Nick's Twentieth Month

Nick placed his first independent phone call this month, one year after crawling over to the phone and randomly pushing buttons just to hear them beep. Fortunately, when he stole his mother's phone he called me, not Italy, so the call wasn't expensive. This is part of a continuing pattern of his increasing sociability. We're making more friends in the neighborhood now as Nick waves at every car, bike and runner that goes by.

Brandi filled out a personality inventory for Nick in one of her magazines (probably the same one where you can 'rate your mate by the color of his socks' or 'estimate your ideal % of body fat by the number of carrots you can stick in your ear' so we take the advice with caution.) It appears he is a "Spirited" child, which is one of those words you use to describe another person's kid when you really want to say 'pushy' or 'loud' or 'uncontrollable tornado.' Essentially, he's uber curious, points at things constantly wanting me to say their name, and plows through other kids like the circus folk I encounter stampeding to board an airplane in every city. (Why do people have to cram onto the plane? What is this urge to compete for space on a plane where your seat is already guaranteed and assigned?)

Joy abounds as I finally stopped being cheap and bought an industrial sprinkler that will water my entire yard from one spot. Nick loves it - sticking his head in the streams, runnning under the water. It has a lifetime warranty, so he can take it to college with him. He's also back in the pool this summer, of which I have yet to post videos. He got his first skinned knee this month by racing around the pool and nosediving into some unforgiving concrete. He bled a little, brushed it off, and kept on trucking. Didn't slow him down.

Favorite new foods this month: barbeque chips, sloppy joes, and bratwurst.

I went away for a few days for business travel, and he sprouted while I was gone. He walked up to me when I returned, looked me in the eye, and explained to me... well, something I couldn't understand. But it felt like I got my first lecture. He's now very direct with his conversation. Tonite in the car, we pulled out of the driveway, and he asked, "Where are we going?" I'm not ready for full sentences yet; my reaction felt like immense surprise as if the neighbor's dog would have asked me for more treats in plain English - just hard to believe that's Nick already talking.

And he can find his belly button!

Click here for 20th month pictures.

- Jason

Summer 2008 in Atlanta

Brandi & Nick went to Atlanta for ten days, celebrating a 50th Anniversary for the Nicholsons, 50th Birthday for her Dad, and 50 diapers a day from the multitude of children in the house (ok, not fair to Seth, who is potty trained, but you get the idea - plenty of pandemonium with all of the activities.) It's amazing to me that each week Nick spends with Seth he returns home obviously more advanced. Hanging with the big kids, he picks up new tricks. There are some great pictures here of the older boys riding in shopping carts together, playing video games, and wrestling with the dogs. In six months, Thatcher will be added to the mix, as he will be old enough to jump into the pile (and probably large enough to take out the older two. My brother-in-law is going to need a second job to feed the toddler - he eats twice as much as Nick at the same age. Yikes!) The gang also visited the Atlanta Aquarium, plenty of playground trips, and of course, daily runs to the grocery store. I had quite the lifestyle adjustment at home as I fended for myself, while Brandi took her awesome home cooking on the road for a week. But not to worry, my return to bachelorhood tactics assured my survival.

Click here for pictures from the trip.

- Jason

Nick's Nineteenth Month

Like his dad, Nick continues to add to his car collection (two big-kid toys and the new Chrysler, of course, his favorite). But you can't just let a rookie driver take off with the new car, so Brandi found him a gently used Cozy Coupe from the 1980's (he loves the classics). Interesting that the first time he approaches any car he checks the tires, as if to gauge the tire pressure. When he was just old enough to walk, he must remember me checking air in all the car tires with my new air pump, so he knows that's important. When he's in a parking lot, he runs around knocking on all the tires. I'm going to teach him to check the oil next. Brandi also bought him a tee-ball set. We're starting with bunting, because it's a lost art that needs to be stressed early (right before switch-hitting). And he loves toy lawnmowers. At a recent party, he monopolized the toy mower from the other kids (and even got a little pushy about it - thank you for sharing your toys with us, Evan, and I'm sorry!)

Nick's love for music doesn't stop at singing and the piano. He randomly breaks into dancing while watching TV, or hearing Brandi's music box. His dancing reminds us of the elephant in Aladdin, but there's video for you to be the judge. Apparently rhythm is a genetic thing, because he's never seen us dance. (Nick taught Brandi this dance, not the other way around.) He started jamming in his car seat when I played the new Kid Rock CD. My boy, made in Detroit.

Nick went strawberry picking at the beginning of the month with his mama and family. He quickly figured out filling his bucket with berries went much faster if he just thieved the berries from other people's buckets. Everyone stayed in order, picking and eating a little along the way, while Nick rotated between picking, running through the fields to the furthest corners of Petersburg, and moving the farmer's marker flags. A big thanks to Mr. Steuwe for letting the family pick all morning and having the field to themselves (my plug for Steuwe Farms, in Petersburg, MI.) I made myself sick on strawberry shortcake, and Brandi made homemade strawberry jam, which we ate with almost every meal for 2 weeks. Absolutely awesome.

Least favorite food of the month: avocados. I concur. Yuck! But we did take him out for some good Mexican, and there was nothing he turned down - not even the spicy stuff. He now gets steak Gorditas from Taco Bell as a reward, and he eats the entire thing.

Since this is a blog about the family, and not just Nick, Brandi earned a story this month. At a July 4th party with our gang from school, Stephanie had a video on her phone of Brandi riding the mechanical bull at the local bar, Whiskey Ranch, a few weeks earlier. It's a little dark to view, but I posted it anyway, because events in life that are a great story and a great memory are priceless and worth sharing. Apparently the word is out - invite the Mantels if you're looking to liven up the party. Can you believe that?

