This was another 'leaps and bounds' month for Nick, as his grasp of language and communication jumped ahead. My favorite quote this month, "Life's 120, Daddy." I'm not sure why he told me this several times, but I'm going to try and live by it - can't hurt. New to the Nickabulary this month: "youmember", which is short for, 'you need to remember.' And the constant phrases, "watch this", and "I need to ask you a question." There's still occasional breakdown, though. He couldn't pull himself away from his third bowl of Lucky Charms, and I called him an "addict", to which he replied, "That's not possible, we already have an attic." And, he's singing alot more, school songs and "Mahna Mahna".We played alot more games that required the lesson of winning and losing, which of course, he does not like losing. But he shakes hands and says, "Good game," either way. We played matching card games, lots of racing around the house, and his favorite was jumping parking lot cracks while shopping.
He's very good about encouraging others, telling them they did a 'great job' or 'nice work'. We bought him headphones for his video player so he could watch videos on the long car trip to Georgia and we wouldn't need to listen as well. Rather than attaining quiet, he talks to the shows twice as much when he can't hear himself. He was very supportive of Tom Cat (from Tom and Jerry) telling him frequ
ently, "Great job, Tom!" He still travels well: quiet for a 12 hour car ride, eats good, sleeps anywhere. He's been on a Tom and Jerry, and Tweey Bird run this month for entertainment.Nick and his cousins are connecting better, too. Seth volunteered, "I think I kinda like Nick." Seth was showing him how to build airplanes from drinking straws and paper, and they actually could fly. I spent an afternoon with the guys at the remote control airfield, and most of the men don't fly a plane as well as my 7-year-old nephew.
I took Nick to his first full-length movie at the cinemas in GA; we saw The Muppets. He fell asleep for a bit in the middle, but admittedly, I felt the same way. When there was action, though, he was on it, and applauded to show his appreciation a couple times.
He had a banner Christmas, with the full tree, lots of paper snowflakes throughout the house, more toys than we had planned for, including many gracious gifts from friends and relatives. He finally got the Lionel Polar Express train, the ultimate gift. Also this month, pictures of us at the Huckleberry Railroad in Flint. (I see there's some old pics in here too, like Halloween. And the champ in the yellow shirt flying a plane is Seth, not Nick. When you see bizarre pics from the floor or zoomed in too close, that's Nick playing with the camera, frequently taking photos of himself or his trains.)
- Jason
