Sorry for the blog silence. We had all sorts of fun activities planned for the past few days that would have led to good posts, but strep throat has intervened. And for once this wasn't an illness Nicholas brought home from school. I was the one who got sick and I have no idea where I caught it.
So yesterday instead of going to Ft. McHenry with a friend who is only in the country for a few days, we stayed home. I slept a lot and in between naps literally had to crawl around on the floor because I got too dizzy when I stood up. I managed to play some puzzles with Nicholas, but that was all I could muster. I felt so bad for the boy because he was so excited that I was finally home and then I couldn't do much with him.
And today instead of going on a tour of Camden Yards with Matt and Jenn, we were home again. Luckily for all of us, my mom came up and spent the morning with Nicholas. This meant Joe got work time, I got to alternate resting and working, and Nicholas got to do all sorts of fun things I didn't have the energy to do, like play t-ball and go to the library. I really don't know what we're going to do in MA without my parents to call on for help.
Strep is pretty awful and I have been miserable. Tonight is the first time in 2 days when I have had energy. I felt so bad I really wasn't even registering the activities we were missing. But now that I'm feeling human, I am really bummed. We don't get to see these friends often, so I am sad to have missed the time with them. And we are starting to get really low on days in Baltimore (I am definitely into single digits), so it was our last chance to do those outings.
But the real concern is watching to see if Joe and Nicholas get sick. We are really hoping they miss it, and are currently debating whether it makes sense to take Nicholas at least in for a precautionary test since we have a vacation coming up. We'll see how tomorrow goes, I guess.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Music to My Ears
I will preface what I'm about to say by mentioning that Nicholas loves all of his birthday presents and is having a great time learning and exploring with his new toys and gadgets.
But it is deeply heartening that when Nicholas woke up this morning, what he most wanted to do was to "play baseball outside." Love it!
Plus, he's getting much better very fast, which is fun to watch, especially since he's reached a life stage where progress is usually more subtle and much harder to mark.
On the other hand, we're both glad that Mommy is on her way home.
But it is deeply heartening that when Nicholas woke up this morning, what he most wanted to do was to "play baseball outside." Love it!
Plus, he's getting much better very fast, which is fun to watch, especially since he's reached a life stage where progress is usually more subtle and much harder to mark.
On the other hand, we're both glad that Mommy is on her way home.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Birthday, Graduation, Goodbyes
Today was an insanely packed day. It just happened that today was Nicholas' second birthday, Nicholas' last day of school, and mine and Joe's graduation. Yes, we graduated last summer technically, but today was our chance to participate in the ceremony.
Nicholas had some rough spots during the day, mostly I think out of exhaustion and a sense that something wasn't quite right. But this evening he clicked in and had a lot of fun, getting really into the whole birthday thing. I have the feeling we're going to hear a lot about birthday candles, cake, and renditions of "Happy Birthday" over the next couple weeks.
You can see his excitement here:
He also got to go to Chili's for dinner, which meant guacamole. That made for a happy little boy.
I have a whole post to write about his last day of school and my intense mommy guilt over it, but I'm too tired to night to compose it. So instead I'll leave you with some pictures of the fun stuff--graduation and celebrating Nicholas' birthday. As always, there are a bunch more in the gallery.
We had trouble getting him to pose with us for pictures in our gowns, but he initiated trying them on himself:
Happy Birthday, Nicholas! We love you so much and are in awe of the little boy you have become.
Nicholas had some rough spots during the day, mostly I think out of exhaustion and a sense that something wasn't quite right. But this evening he clicked in and had a lot of fun, getting really into the whole birthday thing. I have the feeling we're going to hear a lot about birthday candles, cake, and renditions of "Happy Birthday" over the next couple weeks.
You can see his excitement here:
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| From 2011 May |
He also got to go to Chili's for dinner, which meant guacamole. That made for a happy little boy.
I have a whole post to write about his last day of school and my intense mommy guilt over it, but I'm too tired to night to compose it. So instead I'll leave you with some pictures of the fun stuff--graduation and celebrating Nicholas' birthday. As always, there are a bunch more in the gallery.
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| From 2011 May |
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| From 2011 May |
We had trouble getting him to pose with us for pictures in our gowns, but he initiated trying them on himself:
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| From 2011 May |
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| From 2011 May |
Happy Birthday, Nicholas! We love you so much and are in awe of the little boy you have become.
