Nick's Life: May 2012

We played alot of Uno, since it's somewhat educational and I couldn't handle any more Zingo or Candyland without going insane. Like his mother, though, he'll sneak in his own rules on ocassion, like hiding cards behind his back in a "garbage pile." 
More time outside practicing his tee-ball swing, and soccer techniques. He likes soccer, but it's a sport about which I understand very little. He stays with the pack of kids and gets his kicks in, but likes being in the goal. He's too patient waiting for the ball, then when patience runs out and he gets angry, then he gets aggressive and gets his kicks in. All part of learning sports. He's easy to find in the videos, since he's got the darkest green shirt (they ran out of shirts when they got to Nick last.) With tee-ball, we practice a ton, but he wants no part of the tee, and wants to hit from the live pitch. At one point, he hit five in a row... switching from the right to the left side of the plate each time. 

On the new-foods front, he acutally ate a carrot and liked it, along with voluntarily consuming some evil lettuce, and fresh kiwi fruit. We discovered the Ice Cream Truck, with a keen ear out for the music coming down the street. I don't know how those guys make money anymore with kids all cooped inside playing video games. We walked past an ice cream store at the mall that was giving free cones that day if your name was Nick, which was a big hit (picture of him by the sign.) 


He's drawing constantly, from planes, to sea monsters and whales, to outdoor scenery (no blank sheet of paper is safe). I think it's funny that his tongue is always hanging out when he's focused. He says that, "improves his quality." And tons of pictures from what would appear that we live outside on sand or in water...pools, beaches. Also here are pictures of him outside with homemade bubble wands made from wire hangers, building a train out of our couch, outside playing hockey with Jack, passing time messing with his mother's makeup, and running the hydraulic lift on a towtruck. 


This month was mini-graduation from his Pre-K class, and I went to the picnic with him to meet some of his friends. Good group of kids, all hugging and saying good-bye like they were moving away when it was over. Kindergarten is up next in the Fall. 


Pictures from May, click here.


- Jason

2010 Ford Shelby GT500

These pictures are here for me so I can access pictures of the car when I come onto the site.  Summer is over, and she's back under a cover in storage.  Finally got some pictures on a good morning when the light was just right.

I moved this entry to May 1, 2012, the day I bought the car.  The photos were taken June 29, 2014.  But I can find them.

Nick's Life: April 2012

Our first visit to the Detroit Zoo was a struggle.  On a cool day with practically no one there, the part-time security was prepared for crowds like Elvis was performing at the Houndog exhibit.  Every turn we took was going 'the wrong way', setting off an alarm, or critically risking the lives of precious animals (or so we were told... that was in the butterfly house, which once we were in, was littered with dead butterflies already.  Not a nice exhibit.)  There's a picture here of Nick and Brandi in the Prarie Dog exhibit.  It was a lot of walking for Nick, and wore him out early.

Nick attended his first ballet when Seta, his friend next door, was performing in Cinderella with her dance crew.  He really watched it closely most of the time, and asked good questions (good questions because I ask the same things... I'm not all that culturally well-traveled.)  At one point, he threatened to storm the stage to take out the wicked stepsisters, but we restrained him.

Nick's interest in building things took off this month, so out came boxes of 30 year-old Lego blocks from the attic.  Every car I constructed decades ago has been dis-assembled and rebuilt into a jet plane somewhere.  The old city is back up in the new play room, or toy room as Nick calls it; we converted a bedroom into a dedicated toy area, so we no longer trip over train tracks out in the open walkways of the house.  He's now sleeping in his own bedroom as well, insistent on having his own space.

New foods this month: gnochi, dunklings (which are dumplings) and kiwi.

New Nickabulary: Cometeor (co-MEET-ee-or), which is a silver Corvette.

Many of the pictures this month are from the beginning of what appears to be every modern kid's agenda: continuously running to activities.  He's enrolled in soccer, tee ball, and a general intro-to-sports class.  Tee ball has been a real winner, with them already playing a game on the second day, where he covered every hit ball from left field, so they moved him to first base.  (Coach Jo scares me.  Tough woman.)  His buddy Jack is in the same tee ball class.  This class also gives him a chance to hit on the little blonde girls while they wait turns to bat (in my opinion, he really should chase the brunette, who has an awesome swing and a heckuva arm for a five-year old.)  We got some practice in tonite; he is throwing and hitting really well, but catching, not so much just yet.  I owed him male bonding time as the last week had me laid up with a kidney stone, followed by a kidney infection, topped off with a bad reaction to the antibiotic... six tough days, man.

