Nicholas' Third Birthday

We spent Nicholas' birthday weekend in New York with Joe's family and for Nicholas this was the most wonderful birthday present he could have gotten.  He also loved all the physical presents and in fact got a little too acquisitive for my tastes, but spending time with his aunts and uncles and grandparents, having Mickey Mouse themed everything, and going to a Mets game were the highlights.

And now, because I am too lazy to write a real post, here is his birthday weekend in pictures and videos:

The cake I made, which required some cosmetic surgery post travel to restore Mickey's face

From 2012 May

The decorations that were waiting in New York for him when we arrived:

From 2012 May

Do the giggles suggest the boy was having a good birthday?

From 2012 May

So many of his presents were "big boy" things, which I didn't realize until he put on his backpack and watch and I felt like he could be going to kindergarten.

From 2012 May

The tent Uncle Patrick and Sarah got him was a big hit and is in fact now set up in the middle of his room.

From 2012 May

Nicholas did a good job at the Mets game overall. I think he only watched probably a total of 1 inning, spread out over the whole game, but he was entertained enough by putting his cup in the cupholder and squeezing back and forth between the two rows, that he made it through the whole game. And there were airplanes flying overhead, so when he got bored of baseball, he could just watch those.

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

Then on Monday he got to hang out some more with Grandma Claire:

From 2012 May

And go to a Memorial Day parade:

From 2012 May

He loved the marching band, but the Memorial Day service that preceded it really upset him because of how loud the gun salutes were.

He had a great weekend, but he was exhausted!

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

And, as always, there are more pictures in the Gallery.

Happy Birthday, Nicholas!

From 2012 May

3-Year Update

I'm 2 days late, but for the sake of my own record keeping, I want to make some notes about Nicholas as of his third birthday:

• He is making amazing progress with pre-reading skills and knowledge.  He can write his name (although he can't moderate the size of the letters and makes some odd decisions about where to put the last few letters when he runs out of room), he recognizes all capital letters and around 1/3 of lower case, and he is able to identify what letter many words start with by sound.
• He can usually count to around 30 with no mistakes and can get to 100 with only 4 or 5 corrections.  For the most part these corrections come at multiples of 10.  In other words, he hasn't yet reliably memorized what comes after 39 or 49, but he understands the concept of the progression of numbers and so once you prompt him that 40 comes after 39, he can then get to 49.  He knows that 100 is one hundred, but has a lot of trouble putting together two-digit numbers.
• He is great at playing games.  In general he is an incredibly logical and rational kid, so anything that involves rules is good for him.  There are some spatial things that give him trouble (for example, on Connect 4 he only reliably sees the horizontal sequences) and he can't read, but he can handle the rules for most little kids games.
• His favorite station at school is dramatic play, which is ironic because imagination is one area where he lags behind, particularly in relation to the girls he is friends with.  He likes to play with pretend kitchens, dolls, and so on, but he plays with them in very straightforward ways.  Just in the last couple weeks he has been doing a little more creative play, but in general he mimics what he saw an adult or another kid do.  He likes to hold dolls and stuffed animals, but he just names them as whatever they are (babydoll, elephant, doggie, etc.).
• He still needs a nap each afternoon, but he has gotten to the point where he can push through without one quite late.  During the week this means he sometimes refuses to nap at school and then falls asleep on the way home.  On weekends if we're home he still sleeps right after lunch, but we are starting to be able to push him if there is an activity that goes through the early afternoon.
• He still sleeps 11 hours each night, approximately 7:30-6:30.
• His absolute favorite thing in the world is spending time with his aunts and uncles, followed by any other group where he is the center of attention, followed by zoos and playgrounds.
• He is loving gymnastics class.  We have had to ban somersaults outside of class because he does them with too much gusto.  Instead of just putting his head down and rolling over, he stands up and basically jumps into them.  It looks really impressive, but completely terrifies me.
• He is a pro at his tricycle, getting good at hitting a baseball off a tee, and has an amazing throw (and soccer kick, for that matter), but catching is still beyond him.  He doesn't seem to understand the idea of anticipating where the ball is going and moving his hand.
• He loves all modes of transportation, both looking at them and going on them.  Airplanes and trains are his favorites.
• Right now Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is his favorite show and Toy Story and Cars are his favorite movies.  He likes to watch the same episodes over and over and over and over again.  He gets two episodes a day, one in the morning and one while we make dinner, and he knows it.
• He can mostly dress himself.  Pants he has down, as he does his summer socks.  Socks that are tighter and higher up he gets about half the time, shoes he can put on by himself but often mixes up which foot each goes on, and shirts he can take on and off by himself about 2/3 of the time, but the smaller ones frustrate him.
• He is most definitely not potty trained.  He has the ability but has decided that he wants nothing to do with it.  In fact, he has so much physical control that since he has decided he will not use the potty, he can ensure that if you sit him there that he won't go, even by accident.
• His language constantly amazes us.  He has begun regularly sprinkling his conversations with three-syllable words.  So, for example, he is as likely to describe something as "beautiful" as "pretty" or as "terrible" instead of "bad."  He has also picked up on many of our phrases and tones, which just sound funny coming out of that small of a person.  The grammar element that trips him up most often is past tense conjugations.  What he actually often ends up doing is adding "ed" to things but after he has already conjugated them into the past tense.  For exampled: "playeded" instead of "played" or "wroted" instead of "wrote."
• He often gets shy when put on the spot (telling him he has to ask someone or tell someone something almost always fails), but he relishes being the center of attention when he feels comfortable.  He absolutely lives for the laugh and when he gets people to laugh he will repeat the phrase or action over and over again.
• He wants so much to be a grown up and to fit in with the adults.  As an only child and since so many of the people we spend time with don't have children, he is quite often the only child with a bunch of adults.  And he has picked up on many of the social cues.  So if all the adults laugh, he laughs too, even though he has no idea what was funny.  We also quite frequently have conversations about how old he has to be before he can do certain things.
• He worries so much.  He can be reassured pretty easily, but you have to be careful what you say around him because he will take it seriously.  So if I get frustrated about something while driving, it upsets him and I have to reassure him that even though I missed the turn it is okay and I can make the next turn and fix it.  Or like this afternoon when he woke up from his nap and was almost at the point of tears because he thought he had forgotten to say goodbye to Uncle Patrick and thank him for his birthday present.
• He still likes to snuggle and when he is upset he still just wants Mommy.  I know I don't have too many more years of that and so I accommodate it a little too much.
• He is still in a crib because it has never occurred to him to try to get out, but he is getting a big boy bed in a couple weeks and is super excited about it.  Given how he latched onto the idea, I wonder if this is something he has been thinking about for awhile.
• He has started to get a little bit of an attitude and is testing out responses and tones and phrases that he must have heard at school.  I really hate hearing him tell us to "go away from me" or saying "you're not my friend anymore," but I also know that he is testing those phrases just like he does phrases like "aw, shucks" and that he is still truly the sweet boy he has always been.  This becomes very clear when he starts to cry when you explain that those phrases hurt people's feelings and that he made you feel sad.  He is actually simultaneously going through a sensitive phase where being reprimanded in front of people can lead to tears.
• He loves school and gets excited about school days.  His favorite part of school right now I think is having jobs, although outside time is right up there as well.  The wide age range of his school exposes him to some social interactions he doesn't quite have the maturity to understand (hence, the "you're not my friend anymore" comments), but also challenges him in lots of great ways.
• When he becomes a pain in the butt that is generally a sign that he needs a snack.  I have never understood the effects of low blood sugar so well.
• He is a great sport and while I find myself really missing the toddler he used to be (although not the infant, because while I like to look at the pictures, those first few months were really rough) and getting a little too clingy, I really do relish the comparative freedom of our lives with a big boy, particularly one who is so agreeable.

Somehow 3 for me marks the transition into full blown childhood and it is making me a little wistful.  I love all the fun stuff he can do now and the conversations we can have, but he is clearly not by baby anymore.  They weren't kidding when they said it goes by quickly.

Nostalgia

Want to see something incredibly adorable?  Go back a year in the archives and watch the videos from last spring.  I accidentally ended up watching one last night and am now addicted.  It is amazing watching how much he has changed. 

And to think that at the time I thought he was perfectly intelligible--now I can't understand most of what he was saying!  How is it possible to feel like every day he gets more grown up and yet still be stunned at how much he has changed in a year?

Mommy-Nicholas Vacation 2012

Well, it took me forever to have a chance to sit down and write this post, but now that I have finally gotten to it, you will likely get a novel.  So, here it goes, Mommy and Nicholas Vacation 2012:

Nicholas had an absolute blast!  I often fall into the trap of thinking that if I want to give him a special treat I need to take him to a fun museum or go out to dinner, but a trip on an airplane to Grandma and Grandpa's house and then up to see Alice was a million times better than the visit to Sesame Place I tried to make happen for years with no success.  He really truly is a sweet kid and so enjoyed spending time with people he loves more than anything else we could have done for our vacation.  (On a similar note, he is crazy excited about his birthday on Saturday, but not about the idea of presents.  He is bouncing with anticipation because all of Joe's family will be in New York . . . and he thinks they are all coming for his birthday.)