Two
Happy birthday, Nicholas!
(With a special shout-out to Blogger, which allows you to schedule posts ahead of time, so that we can wish Nicholas a happy birthday down to the minute without having to stay up until after 1am. Unlike that night two years ago . . .)
(With a special shout-out to Blogger, which allows you to schedule posts ahead of time, so that we can wish Nicholas a happy birthday down to the minute without having to stay up until after 1am. Unlike that night two years ago . . .)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Wordless Wednesday: How'd That Happen So Fast?
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| From Peanut's Blog |
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| From Nicholas Is Born |
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| From 2010 May |
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| From 2011 May |
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Play Ball
Joe has taken Nicholas outside to play ball a few times and what started as throwing or kicking the ball around has morphed into a game involving climbing up two 4-5 ft hills and kicking the ball up and down the hills. And Nicholas loves this so much that "go outside play ball" has become his second most frequent request. (Still lagging behind "go park see choo-choos.")
This evening I joined them for their fun.
Here Nicholas is at the top of one hill, getting ready to kick the ball down to Joe:
And the kick:
The little boy actually has pretty good form. Too bad that this time he missed the ball:
We also did a little tossing or kicking the ball back and forth.
Nicholas is pretty good at throwing, but not so good at catching.
I was really impressed with how much Nicholas improved on climbing up and down the hills even just in the course of one evening. When we first went out he went up on all fours and basically fell into Joe at the bottom of the hill. By the end of the evening he was walking up and down with very controlled and deliberate steps, with only the occassional fall.
I also caught a picture of Nicholas practicing his new skill of putting his hat on by himself. Joe taught him the trick a couple weeks ago and he is so proud of himself:
And of course there were airplanes overhead, trucks and motorcycles on the Beltway.
Do you think Nicholas had fun today?
This evening I joined them for their fun.
Here Nicholas is at the top of one hill, getting ready to kick the ball down to Joe:
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| From 2011 May |
And the kick:
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| From 2011 May |
The little boy actually has pretty good form. Too bad that this time he missed the ball:
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| From 2011 May |
We also did a little tossing or kicking the ball back and forth.
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| From 2011 May |
Nicholas is pretty good at throwing, but not so good at catching.
I was really impressed with how much Nicholas improved on climbing up and down the hills even just in the course of one evening. When we first went out he went up on all fours and basically fell into Joe at the bottom of the hill. By the end of the evening he was walking up and down with very controlled and deliberate steps, with only the occassional fall.
I also caught a picture of Nicholas practicing his new skill of putting his hat on by himself. Joe taught him the trick a couple weeks ago and he is so proud of himself:
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| From 2011 May |
And of course there were airplanes overhead, trucks and motorcycles on the Beltway.
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| From 2011 May |
Do you think Nicholas had fun today?
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| From 2011 May |
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| From 2011 May |
Saturday, May 21, 2011
At the Old Ball—Hey, Trains!
Sarah's out of town this weekend, and Nicholas is feeling much better, so we had quite a fun day. It started off slowly, largely because I'd assumed we wouldn't be able to do anything (the initial surgery plan include a procedure with a four-day recovery period). Plus, even with just the tubes, I didn't want to assume he'd be fine and then lose carefully orchestrated plans.
And so it took me until 10:45 this morning to get out of the house and take Nicholas to the park. But as always he was a good sport and had a great time on the swings and climbing on the playground set.
After his nap, I sprang a big surprise on him. In a very rare move, the Orioles set their Saturday game for a 4:05 p.m. start (so not after he's gone to bed, and not during nap time!), which meant it seemed the perfect time to take him to a game. I decided we'd go by ourselves if we couldn't find anybody, and since I didn't try to find anyone until lunch time, our trip ended up being just the two of us.
It's really amazing how different the experience of going to a ball game is with a toddler. He was even more interested in riding on the train (i.e., the light rail) than in going to the game, but seemed pretty excited in total. The light rail took too long—it came late, was extra slow because it was picking up more than its share, and had a ten-minute stop to "reboot the computer"—so we didn't get to Camden Yards until after 4pm. Then it took us a long time to get tickets because it was a beautiful day and there was a kids' promotion, so we didn't actually sit down until there was one out in the top of the third inning.
