Today we went to a birthday party for Cole, son of a friend from work. We had a good time and Nick even got some presents (Stephanie is like a super party planner). Anyway, Emily from NH is visiting and joined us.

Nick wanted to make sure Mom knew how to drive the Prius so he gave her a lesson on how to drive it. Here is Nick demonstrating his steering technique.

Nick had his 18 month check up today. He did very good and since he was up to date with his shots he didn't even have to get any (will get some at 2yrs though).

He grew a bit in the last three months.

Height: 33" (75th percentile)
Weight: 25lbs 10oz (51st percentile)
Head: 48.5" (75th percentile)

That is an increase of 3" in height, 2lbs 2oz in weight. Not sure about his head but he has always been in the 75th percentile so growing right along.

Today Nick and Dad went to the Science center. They had a dinosaur exhibit which Nick liked a lot, though his favorite (suprise suprise) was a water fountain type thing.

It was dark so hard to get a good shot, but here is Nick with his new dino buddy.

Nick throwing nerf balls into a Nose, his third favorite activity.

Now given, I got the iPhone a week after it came out, but at least I was like 32yrs old before I got one. Nick here is showing off his iPhone skills at the tender age of 18months (to the day).

The free door gift for the Suns game last night. Great game and a win against the Mav's, but boy oh boy was it late. We got home at midnight; lets just say this morning was not the most fun morning every (though Nick was really happy).

Well maybe not quite but Jen and I went to the Suns game against the Wizards last night and I caught a T-shirt that was thrown. Only of note since we never get shirts thrown anywhere near us and I finally snagged one. One handed and heading up to the row above us, nice grab.

And since they won (free McDonad's fries) and scored more then 99 points (free tacos) it was a night of freebies. The dude next to me also gave me free beer, well he gave it to the bottom of my shoe but still.

Nick is going to the Detroit game since it is a day time game, though 12:30 gametime which is normally his naptime. We will have to run him in the morning so he sleeps before the game.

Today was a very nice day in Phoenix so we went to Encanto Park and visited with the family. Herb and Bev and Grandma met Nick and Elmo and I there. Plenty of ducks and water for nick to have fun with. He also enjoyed the carousal for the first time (to the tune of 5 times).

Note the new videos in the video bar. I fixed up the videos so the newest ones show up on the list (latest 4). Otherwise you can go to this link

http://www.youtube.com/user/anthonyandresen

to see all of the videos that are up. I won't necessarily put the videos up on the main part of the blog so keep your eyes peeled on the video bar.

Enjoy the animal noises.

Mom and Dad were a bit nervous about the pool and Nick. So Mom found a great solution that doesn't make the backyard look closed in but offers all the security of a fence. Enter the Katchakid net. The idea is the kid would get caught in the net (and thus be unhappy about it) and be unable to get to the water and drown. The netting is small enough that the kid cannot get their head through. No child drownings have happened on any house equipped with the net so the track record is good.

This is what it looks like. The net is installed but not completed yet, need to do some final details that the guy didn't have the tools for.

A closer view of the netting itself and the center tensioner. I am pretty happy with the results. Note the box inside the netting, that is the alarm for disturbance in the net which signals a monitor inside the house.

Nick was pretty disheartened by the New England loss in the Super Bowl. He made himself feel better by using his new step stool to wash his hands at every possible moment.