Nick's Acting Debut

I mentioned Nick's acting gig for my project at work, and thought I'd share a couple photos from the shoot. The first one is of Nick showing them how he chugs a bottle of water (not part of the script, he volunteered that during a break), and the second is Nick doing his homework at the kitchen bar. Fortunately my office is a full-service facility, and we were able to simulate every room in a typical house from inside our building. As the casting director, I'm biased when I say we had great actors! He took to his Hollywood family like they'd always been there, eager to entertain.  We've finally published a generic version of the video for marketing and sales, accessible here.  Enjoy!

Nick's Life: October 2012

Nick's Uncle Jason came to visit this month, and Nick ended up with an xBox 360 gaming console. Turns out I play it more than he does (not all that much yet) but it does have some awesome car racing games (where we can actually race cars we own, and wreck them without guilt), and Nick is getting into airplane simulation. We also got outside to the pumpkin patch at Long's Farm, with apples and cider.

We visited the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum early in the month, where Nick got to play with educational games, and make candles.

He's started telling good jokes this month: "What do you call a cow with three legs?  Lean beef."  "What do you call a cow with no legs?  Ground beef."   And the whistling isn't as annoying now as others can recognize the tunes.

His grandpa grew him pumpkins in the back yard again this year, which he named Mr. Brown Stem, Judy, and Henry. We went 'trick-or-treat' in our neighborhood again, with Jack and his mom, and other kids. They had us over for hot dogs as a starter, before the candy consumption began.  Nick ate alot, but he never got sick. He dressed as a Shark this year, consistent with every book and TV show we've been watching the past month. The books we're reading now on sea life are way past kids' level (like, I can't pronounce half the words) but he can't get enough of them.

We shot a video at work for use with our eCommunity practice, and Nick was a star. We needed a young kid, so I volunteered him to help out.  The director asked if he was a hired actor. He was very cooperative, staged himself perfectly, and took immediately to his 'Hollywood family', two of my coworkers who are better looking than Nick's real parents. It happed to be the Halloween celebration at work, and he wore his shark costume for part of the day.  His best show is when he lays down on the ground, face down, to simulate a real swimming shark. He's become a mascot of sorts at work, where I've seen his picture spreading all over the office.

One day he looks at his chest and says, "What are all these cracks?" referring to his purple veins. (The Red Cross is going to be all over him, too.) We were wrestling in the house, and barked at me, "Stop or I'll strike!" which is from a snake story we've read. 

Pictures this month, as we get ready to close out year five!

- Jason

Nick's Life: September 2012

I looked forward to that father-son bonding moment where I steadied him on his bike absent training wheels, running behind him down the driveway cheering on his accomplishment, giant grin of paternal satisfaction. No such Kodak moment with Nick.  He basically hopped on the neighbor's bike, and rode off. They spent an entire summer practicing with their son, and then Nick comes along and acts like he didn't even notice the training wheels were gone. We had a mini-ritual of removing the training wheels from his bike, and then he rode off. The braking lesson took a little longer, but he had that down in about an hour.

Early in the month we flew kites at Kensington Metropark. He and mama both had their own kites, and we flew them for two hours on a perfect afternoon. He picked up quickly how to manage the string and keep a kite in the air.  We also participated in the Milford Duck Race where we bought a little rubber duck and watched it run down the small river (while avoiding being stepped on by the local idiots.)

When Nick is tired, he's done.  One picture this month is of him falling asleep while balanced between the couch and table.  But he always finds the energy for Gymnastics class.  He runs poor Coach Megan pretty ragged, then runs over to her at the end of class, and tells her, "You did good, Coach Megan," blows her a kiss, and she blushes. He's starting to wield charm as a weapon. There's a little girl named Zoey in his gymnastics, and kindergarten class at school. One of those kids at five years old where you think, he could marry this one if he wants. He'll be courting her with petal showers soon, I'm sure (where he pulls pedals from roses and tosses them over your head.)  Unlike the little boy who crowded him in line, which Nick plastered him over the head with his cafeteria tray. The kids are required to draw a picture of their misbehavior, and Nick drew two stick figures with trays over their heads, in battle (his drawing continues to impress me). He explains the lesson learned as, "First you tell the teacher. If that doesn't work, then WHAM!"  I'm working with him, trying to delay or eliminate the second phase of his approach.