Now, when I'm going without kids, I aim to be in my seat in time for the national anthem, and I want to watch the whole game. I actually like watching the baseball (which drives Sarah bananas) and prefer not to miss any of it. Shocking, I know. Anyway, I had no intention of making Nicholas stay the whole game. Mostly my hope was to make it to the seventh-inning stretch because he likes "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
Unfortunately, Nicholas was having none of it. Within two minutes he announced he was done, and I only convinced him to stay by buying him a pretzel. There's go-with-the-flow, and then there's spending ninety minutes to get to a ballgame, paying money for a ticket, and then leaving five minutes later. So that made him happy, and we made it through the bottom of the third, which was exciting because the Orioles scored four runs on a home run and several consecutive singles, including a play at the plate (by the way, as a spoiler, they were also the winning runs in the game).
But when Nicholas was done with the pretzel, he also decided he was done with the game, but he was amenable to walking around, and actually kind of excited when he learned there's a playground. So we wandered over that way, walking inside the stadium as much as we could and then along the Eutaw Street passageway within the grounds over to the playground. Sadly, the play set there is really designed for kids over the age of five—the ladders and steps are set too far apart and the tiers are just too high for a little guy not yet two. It was also swarmed with kids jostling about, so I let him do the slide once or twice and then distracted him. We walked around some more, wandered inside the stadium.
But by 5:45 (or ninety minutes, in the middle of the sixth), he was really done, and asked for "train to go home." I triple-checked as we walked out, asking him to confirm at the gate before we left the stadium. And then we came home!
So in total we were at the game for 3½ innings, and I actually only watched five outs worth of baseball. Even when I was little I don't remember that happening (though my father may be able to correct me). I do remember a rain-delayed game that I actually saw none of, a Red Sox-Yankees game at the Stadium (I think the pitching match-up was Andy Pettitte and Pedro Martinez). We left after two hours of a delay, assuming that the game would be cancelled, but they started it at 10:15 pm, when we were already about two-thirds of the way home. Anyway, that's just me being me. But it's the only game I can remember seeing that little of. Of course, I knew that bringing kids to the ballpark would lead to situations like this, so it's not a surprise. But it's a little jarring to have it actually happen.
Oh, and totally worth it.
And so it took me until 10:45 this morning to get out of the house and take Nicholas to the park. But as always he was a good sport and had a great time on the swings and climbing on the playground set.
After his nap, I sprang a big surprise on him. In a very rare move, the Orioles set their Saturday game for a 4:05 p.m. start (so not after he's gone to bed, and not during nap time!), which meant it seemed the perfect time to take him to a game. I decided we'd go by ourselves if we couldn't find anybody, and since I didn't try to find anyone until lunch time, our trip ended up being just the two of us.
It's really amazing how different the experience of going to a ball game is with a toddler. He was even more interested in riding on the train (i.e., the light rail) than in going to the game, but seemed pretty excited in total. The light rail took too long—it came late, was extra slow because it was picking up more than its share, and had a ten-minute stop to "reboot the computer"—so we didn't get to Camden Yards until after 4pm. Then it took us a long time to get tickets because it was a beautiful day and there was a kids' promotion, so we didn't actually sit down until there was one out in the top of the third inning.
Now, when I'm going without kids, I aim to be in my seat in time for the national anthem, and I want to watch the whole game. I actually like watching the baseball (which drives Sarah bananas) and prefer not to miss any of it. Shocking, I know. Anyway, I had no intention of making Nicholas stay the whole game. Mostly my hope was to make it to the seventh-inning stretch because he likes "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
Unfortunately, Nicholas was having none of it. Within two minutes he announced he was done, and I only convinced him to stay by buying him a pretzel. There's go-with-the-flow, and then there's spending ninety minutes to get to a ballgame, paying money for a ticket, and then leaving five minutes later. So that made him happy, and we made it through the bottom of the third, which was exciting because the Orioles scored four runs on a home run and several consecutive singles, including a play at the plate (by the way, as a spoiler, they were also the winning runs in the game).
