happy face

There are some things that nearly all toddlers love: bubbles, dum dum suckers, Elmo, balloons, etc., and Nicholas is no exception.   

Our kid is a quirky little guy, though.
Unusual things that make Nicholas happy:

• Eating with a fork.  For a child only 14 months old, he's surprisingly good with a fork. (And he's not left-handed, even though the picture makes it look that way. He had to switch hands with the fork because he was giving himself a round of applause.)
• Songs. Nicholas loves to sing, and he will "sing along" to any song whether it's in Church, on the radio, on a show, or anytime I play the piano.  He's an excellent dancer, too, with more moves than both Kent and I combined.
• Pens. After five or six "artist" episodes, I've learned to remove the ink center before letting him play with the empty pen.
• Watching videos of himself on the video camera.
• Closing doors.  Although he doesn't like the fact that he can't then open the door again.  So he knocks on the closed door until we open it, just so he can close it again.
• "Cleaning." If I ever need to keep him busy for a good 20-30 minutes, all I have to do is give him a clean dishrag and tell him to help me clean.  He wipes down everything he can reach.
• Sitting right between Mom and Dad. He absolutely MUST be smack dab in the middle at all times, and he gets this adorable little smile as he wiggles his bum down between our laps.
• Cell phone ringtones.  And the theme music to Angry Birds.
• Socks. Isn't it ironic that a mother who really, really doesn't like socks (they're gross!) has a son who loves them?  He'll pick it up, carry it around the house behind his head like a scarf, and whisper "hock, hock, hock." He climbs into my lap and sticks out his foot so I can put the sock on it, then he stomps around the room showing it off.
• Going outside.  Our daily walks to the park are seriously the best parts of our day.  Hooray for cooler weather!
• His boo game. He made this one up:  if we are sitting on the floor he walks behind us, leans on our backs, and peeks around our shoulders until we say "boo!"
• Hiding under sheets and curtains.  He flaps his arms and breathes really fast. 
• Spinning in circles.  A recently acquired skill.  He also enjoys spending time walking very slowly backwards.

I sit and watch him during the day and I seriously wonder what we ever did before we had our sweet little Nicholas.  
We'll keep it all : the grumpy and the good.