared this first year with us and helped us out while we got our "kid legs" and everyone that came to the compound for the party, Thanks for helping to make this past year so wonderful.
We love you,
Mark, Alli and Nicholas

The year in Pictures

Hmm, these contractions are really uncomfortable, I am ready to go to the hospital now! This was at about 12:30 with a little over two hours to go. Amazingly enough, I was on time for possibly the first time in my life! I was really looking forward to that epidural....

July 19, 2006

Welcome to the world little man!


August 28, 2006
Here I am at one month wearing my first big boy outfit. I haven't found my smile yet but I like to snuggle. We are leaving in a minute to go to Tampa to visit my Grammy D and Unka Ed. It will be me, mommy, grammy, dad, robert and Wioletta.


September 4, 2006
Here I am at the Labor Day party. Not even two full months old and they are already teasing me and making me look goofy!


October 23, 2006
Look at me! Almost a week after my 3 month birthday, I have figured out how to sit up in this thing and I LOVE my toy! (This ended up being the best money we spent on the kid all year long! Sadly, he has outgrown but we have given it to another family and hope their little man loves the 'donut' too)

November 2006
Yea!!!!!! I found my smile. All month I have been giggling and laughing and my mommy is thrilled!

December 2006
Here is my first picture with Santa, aren't I cute in my blue Grandpa hat? Next year I will really have the hang of this!

January 2007
It's a New Year, and I have really big plans for this one. New Years Resolutions: Learn to Walk, Start Talking, eat food that isn't liquid.

February 2007
7 Months old and I am getting cuter every day.

March 2007
At 8 months my parents have to pull out the big guns. The floor is littered with stroller, pack-n-play, the donut, the walker and they really need to get on the childproofing thing. I have a deep love for cabinets and anything inside of them and I can stand up now so any day now I will run the house!

April 2007
Told you so!!

May 2007
Next stop...THE WORLD!

June 2007
This is my first Father's Day. I don't think any kid has ever been as crazy about his Dad as I am. Since I can do a lot more stuff now and it's a special day, I'll bet Daddy will be willing to spoil me with a swim and a GoKart ride AND a tractor ride. Then we can lay in the floor and I can climb Daddy mountain for a couple of hours. What a great day!

July 19, 2007
It's my Birthday, It's my Birthday, Gonna Party Like It's my Birthday!

WOW! What a birthday week! I saw my Grammy,my Babcia and Dziadek, My Grammy D, My great Granny, all my local friends, I saw most of my friends from Poland, we had Camp Compound and Lindsay and Cammo spent a couple of days with me and we went to the Georgia Aquarium and saw fish and Penguins and Whales, we rode everything with wheels on it and we planted a tree just for me! All my Grandparents and my Parents and even my Great Granny helped dig the hole and we planted the Nicky tree that is going to grow up along with me! I had a great year, can't wait to see what next year will be like! Til then...

Look at me standing up!

My new wagon


My Little Pony

My First Cake! It's really ugly but I am the only person in the world mom would bake for...and it tasted pretty good. Grammy will make me pretty ones later when I am old enough to get picky
This is my cool new car

Here is my party at Grammy's. We had fun hats and the quality of cake was WAYYY better!

At the Aquarium

Here is my tree!


Ok, after a year like that, I think I deserve a nap, don't you?
Good night!