But when Nicholas was done with the pretzel, he also decided he was done with the game, but he was amenable to walking around, and actually kind of excited when he learned there's a playground. So we wandered over that way, walking inside the stadium as much as we could and then along the Eutaw Street passageway within the grounds over to the playground. Sadly, the play set there is really designed for kids over the age of five—the ladders and steps are set too far apart and the tiers are just too high for a little guy not yet two. It was also swarmed with kids jostling about, so I let him do the slide once or twice and then distracted him. We walked around some more, wandered inside the stadium.
But by 5:45 (or ninety minutes, in the middle of the sixth), he was really done, and asked for "train to go home." I triple-checked as we walked out, asking him to confirm at the gate before we left the stadium. And then we came home!
So in total we were at the game for 3½ innings, and I actually only watched five outs worth of baseball. Even when I was little I don't remember that happening (though my father may be able to correct me). I do remember a rain-delayed game that I actually saw none of, a Red Sox-Yankees game at the Stadium (I think the pitching match-up was Andy Pettitte and Pedro Martinez). We left after two hours of a delay, assuming that the game would be cancelled, but they started it at 10:15 pm, when we were already about two-thirds of the way home. Anyway, that's just me being me. But it's the only game I can remember seeing that little of. Of course, I knew that bringing kids to the ballpark would lead to situations like this, so it's not a surprise. But it's a little jarring to have it actually happen.
Oh, and totally worth it.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Baby's First Surgery
We're home already! That was easy (for me).
Everything went well. Nicholas was delightful and charming in the pre-op, so much so that the entire nursing staff stopped what they were doing to watch him walk out when he was called in. Sarah stayed with him while they did the anesthesia, and then came out to join me.
The surgery itself takes about fifteen minutes, so Sarah had barely sat down when the doctor came out to tell us he was done, and only another five minutes before we went to join Nicholas in recovery—where, fortunately, there was a Thomas the Tank Engine video. He was a little upset as he was waking up, just from feeling off and out of it. But he's also loaded up on Tylenol, so his ears should feel fine.
And so now we're home, where Nicholas is eating everything in sight (he couldn't eat or drink this morning before the surgery). As we were driving home he specifically requested a chocolate donut, which we obliged. (And possibly got donuts for ourselves too ...)
Anyway, that's it for the updates. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll be back to a steady stream of semi-posed photos and passive-aggressive snark about taking so many photos.
Everything went well. Nicholas was delightful and charming in the pre-op, so much so that the entire nursing staff stopped what they were doing to watch him walk out when he was called in. Sarah stayed with him while they did the anesthesia, and then came out to join me.
The surgery itself takes about fifteen minutes, so Sarah had barely sat down when the doctor came out to tell us he was done, and only another five minutes before we went to join Nicholas in recovery—where, fortunately, there was a Thomas the Tank Engine video. He was a little upset as he was waking up, just from feeling off and out of it. But he's also loaded up on Tylenol, so his ears should feel fine.
And so now we're home, where Nicholas is eating everything in sight (he couldn't eat or drink this morning before the surgery). As we were driving home he specifically requested a chocolate donut, which we obliged. (And possibly got donuts for ourselves too ...)
Anyway, that's it for the updates. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll be back to a steady stream of semi-posed photos and passive-aggressive snark about taking so many photos.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Colors
I mentioned the other day that Nicholas is finally getting a handle on colors. This has had a dramatic effect on his artwork. For some reason that is beyond my understanding (but I bet is fascinating) he is only willing to draw with markers that he can name the color of. So suddenly his drawings have gone from all brown all the time to an array of beautiful colors. This morning he was drawing a card (btw, Uncle Mike and Aunt Melinda, check your mailbox in a couple days) and on the front he did one very intentional squiggle in each color, carefully naming each as he took it out of the box.
My favorite part, though, was when he finished making his purple squiggle and then very clearly declared "purple marker next to yellow" as he carefully put the purple marker in the box next to a yellow marker. Yep, I think colors have clicked. And, seriously, who knew he understood the concept of "next to" well enough to use it properly in a sentence?
My favorite part, though, was when he finished making his purple squiggle and then very clearly declared "purple marker next to yellow" as he carefully put the purple marker in the box next to a yellow marker. Yep, I think colors have clicked. And, seriously, who knew he understood the concept of "next to" well enough to use it properly in a sentence?