Nicholas also surprised me with how much he remembered about both my parents' house and Alice's house.  It had been 11 months since he had been at my parents' house, which is 1/3 of his life, and he hadn't been to Alice's since September, but that didn't phase him.  On the plane on the way to Maryland he started asking if we'd see the two dogs at my parents' house (the dogs live next door) and he remembered that the dogs were black, although he couldn't remember their names.  And on the drive to Alice's house he kept talking about wanting to play in the pretend house in Alice's room.

Anyway, so on to our trip itself.  At my parents' house we spent some time gardening, took two hikes, played a bunch of board games, read books, did puzzles, and created a new game that involved crashing toy cars into Duplo structures and yelling "accident, accident" before having a fireman on a motorcycle rush to the scene.  Actually, looking at this list, all but the last one are things that are things that are just so fundamentally essential elements of my family.  It really is fitting that my parents introduced Nicholas to real gardening (there are no worms in the potting soil we use on our deck).

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

Nicholas revelled in what to him were new and exciting activities, while I revelled in the security and comfort of being home and the nostalgia that comes from watching Nicholas read the books and play with the puzzles and games that I remember clearly from my childhood.  I tried explaining to him at a couple points that such-and-such a book was Uncle Andrew's favorite or that the sleeping bag he was using was Uncle Peter's when he was a little boy, but that concept was completely lost on him.  And both the historian and the sentimental mother in me absolutely loved playing a Huckleberry Hound game with Nicholas and my mom that had been my mom's as a kid.

When we were kids we would moan and complain about going on hikes (although that could sometimes be moderated with carefully chosen trails that allowed for lots of rock climbing), but there were two days each year where we knew we were hiking and we weren't allowed to complain--my mom's birthday and Mother's Day.  And so taking a hike on Mother's Day has become a tradition.  We actually ended up doing a longer hike the day before, but we got out for a short one on Mother's Day as well.

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

We then drove up to see Katie, Wes, and Alice, and Nicholas and I both enjoyed the comfort of being with old friends.  Alice and Nicholas had a complete blast!  They were hilarious together.  I wish I had thought to take some videos because the still pictures don't even come close to capturing their dynamic.  Think hysterical laughter.  On an endless loop. 

From 2012 May

They just cracked each other up.  And this was true about just about everything, but the one that really got them is when we put on Babe for them.  The idea of a talking pig gave them constant fodder.  If the laughter died down for a minute, one of them as if on cue would say "a talking pig" in this high-pitched hysterical voice and they would be besides themselves laughing again.  SO MUCH FUN! 

Alice was also great for spurring Nicholas' imagination.  It has been really interesting watching them grow up together.  In some ways they have progressed very similarly, mastering most major skills at around the same time and at this point are comparable in speech, gross motor skills, and comprehension.  But from very early on it was clear that Alice was much more imaginative and Nicholas was much more rule-oriented and systematic.  But Nicholas enjoys imaginative play, as long as he has someone else to make things up whose lead he can follow--he needs someone else to set the "rules" as it were.  So once Alice created the game of picnic, for example, Nicholas was all about taking their babies on a picnic and eating pretend sandwiches they had made.  

From 2012 May

He never ever would have come up with that on his own, however.  I've noticed a difference in the last week, however, with him coming up with sillier things and being interested in helping me make up stories, so watching Alice and playing with her seems to have spurred at least a short-term burst of whatever part of the brain controls imagination.  We need to get him more friends with that gene, because neither Joe nor I is able to do much with it--we are much more inclined to play games, which only reinforces the rule-following and logic that he already has in abundance.

Speaking of creativity and rule-following, Nicholas drew a self-portrait (or "a picture of me," as he called it) with chalk while we were there. 

From 2012 May

This drawing seriously impressed me because it demonstrates a lot more understanding of spatial relationships than I thought almost-3 year olds had.  When I asked him about the picture he pointed out his head, two eyes, hair, legs, and feet.  Can you identify them all? 

From 2012 May

It looks a little bit like a Martian to me, but I am still really impressed, even more because I had no idea he could make the mental connections to put those pieces together than for the fine motor skills.

I really, truly, absolutely do love my job, but I miss being close to my parents and our friends.  I feel guilty for taking Nicholas away from these people he loves so much and who are such good, rocks of stability for him.  And I miss having people around with whom I can just be completely myself because they have known me for so long and seen me at times when I was far from my best and so there is no longer anything to hide or any games to play.

