Nick's Life: January 2011

From the back seat, we passed a few restaurants in the car, and I hear, "I need some food back here!" It's a massive growth spurt as he eats me from house and home. Favorite foods this month: Oatmeal-raisin cookies or granola bars, fish sticks, and amazingly, he will eat peas. All better than the half jar of peanut butter and full bag of lime tortilla chips that backed up his plumbing for days.

He's polishing some great skills in preparation for college. He consumes pixie dust (remember the sugar-packed cardboard tubes?) from a shot glass, and you'd swear by his technique that's he's slamming them. While eating at the IHOP, he raised his glass to get the attention of the wait staff, and ordered another drink. He placed his first indepedent order one evening at the Taco Bell. He got up from the table, announcing, "I'm going to get another Gordita. Be right back." So I handed him $5, and he went up and did his thing. Oh, did the register girl ever think that was cute.

Children speak in terms of the obvious, reminding us all of simple life. When I ask him what the picture he just painted is, he looks at me like I'm clueless and says, "It's paint, Daddy." And he's altering my vocabulary permanently with things like "poo quarters" which is Nick's perferred currency - whenever he has a dry day (left over from potty training) he gets a quarter. He got reduced from the initial dollar-each train cars due to recessionary conditions.

We did some sledding in our yard with all the snow (he's a great help with shoveling), and we went to an outdoor ice sculpture festival in Plymouth, on a night when it was zero degrees.

I don't know what the race is to be older, but he's suddenly telling everyone he's 5. I can't remember my own age, and his mother is lopping them off as fast as he's adding them on. You wonder why we Dads can't keep anything straight.

Beginning this month, no more titling the posts by month... I feel foolish refering to his life in terms of months, not that he'll be in school in the coming weeks. So new naming convention going forward!

- Jason

Nick's Forty-Eighth Month

Nick got some great toys for Christmas with stops in Temperance, Cincinnati and Atlanta, all the usual trains, planes, and cars, with some new blimps and submarines to mix it up a little. I didn't think, "Bumping up to the buffer cars (which means coupling the train cars)" was legit, but he didn't make it up - that's really what they say.

Fayling and I took the three boys to the Jumpy Place (indoor playground) since it was as cold in Atlanta as in Detroit (29 degrees, both cities, except Atlanta had more snow). I'm buying the boys slushes, and when I turn, my brother-in-law has shoved Seth into a hurricane-simulation machine. He swaps out Setch for Thatcher, neither of which likes it much, then we toss in Nick, who just loves 90 MPH winds.

Between my nephew Seth with the constant, 'Hey, Mantel, watch me do...' and Nick starting every sentence with, 'I need my...' they overwhelm me. Nick considers everything to be his. Oh, he's polite. For example, he'll look at Seth who would be drinking a soda, and say, "Seth, may I please have my soda?" Oh so subtle, that the world belongs to him. Of all the things we've taught Nick, nothing has proven tougher than the difference between "I" and "You", "Mine" and "Yours". Any ideas?

He still won't answer a direct question most of the time, until forced to do so. While it frustrates me, he's pretty smart to play that card as long as he can. Think kids aren't susceptible to every day marketing? He looked at me one evening, from several minutes of silence, and asked, "Daddy, help me get a credit card?" I asked what he needed it for, and he replied, "To buy Seth a train!" So he know it's for purchases, and if he claims it's for someone else (Seth has no interest in trains) he's got a better shot at cooperation.

When he's mad at his mother, he will just ignore her, sometimes for hours (until he wants something.) When he has to speak to her, though, he knows he can't tell her she's 'bad' or 'wrong' so instead he calls her 'young'. Don't know how that came about, but when I hear, "You're so young, mama," I know someone's been in trouble.

Pics from 2010 on Flickr.

- Jason

Nick in California

Brandi, Nick and I took a short weekend vacation to California for some much needed time away. They flew in from Atlanta, and I from Detroit. Nick was awesome on the plane ride, watching videos and eating snacks, even a nap squeezed in there. I'm happy he likes flying.
His first impression of California: "It smells like stinky dead fish." (We were driving along the PCH by the ocean.) He finally got to see all the planes he watches on TV up close and in person at LAX. (His favorite YouTube video is 'planes taking off from LAX' so of course he went nuts in person.)

After visiting with our friend Nancy on Friday, we headed to Disneyland for the afternoon. The place was packed with people - why aren't their kids in school! Nick was most interested in riding the trains. He rode the Snow White ride also, and we saw the parade in the evening, which was cool after dark. The barbeque wasn't half bad, either.

