The Peanut Chronicle: Updates and Photo Dump

Sorry for the infrequency of posts. I could make the excuse that life has been super-busy--which it has--but I also have just gotten out of the headspace of thinking about posting when things happen.

So I'll put the random assortment of updates I can think of into a list:

Nicholas has been a bit of a mess the past few days. He has been having major meltdowns over seemingly insignificant things. As in, crocodile tears have been a 2-3 times a day occurance. I have no idea what is up.
They instituted a job chart at school, where the kids rotate through the classroom jobs. Nicholas thinks this is the most awesome thing ever. It also means we have gotten more details than ever before about what actually goes on in the classroom, as he explains each job in minute detail.
They studied occupations at school last week and when they asked Nicholas what he wants to be when he grows up, he said "a daddy." Joe then questioned him on what daddies do and his responses were things like "drive cars" and other such standard adult activities.
Nicholas is really into Berenstein Bears books right now. They are super long. We are trying to work him down from the 2 books that he has gotten at bedtime since infancy to 2 short books OR 1 long book. You can guess how well that is going.
He has learned to brush his teeth almost entirely by himself. Apparently the crazy Mass. law about requiring them to brush their teeth in daycares is paying off.
Potty training is going nowhere. He was doing well for awhile a couple months ago and now wants nothing to do with it. He has the control but is using that to guarantee that he doesn't ever go on the potty, even by accident. Not sure what is going on there, but I'm not going to push him for now.
Nicholas is obsessed with the idea of his birthday. He has been counting down for months already and now that we have birthday parties for friends from school every few weeks, he is getting super-duper excited.
Nicholas and I went for a hike a couple weeks ago with a neighbor and her 9-month-old daughter and Nicholas did an amazing job. We hiked for 90 minutes, and he walked for all but 10 of those. I was super-impressed! The only problem is that he was really desperate for us to end up near water he could throw rocks in (we did that a couple times last summer) and this trail did not go near water.
Tomorrow said neighbor is picking Nicholas up from school for us and bringing him back to her house. Nicholas is psyched and can't stop talking about how "Leila's mommy" is picking him up. Joe and I are thankful because she is saving us from a tight jam. I'm interested to see how it all goes, though, because they have to then go pick Leila up at her daycare, which happens to be Nicholas' old school. I wonder how he's going to do with that.
Nicholas calls short-sleeved shirts shirts with "no sleeves" and can't be convinced otherwise.
Last night Nicholas found a sleepsack in the bottom of a drawer and insisted on putting it on and wearing it to bed. Yes, he looked as absurd as you imagine.