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Nick loves shrimp, so much that he'll dig out the tails from whatever's on the table. There's a shrimp wrapped in bacon intended for fajitas at Cinco de Mayo restaurant, and he'd live on them if we let him. Brandi made drumsticks one evening for dinner, and he sits down and says, "I love chicken femurs." Have no idea where that came from. He's also decided he'll eat a salad (lettuce is no longer the enemy.) Really the big story in consumption is volume: we went out for a mixed dinner (we all got fast food from different places) and he ate all his Five Guys burger, and then wanted half of my Chipotle burrito. The one that gets me is eating ice cream cones from the bottom up.
When he was young, we encouraged him to read out loud, not thinking it could permanently damage his ability to read quietly to himself in the future. Singing I can appreciate, like how he sings 'Animals' by Maroon 5, having no idea the song is about a stalker (at least I think he has no idea.)
The boys were up from Georgia for a week, and we got in as many activities as we could. We did a day at Castaway Play in Howell. Brandi took the boys swimming one evening while Jason and I had drinks with the guys from the karate school. We come home and Thatcher says to Brandi, "You are so pretty without your clothes." He meant in her swimsuit, but still! (BTW, I took a business trip to Toronto, and when I told stories about the boys, they think the name Thatcher is the coolest name ever for a boy... it plays well in the Queen's territory.) The kids are all growing up fast now... Seth's voice drops an octave every few months when I see him. There were also a couple trips to the Toledo Zoo. One was with his school as the year winds down, and his friend Owen is in many of the photos. Brandi says the kids got to ask questions of the zookeepers... and Nick was answering all of their questions. His comprehension still well outpaces other kids, and wildlife is his passion. The other visit he went back to touch sharks in the new exhibit.
Nick started private swimming lessons this month. His instructor, Jarett, is excellent, and says Nick is the most teachable student he has. Nick loves to swim, and he's now doing strokes that I could never do. The pictures here are from swimming and diving classes.
Photos this month are behind this link.
And Nick is adding more to his YouTube channel. Here's the video of his Minecraft world under construction.
- Jason
We took Nick with us to vote in the presidential primary this month, so he got to see a voting booth firsthand. A few weeks later we're walking in the mall, and he gets all excited to rush into a Spencer's, and sees a 'Deez Nuts' T-Shirt for ten bucks (not the band). I bought it for him, with the agreement he doesn't wear it to school. How does he know about this?
We passed the time one afternoon with a drive at the Whitmer HS parking lot... Nick drove. He hasn't had practice since last summer, but is progressing well. He's advancing to the mindset of a teenager, more worried about the radio channel than the traffic. This goes along with him spending his free days in bed with 2-3 devices and a bag of beef jerky. He's not a complete loafer, now in swimming and diving on Saturday mornings
Some of the dangerous genetics are creeping in as well. "Can we keep the container?" comes up way to often. And he's thinking ten steps ahead of everything we do, which is good, but it gets annoying at times as well (can we just enjoy the moment sometimes?)
We took Nick to the Henry Ford Museum for a day during the week, when crowds were small. I was excited to see the cars, and Nick nearly exploded having to wait to get to the real steam trains. Fascinating how much stuff they have on display as 'historical' that doesn't seem that long ago... the display dedicated to the 1980's looks very familiar (I could re-create it with the crap I have in storage... most of it still in boxes... which again relates to that 'let's keep it' mentality Nick has inherited.)
Today is Easter Sunday, and we're laying low, surrounded by every flavor of Peep imaginable, and candy wrappers all over. He was up at 4:00 AM to take in his haul, which his mama let me sleep through it. He doesn't sleep well when he stays up late, and last night was my fault, but he's started reading more on his own, and I hate to discourage it.
More photos this month..
- Jason
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