Pictures here from this month, and a few left over from last month (like the sunflower cake, and Nick's re-creation of Plants v Zombies out of Play-Doh.)


- Jason

Nick's Life: March 2012

Nick has been zipping around outside on an old plastic bigwheel that was mine in another lifetime, which we brought down from the attic because he's decided to ride his toys down the sledding hill now that it's Spring, and the bigwheel is closer to the ground when he wipes out onto his face. So he rides over to see Mr. Steve, the neighbor, who is an engineer for Chrysler. And I overhear him say, "Mr. Steve, you have two Jeeps now, what the f#$k!" Of course his mother is mortified that this can't help our standing in the neighborhood. He says he learned it on the computer. I am at least proud it was a nice application of the word, in a reasonably correct context.

Flying his remote control plane outside has become a favorite activity. He was out in the yard flying it one afternoon, and crashed it into his mother's head... tangled in her hair. She tells him to get into the house, and he replies, "How about I just wait for you in the garage?" He's clamoring more to get outside with the onset of Spring, wanting to 'play baseball' and toss the frisbee (but not necessarily catch it). We're even running into his friends now at the playground, like Devin this past weekend.

Most inpressive has been Nick's drawing abilities. In about two weeks he went from unrecognizable scribbles of a toddler to a better artist than I am (the bar is very low). He's been posting drawings all over the house of the Titanic (his latest obsession after seeing a documentary), planes and trains, with intricate details. And lots of drawing on the driveway; one of the photos is a peashooter from Plants v Zombies. But the true obsession is still trains, which we visited the Detroit Model RR Club earlier in the month.

We had another month of battling birds; the starlings from last summer have returned, insistent on nesting in our exhaust vents... particularly those vents that are 25 feet above the ground. After a couple days of me teetering on a tall ladder with long poles and duct tape contraptions, taping vents shut, and them busting through, a printed photo of a hawk did the trick. Now I have horny hawks circling the house every morning flirting with the photo.

Pictures this month, click here. And finally a couple new videos at right.

- Jason

Nick's Life: February 2012

Nick took an increased liking to planes this month (finally a break from trains!). We flew his electric airplane, an Air Hog, at the playground one afternoon, and around the yard on the warmer days (and there's been alot of warmer days.) He's getting the hang of the controllers, and knows the names of the components more than I do. We setup an airport on the kitchen bar to pass a day's time, a place to land the small planes indoors.

New foods this month (and they're getting tougher now as he gets picky based on appearance): lemon yogurt, Superman Ice Cream, but there's nothing better than the gummy butterflies and gummy fried eggs at the bulk market.

The Jedi mind tricks continue. He exits the school one afternoon, and says, "You need a car wash." Then it's, "You need gas, too." All in a lead up to, "Let's go to Taco Bell!" which happens to be next door to the car wash and the gas station. But more than the persuasion is his sharpening sense of tone and context. I try to be funny with him (and I know I'm not always the easiest to read), like saying one morning, "Your big head doesn't fit thru the little hole in this shirt," as he's growing out of clothes quickly. He deadpans, "Was that a joke?" Sometimes it's like looking in the mirror as he picks up my demeanor. For the most part, though, he's still a very outwardly happy kid.

His dinnertime prayers have become more creative, and are starting to take bizarre turns. The Montessori school had some sort of agnostic pre-meal ritual about being thankful, and I think it confused him. The latest prayer is, "I love you godmother, and smoke coming out of your house, taking a trip, yow-wow, Amen." I haven't told his godmother to be mindful of open flames around her house yet.

There's some Polish genetic hand-waving thing coming out of his personality now. When he makes a point, he smacks one hand into the other palm like a karate chop, telling you, "That was my final answer." (Brandi says it's sign language, that they're teaching him that!) He was really wound up the day he emerged from school and I had a flat tire. "Oh, we got a cute little tire instead!" When he woke up the next morning, after I had the full-size tire replaced, he couldn't even eat breakfast before seeing it, quenching his excitement.

And we saw the movie The Lorax, which was Nick's first 3D movie. Didn't realize it until we got in, but he wore the glasses, and enjoyed the show. It was cool reading the book, then seeing the show. Another first for him this month was in his mama's dental chair getting his teeth cleaned. Unlike regular patients, he got to play with all the cool instruments that shoot out water and air, etc.

- Jason