Nicholas on the move

Nicholas is a boy on the move. He loves pulling up on anything he is near and has started to climb stairs. We're watchful as he has no clue how to come back down them. If by magic, someone is always there to catch him when he turns around like he's on solid ground. I took these pictures tonight and thought I would share. A change from only seeing a blog once a month. Yes, we are working on getting his haircut :). Hope this finds you all well.

Denise, Denise & Nicholas

A year since Nicholas came home

Last Friday marked a year since we brought Nicholas home from the hospital. We're amazed at how far he has come in that year. He is doing more and more every day. He is crawling everywhere, pulling himself up on any piece of furniture he can find and is also climbing up stairs. We're trying to teach him how to turn around and come back down them., but, he hasn't gotten the hang of that yet and would most likely try to "fall" down the stairs, without supervision. I tried getting some good pictures of Nicholas today but it's tough as he's always on the move and I couldn't get him to sit still. So, we've included one from today and a few others from the last month. I'm sure the next set of pictures will include a haircut as he is finally getting to the point where he needs one. Well, he's been there for a little while; I should say the Moms' are finally getting around to being ok with him getting his first haircut.

We've had some nicer weather over the last few weeks and Nicholas has been able to get out of the house for stroller walks, which he loves. We're devising plans now for the weeks this summer that include visits to the Zoo, Children's Museum and other fun outings. I'm sure Nicholas will enjoy a lot more than staying in the house all day.

Happy Spring!

Denise, Denise and Nicholas

Florida Fun

Nicholas is growing and doing new things every day. He is very close to crawling; he can get around by doing an army crawl/moving his legs type of thing. He is also working on pulling himself up and standing more. We're working with PT once a week to assist with developing his gross motor skills. Otherwise, he's on par with all his other developmental milestones, of which we are extremely thankful for. He received his last two shots of Synagis (to help prevent or at least lessen the effects of RSV)last week. We're all thankful for that. We were thankful that he qualified for them and now thankful the monthly trips to the Dr. office for shots is over. It was not fun for any parties involved!

Nicholas spent last week in Florida, which he loved. His favorite things were playing in the pool and going for stroller walks, besides seeing Grandma and Papa Mancuso, of course. We've attached some pictures of Nicholas in the pool and after the pool. You can see it really tired him out. The humidity also did a number on his hair. It was much more wavy than in the Wisconsin dry air. We all enjoyed some time away from the cold and snow!

We hope this March finds you all happy and healthy. Only a couple of more months until we can all be outside enjoying the nice weather!

Love,
Denise, Denise, and Nicholas

My first time in the snow

We have a lot of snow from a storm last week (around 17 inches). The weather was decent (it's all relative) this weekend, so, we took Nicholas outside to experience sledding and to make his first snow angel. He seemed to enjoy it and so did we.

What a difference a year makes

     

                                              

                               

Things are going well at the Mancuso-Rasmussen house. Nicholas is growing and doing new things all the time. He is up to 19lbs and moves all over the place. While he isn't crawling yet, he rolls and rotates and does an army crawl to get anything he wants. He's close to crawling but not there yet. Physical Therapy is coming to the house once a week to help us work on things to get Nicholas to crawl. Not all kids crawl at 9 months gestation, but, we want to make sure Nicholas gets as much help as he can with his developmental milestones given his small start in life. He's talking and much more interactive everyday.
We occasionally look back to the blog a year ago to see what was happening with Nicholas. What a difference a year makes. We're thankful everyday for our little miracle and so happy to be a year out of the NICU.

Denise and I went on vacation the third week of January. After much consideration, we decided to leave Nicholas with Papa and Nana Rasmussen. He had a great time and so did we. We certainly missed him but knowing he was well taken care of helped us get some much needed rest and relaxation. We all travel to Florida later this month to see Papa and Grandma Mancuso. So, Nicholas will get some reprieve from the snow too.

We had Nicholas's 1year pictures taken this week and attached some of them here. The football picture is timely as we cheer on the Packers in the Super Bowl.

Nicholas welcomed another cousin into the world on February 3rd. Maxwell Rasmussen resides in Nashville, TN. We hope to visit him in the next couple of months. Nicholas is excited to have a future playmate close to his age. We've attached a picture of the new little one below.



We hope you are all staying warm and able to dig out of the snow. We had 17 inches last week. We're thankful for the simple things in life; a roof over our head to keep us warm and safe.

Keep warm this winter season. Spring is just around the corner.

Love,
Denise, Denise and Nicholas

Happy 1st Birthday, Nicholas!

Today is Nicholas's 1st Birthday. It doesn't seem possible that we delivered our 1 pounder a year ago today. We certainly have come a long way in a year! We're very thankful for our precious little boy. He's truly our miracle baby. This birthday is a little emotional for both of us. We're marveled with how well Nicholas is doing. As we look back to 2010, we wouldn't have changed a thing. There were bad days but they are trumped by the many good days we had. We're believers that God doesn't give you more than you can handle!

We both decided to take the day off of work to celebrate with Nicholas. Not sure what is on our agenda, but doesn't matter as long as we're all together.

The first couple of pictures were taken this morning as Nicholas ate his cereal with blueberries and apples. The other pictures were taken during a New Years celebration party we had at our place on Saturday. We had a small group of friends over and celebrated Nicholas's birthday towards the end of the day. He liked to play with, more than eat his "smash" cake. Our friend Nancy tried feeding Nicholas his pork and peas after a taste of frosting. That didn't go too well. She snuck in the peas/pork in between bites of frosting. Speaking of bites, Nicholas's first tooth poked through last week.

We're thankful for all of your love, support and prayers over the last year. You all helped us get to where we are today - thank you!

Love,

Denise, Denise, and Nicholas

Merry Christmas

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas in Ohio with Denise M's family. Nicholas was a great traveler. We were able to spend time with many family and friends.Santa even knew to bring Nicholas's gifts to Grandma and Papa's house. Nicholas cleaned house as he got a lot of Christmas gifts and we celebrated his first birthday with his Mancuso cousins Christmas night, which resulted in even more toys and gifts. Aunt Diana made Nicholas his first birthday cake which Nicholas pretty well demolished. He didn't eat too much of it, he was instead enamored by the texture of the frosting.

On Monday following Christmas, Nicholas was seen at the preemie follow-up clinic at Rainbow. They did a developmental exam and a the neonatologist did a physical exam. They were impressed by how well Nicholas is doing. They said he doesn't even look like a preemie. He is ahead of other 9 month olds (corrected age) in his vocal skills but a little behind in his gross motor skills as he is not crawling yet. They weren't too worried about that as not all kids reach milestones at the same time. After our appointment, we went up to the NICU and visited with some of the nurses that took care of Nicholas. It was great seeing them. We attached a picture of Nicholas with one of his nurses and the case manager for the NICU. Unfortunately, we snapped the photo a little late as Nicholas had just fallen asleep when we took it.

We look forward to a quiet New Years Eve celebration as a family and an exceptional 2011. We wish you all a Happy New Year. Be safe with however you choose to celebrate!

Love,
Denise, Denise and Nicholas