the big apple

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VIDEO CLIP! (August 3,2005)

Well it's been a while since I've posted and the hurricane and our governments lame response to it has sapped most of my energy. It sickens me to realize how utterly helpless we really are. How unprepared we are as a nation to cope with this sort of emergency. How thoughtless the people in charge truly are. How the emperor slept while Rome burned.

Martha and I are lucky that we were not in New Orleans as we were last year, check out our photos of what was a remarkable city. Maybe they will rebuild it and Nicolas will be able to see it someday.

ON A HAPPIER NOTE -- we spent those last few days of Martha's sister Mabe's visit getting some good things in. His first day on the beach and his first trip to NYC. We even went to the Apple store (see above) where Nicolas selected his first Mac and Ipod. I told him if he is reeeaaallly good for 10 years then I will consider it.

He's beginning to make new sounds this week -figuring out how to use his tongue. We have to raise the bar on the crib now as he has attempted escape too many times now. I am going to be babyproofing very soon i suspect.
:-)

the world is his oyster...er...crepe

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VIDEO CLIP! (August 3,2005)


Nicolas is now 15 lbs. Early Intervention came by to weigh him and measure him and although he's small he's doing fine. He's about to eat a crepe (clearly marked as his) that his Tia Mabe made for him (see photo above). :-) In addition, he has migrated to more solids - eating bananas and pears and rice cereal and sweet potatoes and carrots. His favorite seems to be pears so far.

Last weekend we went to Rockport, MA and walked around with him. We ate some lobsters in front of him and he didn't seem to mind at all. This week we went into the Discovery store in Faneuil Hall and he really enjoyed it. I think it was the first toy store he's seen and with all the noises and bright colors he was very excited by it all. We played with an electronic drum machine and a remote control dinosaur and crocodile.

Nicolas is sitting up alot now so we splurged and bought this stacking toy which he loves. :-)

TIA MABE!!! POWER TO THE NIÑOS!!!

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VIDEO CLIP! (August 3,2005)

Martha's sister Mabe (pronounced mah-bey) arrived last week and she has been spoiling him like mad. We don't know the outcome of all this over attention but I am sure he will be impacted for life. :-) So far we have been taking small daytrips to Boston and Mystic and etc. It's good to be able to get around and show him the world - some of which he's slept through.

This week we noticed that Nicolas is now getting more adept at crawling (still backwards mostly), flipping over on his belly and rolling onto his back, and sitting up wherever -which he likes alot. This morning we found him in his crib - climbing the side halfway up- he had switched on his Tiny Love mobile (courtesy of Sarah, Paul and Simon) and was very pleased with himself.

everything within reach

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VIDEO CLIP! (August 3,2005)


...now belongs to Nicolas.

Yes lately he's been grabbing things and touching anything that comes into range. I think it's because he makes them real by touching them. Like he's got magic powers or something. Which he does. Really. I mean to him its all magical I think.

My cousin Chris (that's Dr. Matarese to you) came to visit this past weekend to eat some seafood and see how he's doing - so we went to Newport to walk around and to Starbucks where Nicolas ordered a Mocha Frappuccino and some chocolate covered graham crackers - hee hee...well no...not yet. He's still content with a little white milky filled bottle. My mom is trying to get him to eat more solid foods but we are happy to have things take their sweet time. It seems like the whole experience is on high speed anyhow - Nicolas is now sleeping in his own room and in his own crib and that marks the end of a chapter that will not repeat.

Ah life... no wonder I'm downing Mocha Frappuccino.

:-)