Nicholas has embraced the world of games wholeheartedly. Last weekend I decided to try an experiment and see if he was ready for "Go Fish." He had a little trouble but caught on quickly and absolutely loved playing. Tonight he begged me to play it with him and he apparently cemented the rules in his head sometime over the last 4 days because he had it down pat!
I was even more impressed when after we counted how many cards we each had at the end and I asked whether 16 or 12 was the bigger number he said, "16! 16 is the higher number and 12 is the lower number!" Wow, not only did he know the order, but he changed my terminology. I was amazed.
And then he stood up and proclaimed, completely seriously, "16 is this high," reaching his hand up about 4 inches over his head.
So maybe the concept is still a little fuzzy.
But "Go Fish" he understands.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The Word on the Street
Tired.
We are all just tired. Hence the quiet on this here blog recently. Joe has been working frantically to finish a paper (submitted today!). I've been trying to absorb the extra 10-12 hours of work a week I've got going at work right now into my existing hectic schedule. And Nicholas, well Nicholas is apparently trying to find places to lie down and go to sleep in the mornings at school.
Nicholas has tons of new songs and there have been many a hilarious story from the past few weeks, I'm sure, but I can't remember any of them right now. Have I mentioned that I'm tired?
But what I do have, apparently, are lots of pictures of cooking--both real and pretend. Nicholas rediscovered his pretend kitchen this weekend and is a tad bit obsessed. It may have something to do with all the help he has been in the kitchen recently. With the exception of putting the pan in the toaster oven and opening the can of sauce, the kid can make English muffin pizzas by himself these days. Salad was a healthier phase of kitchen usefulness, but these are yummier. :)
(cooking while stirring a pot, how industrious)
Nicholas has also become intent on setting the table, again both the real one and his pretend one. But, alas, no pictures of that.
We are all just tired. Hence the quiet on this here blog recently. Joe has been working frantically to finish a paper (submitted today!). I've been trying to absorb the extra 10-12 hours of work a week I've got going at work right now into my existing hectic schedule. And Nicholas, well Nicholas is apparently trying to find places to lie down and go to sleep in the mornings at school.
Nicholas has tons of new songs and there have been many a hilarious story from the past few weeks, I'm sure, but I can't remember any of them right now. Have I mentioned that I'm tired?
But what I do have, apparently, are lots of pictures of cooking--both real and pretend. Nicholas rediscovered his pretend kitchen this weekend and is a tad bit obsessed. It may have something to do with all the help he has been in the kitchen recently. With the exception of putting the pan in the toaster oven and opening the can of sauce, the kid can make English muffin pizzas by himself these days. Salad was a healthier phase of kitchen usefulness, but these are yummier. :)
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| From 2012 Feb |
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| From 2012 Feb |
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| From 2012 Feb |
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| From 2012 Feb |
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| From 2012 Feb |
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| From 2012 Feb |
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| From 2012 Feb |
Nicholas has also become intent on setting the table, again both the real one and his pretend one. But, alas, no pictures of that.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Literalism
Nicholas hasn't quite figured out metaphors yet.
On Tuesday, I picked him up from school mid-morning to run him to a doctor's appointment (by the way, he's fine). When we got back to his classroom, everyone was mid-play, and he did not want me to leave. He grabbed me by the hand and walked me around to various stations, showing me around (which I suspect he also wanted to do).
At this point I hadn't been to work yet at all, and was a bit anxious to get going. I also didn't want to give in to what seemed like a little separation anxiety. So after about five minutes, as he was leading me to yet another station, I said, "Okay, Nicholas, I'll look at one more thing but then I'm going to rip off the Band-Aid."
He immediately started looking at his body trying to figure out where the bandage was that I was about to forcibly remove.* Oops. I then compounded the problem by saying "It's a metaphor!!" which made his teacher laugh, but only further confused him.
[* Note: To be fair to Nicholas, it would have been logical coming from the doctor's office to have gotten a band-aid of some kind. Though we didn't on this trip.]
