The other day at the post office they needed my first initial for a customs form. This of course led the curious 3 year old to ask, "What is an initial?" And a classic exchange:
N: What is an initial?
S: It is the first letter of your name.
N: Oh.
S: So, what is the first letter of my name?
N: Mommy. Mmmmmm. M. M is your initial!!
S: Well, no. What do other people call me? What is my real name?
N: (thinks for a couple seconds) Sarah! Other people call you Sarah!
S: Okay, so what is the first letter of Sarah?
N: Ssssss. S! S is your initial!
S: Yes, that is right. What about you? What is the first letter of your name?
N: N!
S: Yep, so what is your first initial?
N: N.
S: Yes. Okay, what about Daddy? What is Daddy's name?
N: Daddy. Ddddddd. D. D is Daddy's initial.
S: No. What do other people call Daddy?
N: Dear. Dddddd. D is the first letter in dear.
Postal worker (laughing): Well, I guess there are worse things he could hear at home.
Indeed.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Correction
Each night before bed, Nicholas says a little prayer, helped along by whichever parent is in charge of bedtime that night. It's pretty simple: one of us says something like "God, today I am thankful for..." and then we let him list things and people he's thankful for.
Recently he's gotten in the habit of naming five people (he makes me, at least put up my hand to count on my fingers) because he would occasionally go into a run-on prayer in which he thanked God four or five times for Mommy, three times for Daddy, twice for each grandparent, three times for an aunt an uncle ... and so on.
In any case, because he does that now, after he's done with his five, I usually say, "Thank you God for all the people in my life, please keep us all safe and healthy, and help us have a good day tomorrow." Then an "amen" and it's off to his songs.
Tonight when I said the coda, he stopped me. "They're not in my life, Daddy!" Uh, what? "It's just a metaphor," I replied, never missing an opportunity to shoot an SAT word way over his head.
"Daddy, they're not in my life," he repeated. "They're in a state!"
Touché.
Recently he's gotten in the habit of naming five people (he makes me, at least put up my hand to count on my fingers) because he would occasionally go into a run-on prayer in which he thanked God four or five times for Mommy, three times for Daddy, twice for each grandparent, three times for an aunt an uncle ... and so on.
In any case, because he does that now, after he's done with his five, I usually say, "Thank you God for all the people in my life, please keep us all safe and healthy, and help us have a good day tomorrow." Then an "amen" and it's off to his songs.
Tonight when I said the coda, he stopped me. "They're not in my life, Daddy!" Uh, what? "It's just a metaphor," I replied, never missing an opportunity to shoot an SAT word way over his head.
"Daddy, they're not in my life," he repeated. "They're in a state!"
Touché.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Yes, Sir
Nicholas has recently started saying "Yes, sir." We can't figure out where he picked it up, but he does it for men and women alike. Mostly it is hilarious, but I'm a little concerned about what will happen the first time he says it to a woman in the store.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Pumpkin Picking
We had already bought a tiny pumpkin at the grocery store a couple weeks ago, but Nicholas was insistent that he wanted to go to a pumpkin patch and I was searching for things to do with him to keep him out of the house on my shifts (Joe and I basically were trading off Nicholas all weekend so we could each get some work done), so off we went to the pumpkin patch on Sunday afternoon once the rain stopped.
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| From 2012 October |
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| From 2012 October |
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| From 2012 October |
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| From 2012 October |
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| From 2012 October |
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| From 2012 October |
Yellow Submarine
I walked into Nicholas' preschool today and was immediately greeted by one of his friends singing the opening lines of "Yellow Submarine." Apparently Nicholas has been teaching the other kids all of the words so there is now a room full of preschoolers who go around all day singing, "In the town where I was born . . ."
The teachers seem less than thrilled.
The teachers seem less than thrilled.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Pitching
We watched a lot of baseball in our house last week. Afterall, the Orioles in the post-season is a pretty big event. And apparently Nicholas was watching very closely. Or at least watching the pitchers closely.
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| From 2012 October |
Friday, October 12, 2012
The Dangers of Parking Lots
Today in the parking lot at the doctor's office:
S: Stop! Don't run into the parking lot.
