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We measured Nick on the board in the garage at 9 years old. He's three inches taller than me at the same age. And he can lift his mama and walk off with her if he wants to. Growth has not been a problem.
Nick's been working more pop-culture and 'old sayings' into his lexicon, being careful with his word selection. He's still cautious not to curse as much as I do (referring to the 'A-word' when he talks about other kids at school). And the old saying isn't exactly, "Hand of wishes and a hand of shit" (it's "Wish in one hand and shit in another, see which one you get"), but the English language is complicated. Make no mistake, when he had trouble at school and told the kid to, "F*&# off" (he didn't censor it), he made his point, and got the result he wanted. He must be communicating well on some level. He came home from school one day, and announced, "We changed seats in class, and I'm sitting next to cutest girl in class. She laughs at my jokes."
There's more to maturing than cursing properly. I watched him sign his name for the first time as he filled out a form at the YMCA pool. They do still teach cursive in Catholic school apparently.
We went to a Toledo Walleye hockey game on a Friday evening. Coincidentally our neighbor Ted Tucker was doing his debut as color-announcer on the TV broadcast that evening. We enjoyed the Huntington Center immensely, with great seats on the rail in the upper deck, and the two best teams in the league. Tickets and food are a good deal in minor league sports, a reason I love them.
We setup a Youtube channel for Nick to publish his animated creations (access it here). He rushed four of them out to the site, then slowed down, but he's also been without his iPad lately, so more will get posted eventually.
Not many pictures this month, just the couple posted on the page here.
- Jason
So here we are, starting year number ten of Nick's life, and our blog. They are both survivors. Really, it's others who are more in danger around Nick, such as Miranda who nearly got a broken nose from Nick hurling a basketball at her face on Christmas (which we celebrated the following weekend this year.) And he left his impression on young Myles as we heard him yelling, "Holy Crap!" in mimic of my son.
But it wasn't easy on Nick either, as he was sick in January (which later took down his mother for weeks in February.) Still he says, "I'm very tough. I don't want help." He's taken several more steps towards adolescence, such as skipping the children's sermon during Sunday church and sitting with me ("I'm a young man, now. I'm staying right here"), and I found an empty donut bag in his bed, now he's sneaking food into his room when no one is watching.
He came home from school with a note from the teacher (like, there's one every day, but this one was a bit more stern in tone) as he had tackled and strangled a kid during recess. I tried to get him to explain what happened to me, which led to a full re-enactment of the supposed game called "Toilet", and I still didn't understand. Finally he barks out, "Dad, the guy was puppydogging me!" So of course, NOW it all makes sense (?!?) Weeks later Ann Trucsinski was able to get him to explain it, but she's a teacher, so she worked some magic.
In summary of this month's events, you can tell the Catholic School is making a great impression.
I started playing Minecraft with Nick this month, and he has declared me an official 'Gamer' based on my improving skills. We are building a world together from scratch, and I'm getting the hang of it (I can now lay a contiguous row of bricks.)
He's roughly 3.5 inches taller than I was at age nine, so he's still tracking for 6' tall. Although my spurt was around age twelve, so he can't slow down. Relative to other kids, he's tall.
There's a few pictures this month left over from our trip to Atlanta, playing tires with the Fayling boys at the BJ's Wholesale, and some pictures from the afternoon with Jack at Imagination Station in Toledo. And the balloon shark is a talent from one of my coworkers, Marcia. Nick returned the gesture with a shark made of pipe cleaners.
- Jason
We spent Christmas Day at home this year. Nick didn't sleep on the Eve, so we had to work around him all night. At 3:30 AM I directed him back to bed until morning. "Go back to bed, don't touch anything until your mother wakes up at 8." "OK, I can wait until 6." "No, I said 8." He received Grandpa's old Lionel train from the 1940s (which I couldn't get to work, but he did.) That somewhat made up for the Train Show we went to earlier in the month, where he spent $140 of his own money on a used train that was broken in 10 minutes. But he did shop carefully, and it was an unfortunate situation. (He knows questions to ask guys at these shows, I have no idea.)
This month's edition of things Nick says.
I tell him, "Nick, you need to sit down and eat your meat." His reply: "Because I won't get any pudding?"
"You know what they should make? Slushies that are beer flavored. A Beer Slushie." (It was a creative month, his mother thinks they should make skin-toned band-aids. I see Oprah just thought of those at the same time.)
