Apple Hill 2009

Jon took the day off work on the 23rd and we went to Tahoe to go hiking, and then to Apple Hill. It was great. We had a blast. Nicholas ate part of Jon's apple pie at the restaurant, and then proceeded to pick 2 apples out of the bins and eat them. He ate them all the way from Apple Hill to our house. It was hilarious. He would stop at random moments and say "Yummy." He also tried to feed them to his stuffed animals in the car. He really likes apples.



We originally went to the USFS Visitor's Center when we were in Tahoe in August. They told us to come back when the salmon were spawning, and it would really be a sight. Boy were they right. We went back on the 23rd of October to see the fish. There were tons of fish. Since these salmon die when they spawn, if the wind blew just right, there was also a horrible smell. But it wasn't bad when you were right down by the river. There were so many salmon, and some of them were even jumping out of the water.



Nicholas convinced his dad to carry him part of the way. See Nicholas' smile - that's why.



Nicholas hung out with me on a bench in the middle of the walk. He wanted to climb the bench.



My son collected pinecones. He really made a big pile of pinecones. He carried them around and then piled them up.



And then he played soccer with some of the pinecones. Little did you know that pinecones could be soccer balls.

So that was our day up there. It was great. We might go back up soon to get more pie and cider.

Bounce Palace in Folsom

We went to Bounce Palace today - it is in Folsom, across from the outlets. It is a great place to take kids before 3pm. They have 2 seperate areas - one is set up for younger kids, and the other is filled with these giant bounce things that older kids like. Nicholas loved both rooms. We got to play as long as we wanted for $5. I, as an adult, didn't have to pay. We also got to take our lunch in with us. This is a great place! They have blocks, bounce houses, inflateable slides, jungle gyms - and it is all inside! So rain or shine, kids can work off some energy. I really liked this place, and Nicholas had a blast too.

My favorite pictures from San Diego

So I promised pictures from San Diego - and I picked a few of my favorites. They are all posted at http://www.nicholaswunderlich.shutterfly.com/ if you want to see them all. But these are a few of my favorites.

Notice the huge smile? That's because he had a nap - the whole plane ride down! I included this picture so you can see all the luggage (everything behind him and to his side is ours). He's in a laughing mood in this picture, so he's enjoying himself. Which was great for me and my mom - because when he enjoyed himself, we enjoyed ourselves. This is at the car rental place when we went to pick up the car.



This is at the zoo. We went Friday afternoon and then again on Sunday morning. He really enjoyed the Sunday morning one (he slept through part of Friday afternoon). You can see he has the map - and he is trying to direct us around.

This is one of my favorite pictures. At SeaWorld they had this "Sesame Street Bay of Play." Nicholas came home with many Sesame Street characters (as of now, he likes to line them all up in his high chair and "feed" them crackers and milk. It is adorable). But in this play area, they had a section designated for kids under 36 inches (and they had people there to enforce it). There was this sunken area - the kids had to take off their shoes. They could run around in this tarp area, where there were different textures and densities under the tarp, which made them topple over somewhat. But there were also "blocks" - canvas covered foam. Nicholas ran around this area for hours at a time and stcked blocks. Sometimes he played with others, sometimes by himself. We went Thursday afternoon, Friday morning, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. Thank goodness for our unlimted access passes to SeaWorld, the Zoo and the Wild Animal Kingdom.

I just put this in because it shows my mom loving Nicholas and paying very close attention to whatever he wanted.

Ah - the stuffed animals. This is from Friday morning. We all went to the "Artic Zone" exhibit where they had polar bears and beluga whales. Nicholas loved the polar bear. The exhibit walks you through the various animal places, and has some interesting side effects and exhibits. Then it lets you out in a store (just like Disneyland). In the store, right at Nicholas' height, was a shelf of polar bears. He grabbed on and didn't want to let go. So he took it to my mom, kissed the bear, and my mom got it for him. The same thing happened with the penguins when we were done looking at them. And the whales.......see a theme? My mom spoiled Nicholas - and it was great to watch him love every minute of it.