But it is nice to know that you can go home again.  And it warms my heart to see that the time away doesn't lessen the bonds Nicholas has.  I guess I should have known better, seeing as my own grandparents and cousins were always so far away.  But I also know that I always wished they were closer.  But I will try to put the guilt aside and just look at these pictures and remember how close he is to his grandparents and to Alice, despite the distance.

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

Pajama Day and the Transgression of Social Norms in Early Childhood Education

Today is Pajama Day at Nicholas's school.

I know this because he told me so: 35 times last night between getting home and bed, and then another 35 times this morning. Oh, and when he woke up he was talking to himself: "Today is Pajama Day at school! That's silly!"

Nicholas understands, just shy of three years old, that the norm is to wear "real" clothes to school, and that wearing pajamas is a bit subversive. In other words, he has a more sophisticated grasp of social norms than many of the college students we teach.

Me and My Boy

Have I mentioned that I love my little munchkin?

From 2012 May

May Vacation

Nicholas and I had an amazing vacation.  Hopefully I'll write a real post about it later, but for now, here are a couple pictures as teasers:

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

From 2012 May

Quote of the Day

"I was brave enough to touch the shark!"

Apparently Nicholas and Alice went to the aquarium today. The above is the report I got, directly from Nicholas.

More from Sarah when they return tomorrow.

Put Me in, Coach!

Man, does this kid like baseball. I barely even had to push it!

A few weeks ago, rummaging through the closet, I found his tee and bat safely stashed for the winter and told him we could play now that the weather is nice. And it's his new favorite activity. We've played each weekend day it was sunny for about an hour each time. He loves hitting, he loves chasing the ball, he even enjoys taking turns.

Most impressive to me is how much he's improved each time. When we first bought it for him last year he was holding the bat upside down, and we had to do a little work on the proper way to hold a bat the first time we took the tee out this year. Now he's got it down pat:

From 2012 May

And as I said above, he enjoys taking turns, in no small part because he gets to help enforce the rules that we established the first time (mostly at his impetus, I must say). So here's a photo of him taking joy in putting the ball back up on the tee:

From 2012 May

And yes, he insisted on wearing sunglasses because Daddy was wearing sunglasses. Mine don't have Lightning McQueen on the side, unfortunately. Oh well. Finally, some video which opens with Nicholas doing his impression of his father doing an impression of his father (etc.) being dopey and pretending to hit the ball out of sight when, in fact, he missed:

From 2012 May

Fit for Command at Bastogne

For some reason, Nicholas has a new catchphrase:

"Aw, nuts!"

He's used it repeatedly in the past week, and always with pitch-perfect timing. Wind knock the ball off the tee? "Aw, nuts!" Find out you can't play anymore because it's bedtime? "Aw, nuts!"

The funniest part for me (because I watched too many World War II movies when I was a kid) is that I immediately thought of the Battle of the Bulge. Stick with me here if you don't know the reference. During the battle, the Germans had an American division surrounded in the town of Bastogne. The Germans demanded that the American commander, General McAuliffe, surrender. His response?

"Aw, nuts!"

A Day at School

Nicholas has reached the age where he is old enough to report lots of details from his day at school, but not yet old enough to provide all the relevant pieces or explain thoroughly. Here are a few pieces of our conversation in the car on the way home today:

They went for a walk today to the library (I presume the one on campus, which because we have such a big education program has a whole section of children's books). It was a long walk and it was fun and they had to hold a rope and he held a yellow circle and they couldn't let go of the rope until a teacher called their names. But they couldn't go into the library because you have to call first, so they walked back. Ooops, apparently there is a rule about groups of young children calling ahead and the teachers didn't realize that it. Nicholas was not dissapointed, but rather excited about the walk itself. Although he reported about the not calling part, he didn't seem to realize that the plan had been to actually go into the library and it was thwarted.

He had to have 4 friends in a purple car today at school. He named who the 4 were and kept talking about how it had to be 4 and it was a purple car, but I couldn't figure out what this car actually was or what it was a part of.

One of the kids at school said he wasn't Nicholas' friend. He is friends with 3 of the other boys and they all play together. Nicholas felt sad when this kid said he wasn't his friend, but he didn't cry. One of the teachers told the other kid that wasn't a nice thing to say. This kid apparently was having a very bad day because he was also hitting placemats off the table.

Nicholas was the weather reporter today. They instituted a job chart at school a couple weeks ago and there are some awesome jobs. In addition to weather reporter there is calendar helper, line leader, caboose (end of the line), gardener, rest helper, and snack helper. And those are just the ones we've learned about so far as Nicholas was cycled through. It is exciting to find out what new job he had each day.

Quote of the Day

Nicholas: "Today I took a nap yesterday."