Nick gets glasses and meets Thomas

Nicholas had a big last couple of days. We traveled to Grapevine to ride in one of Thomas the Tank Engine's coaches on Saturday, and today he got his first pair of glasses.

Nicholas works the farm

Corn is harvested across the street from our house.

Nicholas holds up his toy harvester for the real one to see.

Nicholas does some harvesting of his own.

Easter and the eggs are a cracking

Nicholas got into the whole Easter egg thing, including the basket.

Cracking a cascarone on Dad's noggin.

Making Easter cookies with Grandma.

Egg!

Getting the grand tour in Tiffany's vintage wagon.

Nicholas' favorite book

When he's older, he'll never remember phonebooks even existed. But now he flips through looking for pictures of trucks--there's a lot of them in there.

He's 23 months old today!

The End of a Pickle Summer

Nicholas and Spike shared a moment in the kiddie pool as the summer drew to a close and the heat waned.

The Pickle vs. the Corn Popper!

Tiffany had this Corn Popper toy by Fisher Price when she was a little girl. Her parents recently pulled it out of storage for Nicholas. He is clearly born to pop.

Nicholas' day at the hospital

Today was the big day. Nicholas' call time was 8 a.m. They wheeled him back to surgery in this little wagon. It was scary to let him go, but he was back an hour later and very cranky as the anesthetic wore off. The doctor installed a sling to allow his eyebrow to pull up his droopy eyelid (ptosis for those of you finding this message by Googling).

His eye is swollen and we have to keep ointment on it because it won't completely shut for a while, but he's mainly been in great spirits all day before crashing for naps. We've been offering him multiple showings of Elmo's World from the Tivo, but he'd prefer to play. What a tough guy...

In the bottom photo in the recovery room, you can see the dinosaur-patterned splints on his arms to keep him from messing with his eyes. We take him back tomorrow morning for a brief exam with the surgeon.

Surgery in the morning

Nicholas amd Tiffany read a lot of books today, and he was full of energy as we counted down the hours to his surgery Friday morning. He shows up at 8 a.m. at Scott and White for the procedure to correct his ptosis (droopy eyelid). The procedure is supposed to take less than an hour and involves installing a sling that has his eyebrow raising the droopy lid. It's all designed to avoid any vision loss and stave off lazy eye.

They say it's a common procedure, but that doesn't keep us from getting nervous about it. Stay tuned...

A Pickle in motion

A few videos of the Pickle. This week he has learned to both kick a ball and slide down off a stool. And his walking is getting closer to a trot.

The Pickle on vacation

We went to Weatherford this past weekend where I was on a radio show talking about my novel EVACUATION PLAN and then did a signing at The Bookcase. It was a lot of fun, but while we were off in North Texas, Nicholas got to vacation with his grandparents in Temple. He was clearly miserable the entire time, given this photo evidence. I'm just hoping his new job as a mailman comes with a lot of benefits--including Popsicles.

The Pickle walks!

Haircut #2

It didn't go as easily as the first one (note Nicholas' hand running interference), but the results were great.

I'm gonna miss the boy

I"m flying off to Los Angeles today for Book Expo America. It will be the longest I've ever been apart from Nicholas, so it should be tough. But I guess it's the first step to me going back to the actual, physical workplace on a regular basis.

Today he was pushing his play cart around the kitchen. He's really close to walking, and is standing freestyle (no hands) often this week. I told him he's not allowed to walk until I get back.

Cowboy Pickle plays the piano

Nicholas' home in the sticks is starting to influence his fashion choices. We have his monster truck on order.

We're counting on that piano scholarship to put him through college.

I like this serious pose with Mommy.

Taking to the highway...

A few favorite photos of Nicholas on the way back from Dallas recently. Note the disappearing shirt. He got it soaked with water.

Nicholas and David: chillin' in the crib

Nicholas' favorite books (though he may be outgrowing them) are the Diaper David series. I always wondered when I'd find Nicholas in this fully standing pose in his crib. Today's the day!


Is Elmo the new David? Nicholas sure loves the little red monster...

He's one year old today!

The birthday boy went straight for the presents.

My first haircut

Just weeks from his first birthday, Nicholas got his very first haircut Saturday. He was amazingly calm as Vangi snipped away his baby locks.


The before shot.


Snip snip...


Chop, chop...


He's a new man!

Christmas pushups

Nicholas is getting good at pushups and "creeping" around, as he gets oh so close to crawling.