Nick's Life: May 2011

We still read with Nick each night at bedtime, and Brandi does a good job of keeping new books in the rotation from the local library. I am more amazed each day how he can memorize things he hears. Yeah, all kids repeat things. But Brandi can read him a book once, maybe twice, and he can recite the entire story back, word for word, like he's reading it. And he reads with tone to the story. My father thinks he's reading at a third grade level already.

With Summer in Michigan comes the festival season. We went to the Wixom Founder's Festival with Bo, Robin and Mason a few weekends ago, which was a low-cost good time - fire trucks, pony rides, inflatable slides, and cheap food. Nick asks the fireman, 'Why are you a fireman?" and he replies, "Because they wouldn't let me have a gun." Nick told him he wants to be a fireman, too; he knows how to play an audience, for sure. Then we followed it up with the Orchard Lake St. Mary's Polish Festival this past weekend - bigger rides, more people (like 10,000.) The latter was rain shortened, but Nick got in a couple rides and a bag of cotton candy taller than him. He drove his first 'bumper cars' called the 'Mini-Indy', and fared about as well as poor J.R.

We're meeting more neighbors, mostly through Nick. He flags them down to say hello, particularly the kids his age, and more so those with toys that he has interest in. We spent Memorial Day by the kiddie pool of his friend Jack down the street. Jack's a great kid, about two weeks younger than Nick, and red hair that reminds me of my youth.

Nick and I watched planes from Detroit Metro one afternoon, from the top deck of the parking garage. After a half hour, the tower must've seen us there, and opened up the nearby runways to larger planes, because we got an awesome show with some large passenger jets taking off and landing over our heads.

- Jason

Nick Saves the Day

We did our part to make sure the world didn't end this weekend for seven starlings trapped in our ductwork.

We knew they were living in the vent above the second floor, as the cover had broken, and I didn't get the nest out before the family started.

We left for a festival in Wixom with Bo,

Robin and Mason, just as we started hearing scratching in the vents. When we all returned to the house later, we heard the same noise coupled with incessant chirping, and couldn't locate it at first. When our guests left, the neighbor (Mr. Steve) and I pulled the cover from the downstairs bathroom exhaust vent, and then coaxed out the birds with a wire hanger. It took two hours, several bags, and a wire hanger... we collected five babies and both parents, who had made a brave rescue effort and got stuck. With each rescue, we couldn't believe there were more. I would guess today was the first day they could walk, and unfortunately, the only place they found to wander included an 8' drop down our vent.

We used a bird house Nick built from a kit to place the babies, and hung it from the tree in the woods behind our house. It's back in their parents' court. And we get to re-clean the bathroom tomorrow.

- Jason

Nick in Chicago

We took a road trip to Chicago for a market research conference, heading to the windy city early to enjoy a family weekend. On the way, we got off the path thanks to the GPS which detoured us through scenic Gary, IN (that's sarcasm) and it's majestic shuttered steel industry, I looked at Brandi as we observed that stopping the car for any reason was not in our best interest (the highway literally dropped off a collapsed bridge), I say to Brandi, "Do we want to stop in anywhere and join the locals for dinner?" Nick yells, "NOOO!" from the backseat.

All he wanted to do was ride the "L" as it's a train that must be experienced. But we never got to it. We spent quiet a bit of time in the hotel, where he knew which floor we were on, which floor the pool was on, how to maneuver all the difference elevators, and was happy to share his knowledge with others.

We visited Navy Pier, primarily the Chicago Children's Museum. I got to enjoy lunch at Harry Caray's on the pier. Nick got the most charge out of the watercraft on Lake Michigan, especially the largest yachts.

We stopped in Valparaiso to see the house where Brandi grew up. Nick found a boy on the playground named Decklin, and played with the locals for a bit while Brandi walked the neighborhood.

He was obsessed with spotting the "Ink-ock tower" (that's the Hancock Tower) evey time we left the hotel, with its 'bunny ears' on top. We experienced all the usual stuff: ice cream, toy stores, horse-drawn carriages, and crazy people.

On our last evening, he wanted to swim in the hotel pool badly, but it was closed for repair. So we snuck in anyway. We got caught, but the attendant gave us a free pass for being bold, and locked us in so we had it to ourselves for a couple of hours. He likes jumping from the hot pool (hottub) to the cold pool again and again.

He also had his first sliders at White Castle. That was a winner.

Pics here from 2011.

- Jason