When Daddy's Away

Nicholas and I had a really great weekend while Joe was away at his conference. We had a jam-packed weekend of fun and with the exception of Saturday morning, Nicholas was incredibly good, making it possible for us to do all these fun things. I already wrote about Thursday evening's "date" to the mall to get pictures and have dinner. Then Friday evening we had dinner with Katie and Alice. This picture gives you a glimpse of the kids' evening.

From 2011 March

Here they are running in and out of a blanket fort, screaming with glee. They spent a lot of time running and screaming, actually. It didn't seem to matter what they were running to or from because running and screaming in and of itself was apparently hilarious.

Saturday morning I had planned to take him to the zoo, but since we had a couple hours before the zoo opened I figured we'd run our Target errands first. But he was so difficult that it took us forever to get out the door (including 15 minutes and 2 timeouts to get his teeth brushed) and I decided that this was a sign that a major outing was a bad idea. I think he was just tired. Worn out from the week and then staying up late the night before. So on our errands we stopped by the new dollar store and picked up some fun new art supplies to play with at home. He took a real liking to painting with watercolors.

From 2011 March

He has asked to paint multiple times a day since, although about half the time his painting session lasts all of 3 minutes. But since it is an easy setup and cleanup, I don't mind.

Since he napped early we ended up squeezing in church before going to Allison's for her birthday party. And he did so much better at church! I'm wondering if 4pm is a better time for him than first thing in the morning. I still had to devote 3/4 of my attention to keeping him quiet and entertained, but I actually heard some of mass, which is an improvement.

Nicholas was the only kid at Allison's party, but he is used to that and certainly doesn't mind being at the center of a room full of adults. And they have two dogs, so he was a happy clam. He was a little scared of the bigger dog at first, but before too long was following the dogs around and trying to order them to do things. Now, ordering any dog around is a challenge, but a dog who is old, deaf, and has trouble walking really doesn't follow directions well. It was interesting to watch, though, because I've never seen Nicholas be that bossy.

Allison's mom had the brilliant idea of showing Nicholas how to scoop dog food from the big container into their bowls. And he took his job seriously.

From 2011 March

No one could believe how carefully he picked up each piece that fell or was on the edge of the bowls. What can I say, he is his father's son.

And when the cake came out, Nicholas recognized it immediately. Allison walked out with it, still in the cake keeper and he started clapping. Someone asked if he knew what it was so I asked him and he very clearly exclaimed, "chocolate!"

From 2011 March

He then stood there watching her cut pieces shouting "yay, chocolate!" and clapping. I guess he is my son as well.

He then went to sleep upstairs with no complaint, leaving me to play games and talk until after 1. Wow--I don't remember the last time I was up that late, and certainly not for fun. The funniest thing was when I woke him up to take him home. He looked at me, looked around and immediately asked for Simon (the dog) and wanted to say bye-bye to Simon. So I showed him that Simon was sleeping and we left. He then proceeded to talk the whole way home about how Simon was sleeping and was a big dog and how he said bye-bye to him. Seriously, it is a 30+ minute drive home and it was 1am--I had been certain he'd go back to sleep.

Sunday morning he woke up in a great mood and while he was happily eating breakfast I asked him what he wanted to do that morning. I hadn't mentioned the zoo as a possibility, but I was definitely entertaining the idea since we had already gone to church. And the little boy must have read my mind because he looked at me and asked for the zoo. And when I said yes his eyes lit up with excitement and he started yelling "yay zoo" and clapping. And then he ordered me to clap too. And no kidding, we clapped and yelled "yay zoo" for a few minutes before I was able to distract him with talking about what animals we'd see.

And we had a great time at the zoo.

He knows the zoo layout well enough at this point that he was able to make decisions about which animals we should go see next without leading us on a crazy adventure. And our conversations about the animals have gotten just a touch more complex. Okay, so when he generates the conversation it is really just a narration of what the animals are doing. Although his descriptions are getting more thorough.

For example, when we were watching the penguins his comment was "Penguins swimming in the water. Zoom--penguins." But when I prompt him to go further, he picks up on it eagerly now. So I responded that penguins like to swim and asked him if he likes to swim. Lightbulb on. He then kept talking about how penguins like to swim in the water and Nicholas likes to swim in the water. He was struggling with putting together that long of a sentence (or combination of sentences) so it often came out in explosions of words such as "Penguins swimming, like swimming water, Nicholas swimming water. Zoom--penguins swim in water, Nicholas swim in water. Nicholas swimming. Nicholas like swimming penguins." And sometimes he would pause, seeming to realize that he didn't have it quite right and start over and try again.

From 2011 March

It was really interesting listening to him tell Joe about the zoo later and seeing what stuck. In addition to telling him about the penguins and his own similarity to them, he told Joe about seeing the giraffes inside. It was really important to him that Joe know that the giraffes were inside that day (they are usually outside). And he described them repeatedly as "up high." I guess it is easier to see how tall they are in the inside rooms. It makes sense because outside they are in a pen that is partially below ground and they are often at a distance, so for someone who isn't great at perspective yet, I guess it would take seeing them a foot away at ground level to realize just how tall they really are. But he apparently doesn't understand the word "tall" yet because he kept describing them as "up high." Close enough.

And the monkeys. Oh, the monkeys. We're still talking about the monkeys. Usually it just involves Nicholas saying "Whoa, monkeys!" over and over and over again. (The monkeys were fighting and so I said "whoa" while we were there.) But if you prompt him, asking what the monkeys were doing, he'll tell you they were swinging and running and walking with paper. Then he sometimes adds "monkey trouble. Monkey time out." And it is true. One of the monkeys ended up in what looked like time out while we were there. No joke--some of the monkeys were fighting, the alpha male came down and set them straight, and one went over and sat in a bin in the corner. And I asked Nicholas at the time if he thought the monkey was in time out. And of course that stuck. He is just tickled when we talk about it. The idea of a monkey being in time out really resonates. Again, go figure.

There are some more pictures in the March album. Yes, I know it is April. I just forgot to change the upload settings and am too lazy to go back and fix them all.

So we had a great time and in the 4 days there were only a few hours where the thought of doing this alone all fall terrified me. But even just those 4 days was enough to send Nicholas back into mommy clingy mode, so I'm a little afraid of how he'll react to Joe being gone most of each week all fall. But I guess only time will tell.