Nick's Halloween 2009

This was a real Halloween for Nick, trick-or-treating through our neighborhood one last time. He handed out 'gorgeous' candy (his adjective) early in the evening, then went to four houses with mama before saying, "I'm done" and they came home. He and I went back out for a good mile lap with Aunt Amber and Joseph the Bumblebee. Nick was Caesar, with branches on his head, and a toga. Now, he'd been wearing a sheet around the house all week proclaiming to be a ghost, then decided against it an hour before showtime. So mama whipped out scissors, halved the sheet, and he became a Roman Emperor instead.

He charmed them at every house, counting pumpkins, and being himself. One house he proclaimed, 'look at the Jeep!' while the other kids were lining up for candy. The owner was flattered. Then he found two teenage girls on a stoop, and swindled them for about 6 or so pieces before I peeled him away. He sniffed the flowers by their porch and pretended to sneeze, then sat down next to them and began telling them about the purple pumpkin he just saw. He was calling out the costumes of other kids as they walked by: lions, scary ghosts, and others I can't remember. At one house, he ran up to their bonfire yelling, "Fire! Oh my gosh!" He stopped short, and began blowing on it as if to extinguish it. More young girls in attendance, more bonus candy.

We concluded the evening with a massive poo about one mile from the house (he's just 'this close' to being potty trained, but the ten packs of starburst before we started must have broke him loose.) We were at a familiar neighbor, who had a diaper handy. Good thing that was this year's experience. When we're in a new neighborhood next year, borrowing diapers from strangers doesn't make the best first impression.

Pictures from Halloween with this month's pics.

- Jason

Nick's Thirty-Fourth Month

Coins now have true meaning and value to Nick. We worked with him for months on the differences between the various coins, and he only ever called them coins. Then at the store, he says, "I need quarters for jelly beans." Jelly beans are the Skittles, or anything else, the store marketers place at the exits to usurp loose change from parents via their pleading children. Fortunately, we carry cheaper candy on us in case of such an emergency. But amazingly, he now knows the value of a quarter.

There's no better place to play than the cemetery. I've been a visitor on occasion over the years to 'share a beer' with my grandfather, and I've not visited much since Nick was born. So I took him along, which he refers to as, 'have an eer' at, 'the flower garden.' It's actually pretty awesome: clean, quiet, a nice fountain, plenty of flowers for Nick to pretend to sniff and sneeze, and he collects 'Amerigo Flags' (his word for American Flags, which might even be more historically proper than what we call them) from the veteran's plots. (Yes, I put them all back right behind him!)

Sometimes he'll rattle off a paragraph like a CNN pundit, and other times the tongue twisters get the best of him. He gave up on, "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite." His shortened version is, "Goodnight bugs." And his made up words this month are: eye browns (brows), baloney (blowing) winds, and when things are ruined he calls them 'bruined' (between that and booing the Red Sox, I hope the poor kid never has to live in Boston or I will have wrecked his ability to conform to society.)

Favorite foods this month: string cheese, barbeque chips, and bagels (he eats them from the outside-in.)

The new game this month is Dominos, which he loves to stack and count and knock down. They're relatively enjoyable for the adult involved, except he loves the sound of the word, so he repeats it 500 times while he plays (like staccato DAH'-mi-nose). He also loves rolling the basketball across the fireplace step, trying not to hit any obstacles. His mother started this, and when I played the first time with him, he explained the rules to me ('Roll it; no hitting obstacles; there you go!) I'm just incredibly impressed with this language skills. He addresses me sometimes by my first and last name, which is a chuckle. He has unlimited energy, and once he starts running, can make laps through the house indefinitely.

He's been waking up in the night a little more lately. One night, when I went into his room at 3 AM, he was insistent we needed to go to the parade. I read him a short story as a compromise, then he started correcting me when I was reading it wrong in the dark (he had the words memorized.) Then the next night, he was in tears for two hours over the 'sparkleberry tree'. That's the only word I could understand through the sobbing, so I can't fix that, obviously. Turns out it's a sad story online from one of the videos he watches about two little airplanes saving a tree on some public television show. YouTube is warping him! He'll sit in front of the computer until you peel him away, clicking through videos for hours. Last night, I heard 'C is for Cookie' non-stop during two loads of laundry. I miss the old stuff, which was a little more interesting to adults. Remember the 'mystery box' with Kermit and Cookie? I always laugh when Cookie Monster says, "arrivederci, frog".

New pictures for Month 34 - click here. Picture above is from grandpa's garden, with pumpkins for Nick, and tomatoes. He decorated the punkins with marker for Halloween,

-Jason