this guy

Yesterday we went to Gruene ("green") with our friends. There's this incredible restaurant there,
the Gristmill.
Ask Kent about their ribs.
Ask me about their chocolate pie.

After we stuffed ourselves silly we spent some time walking around the little shops.
Nevermind the fact that we chose to do this on possibly the muggiest day of the year,
it was fun to explore the general store, the candy shop, and of course one of the
antiques stores. (Teresa, you'd be in heaven here.)
I got myself a little lost back by the jadeite bowls and enamel sugar tins. Next time I go there I'm going to leave husband and baby behind and spend a few hours just wandering around the stores.

Anyway, back to our little Nicholas.
We sat down for a bit on a beautiful wooden swing. Nicholas was happy. Until we tried to take a picture of him. Then he gave us the bulldog face you see above and he started to fuss.
So Kent picked him up.
He wanted to get back on the swing.
So Kent set him down.
He was not happy with either option. (If you know what I mean. And if you know any toddlers, you know what I mean.)

We couldn't figure out what was bothering him so much. Then our dear friend Allison suggested that maybe Nicholas just wanted us to actually swing the swing again. We had stopped moving so we could take a picture, you know.
Yep, that was it. And just like that, our one-year-old was happy as can be again.
Our other dear friend Allison (there are two of them) suggested that being a mom is perhaps a lot like being a detective.

Things around here have certainly gotten a little more interesting now that we've entered toddlerhood. Nicholas's brain works better than his body does, so he knows what he wants to do, but often he can't figure out how to make it work, how to get things unstuck, etc. It's quite frustrating.
We're trying to teach him the words "stuck" or "help" so that maybe he doesn't have to immediately resort to squealing.

But, as it always has been, even while he's gotten more, shall we say, particular, he's also gotten so much more fun!
At 12 1/2 months, this is our Nicholas.

Words: Dad, Mom (sometimes sounds like "bob"), up, duck, ball, boo, this, no, hi, bye, done, more, "vroom," and a sentence--"Hi Dad!"
Recent tricks: kisses, folding arms, throwing balls, blowing kisses, "shh" with his finger by his lips, and pretty much doing anything he sees Dad do
Quirks:
When we let him go around without a shirt on, he likes to rub his belly or pinch himself while he walks.
Before I can pick him up out of his crib after a nap he has to hand me all of his blankets one by one.
He loves to play the put-things-in-take-them-out-again game.
He gets so excited when we go into the garage and open the garage door.
Balls and cars are his favorite toys.
He sings along whenever I play the piano or when he hears a song at Church or on Dad's phone.
He likes to make funny faces and his laugh is getting cuter and cuter-more grown up.
And when he eats, he likes to be close enough to the table that he can take the food off of his tray and set it on the corner of the table...like so:
He seriously is a goofy little boy and we love having him around, toddler tantrums and all.