Life in the Fast Lane

So what’s been up in Boston? Well, we have a little man who loves to climb stairs. This is good from our perspective for a number of reasons:

1. it shows he’s developing nicely
2. it means he’s becoming a bit more independent
3. we live in a 2-story condo at the top of a 5 story building. He can climb all the way to the living room (on the 4^th floor). Not all the time, but it’s helpful when lugging groceries!

We had two Independence Days this July. The first was the traditional one (the 4^th). The second was Nicholas’ Independence Day – the day he started walking, which was one day later. Just out of the blue, and with no fanfare, he pushed upright and took off. He’s still a bit wobbly, and looking somewhat like Frankenstein (arms out and walking side to side), but moving none-the-less. His cousin Elizabeth asked if he had started singing “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (Young Frankenstein). Since then, he has transitioned from mostly crawling and sometimes walking to the complete reverse. In fact, I don’t think I saw any crawling today at all. No pix of this, but a few videos, which I unfortunately don’t know how to upload!

We had a little KZ reunion this month as well. G. and D. live in the area, and were glad to welcome Nicholas into their little (exclusive) club. All three boys were born within 28 days of each other, although G. & D. came to the Boston area a bit earlier than Nicholas. They played kind of like puppies in a basket, crawling over each other, “sharing” and retrieving, and occasionally bonking each other on the head (OK, that was mostly Nicholas, but we’re working on it!). The three Moms were glad to get together, share experiences “in-country” and bounce parenting ideas and challenges off each other. We hope to continue this on a fairly regular basis as the boys grow up. It’s amazing how different and yet alike the boys look. Nicholas is very jealous of G’s full head of hair…we have hopes!

Nicholas has been experimenting with self-feeding, with various results. Spoon control is still minimal, but he happily chows down on what he can get his hands on. Here’s the result of some work with cottage cheese, and with the contents of tacos:

Finally, for now, I’ll share with you our latest big fun. Boston has a host of terrific parks and playgrounds, both large and small. We have our favorites, each for a specific reason…some close and small, others farther but better equipped, or with fun dogs, or…but the real biggie is the Boston
Common. At the center is what’s known as the Frog Pond. In the winter, this is an outdoor skating rink. In the summer, it’s a great place for children of all ages to cool off, splash their feet, and wash away the stress of the day. At it’s deepest point it’s no more than a foot deep…which works quite nicely for a little boy in search of a good time. Here are some of the results: