The Gruener Family Blog

Last week, Paul, Robin, Ben and Nora invited Nicky and I to Seabreeze with them.  We had an absolute blast!  We went to the water park, complete with water slides for small children before lunch.  They have a nice spray park, too, but we didn’t get to it because Nicky was eating a HUGE lunch before heading to the main park for his very first kiddie rides.  He rode on the cars, airplanes, boats and roller coaster (!) with Ben, and I took him on the carousel, his favorite.  We also did the fish pond and won a SpongeBob Hacky Sack!  Everyone was pretty tired by then, so we headed home; it was the perfect amount of time spent there, about 3 and 1/2 hours.  We already can’t wait to go back!  I didn’t bring the camera, but I did snap a few photos with the iPhone and posted them here.

Now that summer finally seems to have arrived, Nicky and I have been pretty busy lately.  We’ve gone to see Nicky’s very first movie together at the movie theater, Horton Hears a Who.  He did so well; I was really impressed!  We’ve been spending time outside in the backyard and at LOTS of different playgrounds.

I can’t believe how Nicky’s growing up so quickly recently, too!  He can go up and down the stairs by himself holding onto the railing without me having a panic attack, which is nice.  He loves to sing songs – his favorite is still “Puff, The Magic Dragon”, although he also likes “Froggie Went A-courtin’” and “Jimmy Crack Corn” (which he calls “Ball”?), from the same CD.

I love how he role-plays lately; I really feel like it’s a developmental milestone that’s just incredible.  He plays with his firemen and fire truck and they take naps and monitor the neighborhood and fight fires.  He also has lots of toys that are great helpers – for example, his chicks like to help him pick out his pajamas at night, and Cookie Monster and Grover help him put his toys away.  It’s really sweet to watch.

As the baby’s due date draws closer, Nicky and I have been talking a little bit more about what’s going to happen when the baby comes.  He has a rug in the big-boy room that has roads and buildings on it, and one building is a hospital.  I told him that when it’s time for the baby to come out of my belly, I’ll go to the hospital and Dr. Gabel will take the baby out and then Nicky will come visit me.  He seems to get it and sometimes reminds me about it; I tell him that the baby isn’t finished growing in my belly yet.  We got out some of the baby things to show some of our friends who are about to have their first baby, and Nicky loves to check them out and put his toys in them like we’ll do with the baby.

The rest of the week, we’ve got things to keep us busy as well.  Tomorrow, we’ll head to the farm to pick some fruit, probably apricots or blueberries.  Then, Paul and Robin have invited Nicky and me to Seabreeze on Friday; that should be fun!  There’s a water park and some rides, so that’ll be an adventure for both of us.  Thank goodness we can finally start to enjoy some nice weather!