Nicholas' construction outfit

What little boy doesn't want a construction outfit, tools, and all the fun that comes along with it? Thanks to his Uncle Wayne, Nicholas is now outfitted like a true construction man.

I had to hide the tools - Nicholas kept hammering things in the house trying to "fix" them. It was pretty funny. At least until he started hammering things that are better left unhammered - like the TV, dishes, my foot, my leg, my head, my glasses (sensing a theme?).

But he did look pretty cute in the outfit. He really likes the hammer and screwdriver. He says "screwdriver" but it doesn't always come out right. He just likes to be "like Dada" and "fix it."

Nicholas' new haircut

So Nicholas has always had a lot of hair. Tons of it. While he was a baby, it was easy to cut - because you could hold him still. Now that he's older it is a lot harder. He wouldn't sit still to cut it all. So we would end up with various stages of cuts in his hair. It didn't look horrible, but it wasn't cute.

Jon has wanted to buzz his hair for a long time. I finally gave in at the end of January. My leg has been hurt and I couldn't get him to sit for me so I could trim it. Nicholas' hair was below his ears, in his eyes, and getting kind of long in the back. So I gave in to Jon.

We put on the Mickey Mouse clubhouse show, gave him an Oreo, put the size 8 guard on the clippers, and away went Nicholas' hair. He lots a ton of hair. But his new haircut is much easier to do - and to upkeep. The only problem is......

.....he doesn't look like my baby, or even a toddler, any more. He's a full grown boy!

An update on the house and family

So I found the camera today. I will post the pictures tomorrow. I have pictures of the new house while it was empty (before the toys started spreading out). It has been an interesting two weeks since the move.

Jon has recovered from being sick. I have a torn calf muscle and have been on crutches and in a soft cast for 10 days. The house is in boxes, and I am still trying to find things (like cleaners and all). I have most of the important things...which don't include all my shoes since I cannot wear them anyways.

Nicholas has to be at day care all day long. Which he doesn't mind until you pick him up and then he wants to "see mommy" but mommy has been at school on Monday and Tuesday nights. He is getting really mad at me when I cannot pick him up (my leg doesn't handle his weight well).

Nicholas got a hair cut, we cut it with the 8 clippers. He looks way too old with the new haircut. I miss the toddler - well I miss the baby. But since the baby is gone, I miss the toddler. He simply wants to do a lot of things by himself.

He likes to count the stairs as he goes up and down them. The stairs are a new thing for him, which is great because he can tire himself out goig up and down them - which he does. The first thing we did was to set up his room, which he likes and ven calls "mine room."

What is really nice is to have a seperate bathroom from Nicholas. Everytime we want to take a shower we don't have to clean his toys up and everything. It's super nice. He has his own bathroom, and woe betide you who think you are going to use it while he is around. It is "mine" which means no one can use it but him. He hasn't tried the toilet yet, which makes it a regression from the last house, but we are going to try again.

That's the news of late. Pictures and more news tomorrow.

Moving day is coming!

Moving day is coming!

When Jon and I first got married we bough our current place - a condo with no yard. It was perfect. We both worked full time, there was an extra bedroom for a - hypothetical - child (and was an office/reading room/storage room. It was in our price range. It didn't have a yard we had to upkeep, since we both worked. It was in a safe-ish neighborhood, we had friends who lived nearby, it had a pool and spa. It was perfect.

Then Nicholas came along a year earlier than expected, and we made his room, and it was still great.

Then Nicholas grew up - it is amazing how that happened so quickly! If anyone reading this has, or will have, a baby, let me tell you - that time goes by so quickly. So the day when you are upset because he/she won't stop crying and just wants to be held . . . well the day comes when they don't want to be held anymore and want to do everything "by self." It is sad, but it is part of them growing up.

So now we need a yard. And a bigger house. So we went shopping and found the perfect house - it's from Lennar. It is brand new. It's the Willow model (in case you are getting online to check it out). We love it. And it is ready to be moved into!

We should be closing on Thursday and moving on Saturday! So we are really excited. It is our Christmas present to ourselves. Along with new couches (I love Ashely Furniture Store) and new curtains. There is this big window over the master bath tub (a huge oval tub I can soak in, all by myself, with books, candles and som Ben and Jerrys), that needs curatins so we can shower and change. A huge walk in closet.

I will post pictures of the empty - for now - house tomorrow.

Wish us luck in moving everything.

Finally its over!

Finally - the semester is over. Teaching is done. My last paper just got turned in. I am done. Not that this semester wasn't fun at school; I got to write a paper on energy security and that was really interesting. Do you know what the future of energy is? It looks pretty grim since it is projected that in about 10 years almost 95% of the world's energy supply will come from the Persian Gulf - a region of complete instability. And there are signs that the largest oil fields in Saudi Arabia - which produce 40% of the world's oil - are drying up and aging. How unnerving is that? Like I said, fun but hard work.

And now it is over. The stress is off for a while. My thesis proposal is in and awaiting approval by my advisor so that I can start on the research. Now all that I have to do is work and family - not that those are small things.

I get to enjoy the spirit of Christmas just in time for Christmas!!! I am really excited. I love Christmas time and have missed all the candy and cookie making that I normally do. So now I get to go full-throttle into that to make up for lost time.

As a Christmas present to ourselves, Jon and I are going househunting on Saturday. Hopefully we fall in love with something that is available.

Let it snow!

Let it snow! Incidently, those were the words to the last Christmas carol I heard last night before going to bed. Nicholas woke up at 11:15 and was crying for his father so he got his father.

And then the power went off. I called SMUD on my cell (strange how I have SMUD's power outage line on my cell phone) and they said it would be back on at 2:30am. This is on a night where the lows were predicted to be low enough to have snow in the morning. Nicholas went back to sleep, so did Jon. Jon promptly stole my covers and then I couldn't get to sleep becuse it was cold.

So I did the next best thing - read by flashlight. This was a little difficult because I have to use the light of my cell phone to find the flashlight - because Nicholas plays with flashlights and puts them in odd places. That makes it hard to turn the pages, but oh well. I woke up twice more with Nicholas. The last time - around2:15 am - I looked out my window...and there it was....snow in Sacramento!!! It didn't stick, so there was no use in taking Nicholas out, but it was fun to see.

I saw pictures of St. Mary's - my alma mater - and they had snow sticking on the ground, the hills, and the roof. It was pretty.

Maybe we can get one more night of snow, and let it be on the ground in the morning. But the power should also stay on that night.

Family pictures

What better time to get some family pictures than Thanksgiving Day? We wore nice clothes - then changed before we ate - and had a blast. So here are the newest Wunderlich family photos.