N: Why can't we run into parking lots?
S: What is in the parking lot?
N: Only cars go in the parking lot.
S: Okay, so then why do you think you can't run into the parking lot?
N: Because then a car might smash into me.
S: That's right. And that wouldn't be good.
N: No. You don't want your little baby to get all smashed up. Because then your Nicholas will be all in tiny pieces.
S: Stop! Don't run into the parking lot.
N: Why can't we run into parking lots?
S: What is in the parking lot?
N: Only cars go in the parking lot.
S: Okay, so then why do you think you can't run into the parking lot?
N: Because then a car might smash into me.
S: That's right. And that wouldn't be good.
N: No. You don't want your little baby to get all smashed up. Because then your Nicholas will be all in tiny pieces.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Holes in One, Skateboarding, and Making Applesauce
Nicholas' weekend has been dominated by two major elements: athletic activities with Uncle Andrew and cooking with Grandma.
On Friday afternoon Nicholas got 2 legitimate no cheating holes in 1 while we were playing mini golf! Here is his scorecard from the game:
The only exception to normal rules that he played by was that he played some of the holes multiple times and in those cases we recorded the lowest score. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera running for either of his holes in 1, but here is what he did, when I asked him to re-do a hole he had just gotten a hole in 1 on.
You can see here his strengths and weaknesses. His first hit is amazing and when he gets within a foot of the hole he can putt, but his middle game is pretty bad. (Hence he got more 1s than 2s.) You can also see in the scorecard that Nicholas' score dropped off towards the end once he decided that his primary goal was to hit the ball up the ramp to whatever the obstacle was instead of aiming for the hole. There is another video in the Gallery of him telling his Grandma and Grandpa about his holes in 1.
Nicholas and Uncle Andrew also played catch,
worked on hitting tennis balls (which I didn't get pictures of), and Andrew taught Nicholas to skateboard.
Now, this skateboarding did lead to another face plant (from sitting on the board, not standing), which knocked the front tooth a little looser, but since Nicholas has spent most of the weekend throwing himself face first into chairs and couches, it was inevitable that he would jar the tooth at some point.
The other major category of activities involved gardening and cooking. Tonight for dinner we had Russian Pastries Nicholas had filled with meat, green beans Nicholas had helped pick, and applesauce Nicholas had helped make. I am always reminded on these occasions how much more well-behaved he is when he is helping. I need to remember to involve him more often.
And Russian Pastries and homemade applesauce!!! It makes me wish we were staying a couple more days so I could have leftovers. Or that the TSA rules weren't so different from my childhood, when my grandparents would bring jars of homemade applesauce to us in California in their carry-on.
It was so good to see Andrew again and Nicholas is totally smitten.
On Friday afternoon Nicholas got 2 legitimate no cheating holes in 1 while we were playing mini golf! Here is his scorecard from the game:
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| From 2012 October |
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| From 2012 October |
You can see here his strengths and weaknesses. His first hit is amazing and when he gets within a foot of the hole he can putt, but his middle game is pretty bad. (Hence he got more 1s than 2s.) You can also see in the scorecard that Nicholas' score dropped off towards the end once he decided that his primary goal was to hit the ball up the ramp to whatever the obstacle was instead of aiming for the hole. There is another video in the Gallery of him telling his Grandma and Grandpa about his holes in 1.
Nicholas and Uncle Andrew also played catch,
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| From 2012 October |
worked on hitting tennis balls (which I didn't get pictures of), and Andrew taught Nicholas to skateboard.
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| From 2012 October |
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| From 2012 October |
Now, this skateboarding did lead to another face plant (from sitting on the board, not standing), which knocked the front tooth a little looser, but since Nicholas has spent most of the weekend throwing himself face first into chairs and couches, it was inevitable that he would jar the tooth at some point.
The other major category of activities involved gardening and cooking. Tonight for dinner we had Russian Pastries Nicholas had filled with meat, green beans Nicholas had helped pick, and applesauce Nicholas had helped make. I am always reminded on these occasions how much more well-behaved he is when he is helping. I need to remember to involve him more often.
