Today was a visit from Gram and gang from Fayetteville. Of course, when entertaining, one must be at their best in terms of hygiene and aroma and so Nicholas got a bath in a plastic tub he's quickly outgrowing.

Let me say that again...he's getting to be a huge specimen! I always knew he'd take off and really start growing but it's amazing watching it nonetheless. It seems that every time he takes off for a day or so at Grammy's that he gets bigger right in front of my eyes.

I don't think he'll be below the growth chart curves for very long at his current pace... :)

Two month checkup!!!

Short version...all's well. Statistics and chart links to right updated. He got five shots in the thigh and frankly, Daddy was a bigger baby about it than he was! :)

Today was primarily a day of rest for all of us after the last couple of weeks. Not much happening except for the odd game of Parcheesi and Nicholas taking a few hour nap all snuggled in Daddy's (now very tired!) arms.

At one point during the game, he snapped off his first salute. Gramps will have to tell us how to improve Nicholas' technique and train him proper! I may not be a professional but looks pretty decent for someone who just turned two months by the calendar yesterday!

Two months old!!!

Unfortunately, we had to bid Karen goodbye as she headed back to tend to the patients in Columbus! A short visit but a fun one nonetheless.

But who knows where the winds may take us...I doubt this will be her last exposure to our little one (though he won't be so little by the next time we meet!).

Karen, Julia, and Nicholas headed off to see Legally Blonde 2 and other interesting things in the Raleigh area on a (mostly) girl's night out. The reports are that he carried on quite well...I'm not sure if that means he slept through it or he didn't and was well-behaved. Either way... :)

Daddy went off to shoot pool with a couple of buddies and for his troubles came back smelling like a railway compartment, third class from all of the smoke (and this is the least smoky pool hall in this area!). I hardly think the capital of the tobacco growing world will have the foresight as Florida apparently has recently to ban smoking in public gathering places. Until that happens (many moons from now!), at he understands the concept of a shower so all was well afterwards.

Today, Karen got her first taste of holding him (he really doesn't bite as he's currently sans teeth...but he's not immune to urges of suckling fingers and limbs that might well be in reach of his mouth!).

Important SAFETY TIP for those handling him...keep things you don't want in his mouth well away from his mouth!

Who would have thought that the Raleigh-Durham area would become the preferred holiday place for residents of Columbus, Ohio! Our second delegation from that fair city in two weeks arrived today in the form of Karen Tulga, Julia's delightful friend of X (nope, ain't gonna' say it!) years and her maid of honor at the wedding.

Fortunately, Daddy remembers faces well because he's not at all up on clothing styles (or any other kind of style, really!) as the provided description of capri pants was more than a little mystifying (but the description of the shirt was spot-on, though!). Besides, if he didn't convey her home properly his berthing space would be in the dog's yard out back and in hot and humid (and wet!) North Carolina in the summer, that's just plain awful for all concerned.

Anywho, I think it's safe to say that Nicholas made his usual impression upon her. I do believe I heard the word adorable at least once...

There have been some big changes to the site today...you'll notice that all of the previous entries have been archived to save space on the main page. If you've been following along, there is no need to reprint these recap pages.

Also, I've taken the liberty of running most of the images through PhotoShop to lighten them up a bit as the camcorder really doesn't have the same flash capabilities as the 35mm camera!

Today was Nicholas' first foray into the world of Chuck E. Cheese in North Raleigh. We needed to kill some time before Patrick, Ms. Pat, and I headed downtown to see The Matrix Reloaded on the IMAX screen at Exploris (way cool experience...if you're a Matrix fan, you owe this version of the movie to yourself!).

The place features games, pizza, and a really cool crawly tube round most of the ceiling of the joint. They had a fairly full house with several birthday parties where the kids are running all over the place and the staff are looking like they deserve combat pay for a Saturday duty shift! Of course, captive audiences are going to get reamed on the food but all things considered, the pizza wasn't bad (it wasn't Pizza Hut which is the personal fave round here!) but it wasn't as bad as I remembered and they do have a salad bar. Not a bad option if it's too hot for the kids to run wild outside...

Nicholas pretty much slept this one off as well...a pretty amazing feat considering hordes of screaming children, multiple birthday parties, and the animatronic show!

All of us met back at Ms. Pat's where we got a chance to see the plans for Patrick and Suzette's new castle that is being built north of Columbus. Never one to waste an opportunity, Nicholas decided to grace us with the first confirmed spit up that actually hits the shirt hat trick with Patrick being the good-natured victim after another fairly satisfying Nicholas snack! We don't know what it is about Patrick's shirts that says CHRISTEN ME but whatever it is, IT WORKS!!!

In other news, Gramps has now graduated to the ten-pound bags of sugar as a training regimen for this Thanksgiving. We're thinking that his one-month checkup coming up really soon well see him at least 9½ pounds (Julia's guess) and I think he'll top ten pounds easily. He's getting longer by the day and actually fits some of his outfits now. If you're reading this Dad...may we suggest this 20 pound bag of cat litter as a more reasonable training aid? :)

Happy 227th Birthday America!

In the tradition of Independence Day, Uncle Patrick, Aunt Suzette, and Patrick Samuel came round to the house to share in the remains of the offerings to the propane gods on the grill.

We had Cornish game hens with several seasoning rubs applied to them, Italian sausage, hot dogs, roasted corn, roasted sweet potatoes, Julia's seven-layer salad, and Knox blocks (jello blocks you eat with your fingers). If you left the table hungry...shame on you! There was enough to feed an army and trust me, I know what an army requires!

One lap round the 'hood on the ain't he cute circuit (OK, for most of us...I chickened out!) and it was time for the fireworks display.

The nice thing about this house is that it's got one of the best views of the fireworks from the porch right between the houses opposite. The weather was quite cooperative which is often not the case (last year, they put up the fireworks in the pouring rain...I kid you not!).

BTW, Nicholas was pretty much unfazed by the fireworks as well. How one can sleep when they're lighting off that much fireworks, I'll never know!

Games, burnt offerings, movies, and fireworks. It doesn't get much better than this on Independence Day!

If you have never been in downtown Raleigh, you owe yourself a visit to Exploris. It's a museum complex devoted to embracing the multicultural world we share and it's pretty darned nifty.

They also have an IMAX theatre which is a blast. Today's feature was Pulse, A STOMP Odyssey and it was amazing. We saw STOMP live last year at the BTI Centre and it was a mind-blowing experience.

For the uninitiated, the cast of STOMP use just about anything you can imagine as percussion instruments. Metal garbage cans and lids, pipes, matchboxes, plastic tubes, and there was even a number where the performers used escrima sticks and quarterstaves (where one missed beat and someone was going to have a bad headache...for a few days!). If you get a chance to see them live, DO IT...you will not be disappointed.

Pulse is STOMP taken to the world with local musicians in South Africa, Botswana, Brazil, the western United States, and England (even under the English Channel... you've got to see it to believe it!).

What does this have to do with Nicholas? He slept through it quite blissfully, the little guy! But I think he'll enjoy it quite a bit when he's a little older...