Starting Line

Nicholas currently uses "starting line" instead of "beginning" in his sentences.  A few examples from today:
"I don't want to start Shrek at the starting line.  I want to start where I left off."
"We went to dinner at a restaurant and at the starting line we had popcorn."

Cracks me up every time.

Thanksgiving Weekend, Part 2

The busy weekend didn't stop after Thanksgiving!

Nicholas swam more!

He built Halloween scary houses!

From 2012 November

He and Grandma engineered fancy (and constantly modified) houses out of blocks!

From 2012 November

He had lunch in Quincy Market and got to sit on the table to eat!

From 2012 November

He went to the Aquarium!

From 2012 November

And he got to put up the Christmas tree!

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

Ah, the life.  And today he turned 3 1/2.  I swear this last half year has gone even more quickly than the previous ones.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful and exhausting Thanksgiving.  Nicholas' day included a little bit of the Macy's parade, a 2-hour hike, swimming with his grandparents, watching Tangled with Grandma, talking to 3 of his uncles, and a yummy dinner and dessert.  The kid is beat.

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

We are so very grateful for our lives and today are particularly grateful that my parents braved the long drive on Thanksgiving weekend to come visit us!

Reporter

Joe brought Nicholas home a reporter's notebook from his conference last weekend and Nicholas has gotten really into "reporting."  Actually, he does reverse reporting.  He has us ask him a question and then he writes down the answer. 

From 2012 November

After the first few questions it becomes very difficult to ask questions that he can actually write answers to because after all he is only 3.  The only answers he can write completely on his own are his name and numbers.  After that we have to come up with questions that have answers that are short and easy to sound out.  But I guess it is good phonics practice, right?  Not to mention the fine motor skills necessary to write while standing up.

Word of the Day: Peppermint

I got a Peppermint Mocha coffee the other day and discovered that Nicholas apparently does not know the word peppermint.  He is, however, quite skilled at dissecting words, even if incorrectly.

N: Is that a Decaf Caramel Mocha?
S: No, buddy, I got a Peppermint Mocha this time.  Would you like to try some?
N: No, I don't like peppermint.  Peppers are spicy and I don't like mint toothpaste.

He of course did try some once I assured him that there are no peppers in peppermint and it was not spicy.  His conclusion?  "I like it!  I like mint coffee but I don't like mint toothpaste."

I decided to skip a discussion of the difference between peppermint and spearmint and instead buy him a candycane to introduce him to what peppermint really referred to.

Boston Tree Lighting

Nicholas and I went into Boston with some neighbors tonight for the tree lighting.  We apparently got there too late to see Santa, but we did see the huge tree as well as a bunch of smaller ones, listened to a few different bands (for a couple songs each), and ate dinner in Quincy Market.

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

I knew we would have fun because we absolutely love our neighbors, but I didn't expect the tree lighting itself to be so cool. I didn't take video myself (because as you can see above, I had my hands a little full), but there is of course already video up on youtube. We were much closer than the person who took the video, but off to the side a little. Nicholas absolutely loved it! He described it as the tree "dancing" to the music.  And I have to admit to being impressed myself.  It helps that my expectations were pretty low; I assumed they would just plug it in and it would go from off to on.

I am hoping to have an update post later with more pictures because Clair's camera is much fancier than mine and therefore able to handle the crappy lighting conditions of 4:00-6:30 in November in New England. 

Weekend in NY

Nicholas spent the weekend in New York with his grandparents.  This is always a special treat and an exciting proposition, but this time it was even better than usual because Joe and I weren't there to interfere.  We dropped him off and then ran away.  It was a win-win for me.  I got two days to work and sleep and even watch a little tv without interruption.  And then I got the longest and tightest hugs ever when we met up today for the hand off.  Oh, yeah, and Nicholas seemed to like it too!

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

From 2012 November

If You Give a Boy a Job . . .

