Nick's Thirty-Second Month

Nick is beginning to use the computer, with simple clicks to replay the videos he loves. YouTube increased their traffic heavily this month just from Nick. He loves music videos, like 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley, and any videos of planes or helicopters or hot air balloons. But what tops them all is chickens. We found a video of muppet chickens, and he requests it frequently with 'more chickens!' He's understanding now when he sees himself on video, and he covers his eyes. His favorite word this month is, 'look!' I put shortcuts here for him to find the videos, so the favorites are linked here on the blog.

We're playing more basketball on his small hoop in the house, while I repair the real backboard outside that has deteriorated from 30 years of use. I love it when he blows on the ball for good luck before he shoots, and then he nails a basket and yells, 'score!' He's now learned to consistently boo the word 'Red Sox' on site, and we're working on a photo of Woody Hayes next. :) The favorite new toy this month is his little red-and-yellow dump truck, which he quickly broke in two, and now carries the pieces everywhere, including to bed. Inside, he and mama build forts from blankets and couch cushions.

Favorite foods this month: orange juice, silly straws, knockwurst and sunflower seeds (known as sunflower treats.) More made-up words this month, for you to work on your 'Nick-cabulary'. 'Cheese cot sauce' is barbeque sauce; 'Bluenocerous' is the blue rhino float toy in the pool; 'yellow-gold trumpet' appears to be a gold finch (he knows robins and cardinals on sight.)

The video of him running around in a cape yelling 'super bunny' is something from one of his television shows. Mama made him a cape from a pillow case when she saw him pretending. He also picked up 'One potato, two potato' from TV, and will do so whenever you put your fists out.

He outran me on a walk down the street last week; thank goodness for the distraction of dandelions that stopped him cold for me to catch up. Really, they're the fluffy white 'weeds' that he blows all of the seeds off. I don't let him roll in the mud outside as much as his mama, who takes him to stomp in the puddles intentionally, and chase toads in the yard. I'm more into cleaning the red dump truck.

We took him to the open house at State Line School, where I attended for several years 30-some years ago (and as you can image, they still remembered me by name when Brandi called the school). He marched into the classroom for 4-year-olds, called out every shape on the wall, every color, and finished with his rundown of 'plus, minus, times, divided-by'. So intellectually, he can run with the group twice his size. But I assured the teacher we would not be enrolling him without a few more months of seasoning, as when it came time to leave and peel him from the train set in the classroom, he melted down in red-faced tears and anger that lasted another 30-minutes after we left. Not to worry, he'll grow out of it. By the time he's 24 or so.

Click here for pictures from his 32nd month.

- Jason

Nick's 2009 Summer Swimming

Summer finally arrived in Michigan, with some hot days in August. Nick spends alot of time in the pool, swimming, sliding and floating. With his turtle lifevest to help him stay above the surface, he can now climb the slide, rocket downward, bounce up from under the water, and swim to the ladder, all on his own (the video was an early shot). It took about 2 days from his reintroduction since last summer, to claiming his independence on the low backyard seas. He navigates all corners of the pool on his own, even swimming in the deep end (but I suppose when you're only 3 feet tall, it's all deep.). He's not just floating; he's kicking and paddling. And there's no peaceful end to swim time - he never wants to come out, no matter how shriveled and blue he gets. He calls his swimsuit his 'sharksuit'. Of course, because it sounds tougher.

Nick's Thirty-First Month

Nick now knows his right from his left, although like using his fingers to count, he probably needs his feet to tell the difference. We practice right and left each time he puts on his shoes.

This month, he's been given clearance to climb to and from the crib. We removed one side, replacing it with a 8-inch high bumper, and put a step for him to get out freely. With that, we secured the entire room by removing everything from the walls that would be enticing to climb, turning face-to-the-wall the furniture that he could use for climbing, and gating off the closet and door to exit the room. Still somehow, he pulled drawers from the lower dresser one day, carried them to the door, stacked them, and climbed over the gate. I know this because his mother had gated him in with gates 6-feet high when I came home from work that night. And he's broken one gate so far. He knows to stay in his bed at night time, but jumps out at daybreak and throws open the door to his room, yelling, "Happy Day, Mama!"