And Russian Pastries and homemade applesauce!!! It makes me wish we were staying a couple more days so I could have leftovers. Or that the TSA rules weren't so different from my childhood, when my grandparents would bring jars of homemade applesauce to us in California in their carry-on.
It was so good to see Andrew again and Nicholas is totally smitten.
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| From 2012 October |
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| From 2012 October |
Friday, October 5, 2012
The Trip of the Tooth
Last night at the airport Nicholas did a face plant, knocking one of his front teeth (the right one, for my record keeping purposes) out of place. Now, it could have been worse--the tooth was a little out of line (behind) from his other front tooth and there was a thin line of blood right at the gum line, but it wasn't hanging or really wiggly and he didn't have a mouth full of blood. We were about to get on a plane, but we decided it wasn't severe enough to cancel our trip and flew to Maryland as planned.
I did call his dentist on her cell as soon as we landed and on her advice realigned Nicholas' tooth last night after he fell asleep (the fact that I could do this without waking him up tells you both that it wasn't as severe of an injury as it could have been and that the kid was exhausted) and then got him in to a dentist here this afternoon.
The current verdict is optimistic but uncertain. As long as we can keep him from putting too much pressure on that tooth for the next week, it should tighten back up in the gum given how little looseness there is currently. This is easier said than done, but at least he no longer sucks his thumb and can go without a sippy cup because those would be clear sabatoge for that tooth. The longer term outlook is less certain. The dentist today couldn't tell whether or not there was permanent damage done that would kill the tooth. Basically we might wake up one morning to discover that his tooth has started to darken and it might turn black. Or he might be perfectly fine. It is just a wait and see game and there isn't anything they are going to do on a baby tooth at this stage.
The only cool thing about this episode was that we got to see a really cool x-ray of his teeth in which you could see the adult teeth coming in on top of the baby teeth. And it was amazing to me how close those front two adult teeth are. I have no idea how long it takes them to get to where they actually push the baby teeth out, but one of them looked like it was almost touching the top of the baby tooth under the gum line.
Other than the tooth, we have had a great trip so far. But that is the subject of another post.
I did call his dentist on her cell as soon as we landed and on her advice realigned Nicholas' tooth last night after he fell asleep (the fact that I could do this without waking him up tells you both that it wasn't as severe of an injury as it could have been and that the kid was exhausted) and then got him in to a dentist here this afternoon.
The current verdict is optimistic but uncertain. As long as we can keep him from putting too much pressure on that tooth for the next week, it should tighten back up in the gum given how little looseness there is currently. This is easier said than done, but at least he no longer sucks his thumb and can go without a sippy cup because those would be clear sabatoge for that tooth. The longer term outlook is less certain. The dentist today couldn't tell whether or not there was permanent damage done that would kill the tooth. Basically we might wake up one morning to discover that his tooth has started to darken and it might turn black. Or he might be perfectly fine. It is just a wait and see game and there isn't anything they are going to do on a baby tooth at this stage.
The only cool thing about this episode was that we got to see a really cool x-ray of his teeth in which you could see the adult teeth coming in on top of the baby teeth. And it was amazing to me how close those front two adult teeth are. I have no idea how long it takes them to get to where they actually push the baby teeth out, but one of them looked like it was almost touching the top of the baby tooth under the gum line.
Other than the tooth, we have had a great trip so far. But that is the subject of another post.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
On a Jetplane . . .
We go to Maryland tomorrow and Nicholas is SO excited!!!! He has been counting down the days until he gets to go to his grandma and grandpa's house and it might as well be Christmas! I am very excited myself, especially since my youngest brother is finally back from China and I haven't seen him in a year and a half. Hence, the reason for this trip.
As you probably guessed from the lack of posts, life is completely insane here. And I've finally given up on my earlier insistence each week that the next week things would calm down. This is going to be the status quo until Christmas. I'll try to post pictures next week from the weekend, but that may be the peak of blogging for awhile.
As you probably guessed from the lack of posts, life is completely insane here. And I've finally given up on my earlier insistence each week that the next week things would calm down. This is going to be the status quo until Christmas. I'll try to post pictures next week from the weekend, but that may be the peak of blogging for awhile.
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