NSJ

Greg, Libba, and a very majestic Brando came down from SF to see the little man.

Here is Greg trying to scare the poor little thing.

Grandma Pat caught some pics of Niko hamming it up after a bath.

We headed down to Los Gatos to the Patchen Tree Farm this weekend to pick out a Christmas tree for Niko. We like Patchen because they are a renewable tree farm and it has a beautiful view of the Santa Cruz Mountains. They ask you to leave 5-6 branches at the bottom of the tree and a new tree grows back in a couple years. More important than the environment, it has hot mulled cider.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

While Mary and Jon were here we got Nicholas a Tattoo. Seemed only fitting given Jul and I already have one. Next we are going to get a big Michigan M on his chest.

I made the mistake of telling Niko that every time he gives me a huge smile it counteracted a 3-4am wakeup. To be honest, I didn’t actually mean it when I said it. I really didn’t count on the fact that he might:

1. Actually understand me
2. Learn how to smile
3. Take me up on the offer

Jokes on me. I remember my parents making the mistake of promising me I could get a Nintendo if I learned to type at least 50 words a minute. Two weeks later I could type 70 words a minute and was looking at options for surgically attaching the Nintendo remote to my hands.

Perhaps this will be a learning experience and keep me from saying more expensive mistakes in the future like, “if you solve room temperature fusion I will buy you a Porsche.” That one could sting.

The many faces of Nicholas

Playful…

Content…

Shocked…

All knowing…

Thoughtful…

Astonished…

Surprised…

Satiated…

Joyous…

Flirtatious…

Pensive…

Drunk…

Excited

Ecstatic…

Just plain happy…

This was before the game.

After the game looked something like this.

Mary and Jon came up and stayed with us for the weekend. We took Niko up to the Green Festival in San Francisco on Saturday so he could get a start on understanding sustainable living. He wore his 100% organic baby shirt, so he fit right in. I almost put him in his “Not drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve is supporting terrorism” shirt, which probably wouldn’t have been appropriate.

It was a pretty cool event and I managed to leave without signing up to have solar panels installed on our roof (it was close). One of the more surprising products was an all natural Drano like substance for clearing clogged drains. Who knew?

We walked to farmer’s market on Sunday and then spent some time back in the Open Space preserves with the dogs. Sumo’s cousin Buddha has been staying with us for the last week which got challenging when it came to available “lap space.” We also watched Thank You for Smoking, which I highly recommend.

Few more photos over here.

Jul and Grandma Mart survived the drive to MI with dog and boy. I arrived a bit late because we had to stop in Sacramento on our way to DTW from SFO to “help some people off the plane.” Nicholas got to meet his great grandma Louise and hang with her for the weekend. Being a movie star and all, she took some time over the weekend to teach him the ins and outs of Hollywood. With the way he absorbed the information, I’m pretty sure he is going to be a movie mogul.

I had planned to take Nicholas to his first Michigan game in The Big House but it was a Michigan cold and rainy day and I was pretty sure he would be cranky under the poncho. Besides I know he is pretty focused on the upcoming Michigan/Ohio State game so he probably wouldn’t be able to focus on the Northwestern game.

So Nicholas stayed home with Grandma and Great Grandma but still wore the family colors (hat was hand knit by Erin!).

After a great weekend, we loaded up what I believe was one thousand suitcases and headed to the airport.

Get this: Nicholas slept the entire flight. I believe that happens one out of every one hundred flights. So the next 99 are going to be pretty brutal.

More pictures here.

Nicholas’ first Halloween was a success. He didn’t want any candy so I had to eat his share. We didn’t trick-or-treat, but we let Nicholas answer the door. Sumo made sure to protect the house from ghosts and goblins using his very ferocious bark.