May has been a fun and busy month. We began by driving to Cleveland to celebrate Papa and Grandma's 50th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed the celebration and seeing all our family and friends back in Ohio. Nicholas did a great job with hanging in there with the gang way past his bedtime. We've attached a couple of pictures with his Mancuso cousins who he loves spending time with. He also did well traveling. He's become a decent rider especially when he's tired. Good thing, so, we can make it up to the lake house this summer. We enjoyed a nice Mother's Day drive back from Ohio on Sunday. It was nice quality family time. Nicholas took his first trip to the zoo this past weekend. Let's just say if he has a good memory, he's not looking to get back there anytime soon. He's been battling a cold for the last couple of weeks and was a bit fussy on Sunday. We thought it would subside once he was outside as he loves going for walks, especially in his wagon. I applied sunscreen to Nicholas when we got to the zoo and due to it being hot out of course he sweat and the sunscreen got in his eyes. Anyone that has had sunscreen in your eyes knows that is not fun. So, that added to the grumpiness, poor guy. His eye is still a little red but is doing much better. I mentioned Nicholas has had a cold for a couple of weeks. We had been contemplating taking him to his pediatrician for our peace of mind and decided this morning was the time as he woke up at 0300 this morning, he usually sleeps from 7:30pm - 6:30 am and also had a rash that covered his entire trunk and head. Turns out, it's likely viral and we got some creme to put on it to make it heal faster.

Other than battling a cold, Nicholas's favorite past time is getting into whatever cupboard he can, the spice cupboard is his favorite, furniture walking, climbing the stairs in nothing flat and pulling himself up on everything. His latest is pulling up on the front door and reaching for the handle; seems he loves bye bye and constantly signals that he would like to be outside. It's always neat to look back a year and see how far we've come. It's amazing how time flies!

We hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.We'll take a step back this weekend and remember the many soldiers who lost their lives for the very freedom we often times take for granted.

Love,

Denise, Denise and Nicholas

My first haricut

April has been a busy month. We celebrated Nicholas 1a. (due date) birthday on April 11th. Then, we visited cousin Max, Uncle Cory and Aunt Carissa in Nashville, TN. Nicholas loved checking out the music capital as well as getting to know his cousin Max. We all had a great time and can't wait to get back down there. We helped Mommy M. celebrate her birthday on the 21st by meeting up with Aunt Dianna, Aunt Darlene, Uncle Jay along with cousins Andrew and Kaitlynn in Chicago. We all had a great time doing some shopping on Michigan Ave and dining at some nice restaurants.

Nicholas finally got his haircut last Friday. It was definitely time and we are happy with the cut. We didn't go short boy at first, we'll get there gradually. He did great with the help of a sucker. We were all sticky after that as he doesn't realize you need to swallow the juices that result from sucking on the sucker :)!. He loves finger food and is demanding to be more independent every day. He loves pulling up on everything, especially the cupboards where he finds all kinds of goodies to pull out. He is starting to furniture walk and we're working with physical therapy every other week on ways to get him walking. With Nicholas it's all about motivation. He has to have a reason to want to walk, otherwise, crawling suffices.

We hope you are all doing well and no one was impacted by the crazy weather they have been having in the Southeast. Take care and summer is right around the corner.

Love,

Denise, Denise, and Nicholas