We took the boys to a SkyZone, bowling, and still they had more fun in the Costco where they could crawl around in the tire section. Nick found a pair of sunglasses he liked, and says, "All I need now is two gold teeth and a jacket and I'd be a Dopplegangster". (I assume that's like a gangster's twin?)
I saw "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" twice, taking Nick the first time. He didn't like it, thought it was dumb, too much violence (he prefered Spaceballs, which he watched half dozen times this month). Of course it's not nearly as violent as Jurassic World or Sharknado, but his reasoning is, "those aren't real." Brandi's observation: "How is it that Kylo Ren has perfect hair when he removes his helmet?" Along the lines of head usage, I was trying to explain to Nick where a country would be on a globe, in the absence of a globe present, he reaches for my head, pretending it's a globe. Yes, the arctic is where there's no hair.
New Year's was a bummer with the Michigan State loss to Alabama. But I enjoyed the trip to Indy for the Big10 Championship earlier in the month. Nick missed staying in the Indianapolis Train Depot, now a Crowne Plaza hotel. I stayed in a train car converted to a hotel room. I've been more involved in the MSMR program at MSU, attending their graduation, mentoring students, and lecturing more frequently.
Pictures this month from Christmas in Temperance, and our week in Atlanta, (I also got up to Asheville and Athens during this trip) and finally in Cincinnati.
- Jason
Nick had blood drawn for the first time, which was an adventure to say the least. "You did NOT tell me about this!" he yells, as the needle draws closer. Four of us holding him down, and him screaming, "Band aid, band aid, band aid!" with technically no blood in sight. Then it's over, and he says, "That wasn't bad at all." And this scenario played out... twice.
Lots of nature this month. Had a day at the playground with Collin, over the school, where the boys wrestled on the ground more than played on the swings. They are very evenly matched in size, with Collin just one year younger. They are different types of strong. Then, a day at the Crosby Gardens, where we almost lost a plastic dinosaur and had a disaster of emotional separation (but the dino was recovered... a camouflaged-colored dino, on the ground in a park full of leaves.)
This was Nick's month of "independence". We had the first snowfall of roughly four inches, which he was excited to shovel. And we also had him riding the vacuum (which we compete for... the new ball vacuum is awesome.) He's beginning to recognize more regularly the need to earn some money, and getting his work done. He wants to show others, and announce his independence. Which goes well until he begins announcing, and I'm the one doing his work, then we clash.
As Nick begins to more seriously about 'the other gender' and related topics...
- At Thanksgiving dinner, he reaches across the table to close his mama's dress, explaining, "You need to cover those, Mama." The dress wasn't that provocative, but he's extremely protective of this mother (a good thing.)
- "Mama, there's a hole in the soap big enough and round enough for my p_n_s! No joke! Come take a look!"
- And a girl at school in the other third grade class tried to kiss him on the playground, which resulted in an 'altercation'. It's a good lesson in learning boundaries, which Nick is still figuring out. "Just listen to my side of the story," he yells at his mother, after two hours of trying to sort out the details.
Pictures behind this link.
- Jason
Nick has a hard time hanging onto his iPad... he keeps losing it for days and weeks at a time when he can't get his work done, or doesn't listen to his mother. As an example, he jumps from his laptop and yells, "I'm so mad at this damn game!" Then, "I probably shouldn't have said that, should I?" And I proceed to take away the iPad. Shortly thereafter, he runs over to me snapping his fingers to get my attenion. "Whoops, probably shouldn't have done that, either." Away goes the iPad. He lived more than half of October without it.
We played hoops at the school one day, seeing if he's any good at basketball. Nope, not so much. (He might make it as a shooter, but not a ball-handler.) We also biked over to the school to practice skidding out his bike tires. While there, we played a Nerf war with a kid we met. I'm not convinced that's Nick's strategy of absorbing all the enemy's bullets with his head before firing back is the best plan.
And then we did Halloween. Grandpa grew him a pumpkin, like every year, but this year it was nearly too big to move. Nick drew a dragon on one side, and Grandpa drew the Disgusting Slob on the other (a character from the TV show "Crashbox"). In a role reversal, Mama was the Shark, and Nick was Sherlock Holmes. His first choice was James Bond, but we couldn't resolve a suitable costume prop for Catholic school (gun? martini glass? girl?) This was a good year for collection, out on the streets in Temperance for almost 90 minutes, and a solid bag-full of candy. (And the usual antics... charming the old ladies for more candy.)
Pictures here from October, including a trip to Long's Farm with Jack.
- Jason