And finally, mark the day: July 21st. Either this was the exclusive preview to the terrible twos, or they've already started. In one day, he nearly pulled a dresser down on his head, climbed up on a table 4 feet in the air, knocked over the dehumidifier on himself and almost pulled a light fixture from the ceiling. All remodeling is officially on hold until the destruction is complete.

Click here for 19th month pictures.

- Jason

Baseball Weekend, June 2008

The guys and I renewed our summer baseball ritual from the 80's and 90's, only this time instead of watching the Reds play in Cincinnati, we followed them to Yankee Stadium, my first trip to the Big Apple.The crowds took some adjustment, as did the reek of sewage, high humidity, teeth-jarring subway trains, and cramped airport (Laguardia was like a rabbit farm on the way out of town, as cancelled flights caused people to pile up in the terminal with fewer exiting than arriving.) But let no one tell you that folks out east are rude - I encountered some awesome folks during the trip (the girl from Australia, the bartender from Ireland...) Seriously, except for the jerk bartender in "Charley O's" bar (avoid that Sunday afternoon shift at the bar on Broadway), everyone was great.

The memory I will most take away from this trip is Brad's jumping on the wrong subway train for south Manhattan, the door closing, and him being rushed away while the rest of us stood there and watched. We connected later, but watching him be helplessly carried away was a chuckle. Since our phones were working only sporadically underground, I sent my first text message ever, in desperation to find our lost friend. It said, "beers @ eamonns, murray @ church - come find us." We watched four innings on the big screen before he arrived.

Of course traveling means eating non-stop. We covered "Mickey Mantle's" along Central Park, Moxie's Deli for a multiple-pound Pastrami, the "Brooklyn Diner" for awesome thin crust pizza, and a great little Irish pub or two, our favorite being "Eamonn's" in central Manhattan.

I also saw my first Broadway play, "November", starring Nathan Lane. Very talented man, and great entertainment for anyone, but especially if you love a little twist on your politics (is there such as thing as 'untwisted politics?') Best quote from the play: "There are no solutions. Only rearranging of problems." I recommend it, although it's closing in July. Best part of Broadway? The blonde aussie I met in the ticket line who gave me her reviews of all the shows she'd seen in a week.

Finally, I did a little 'tourist' round of visiting the Ground Zero site and memorial, and walking down to the park to see Lady Liberty from a distance. We also played catch in Central Park one afternoon.

I came home with a $3 T-Shirt from a street peddler, and a lot of great memories (and only about 15 hours of sleep in 3 days.)

Click here for photos from the trip.

- Jason

Nick's Eighteenth Month

Nick is getting into rhymes and games now. Mama taught him 'Patty Cake' and 'Ring around the Rosy'. For the first one, he can 'mark it with a B' by drawing a B in his hand. For the second, he flops on the floor like John Barry at the word 'around' (an NBA player known for flopping fouls, for the pointless-sports-trivia-challenged folks.) He's also learning rhythm, when we sing in the car, and taps his hands to the beat. Brandi plays her boombox frequently, so his favorite tunes to sing along are from Sara Evans. His singing still sounds a little like the 'Chinese Top 40', but as far as just talking, his current vocabulary contains Ball, Up, Bird, Mama, Daddy, Chocolate, and Juice. (This must be how the writers for Star Trek came up with all those langaues.) Want to hear his opinion on things? Check out the video at right where he's jumping on the bed and talking up a storm.

All those toddler TV shows I thought were so cute 6 months ago, I now find myself mocking behind Nick's back. "Just save the damn squirrel, already!" I shout, as the Wonder Pets fart around singing and carrying on, taking a half hour to perform the daring rescue in their flying red Frisbee. Mama has her hands full containing us both. All those people who create outlandish warped videos on YouTube, making a mockery of innocent children's shows? I now understand these people - they are crazy parents desperately trying to get the theme from 'Barney' out of their heads.

Most of us don't remember the cro-magnon urges from our youth, but we are quickly reminded by seeing our children come across something that rivals the greatest things of all creation - like Spicy Chili Doritos - and watching them shove their mouths full until they choke. The 'too much of a good thing' lesson comes early in life. Favorite new food this month is a grilled cheese sandwich.

The pictures this month feature some shots of his 'happy Chinaman' smile, which isn't so much his squinting in joy as it is the 'scorch the retinas from your skull' flashbulb on our old camera. It makes for cute pictures, so we use it on occasion. (If his eyesight starts fading in his twenties, I'm gonna feel guilty about this moment.) Mama bought him a toddler pool for outdoors on hot days. She was so eager to introduce him to the pool, we rushed him into it the first weekend for pictures. He wanted no part of the pool, or at least not while there was a broom to push around. He played with the broom for an hour - naked, of course - and barely wet his bottom in the pool.

Brandi made us some homemade Halushka (or sometimes known as Polish Palushki) from her grandmother's recipe. Nick and I both enjoyed those, and she hit the recipe right-on the first time she made it. Good stuff!

He's been snuggling up to us for awhile now, but is finally giving all-out hugs just this month. There is nothing better in life (not even Buffalo & Ranch Doritos, although Nick might disagree.)

Click here for pictures from Nick's 18th Month.

- Jason

PS: You'll find one stray picture in the link this month - of Joanae's little boy. Collin Greenawalt, welcome to life.