The Evolution of a Halloween Costume

Four years ago, for my nephew Lucas’s first Halloween, I made him a cow costume. I crocheted the hat and hooves, and Andrea found an adorable pair of cow-print pants to go along with them. Lucas, his brother Alex, and my other nephew Tieren all wore this cow costume for their first Halloweens.

They were all older and bigger than Nicholas when they celebrated their first Halloween, so the costume was too big for Nicholas. So I decided to crochet him a new one to carry on the Merediz family tradition of Halloween cow-babies (calves?).

It’s a lot easier to crochet it when I can fit it to him as I go and make adjustments as needed. Here is the progression of his Halloween costume from his first fitting to the final product. Happy Halloween everyone!

(First fitting)

(Hat is done...not sure he likes it though)

(Hooves are finished)

(Costume is complete!)

Nicholas's First Trip

Two weeks ago we took Nicholas on his very first trip, and went to visit Scott’s sister’s family in Colorado. Nicholas slept horribly the night before we left, so we were worried we were in for a terrible flight. Luckily, he was exhausted from the night before and slept the entire flight other than when he woke up to eat. He didn’t actually wake up completely until we got to the car rental place.
(Asleep at the gate)

(Still asleep on the tram)

We arrived on Thursday and drove to Wendy’s house. It was wonderful seeing her and seeing how well she has recovered! Nicholas was super excited to meet her and his cousins.

On Friday we took a tour of Schriever AFB with Damon, and Mimi and Grandaddy arrived that evening.

On Saturday we went to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It’s an awesome zoo – set up on the side of Cheyenne Mountain. You work your way uphill through the zoo and the view of Colorado Springs and the surrounding area gets better the higher up you get. There is a great giraffe exhibit where you can actually feed and pet the giraffes.

After the zoo we drove through Garden of the Gods – absolutely amazing rock formations that just jut out from the earth. Breathtaking!!

Nicholas didn’t see much of it – but he looked adorable as we drove through the park.

Super Baby!

On Sunday we planned to go up to Pikes Peak but realized that Nicholas was too young to travel to that altitude, so we headed to Royal Gorge instead.

First, we took an incline railway down into the gorge.

(View of the bridge from the bottom of the gorge)

Then we took a walk across the bridge that crosses over the gorge.

And finally we took a gondola ride across the gorge.

Nicholas managed to fall asleep in the Baby Bjorn and we put Grandaddy's baseball cap on his head to give him some peace and quiet. Too cute!

On Monday we had to say goodbye, but not before we took some pictures of the cousins all together.

Here's a cool shot of the Denver airport.

Nicholas (and Scott and I) had a great trip!

We Have a Talker on Our Hands

I've been delinquent in posting lately - too much to post, too little time! So I thought I'd post some videos of Nicholas talking lately. He's been talking up a storm, and the more you talk to him, the more he talks back.

Here's a video of him talking with Uncle Lamar the other day.


This is him talking to himself in his swing. There is a mirror that he faces when he's in his swing, and he gets so excited whenever we put him in his swing because he discovers his 'friend' in the mirror and just starts smiling and talking to himself. So cute!


Here are some videos of us talking to each other. I have to be sneaky and not let him notice the iPhone, because as soon as he sees it he becomes transfixed by it and stops talking!

A Busy Weekend!

Nicholas had a very busy weekend! On Friday, we drove to a pumpkin patch because the website said it was open, only to get there and realize that it was closed and that their website was several years out-of-date. The pumpkin patch was right next to the road, so we got out and took some pictures with Nicholas anyway (shhh, don't tell). Unfortunately, after the long drive to get there (did I mention that we thought is was open?), Nicholas wasn't a super happy camper. But we managed to get a few cute shots of him.

Then we tried to put him in the middle of the patch, and that made him really unhappy!

So I picked him up and he cheered up right away.
And then he gave me a big ol' smile when I put him back in his carseat. Go figure!
On Saturday, our friends Marianne and Shamim came over with their son Joaquin who is a little more than 3 months older than Nicholas. And they were hilarious together. Joaquin was very interested in Nicholas and was looking at him and grabbing his clothes and his hands and Nicholas didn't really have a clue what was going on.
This picture is the funniest - it looks like Joaquin dealt a knockout blow to Nicholas. He was actually really cute and gentle with Nicholas, but this picture makes it look otherwise. Priceless!
You'll have to forgive my video-recording skills on the second video - I had my iPhone in my left hand taking video while I was taking pictures with my right hand.

On Sunday we went back to the pumpkin patch and took a few more pictures of our adorable little pumpkin!

2 Months Old Already

Dear Nicholas,

I can't believe you're already 2 months old...actually, you're 2 months and 3 days old as of this post. The time has gone by so fast! This month was full of smiles, smiles, and more smiles. You are an incredibly happy baby (surprisingly so, considering how little you sleep during the day), and you spend most of the day just looking around with your big blue eyes and smiling. You are getting cuter with every passing day, and we're still as in love with you as ever!

You started out Month 2 with your social smiles, and ended the month with some little giggles for Mommy and Daddy. Your belly button finally healed and has turned into the cutest belly button in the world. You're starting to hold your head up for longer periods of time and you seem to have a little more control of it. Yet your arms and hands still flail about as though they're completely independent from your body! You still hardly sleep during the day, despite our best efforts to get you to nap. But you slept through the night for the first time on your 2-month birthday (probably from the trauma of getting 3 shots in your legs at the doctor's office). You had another great visit from Mimi & Grandaddy and from Abu & PaT. You took your first trip to the Atlanta Zoo. You had your first trip to a restaurant for Daddy's birthday. You weigh 11 lbs. 11 oz. and are 23.5 inches long. You're chunky enough now to have little dimples on your knees, elbows, and knuckles. You're finally fitting into your 0-3 month clothes. You love your nightly bathtime and hate it when we take you out of the bath. You're the best!

Happy 2-month birthday my little one!

All smiles!

Beautiful blue eyes!

More smiles!

Our Little Cinnamon Bun

Nicholas officially has the cutest belly button in the world...it looks like a little cinnamon bun - a perfect spiral!