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Pre-Op Visit
Nicholas' surgery to have tubes put in is all set for Friday morning. Of course today for the first time in over 4 months a doctor looked in his ears and said they actually looked pretty good. But it has been 4 months straight of ear infections as soon as he was off antibiotics for more than 3 days and just a week ago they had fluid in them and the fluid was getting cloudy in one ear (meaning the petri dish for the ear infection was forming). So we all agreed that it made sense to do the tubes. The kid has been on antibiotics for most of the last 4 months and if we put it off any longer we'll have to start over with a new doctor and that might mean months before we can do it.
So Friday morning at 8:45 Nicholas will get tubes in.
The really good news is that he won't have his adenoids out. The doctor had thought after his last appointment that this might be necessary as well, but given how well he was doing today, the doctor saw no need to take them out at this point. He was confident the tubes would solve the problem. At least for the 6-12 months before they fall out.
Not having his adenoids out makes the recovery period much shorter and easier. From what they've told us, the tubes shouldn't bother Nicholas at all and there is for all purposes no real recovery period. He'll have a rough day Friday because of the anesthesia, but after that should be fine. I am anxious about the whole thing, but hopefully it will all go according to this plan and by the time I leave on Saturday morning he'll be his normal self. And Friday we'll let him watch every show on Sprout on Demand that he wants and read him library books until we're hoarse.
I know this is the right decision and will be good for him, but I feel so awful putting him through it.
So Friday morning at 8:45 Nicholas will get tubes in.
The really good news is that he won't have his adenoids out. The doctor had thought after his last appointment that this might be necessary as well, but given how well he was doing today, the doctor saw no need to take them out at this point. He was confident the tubes would solve the problem. At least for the 6-12 months before they fall out.
Not having his adenoids out makes the recovery period much shorter and easier. From what they've told us, the tubes shouldn't bother Nicholas at all and there is for all purposes no real recovery period. He'll have a rough day Friday because of the anesthesia, but after that should be fine. I am anxious about the whole thing, but hopefully it will all go according to this plan and by the time I leave on Saturday morning he'll be his normal self. And Friday we'll let him watch every show on Sprout on Demand that he wants and read him library books until we're hoarse.
I know this is the right decision and will be good for him, but I feel so awful putting him through it.
The Darnedest Things
I swear I didn't teach him this. We were driving home this afternoon, and as usual, Nicholas is calling out what he sees.
"Bus!"
"Sign! Sign orange!"
"Big truck!"
Just before we get home, we were waiting at a stop light, and Nicholas sees another bus, this one a state-run bus that serves the elderly.
"Bus!"
Pause.
"Old people bus!"
Honestly, we didn't do it. So we're not sure where he picked it up.
(But it was pretty funny!)
"Bus!"
"Sign! Sign orange!"
"Big truck!"
Just before we get home, we were waiting at a stop light, and Nicholas sees another bus, this one a state-run bus that serves the elderly.
"Bus!"
Pause.
"Old people bus!"
Honestly, we didn't do it. So we're not sure where he picked it up.
(But it was pretty funny!)
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Backup Plan
We had planned a whole fun trip for the weekend. We were going to drive up to Philly after my Saturday morning exam (yes, Saturday at 8am--I brought my students doughnuts), meet up with Joe's parents and brother who were there for Patrick's crew race, spend the night with Uncle Matt, and then spend Sunday at Sesame Place. Sesame Place, if you haven't heard of it, is basically DisneyWorld but with Sesame Street characters and targeted and younger kids. We figured Nicholas would be over-the-moon to meet the characters. And it is really near Uncle Matt's house, Nicholas is only free for a couple more weeks, and this was our last free weekend before we move. But the weather forecast was iffy and then once we started considering the possibility of not going, we realized all the other ways in which our lives would be easier if we eliminated the trip. It was partly the money, but even more the fact that we were all exhausted and so cramming in an exhausting outing and long drive didn't seem the smartest idea. Also, I had tons of grading to do.
So, anyway, we ditched Sesame Place and while Nicholas would indeed have loved to meet the characters, he had a great weekend and didn't know meeting an Elmo was even an option so wasn't disappointed.
Our feature activity was a trip down to the College Park Aviation Museum this morning. It turns out the airport down the road from my campus is where the Wright Brothers trained the first American military personnel on flying airplanes.