One of our father-to-son bonding activities is sharing a yummy bowl of ice cream. He still calls out loud, "ice cream!" after each bite. It's the one thing I can lure him with almost every time. Favorite new foods this month: tomato soup, Mama's homemade chicken soup, and western hash browns (known as 'potato noodles'). Mama made him an angel food cake, too, which he declared as, "Best cake ever!"

With linguistic perfection still on the horizon, we've been slow to correct some of his 'close but not quite' interpretations because they're just too darn entertaining. When he says 'music', it still sounds like 'moose tits'. And he calls his vitamins, 'Spider Mans' since the two sounded similar (but coincidentally there's old Spidey on the bottle, too.) He seems to be getting louder with age. Some days, he yells so much, he's hoarse for a couple days (which can be a pleasant alternative on occasion, I admit.)

I don't think we've spent money on a 'new' toy in months. He gets some re-treads from the resale shop (like his John Deere tractor), and is content with many of my old toys recovered from the attic. An old bag of spools (yes, those little wood cylinders for thread) have entertained him for almost two weeks. In one video, you'll see he built a microphone and began introducing us like a TV talk show (perhaps from days of endless footage of Walter Cronkite on TV; thank goodness we didn't let him watch any Michael Jackson coverage). He also loves his Tinkertoys, which he calls, 'back-togethers' because whatever is torn apart, he wants put back together. He's also coloring and painting more, with water paints. He makes paintings of his own hands (with his hands), and paints his face, his ears and anything withing 5 feet of the brush (not on the paper, literally paints ON them.) On his own, he paints, 'rocket trails' and 'happy faces'.

Favorite books this month: "The Grouchy Ladybug," and Dr. Seuss' "Sneeches" (which he calls Sneechers). He insists, "Read it again!"

One morning he awoke early while I was getting ready for work; I opened the bathroom door so he could see me at the sink from down the hall (sitting at the gate in his doorway). I shaved while we talked. That evening, he wandered off, down to the half-bath, climbed up to the sink, turned on water, and was splashing his face with both hands, as if to shave. That just amazes me.

Click here for 31st month pictures.

- Jason

Nick's Thirtieth Month

Nick is forming a more definitive personality, with likes and dislikes, and the need to express those preferences frequently, and in loud decibels. He picks the music he likes by requesting, 'push button' when he wants a song changed, or repeated. I've had about enough Taylor Swift for awhile.

We won some new projects with John Deere at work, and appropriately, Brandi found a Deere tractor at the resale shop about the same time. It's a peddler, but he prefers to push it around. These toys are a brilliant idea - brand loyalty starts young.

Having children has taught me many life lessons. Lately I've noticed life really is constructed of more "no's" than "yes's" in general. There's very few things you CAN do that are safe and socially acceptable. But there's a ton of things you can't do that you just come to conform (or concede) as an adult: you can't stick cereal in your ears, you can't lick the TV set, you can't draw on yourself with a ballpoint pen, you can't take off your clothes on a neighborhood walk (well you could, but it doesn't always help your standing in the neighborhood. Unless you're smokin' hot, of course. Appropriate exceptions to every rule.)

Nick uses 'Jedi mind tricks' to charm others to his way of thinking. He asks the question in an awkward way, ("Are we going to the playground?") to get you to ask him what he wants, ("Do you want to go to the playground, Nick?"), then he replies with a resounding "OK!" as if to suggest it was your idea to go to the playground. Charm and psychology. He is just about conversational now, with complete sentences, and he only doesn't understand you when he chooses not to.

Nick is all about being a little helper now. He walked over to the dehumidifier when we had it apart, and voluntarily put the screen back on it, declaring, 'Tah-dah!' He knows to throw wrappers away in the garbage when he finds them. He even tries to help Grandpa mow the lawn.

