Nick's Life: February 2013

Lots of weekend activities this month, from the Tree House indoor playground in Chelsea, to the Toy Train Show here in Commerce (what a mold-fest.)  We also got to check out the new playground at the McDonald's in Milford. And Brandi took Nick to the monthly Home Depot Kids Workshop, where he built a race car  and later another bird house.

The ages of over confidence and freedom-from-embarrassment continue to collide.  One moment he's dancing in the Olive Garden, the next he's hugging every little girl on the playground; they're hugging back so I guess it's working (better than school where physical contact is forbidden; and we wonder kids end up anti-social or afraid of affection when we don't let them touch anything or anyone?)

He looks at me and asks what the mark is on my face... it was a pimple or an ingrown hair or something.  Nick says, "Could be from a sea lamprey?"  Not entirely impossible, but highly unlikely, and certainly an unexpected response.  With the television constantly running River Monsters, Gator Boys, and Mythbusters, that's what's on his mind. He made a birthday card for Mason, and when his mama asked him to add details, he drew a limp human body in its jaws and blood everywhere.  Nice card from a 6-year-old to a 4-year-old.  "It was an attack," he says.  Even the assignment from school turned into a book about sharks.

Brandi went to his school and did a presentation on dental hygiene for all the kindergarten classes.  The kids loved it, and her hand-drawn artwork for the story was impressive.

- Jason 

Nick's Life: January 2013

One morning I'm standing at the sink shaving, and Nick comes looking for dental floss, then walks away.  A few minutes later he returns with a potato chip bag clip on the end of the floss, with a paper shark clipped to it; he had built a rather expensive fishing pole. I just continued shaving.  He looks in the mirror and says, "I look great!" So I asked him, what about me?  "You're almost handsome, Dad."

We are eating salmon, and his mama and I try to teach him about avoiding fish bones.  Netiher of us encounter a single bone... he tongues two in the following minute. Seems like a grown-up lesson he picked up quick.  He also helps his mama around the house, scrubbing floors for her.

The inflow of books is getting out of hand.  The school, which probably is worried that the average parent doesn't read to their kid, overwhelms us with book sales and library trips.  We've got so many shark and sea life books in the house that we're drowning in them (my best pun today). We buy him plenty of books and still read every day, although now he's reading to us. I pulled out the Children's Bible one evening and read him Noah and the Ark.  He asks, "Where are the sharks?" Now, in forty years of reading this story, I never questioned the absence of mention of the ocean creatures.  He humbles me with insight sometimes.

Mama still helps at school each Friday for a couple hours, and takes her famous muffins. She took bran muffins one day, though, and several kids had poo-emergencies.  I would think the Taco Del Mar he loves lately would clean someone out. Nasty stuff.

His drawing and painting is amazing, and we're now hanging them up on the walls.  Not like refrigerator fodder, but actual paintings on the canvas Jessica got him for Christmas.  Pictured here is of one of his good ones, which hangs in his room. I was in an art gallery in Houston (The Galleria) where people were buying $20K art off the walls around me, and Gina corners me to sell me something.  I had time to kill and enjoyed hearing about the life of the rich (she's saving for a Maserati), but didn't hesitate to brag about my artist and show her my pictures.  Really, I told her I'd be more interested in the art of kids than the flashy stuff... if her daughter had any paintings, I'd be interested in buying.  Or I'd sell her one of Nick's.

Nick's breath was really bad, and I asked him what was going on.  He says, "My breath is just got slimy, stinky, tonsil balls."  Lately everything is "I feel I need a..." or "I feel there should be..."  He's full of feelings all of a sudden.

Few pictures this month (click here), including the dress-up parade at school (Nick is a snowman, costume made by mama) and Nick playing with the real flight simulator his Uncle Jason got him for Christmas.

- Jason 

Nick's Life: December 2012

We opened the month with Nick knocking his teeth out at school. He was upset for a few minutes, then stayed in school the rest of the day.  When I went to pick him up and asked what happened, he'd forgotten. He hit the floor face first in the gym off of a scooter.  The school just stuffed his bloody shirt in his bag, and gave him a new one. The after-care director was quick to tell me how Nick was harrassing another kid that day, which I mentioned, "Did you noticed he mangled his teeth earlier today? They're half missing?"  "Oh, no, I didn't."  School is frustrating.