He had a great time running around looking at all the airplanes and doing all the hands-on activities.
Possibly the coolest part of the trip was when a helicopter landed right on the other side of the fence at the airport. And then it took off, circled around, and landed again. Some sort of practice exercises.
Most of the drive home and then at random other points this afternoon and evening Nicholas has repeated the most salient points of the trip. And since he has repeated it so many times, I think I have it pretty close to memorized. So here it goes: "Helicopter landed. Scared helicopter landed. Then up in the sky again. Bye bye helicopter. Helicopter landed. Airplane museum. In an airplane. Helicopter landed. Up in the sky." Sometimes the order of the sentences changes, but the sentences themselves are pretty consistent.
A few other random funny or interesting things from this weekend:
Nicholas got the hiccups yesterday and kept calling them makeup. Then at one point after he hiccuped he looked at us, pointed inside his mouth and said "hiccup in mouth." We broke out laughing.
Nicholas is now obsessed with corn on the cob.
In addition to helping shuck it, he did a thorough (and hilarious) job of eating it. No pictures of that last part because our hands were messy.
Nicholas got in trouble one day I wasn't home for coloring on the wall. Apparently the lecture stuck. I was filming him talking about the museum when he randomly started talking about this:
The intensive review of colors they were doing at school last week apparently worked. Before last week Nicholas only knew brown and the other colors just couldn't stick at all. Since he was not the only kid in his class having this problem, his teacher decided to make that the task of the week. He now has red and yellow all the time, and black, orange, green, and blue most of the time.
There are more pictures in The Gallery, but I want to post some videos here.
Nicholas' ABCs are getting better:
Nicholas is also getting good at singing other songs, having memorized large chunks of them. This video of him playing Ring Around the Rosie with his dolls cracks me up:
So, anyway, we ditched Sesame Place and while Nicholas would indeed have loved to meet the characters, he had a great weekend and didn't know meeting an Elmo was even an option so wasn't disappointed.
Our feature activity was a trip down to the College Park Aviation Museum this morning. It turns out the airport down the road from my campus is where the Wright Brothers trained the first American military personnel on flying airplanes.
He had a great time running around looking at all the airplanes and doing all the hands-on activities.
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| From 2011 May |
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| From 2011 May |
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| From 2011 May |
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| From 2011 May |
Possibly the coolest part of the trip was when a helicopter landed right on the other side of the fence at the airport. And then it took off, circled around, and landed again. Some sort of practice exercises.
 |
| From 2011 May |
Most of the drive home and then at random other points this afternoon and evening Nicholas has repeated the most salient points of the trip. And since he has repeated it so many times, I think I have it pretty close to memorized. So here it goes: "Helicopter landed. Scared helicopter landed. Then up in the sky again. Bye bye helicopter. Helicopter landed. Airplane museum. In an airplane. Helicopter landed. Up in the sky." Sometimes the order of the sentences changes, but the sentences themselves are pretty consistent.
A few other random funny or interesting things from this weekend:
Nicholas got the hiccups yesterday and kept calling them makeup. Then at one point after he hiccuped he looked at us, pointed inside his mouth and said "hiccup in mouth." We broke out laughing.
Nicholas is now obsessed with corn on the cob.
 |
| From 2011 May |
In addition to helping shuck it, he did a thorough (and hilarious) job of eating it. No pictures of that last part because our hands were messy.
Nicholas got in trouble one day I wasn't home for coloring on the wall. Apparently the lecture stuck. I was filming him talking about the museum when he randomly started talking about this:
 |
| From 2011 May |
The intensive review of colors they were doing at school last week apparently worked. Before last week Nicholas only knew brown and the other colors just couldn't stick at all. Since he was not the only kid in his class having this problem, his teacher decided to make that the task of the week. He now has red and yellow all the time, and black, orange, green, and blue most of the time.
There are more pictures in The Gallery, but I want to post some videos here.
Nicholas' ABCs are getting better:
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| From 2011 May |
Nicholas is also getting good at singing other songs, having memorized large chunks of them. This video of him playing Ring Around the Rosie with his dolls cracks me up:
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| From 2011 May |
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Counterfactuals
Today is the anniversary of the theft of "Katia," our Honda Civic, which is kind of hard to believe. If you don't know the story, and don't feel like clicking through the links, the car was stolen from its spot near the Hopkins campus on May 12, 2009, just ten days before Peanut's due date. We went out and in three days bought a new car, then learned just as Sarah was going into labor that the Baltimore Police Department had found someone found the Civic and told the police about it. And then we learned that it was fixable.