Other firsts: tie-up laces on tennis shoes, but when he ties them wrong and his mama corrects him, he tells her, "No, honey, it's like this." He had his first sleep over, at William's house. He also learned to whistle this month (and won't stop, even with his mother threatening to pummel him... whistles during dinner, during TV, in the tub, in bed.)  He has his first loose tooth, a little early. 
He's almost the same height that I was at 6 years old, about four months early, and he's in pants that fall off his waist becase his legs are so long, pants that fit him have a waist for an eight-year-old. At the doctor for his latest vaccinations, he tells the nurse, "I like shots just a little bit, I'm tough."  Then switches his story when the needle appears to, "I do NOT like shots."

- Jason

Nick's Life: August 2012

Nick started calling us Dad and Mom this month, on our mini-vacation, so Daddy and Mama are no longer.  The word of the month is 'sure'. I rarely get a "yes" anymore, usually getting a, "sure thing," or, "sure, sure," or "sure do!"  And the word, "what."  If we ask him a question and he doesn't know the answer, he replies with 'what?'  (Reminds us of Dave Chappelle and the Lil John impressions, but most of you will shake your head at those if you don't know Lil John.)

He started kindergarten as we posted this entry, which was an adventure of adults messing up the simple things: lunches not ready, putting him on the bus when he was not supposed to be, wrong paper forms, directing us to people whose name the administrators didn't know ("go see the girl at such-and-such a building, I can't remember her name.")  He seems to be adjusting better than the clueless adults running the operation.

We took a short trip to St.Louis with stops along the way.  The end desination was Carrie and Brian's home, where we went to the Science Museum for a day, and saw an awesome IMAX movie about the Canadian Pacific steam trains of years ago.  Nick got to play with Brian's remote control planes and cars, and we spent a lot of time in the basement playing ping pong and fooseball.  Along the way we say the world's largest windchime, stopped in Toledo, IL, picked up wine from random wineries in small towns, and saw the Mid America Corvette Museum.  We were bummed the steam train museum we went to see was closed.

We saw quite a few car shows this month, including the Midwest Mustang show at Ford World Headquarters, and cruised at the Woodward Dream Cruise. We drove the Shelby down to the latter, for a couple of hours in the morning and evening -- it was my first time, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  I estimated fuel economy of about 4 MPG on the trip up and down the strip, and it was worth every drop.

This month, we built a single-passenger fighter jet from a cardboard box (pictured here), and more planes and trains from cardboard tubes and such.

Plenty of pictures here.

- Jason

Nick's Life: July 2012

We made a summer trip to Pennsylvania to visit Brandi's family.  Along the Ohio Turnpike, having passed three rest areas that looked very similar, from the backseat comes, "Wait a minute!  We're driving in circles!"  We stopped along the way at the Cuyahoga Train Station and rode a real Diesel Train (which Nick "liked a little" but it wasn't a Steam Train.) Not the scenic route they claim it is, given most of the view is dense wilderness and the Akron sewage tile.  The days in Huntingdon were filled with time at Paesano's and relaxing by the pool... and lots of eating.  Uncle Andy took us for an evening ride on his pontoon, and Nick caught his first fish (bass); he also swam in Lake Raystown.

With the extreme heat, we've been in the pool nearly every weekend, and even sneaking down during the week.  The days of floating devices are behind Nick, as he swims without them, going underwater, somersaults and even diving from the poolside into the deep end.  One evening his grandpa jumped in with him and taught him how to dive - one of those moments I bet he will remember. The independence revolution continues, from showering on his own, to saving money for the things he wants by doing his chores: making his bed, clearing the dinner table, and emptying the trash.

This month's obsession, and artistic focus, has been under the ocean, paricularly with sharks, or anything that's a 'predator' (wolves, praying mantis).  Perfect timing for the Discovery network to play Shark Week.  There's a picture of Nick in the car with a whale and shark heads on poles, which he notes, "This shark is a paper predator."  It's those HD sharks that swim out of the TV that make him nervous.  Also happy he's expanding his TV interests to shows we can all enjoy.  Surprisingly, a version of the Jungle Book from 1942 had him glued to the tube.

Brandi found some huge rolls of drawing paper at the Ikea and we're going through it quickly.   'Experiments' have been big this month, messing with baking soda or taping pieces of whatever together to see what he can create.  We're saving everything from cardboard rolls to tissue boxes and egg boxes now for him to assemble into something new.

Lots of pictures this month from our adventures.

- Jason