We had Brandi's parents here for a week at the holidays. They spent time outside sledding with Nick after I shoveled about 8 inches over three falls in 12 hours.  We played scrabble with Nick, where he makes his own rules with wrapping words around corners, and even taught me a few legit words I would never have thought of. And we made Christmas cookies (200 calories apiece.) Our house was decorated to the max this year, and ready for entertaining.

For Christmas, Brandi's parents were in first, then the girls came in behind them for a two-day house full of holiday.  What I'll remember: Jessica's nose turns red when she's excited, there was more than one Kind Herod, and a bipod can works as well as a tripod for taking pictures in a pinch. Brandi was an amazing chef for a full week (homemade potato soup!), and I gained all the weight we were hoping Nick would put on. As smooth a holiday as we've had, the best picture is all of us watching Nick drag Mason off the couch and into the picture. Some of the best moments just can't be planned.

L to R: Kiersten (Miranda's), Mason (Robin's), Nick, and Noah (Miranda's).

In our new car, he loves listening to the video games through the stereo system, so he plays Bad Piggies, and blares the game's music.

Lots of drawing this month, drafting sharks and ocean life, cutting them out to create impressive artistry. One evening, he put on a play in the kitchen with a large background of ocean taped to the bar, and sharks cut out on laundry pins. He got a ton of markers, boards, and art supplies for Christmas along with Legos and R/C planes. And now we're practicing with the Flight Simulator from Uncle Jason.

Nick's best lines of the month:

"I have a stomach shark," when his tummy hurts.

"Holy dunkelosteous!" when he's amazed. (That's a prehistoric fish.)

After receiving so many flying toys for Christmas, "Mama, all night I was working on my flying skittles!"

Every other statement from him is, "Do you know what?" To which we reply, "chicken butt!"  Still doesn't stop him, no lesson learned.

"No cotton swabs, Mama! They damage my ears!  I need the Wax Ax! (Some contraption he saw on TV for cleaning ears, but I'm sure that's not what they call it. Or they need a better marketing department.)

Constantly correcting our 'bad words', he tells mama, "You don't need to say bad words. Just say "Oh, snap!" Here watch... [he drops a Lego on the floor] Oh, snap! That's how you do it!"

Naming the sharks he got for Christmas: Jaws John Lamper is the Air Swimmer, Jaws Finneker is the plastic shark with a hinged mouth, and Jaws Torey Great White is another rubber shark.

Pictures from December and Christmas.

- Jason

Nick's Life: November 2012

Nick's picked up a 'verbal crutch' where he's starting most statements with, "Actually..."  And he's getting cockier, with statements like, "I put that there for a reason!" or  "Not now, I have important work to do, Dad." Probably need some polish on those communication skills before he marries Zoey or Lilly and drives them nuts (theoretically he's marrying them both.  I'm not sure that's a good idea.) His classmates love his mother more than him, as she brings muffins at school every Friday, always a different flavor. Brandi's been a big help in the classroom, and it's given us a good picture of what goes on in school. (I don't understand modern education.)

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home.  Had the usual "turkey chase" where Nick flees from the angry bird before it meets the oven (one of many angry birds in our lives). Brandi and Nick built a gingerbread house from a kit, which was not as tasty as it was interesting (and unstable.) And we erected the Christmas tree, which you'll see Nick's arrangement of the lights in the photos. We're the only house on the block with the Christmas lights up, the Halloween pumpkins still on the porch, and the fourth-of-July flag in the window. May as well leave it all up until Easter now.

He lost his first tooth, near the end of October, beginning of November (forgot which day.)  He's already swelling as the molars start coming in, too. He got the usual Tooth Fairy visit, who was quite generous with a reply note and a dollar coin.  However, she also stole several things from the house which came up missing that same night, like Brandi's pillow.  Honestly, we're not sure where several items went, so the Fairy is getting the blame.  In the picture you'll see both my kids (the 5-year-old, and the 70-year-old) are now missing the same tooth.

Nick's obsessed with the new iPhone game 'Bad Piggies', which is really an impressive exercise in engineering. And Star Wars Angry Birds, which he really doesn't know what Star Wars is yet.  But the best App of the month is the new voice on the MotionX GPS that Nick selected for Mama... 'The Cougar' ("Re-routing. I don't mean to be rude, but you're going the wrong way, Darlin'. Is this going to go on all night?")

- Jason

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!