Nick's Life: December 2011

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.)

 

Pics here from 2011. 

- Jason

Nick's Life: November 2011

Nick remains interested in nightly homework, and took to the organic chemistry set one evening. We built water, ethene, and butane with the various colorful atoms. He yells out, "Build me another Buick!" If chemistry was as interesting as cars, I woulda done much better at it in high school.

Nick-cabulary this month: when he gets morning crud in his eyes or ears, he calls it, "honkin-dabonkin."

We started the Christmas decorating for the upcoming season. Never hand something to Nick that is breakable or dangerous. First decorations he grabs, he drops. It's like when he checked out the bottle of perfume at the department store and squirted himself in the face... reeked for the rest of the night.

We're back to indoor activities as it gets colder. At the McDonald's playground the kids must have been playing tag, because when I asked him the name of the blonde that he was hanging on, he said, "Not It". We visited the train museum nearby... how perfect that there's a train museum less than ten minutes from our house. And lots of time spent on the iPhones, games like 'Creeps' and 'Cut the Rope'. He recognizes a QR code when he sees one, and knows how to scan it (amazing the technology kids are using.) At first, though, he was running through the house with the QR Scan App trying to scan toy trains and planes. Favorite new game: Air Chief.

His play time is getting more animated now, as he has the trains and planes talk, and each has a personality. He calls them 'plays' and wants others to take a train and join in. I feel sorry for the trains that step out of line and get a 'timeout'. When he gets in trouble, we take away privileges, like taking away some trains. The other night we took away trains, but he could get them back by quietly eating all his dinner, to which he stuffed the entire plate of food in his mouth at once, unable to chew, and extended his hands for his trains.

- Jason

Nick's Life: October 2011

Halloween was short this year, as Nick puttered out early after just one block of hiking with Brandi and the neighbors. He has more fun handing out candy from our stoop, anyway. He recruits kids by yelling out to the street, "Come get some chewies from the CandyMaster! (that would be me.)" Then he likes putting candy in their sacks, by the handful. He still didn't hand out as much as one little girl who started shoveling candy from my caldroun to her bag by the fistfuls, until I grabbed her hand and told her, "That's enough honey... three handfuls is more than a couple." Nick and I ate popcorn as we passed out candy, and he even tried to give away my popcorn; I told him the kids don't want it, then a group of teenage girls ate half my popcorn. No pictures of his costume - he was Super Why again for the second year in a row (by choice.)

School has been up-and-down, with him and the teachers at odds more and more. When I asked him one day how many times he got a 'timeout' at school, he raised his hand and started extending fingers like he might run out of digits if he didn't keep track on his hand. Good grief. When I ask what happened at school, he runs me in a do-loop anyway with no real explanation. The kids seem to love him, but the teachers aren't sure what to do with him. Although, he and I started doing 'homework' each night after dinner, and some nights he'll do letters and words for an hour. And he's learning a ton, both socially and academically. From our observing, it seems like he's following the actions of some other kids, but not sharp enough to not be the one getting caught. If he can just steer clear of trouble. We shall see. And, finally got some school pictures.

Still attracted to gadgets. He's moved on from taking tons of pictures to shooting tons of videos. He calls out, "Action" and "Cut", and it's kinda funny. They're mostly stories about trains, but what else would we expect? And we got iPhones this month, which he loves playing games... and not kid games. He plays 'Plants vs Zombies right along with his mother.

As we measure him on the wall at Grandpa's, he's barely 1/8 inch shy of my height at 5 years old, so he's growing at the same pace as me. (Then again, Joanae is measured on that same wall, and she was nearly the same height, too, and she just stopped growing somewhere along the way, so you can never tell.)

- Jason

Nicks' Life: September 2011

Much of this month surounded Nick's first month of school. We're still adjusting to a routine, usually I drop him off and Brandi picks him up. Each morning we pack a lunch, which he usually doesn't eat because the teacher says he's too busy talking to his buddy Maddex during lunch. He's making new friends which he refers to as 'his people'. "I need to go see my people," he'll say. He has a Spanish class one day a week, and we heard him in the tub singing something in Spanish Tuesday nite - no idea what it was. He won't tell us what goes on at school, but he must be learning something. He also got into his first tussel at school, which the teacher said he held his own against a troublemaker. I want his grandpa to be proud, but it's a little early to start battling.

He and mama went on a school field trip to the apple orchard. They picked apples, a couple pumpkins, and stood outside in the unusually hot October sun waiting for a hay ride.

Picture here is of Nick while playing hockey in our kitchen. His form isn't that far from Gordie Howe, eh? He knows how to yell, "Score!" and he can play the boards pretty well (no checking mama, though.)

The 'rally squirrel' has been all the rage this month, if you're a baseball fan. Nick apparently has one of his own, but in the context he mentioned it (a particular body part was doing something unusual), I'm too embarassed to mention it in detail. Ask him about the squirrel when you see him.

Pics here from 2011.

- Jason

Nick's Life: August 2011

Lots of traveling in August, from Atlanta, to all over Pennsylvania, and home, all the while I was travelling for work to D.C. with a stop in North Carolina. He continues to be a master traveler, watching 'semini' trucks go by, and passing time with movies. He was was ready to go when we left, packing his own suitcase, with one pair of shoes and a space shuttle. When it was time to come home, he sat in the car for hours waiting for the departure.

Nick's also getting more helpful with chores and other tasks, and loves to remind you when he's busy (he picked that up somewhere). He helps wash the car even better, and was a big help at Paesanos in Huntingdon, Brandi's family's restaurant. He vaccumed and cleared tables after hours. After work, he played paper airplanes with his Pappy in the dining room. They call some activities at school 'work' so he's constantly reminding my how much work he has to do.

Still many life lessons to be learned, like you can't lick your friends... and you certainly can't lick the cigarette lighter in the car. Dancing on the dance floor can be hours of fun, but rolling on the dance floor will get you stepped on. If it looks like alot of photos this month are on a dance floor, that's because it's true.

His observations are increasingly insightful now as he approaches five years old. He tells me when we're two turns from the next gas station, for example. Conversations go like this:
Jason: "I have this song in my head and I can't shake it."
Nick: "Sounds like you need a checkup. You should see a doctor about that. Have him check your ears."
Jason: "Looks like more rain. Rain, rain go away..."
Nick: "Send it to Texas."
Does he really know there's a drout in Texas? His mama and I aren't discussing it, and the TV isn't running with news or weather.

- Jason