Naughty and Nice

Back in November, Nik's buddy Alex came out for a visit. I love the band aid on Alex's forehead here. He asked for one that day, "just because".


This is Nik's unnatural, "natural" pose.


Each piece of furniture is another "toy" these days. Our house will be destroyed by March.

Christmas sweater, right side up.


Christmas sweater, right side up.

Christmas sweater, sneaking sips of beer.

Nik's wearing one of the party favors from our friend's annual cookie swap. I think he kept the hat on for 17 seconds.


Back to "furniture" toys. He's turned the Ottoman into his crypt.


"Be honest Santa. Do you ever get sick of Christmas music?"

Boo!!

Here's Nik relaxing over by the outskirts of the "cage". That sweater he's wearing is a Mabs Harris hand knit original.


His first costume was to dress as a Beatnik poet.


But in the end, he decided to go with a bat costume.


"Bee Happy"? Doesn't really seem to be the case here.


Catherine was Nik's parter in crime on Halloween night. Eight tentacles means eight pieces of candy per house. Smart girl.


The happy lil' bat.


For authenticity's sake, we hung him upside for about 12 hours.

Going Mobile

Nik just started walking! We've been taking him down to the lake to get him lots of extra practice.
Struttin' around in his little tracksuit like a giddy retiree.

Slides go by too fast when you're an adult. Luckily it's plenty long enough for him.

We went apple picking and if you look closely, you can see that Nik thinks the baby to his left is totally suspect. Since Nik is walking, we've had to make some "modifications" to the living room.

This face is an unfortunate byproduct of this situation.

As you can see, the downturn in the economy has stripped the shirt off of Nik's back and turned his pockets inside out.

Nik's First Birthday!!

We had a great time at Nik's birthday. This is Cash sneaking a quick ride on Nik's new Radio Flyer
The irrepressible Miss Kamn Shaver. I think she's reacting to another of my mother's dirty jokes.

These are our neighbors the Cranes. Their daughter Catherine is one of Minidhingra's most popular subjects.

Another of our favorites, Miss Josephine Rose. Scientists estimate that she is 98% cheeks.
And the birthday boy. The croquet wickets turned out to be a fantastic steadying source for his newest talent, walking.

Catherine gave him some help with the pinata. Which was filled with....


.. hand puppets and candy.


Our resident landscaper extrordinaire was imparting some advice on how to properly operate a toy lawnmower.

" I love this party!"


Cousin Emma made the trip down from Maine for the party.

And with cakes like this, who could blame her.

" Ok, I'm not so sure about this anymore."

Once he started in on the cake, his mood changed considerably.

100% Dhingra.

This is Nik and I playing a song called "I got Six strings and no pants"


I'm never buying him another toy. From here on out, it's just gonna be balloons.

"What? Is it someone's birthday or something? "

See you guys later!

So we went on vacation....

...and that's why we haven't posted anything in a while. But we're back to the grind and it's time for our first ever "super-post". Grab a snack.


Nik LOVED the beach. So much so, that he claimed this little patch of sand as his. We made it out to Chatham one day and he got to get in a great workout in the sand.
We headed down to the water to get a better look at the waves hitting the beach.
Nik and his new boat. The aptly named SS Squirt.
Nik and Catherine at Rock Harbor Beach in Orleans. Luckily this place was walking distance from the place we rented.

And if you look closely here, you can see his top two teef coming in. They've been a great source of amusement for him. It's made eating Cheerios a rich new experience.

The Bingham gals made it to Fenway to see Neil Diamond. His sequins temporarily blinded them midway through the 2nd set.

Josie and Nik made it the playground for some time on the swings. This probably looks as uncomfortable as it is.


Grampy got to give both the grandkids a push on the swing...

...before they adjourned to the dome climber.

As you may have noticed, Nik's hair was getting a little bit long. Something had to be done.

Has a kid ever look more unsure of anything?

Still very skeptical......

Utter resignation.

"What does ' it'll grow out ' mean? Should I be worried? "

Well that's it from us for now. We'll be back with a new post in a few weeks. Promise.