Nick was sick on the second day, and we spent most of the day in our hotel; fortunately Nancy set us up with an awesome room at the Irvine Marriott, and Nick had the perfect view of John Wayne Airport. So he spent the day laying on his bed, calling off the flights like air traffic control as they took off and landed. In the evening, we went to South Coast Plaza for shopping, where Brandi bought a dress from Mango, and Nick got a toy plane. Having never been there before, Brandi now knows what this place is all about (all the designer stores of LA.)

We started off Sunday at Mimi's Cafe for breakfast, one of my favorite California eateries. Then we drove down to Dana Point Beach for the view high above the harbor, and a couple hours down on the beach. Nick was into it at first, but then became 'afraid of the crabs' and needed to be carried the rest of the way. This was his first experience with the ocean and beaches, picking shells, burying his feet, and tossing stones. Oh, the picture of him spurting at me isn't him being rude, he just loves the noise!

He knew we were in Los Angeles, and flew in from Atlanta on Delta. Then at one point, Brandi asked him where we were, wanting to hear his cute response, and he says, "Vegas!" Go figure. On the drive to the airport, he got to see the Goodyear Blimp along the 405, and more planes flying in, while he gripped his last California muffin tightly.

- Jason

Nick's Forty-Seventh Month

With Nick in Atlanta most of the month, and me in Detroit, it felt alot like an episode of Charlie's Angels - I was "Charlie". He would talk to me through the phone like I was actually the phone, putting the phone in his train for a ride, taking pictures of the phone, or walking the phone around the house. I did get down to see him at Thnaksgiving, which was post-haircut (he's shaggy in the first half of the month.)

We make shadow puppets on the wall during tub time. Well, Brandi makes them, and Nick aggressively smashes them. Another game I'm no good at.
He still insists on hitting on older women, this time at the Chick-fil-A. I hope he never loses the confidence and charm, but I can see where this can cause trouble, too. He can't quite grasp, 'don't talk to strangers' yet. I need him to learn he can't just walk up and touch other people. (Gotta admit, though, he's charting in territory I wish I had travelled at some point in life.)

Walking through the house, he discovered his grandmama's sewing machine. I told him it was for sewing clothes. When I came back through the hall, he had taken off his shorts to mess with them on the sewing machine. Somewhere there's a picture of him naked and sewing.

Brandi sings him songs at night before bedtime, and he sings all the time, all day long. I love the classics, like, "Sweet Caroline", which he knows, "bom, bom, bom..." The family sang him, "Happy haircut to you!" when he was a good boy for his haircut, so now he sings that frequently, too.

Nick is an expert at human anatomy, and readily identifies most parts of the body. I just hope he doesn't share his knowledge as openly with strangers; could be a little embarassing.
I'll get pics posted when I return from California (where we are all now.) There oughtta be some good ones.

- Jason

Nick's Forty-Sixth Month

We had two rounds of Halloween Trick-or-Treat this year: one in downtown Newnan amongst the local businesses, and one in a local neighborhood. After a few Milk Duds, he was beyond slappy. He was walking into people's homes when he saw more candy inside the porch door, diving face-first into candy cauldrons like bobbing for apples, and trying to swindle the same homes for candy multiple times. All the while, he was giggling hysterically. Many other kids recognized his 'Super Why' costume. He indeed consumed record amounts of candy for the holiday.

Favorite foods this month: anything he can get his grubby hands on. Dr. Pepper appears to put him to sleep. I was eating a goofy flavor of chicken pizza at the restaurant buffet, and he took it right off of my plate and chowed it down. He's now ordering and eating... most kids can't make a decision at 4 years old, to ask them what they want to eat. He awakes, places his order with Mama ("eggs and pancakes, please,") and then eats it all. I saw Brandi make breakfast twice one morning... and he ate twice. Growth spurt.

Nick learned to fish while in Georgia, casting from the banks of the lake behind Moose's home. He's using a rock as bait, so not catching much, but he hasn't hooked himself yet, either, so that's good. We took his love of fish back to the Georgia Aquarium for a family day out, where he saw sharks and whales. It amazes me how many of the fish for which he knows the proper names.

I didn't see him as much this month, with him in Georgia and me in Michigan, but his conversational skills via telephone made leaps. He went from counting and singing at me, to sharing real experiences in detail. He's still a little fuzzy on how phones work, though. He takes pictures of Daddy over the phone, and he once took my blood pressure over the phone by wrapping the phone in the sleeve. I just pretend it's working.

He's constantly re-affirming that he's being a "good boy." Most days, we agree.

- Jason