It's occurred to me every now and again, and especially this week since it's the time of year that it happened, just how much that crazy series of events changed our lives. Until that afternoon, we had planned to have the Civic as our family car, with the dilapidated (and that's being very generous) Subaru Impreza (aka "the purple car" and other more colorful nicknames) as a backup. The Impreza was a car that neither of us wanted Nicholas to be in on any kind of regular basis. At the time he was born the car was sixteen years old. It only had about 108,000 miles on it, but it showed its age. Plastic pieces were falling apart. The air conditioning and heating only sort of worked. It did not do well on highways. Oh, and it was missing its radio because that got stolen in Baltimore too (about a year before the Civic, but on the exact same block ... needless to say we haven't parked there since).
It's kind of odd to think about what our lives would be like if the Civic hadn't been stolen, or to put it another way, how different things are given that it happened. We had planned to replace the Impreza shortly after Nicholas's birth, so I don't think we'd still have it. (It ended up with Uncle Patrick, and was donated to charity after his high school graduation in June 2010.) But who knows what our commutes would look like. Sarah relies on having the Accord, which has a CD player, to make it through the 55-mile drive to College Park. We're comfortable putting Nicholas in the Civic, of course. But I don't know how we would fit all of his stuff when we travel anywhere, given how small the Civic's storage space is (and seems, in comparison to the Accord). And would we have been comfortable taking so many long road trips in a smaller car with a manual transmission? Who knows, of course, but I think about these things.
Most interesting, though, is that "Katia" is now widely known as "Daddy's car." That one I totally didn't see coming.
It's occurred to me every now and again, and especially this week since it's the time of year that it happened, just how much that crazy series of events changed our lives. Until that afternoon, we had planned to have the Civic as our family car, with the dilapidated (and that's being very generous) Subaru Impreza (aka "the purple car" and other more colorful nicknames) as a backup. The Impreza was a car that neither of us wanted Nicholas to be in on any kind of regular basis. At the time he was born the car was sixteen years old. It only had about 108,000 miles on it, but it showed its age. Plastic pieces were falling apart. The air conditioning and heating only sort of worked. It did not do well on highways. Oh, and it was missing its radio because that got stolen in Baltimore too (about a year before the Civic, but on the exact same block ... needless to say we haven't parked there since).
It's kind of odd to think about what our lives would be like if the Civic hadn't been stolen, or to put it another way, how different things are given that it happened. We had planned to replace the Impreza shortly after Nicholas's birth, so I don't think we'd still have it. (It ended up with Uncle Patrick, and was donated to charity after his high school graduation in June 2010.) But who knows what our commutes would look like. Sarah relies on having the Accord, which has a CD player, to make it through the 55-mile drive to College Park. We're comfortable putting Nicholas in the Civic, of course. But I don't know how we would fit all of his stuff when we travel anywhere, given how small the Civic's storage space is (and seems, in comparison to the Accord). And would we have been comfortable taking so many long road trips in a smaller car with a manual transmission? Who knows, of course, but I think about these things.
Most interesting, though, is that "Katia" is now widely known as "Daddy's car." That one I totally didn't see coming.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
To Tell a Secret
Shhhhh! Don't tell Sarah!
I went somewhere with Nicholas ... and didn't take the camera!
[insert 1930s horror movie shrieking soundtrack]
As I mentioned on Friday night, we went to the zoo, where we met Alice and Katie, and had a great deal of fun. Nothing particularly of note to report, just a fun outing. And the two of them are a marvel to watch when they're in action together.
Now off to get the house prepared for Mother's Day.
I went somewhere with Nicholas ... and didn't take the camera!
[insert 1930s horror movie shrieking soundtrack]
As I mentioned on Friday night, we went to the zoo, where we met Alice and Katie, and had a great deal of fun. Nothing particularly of note to report, just a fun outing. And the two of them are a marvel to watch when they're in action together.
Now off to get the house prepared for Mother's Day.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Friday Notes
Nothing that deserves a full post, so you get bullet points!