Today he took his whole zoo - which now has a polar bear, panda bear, koala bear, giraffe, whale, penguin, Elmo, Cookie monster, Big Bird, cougar and tiger - into his bed for nap time. He put them all in bed, then told me he wanted to nap. And he curled up with all of them. It was really cute.

So these are some of my favorite pictures.

Here's some recent news.....

Here's our current update: We are doing well. New updates will come later this week with some pictures - especially pictures from our San Diego trip.Today was a very great day.

I went to pick up Nicholas from Ana's and he was totally in love with seeing me, and then he ran away to play with the toys. When it was time to leave, he gave everyone kisses and then tried to run and hide from me. He thinks that if he hides behind the curtain I cannot see him. So he hides there, then peeks out, then hides again. It took 10 minutes to get him to leave the house and come to the car. Stinker :)

Then we went to the park by his grandfather's (Jon's dad's) house. We played. He went down the slide on his own for the very first time today. So that was amazing to see.

We made a big trip recently- picking out a potty for him. Some people say he's too young, but he tells me when he poops/pees and he likes to sit on our toilet, so if nothing else, he can get used to a little potty for himself. They have these "demo" ones that are out of their boxes and up on the shelf, so I pulled them all down and let Nicholas sit on them and pick one. It was important to me that he feel like he picked it. So he sat in all of them, then re-sat in a few. Then he sat down on the FisherPrice "Laugh and Learn" potty and said "Mine, mine mine mine." We had a minor breakdown explaining that we had to get one in the box, and not the one he was sitting on. Then he chose some big boy underwear - Elmo ones (no one should be surprised about this considering his love affair with Elmo, the only thing more predictable would have been dogs).

It was a great trip, and we had a lot of fun.Gymnastics was great too. Today was the first day that he participated in the warm-up, did the circuit activities like they are meant to be done (normally he just runs around and does whatever ones he likes, in whatever order he wants - just like all the other boys). And he even ran on the tumbling track a ton, and waited patiently (sitting!) for his turn on the trampoline. The teacher was a little stunned, and wondered what happened to the Nicholas that normally comes and doesn't listen to directions real well.

Tonight I realized he was growing up so fast. When he rests his head on my shoulder and I am holding him, his legs reach my knees!!! My 19 month old son is such a big boy. He's not a baby any longer. Sadness.So that's our current life. More updates (with good pictures) will be coming.

Waiting at the airport

So today is day 1 of our San Diego trip.

Last night was rough. Nicholas woke up at 9:30 and decided he didn't want to sleep on his own. So he and I cuddled on the greatest rocker ever invented. We watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Cars. Then, about 2 am, he decided he was tired and just crashed. So I put him to bed. I then went to sleep. While we were cuddling I couldn't get to sleep. Every time I started to fall asleep, Nicholas would hit me and say "mama up." He didn't want me to fall asleep and leave him awake. Stinker. Then I work up at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Today is bidding to be a Looooooong day.

But we got bagels at Noah's Bagels on the way to the airport. Did you know that they have challa rolls? They are really good. I got one, and wanted to eat it, but Nicholas ate most of it. THe ride was great, except that Nicholas stayed awake - I wanted him to sleep.

At the airport, mom dropped me off with all the luggage. She and Nicholas went to go park the car. The very helpful skycap checked our bags, got me Nicholas' security document and gave me the boarding passes (A20 and A21 on Southwest if you are interested). I hung around with the stroller and all the carry-ons, waiting for mom.

They got back and we went through security. Thank goodness for the family line. No one minded that it took forever to get Nicholas to give up his shoes and Dog. But he walked through on his own. I, however, kept beeping. So I had to get wanded. The stroller had to get wanded and inspected. All the liquids had to be opened and inspected (we brough milk and a full sippy cup). Then the process of getting everything back together began.

Now we are waiting for our flight, just hanging out here at the airport. Nicholas is leading my mom on a walk around Terminal 2 at Oakland, looking out all the windows and yelling "fly." He also is trying to kiss the planes through the windows. It is pretty darn cute. So now we wait for the flight.

Did I mention - my absolutely awesomest sister ever got me an iPod Touch!!!