Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!

Nicholas, believe it or not, is a year old today. For me, it is both bittersweet and exciting that he's reached this milestone.

(By the way, I kind of jinxed myself with that whole ha ha two posts, thing...didn't I? I'll try to get back on the "wagon" after I manage to get the accounting which is proving to be quite unpleasant and time-consuming done for the business - bah!)

On the bittersweet side, there are, of course, several things I know now that I wish I knew last year at this time. You can probably guess that breastfeeding is one of my regrets to some extent, though I can now hold my head high as one of the mommies who made it to a year and is still going...if only for a few minutes of cuddle time in the morning and evening - it's still something and something many new mothers (and seasoned ones, probably) never get the joy of experiencing. If we have another child, I estimate that I may be a bit psycho about the whole feeding situation until I'm sure I don't need to be, but I do believe I can "do it" and I will give it another good go. At least I am more at peace with all that went on in that arena than I have been. I think that as we continue along with our current relationship, more healing will come for me.

Nicholas celebrated his first important day beginning on Saturday afternoon. We ventured to the great metropolis of Boone, Colorado to visit a dairy farm. If you've heard of me refer to my hometown, Lamar, as a great metropolis, I should tell you that Boone is even smaller...much.much.smaller. It's tiny. Don't blink...you'll miss it tiny. But, they have a dairy there that specializes in raw milk from cows who only eat grass. While there, we toured the facilities and saw some cows being milked and then signed up for a cow share. So we now are the proud owner of part of a Jersey cow and will be getting a gallon of fresh milk each week. This milk is soooo good. I have never had anything like it out of a carton, that is for sure...it reminded me of a lightly sweetened milk shake. Yummo. Of course, most of the milk will go to our dear little Nick, but I can get a little butter out of the deal and maybe so yogurt, too!

After our trip to the farm, we visited with Grandma and Grandpa Allen (my parents) who joined us for dinner at Red Lobster in Pueblo. Nicholas snoozed through most of dinner on Grandpa's shoulder, but he finally woke up and entertained all around with his antics and "uh-oh's". Did I ever get to mention that "Uh-oh" was his first "non-Mama" word? He loves to say it. I didn't realize I said it so much until he started saying it and I started paying attention. I'm thankful that this is one of the words I say often...

On Sunday, we had another adventure at Hillside Gardens here in Colorado Springs. We ventured there to take pictures! I finally found a photographer who was willing to take pictures, give me the rights to them and not charge me an arm and a leg. I think we found a winner, but of course, we do need to see the pictures.

Today, we celebrated by baking some cupcakes with coconut flour in them...they are SO good! Yummo! I'm in the process of baking his birthday party cake right now. The party is next weekend so I will put the layers in the freezer once they have cooled after baking. We also had a visit from Mr. Rick who gave Nicholas a fun little barnyard learning toy to complement his new Winnie the Pooh rock-n-ride vehicle that Mom and Dad gave him. What fun! Not surprisingly, he enjoyed playing with the boxes to both and then decided he wanted to play with Daddy's computer before warming up to the toys - looks like our kid is...normal! :)

For lunch, we ventured a bit north to see Nick's godparents, Buck and Lyndsay and his pal Ridge for a picnic lunch at Foxrun Regional Park where we introduced Nicholas to several nifty things. First, he had a couple of bites of cupcake which he seemed to enjoy...but he seemed to want the strawberries more! Then, we introduced him to swinging...on Daddy and Mommy's lap! He loved that and found the teeter totter amusing. His absolute most favorite thing ever though was going down the slide. That was WAY fun...so much so that when we tried to move him away from it (even if it was temporarily so that we could send him down it again), he threw a wee bit of a fit.

All in all, I think, if he could say a few more words he would tell you he had a rockin' birthday and that he's ready for his party. The bash is going to be at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (my favorite zoo of all time...even over San Diego...really!) and we have some neat activities planned...including, of course, Nicholas' first ever attempt at eating birthday cake unassisted. That should be a kick. I haven't completely decided what kind of filling and frosting I'm going to use in his cake, but I think it is safe to say it is going to be a stunner...and yummy, yummy, yummy! All the kiddies that are invited are sure to love it. To go along with the cake, I'm also going to make some very tasty strawberry ice cream using our new milk. With any luck, the guests will never forget the experience and will have lots of fun stories to tell Nicholas when he's old enough to understand it all! I promise to take lots of pictures to share on his website, too. 

And now, lets see if we can do a massive recap given that I haven’t posted anything for two months. I’m glad you all are an understanding lot! From the Nicholas side of things, we are crusing. We finally learned how to wave bye-bye and we can make the sign for “more” pretty well also. He loves bath time and is not at all pleased when someone (usually me) takes a shower because he thinks he should be getting to splash around in the bath. He’s become quite vocal at meals as far as voicing his approval (he just turns his head when he disapproves) for things that he likes. Mmmmmm! I should really try to get that on video.

Let’s see, what else….he has a lot more hair now….so super cute since it is still a nice red color. He seems to see very well also. He is sleeping through the night…sort of. He and I sleep on the floor (well on a bed of sorts made of blankets and a sleeping bag for him and a massage table for me) in his room now. It’s an odd arrangement, but we needed to try something else to get some sleep. So far, we’ve managed to end middle of the night feedings (unless he misses a feeding during the day) as well. He wakes up and usually snuggles up to me and falls right back to sleep. It isn’t optimal from some standpoints, but it is lovely getting to spend this special time with my boy. When the time seems right to me, I will work on transitioning him to sleeping in his crib through the night with me there and then I’ll move out slowly and return to my own bed…with any luck it won’t be too difficult.

Business-wise, we’re making headway. Mark did a business-to-business expo on Thursday which we believe will bring in a good number of new patients. We were showing them with before and after pictures taken on the spot what sort of a change Mark could make with just a couple of small adjustments. I’ve been working on the accounting and have taken over a miniscule amount of the office manager’s duties since she left this past month. In her place, we decided to hire another doctor to take x-rays and do diagnostic tests. Once he and Mark bring in a good number of new patients, we will be able to give him a raise…hopefully soon since he’s worth it but the budget won’t allow it.

On the home front, we have a new baby in our house thanks to an impulse splurge a couple of weeks ago. No, no…nothing that moves per se….rather we have a new baby grand piano. Thus a dream of mine is fulfilled…and one will be as Nicholas will get to have piano lessons when he gets to be a little older. We probably should have waited to buy it, but from a stress relief standpoint for me, it was worth every penny. Watching Nicholas “bang out” a song or two every day is quite amusing and just being able to play on a real piano after 10 years of trying to play on a keyboard that was missing the lowest octave has proven quite therapeutic for me. I consider it my belated Mother’s Day/You Put Up With The Chiropractic School, SBA Loan and Business Annoyance present….in my opinion, it was well-earned!!

Speaking of babies, now that Nicholas is one, I’m starting to get more and more people asking about whether we’re going to have more children. The truthful answer is I don’t know. My plate is pretty full with Nicholas, the business and what not and I’m not sure that another baby would be prudent. On the emotional side of things, I would love to have at least one more so that I could enjoy the learning curve that comes with the second child. We will weigh the decision carefully and maybe we’ll let you know if another pair of feet are in our future. Ultimately, we just want to do what is best for any and all children we have or may bring into the world.

And with that, I am going to sign off. I hope to be back here again soon….until then, if you haven’t visited Nicholas’ site recently, you may have missed out on several picture additions including those from when he was christened. Go enjoy!