We went to the zoo for an afternoon. We couldn't get him on the train at first, then couldn't get him off of it. He was pumping his fists, yelling 'choo choo!' for the entire audience. He wasn't real impressed with the carousel, and some of the animals were unimpressive. Loved the elephants, and the bears. His favorite part was birdwatching, of course. Once inside the bird house, he started naming them on site. He got small toy binoculars in a happy meal of some sort, and his first thought was 'birdwatching!' On his birdwatching TV show, they say, 'Be very still, and very quiet,' which he repeats to us frequently when he wants us to tune into his needs.

Favorite foods this month: smarties and sweetarts, Great-Grandma Little's jam and peanut butter on crackers, and Goldfish pretzels. And don't try to sneak an unauthorized soda past him; generic soda won't work, and he doesn't like Pepsi... Mountain Dew only.

Favorite book this month: 'The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat'. Actually, I love this book, too.

We got some swim time in with the warm weather this past week. He wears the same styrofoam floatie I wore as a toddler, and is content to float around on his own. He had a floating chair from last summer, which lasted about an hour, then we realized he was sinking quickly. Turns out there was a weight limit and he exceed it, ripping a hole clean through the side, not just leaking air slowly, but sinking speed like the Titanic.

A few nights ago while I was telling someone how well he's been sleeping, Brandi called to tell me that a 45 minute struggle had ensued in my absence, as he was hopping in and out of the crib furiously, with no sign of tiring. I came home, and had to lay along side the crib like a gate keeper, until he fell asleep. His room has been stripped of anything dangerous, and we put a gate outside the door in case he tries to escape. We're in that middle ground where he knows how to jump from the crib, unlock doors, find car keys, and it wouldn't surprise me if he could load the car and drive to the McD's for nuggets without us, but still doesn't know it's a dangerous world out there.

Click here for 30th month pictures.

- Jason

Nick's Twenty-Ninth Month

Nick loves money, but then again, who doesn't? And it's indeed all about 'how much?' OK, so he really doesn't understand what it is yet, or how it covers the diaper and Cheerios budget, but he will sit for an hour with the piggy bank and put coins in, and dump them out, over and over. He knows the names of the coins, too.

Brandi decided one evening she was tired of playing kid's games, and would teach Nick to play SlapJack! It turned out to be more like SmearJack, or ThrowJack, or ScatterJack. I guess this concept is still a little tricky for a two-year-old. Honestly, she said I wasn't doing it right either - I don't know how to flip them right. She was just upset that we were smokin' her at her own game.

Finally, some TV that doesn't melt the brain. Uncle Fayling made Nick a video from NASA clips, with shuttle launches and landings, rockets and space video. He loves it, and thank goodness - something we can watch together. With his love for airplanes, we were flipping the TV between SportsCenter and Jack's Big Music Show one morning, and came across the classic flick, "Airplane '79 - The Concorde". He was glued to that lousy 'B' movie for two hours, and got upset when commercials came on. It's hard to remember a time when Eddie Albert could anchor a feature film.

All kids have made-up words. Some of my favorites, from Nick's ever-moving lips to my tired ears: 'meno, meno, meno' which is him saying, 'mine, mine, mine.' And 'goolicious' which is his word for 'delicious'. And he says, 'thaaaaaaank-YOU!' when he takes something from you - the humor is in the inflection. He also says, 'there you go!' an awful lot. He's very good about using 'please' and 'thank you' and 'I'm sorry'.

His grandpa bought him a tricycle, which cost more than the ten-speed bike I purchased new in 1983. He's actually figured out how to pedal before understanding how to steer, so there have been a few minor collisions.

He was high above the ground in a jungle gym at the playground, where there were pictures of all sorts of things stuck on the wall. There was a young lady there with other children who appeared to be a teacher. After Nick astutely observed the apple, the worm, and the book, she pointed to the can of beans in the picture. So, of course, he didn't just say 'can', he said, 'beans'. "Did he just read that?" she asked. Sure looked that way.

He's into the big tubby now, having outgrown the laundry room utility sink. He loves playing in the tub, and hates having tub time end. And like always, he's a ham for the camera, even in the tub. Although, not as much as he loves taking pictures of himself. I included one of his many self portraits this month. Thank goodness the days of expensive film are long ago.

Click here for 29th month pictures.

- Jason