Nicholas is always so excited to talk about the job he has each day at school that we decided to start giving him jobs at home as well.  So this week we worked together to come up with a list of chores he can do around the house and created a chore chart for the week.

From 2012 November

And it is amazing how much more agreeable (and even eager!) he is to help out when I can link it to his job of the day.

Now if only there was a "sleep through the night-er" job.  He has been up for at least an hour in the middle of the night each night this week.  And as I was typing this he came out of his room for at least the eighth time since I put him to bed 45 minutes ago.  "Mommy, I need you" shouldn't be a phrase that makes me scream inside.

Meta

Nicholas and I had a day today.  You know the one.  When you swear the child's ears must have become disconnected from his brain because he does not listen to a single thing you say ALL DAY and every little thing becomes a 10-round debate.  And where you in turn morph into the parent you hate, yelling, threatening to take away every privilege and beloved possession you can think of, and in general completely losing your cool despite the voice in the back of your head helpfully pointing out that yelling is not helping the situation.

So tonight at bedtime I began a completely calm attempt to discuss the day and try to draw some lessons from it with Nicholas.  We started off fine, with Nicholas immediately answering my question of "How do you think today went?"  with "It was a bad day because I made a lot of bad choices."  He then started listing all of his bad choices, which was not a problem . . . until he turned it into a stalling technique by listing all the toys he "forgot" to play with today.  And when I told him it was time to stop and finish bedtime, he lost it on me.  In response to his screaming I stomped out of his room, which led to him chasing me while screaming at me and eventually me yelling that he was making a bad choice in yelling about the bad choices he had made today.  All while the voice in my head was still helpfully chiming in about how yelling back at him was also a bad choice.  How meta.

We eventually got it together and had a perfectly delightful rest of the bedtime routine.  But I am throwing in the towel on today.  I absolutely have to deal with dishes and the kitchen, but after that I am ignoring the pile of work staring at me (this whole no napping thing is killing my weekend work quota) and curling up in bed with a bowl of ice cream and some Brothers &Sisters DVDs.  And tomorrow afternoon I just may greet Joe at the door with keys in hand. 

Or maybe tomorrow will be better.

Halloween 2012

For the first year Nicholas decided on his Halloween costume himself this year and helped work on it!  And he was . . .

From 2012 October

Woody, from Toy Story!

I took him to Target at the beginning of October to pick out a costume before all the options in his size were gone (because that is how our Target works--if you don't buy your swimsuit in March when they first come out, you are out of luck, even though it is still snowing).  And out of the choices available he really wanted the Woody costume.  Given that it was so thin it wouldn't have been appropriate for trick or treating in Southern California and was really tacky looking, I repeatedly tried to guide him towards other options.  But he wasn't having any of it.  Thus began our weekend adventure of looking for pieces of a costume.

And he really enjoyed looking for parts of the costume, although I got frustrated at points with how perfectionistic he was being.  I can't tell you how many yellow shirts he dismissed as "not a Woody shirt" because they didn't have red "squares."  But we eventually put together an outfit, only buying the hat/belt combo as an actual Disney purchase.  And he even got me to be domestic for a couple days to sew his vest. He picked out the fabric (thank goodness JoAnn's had multiple cow fabrics) and cut the thread for me each time I needed more thread to stitch on his sheriff's badge.  I will admit, however, that I sewed the actual vest while he was sleeping.  Maybe next year he will be old enough to help with the sewing machine, but this year that was still a bad idea.

Nicholas seems happy with his costume:

From 2012 October

We went trick-or-treating with our neighbors and had a delightful time. Nicholas went up to the houses by himself this year, and quickly learned about scooting to the side to avoid getting hit by storm doors that opened out. He rarely said "trick or treat" but was pretty good about "thank you." Our real concern with him was how acquisitive he was. I don't know if it is inherent or the result of the people at the first few houses holding out a bowl and telling him to take 2 or 3, but he was really bad about reaching into the bowl to take extras when someone put something in his bucket. But overall, a great success.

From 2012 October

From 2012 October

From 2012 October