- Sometimes I wonder whether he's well-trained or just came pre-programmed this way. We decided to go outside to play ball after dinner tonight (by the way, totally his new favorite after-school activity). I said that I needed to get my sneakers on, and then we would go, so I went into the bedroom. When I came back out into the living room, he was sitting on the floor putting his Legos back in their bag singing, "Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share." Sheesh. He's making me look bad.
- Nicholas has thus far not shown much irritation at the regular thunderstorms we get in the Chesapeake region (in the summer, it seriously is 3-4 times a week that we get at least one in the evening). Tonight we had one that didn't register very much on the radar, but it went right overhead. The first roll of thunder was so strong that I not only heard it, I felt it (the building shook a little), and I saw it on the baby monitor. Needless to say a few moments later I heard a feeble, "Daddy, open the door!" coming from the monitor. He was rattled, but I was proud of him for not completely melting down. It obviously woke him up and disturbed him, but he held it together. We read books for a little while until there was a decent interval between lightning flashes. He wasn't all that excited about being left alone, but since he listens to reason, I was able to explain that he was safe, and that he could call me if he needed me.
- Speaking of pride, he's doing fabulously with the idea that Mommy is away for a few days. He knows where Mommy is—if you ask, he'll say "with Aunt Stacy!" And he has thoroughly enjoyed talking with her on the phone each evening. Sarah's a little upset that he's not despondent at her absence, but mostly is also glad that he can manage without being codependent for a few days. I, on the other hand ... (just kidding!)
- He doesn't know this yet, but tomorrow morning he gets to go to the zoo ... with Alice! How much cooler does it get?
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Next Stop, the Borscht Belt!
I taught Nicholas tonight about the concept of "knock knock" jokes, and he thinks it's hilarious. But he only knows one.
We were sitting around, and he heard the people downstairs chopping vegetables (that's not a euphemism, we're pretty sure that's actually what they're doing). Quietly, he said, "knocking."
For some reason, I looked at him and decided it was time to teach him some good old-fashioned family humor. "Nicholas," I said, "say 'knock knock.'"
"Knock knock!"
"Who's there?" I asked, not really sure whether he would repeat it or come up with an answer.
"Nick-a-nas! Hahahahahahaha!"
He repeated the joke a number of times over the evening. Needless to say it managed to get even funnier when he got really exhausted. And I really hope he remembers it tomorrow.
We were sitting around, and he heard the people downstairs chopping vegetables (that's not a euphemism, we're pretty sure that's actually what they're doing). Quietly, he said, "knocking."
For some reason, I looked at him and decided it was time to teach him some good old-fashioned family humor. "Nicholas," I said, "say 'knock knock.'"
"Knock knock!"
"Who's there?" I asked, not really sure whether he would repeat it or come up with an answer.
"Nick-a-nas! Hahahahahahaha!"
He repeated the joke a number of times over the evening. Needless to say it managed to get even funnier when he got really exhausted. And I really hope he remembers it tomorrow.
This is Uncle Mike's Legacy
We turn on Sesame Street, we see a song called "It's Raining Cookies," and we think of Uncle Mike. People in the know know why.
Watch for yourself:
Watch for yourself:
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Food Options
Nicholas's habit of being agreeable (in theory) may come back to haunt him.
Ironically, though, this story stems from his being disagreeable this morning. He woke up in a mood for no particular reason [ed.: just like Daddy!], and refused to make a breakfast decision. Waffles? No! Cereal? No! ... Wait five minutes ... Waffle? No!
From across the room, exasperated, I jokingly put up a fist and said, "would you like a knuckle sandwich?"
At this Nicholas's face brightened. "Okay!"
I don't think he quite understood why Mommy and Daddy were laughing so hard. Oh well.
Ironically, though, this story stems from his being disagreeable this morning. He woke up in a mood for no particular reason [ed.: just like Daddy!], and refused to make a breakfast decision. Waffles? No! Cereal? No! ... Wait five minutes ... Waffle? No!
From across the room, exasperated, I jokingly put up a fist and said, "would you like a knuckle sandwich?"
At this Nicholas's face brightened. "Okay!"
I don't think he quite understood why Mommy and Daddy were laughing so hard. Oh well.
Monday, May 2, 2011
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