Something similar happened just this morning. We were going through our morning routine, and trying to keep him on task so we could go run our errands. So I started to go through what he had to do: "Step 1," do X; "Step 2," do Y.
His response? To stomp around the room chanting, "Step 1! Step 2! Step 3!"
Sigh. He'll figure it out eventually.
On Tuesday, I picked him up from school mid-morning to run him to a doctor's appointment (by the way, he's fine). When we got back to his classroom, everyone was mid-play, and he did not want me to leave. He grabbed me by the hand and walked me around to various stations, showing me around (which I suspect he also wanted to do).
At this point I hadn't been to work yet at all, and was a bit anxious to get going. I also didn't want to give in to what seemed like a little separation anxiety. So after about five minutes, as he was leading me to yet another station, I said, "Okay, Nicholas, I'll look at one more thing but then I'm going to rip off the Band-Aid."
He immediately started looking at his body trying to figure out where the bandage was that I was about to forcibly remove.* Oops. I then compounded the problem by saying "It's a metaphor!!" which made his teacher laugh, but only further confused him.
[* Note: To be fair to Nicholas, it would have been logical coming from the doctor's office to have gotten a band-aid of some kind. Though we didn't on this trip.]
Something similar happened just this morning. We were going through our morning routine, and trying to keep him on task so we could go run our errands. So I started to go through what he had to do: "Step 1," do X; "Step 2," do Y.
His response? To stomp around the room chanting, "Step 1! Step 2! Step 3!"
Sigh. He'll figure it out eventually.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Super Bowl XLVI
Nicholas has been psyched about the Super Bowl for two weeks, to watch the Giants one more time this season. (I've created a monster ... mwahahaha!!!) He wore his Giants t-shirt today, definitely for the last time, assuming that he grows, you know, at all between now and September.
Anyway, it became a playoff tradition/superstition to share a spinach-artichoke dip appetizer before the game, and then to eat dinner in the living room with the game on. That may explain part of why Nicholas was so excited, but whatever. Here we are with tonight's spread:
Nicholas was only allowed to stay up until early in the second quarter, but he had a great time watching (not least because the Giants were ahead 9-3 when he went to bed).
He's also gotten the shutter bug ... bug. At one point he jumped up and ran over to the cabinet on which his camera sits, brought it over, and started taking pictures of the TV.
He was playing with the settings, which include all sorts of fun borders, fake hats, etc. that you can overlay on the photo. He very carefully selected this, and then took a blurry portrait of Giants coach Tom Coughlin:
What prescience from the boy! I'm just disappointed we can't stress our way through a game again for seven months! But he had fun and the Giants won, so it's all good.
Anyway, it became a playoff tradition/superstition to share a spinach-artichoke dip appetizer before the game, and then to eat dinner in the living room with the game on. That may explain part of why Nicholas was so excited, but whatever. Here we are with tonight's spread:
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| From 2012 Feb |
Nicholas was only allowed to stay up until early in the second quarter, but he had a great time watching (not least because the Giants were ahead 9-3 when he went to bed).
He's also gotten the shutter bug ... bug. At one point he jumped up and ran over to the cabinet on which his camera sits, brought it over, and started taking pictures of the TV.
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| From Nicholas Camera |
He was playing with the settings, which include all sorts of fun borders, fake hats, etc. that you can overlay on the photo. He very carefully selected this, and then took a blurry portrait of Giants coach Tom Coughlin:
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| From Nicholas Camera |
What prescience from the boy! I'm just disappointed we can't stress our way through a game again for seven months! But he had fun and the Giants won, so it's all good.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Mommy and Nicholas Day
Today was officially "Mommy and Nicholas Day." I say "officially" because I wrote it on his calendar, which is the benchmark around here. I instituted this official day of fun because I needed something to offer Nicholas to offset his worries about Daddy not being here, but it really did turn into a delightful day, mostly because Nicholas was sweet and helpful, enabling us to have fun together and me to somehow feel like I got a little break even while on solo parenting duty. Astounding.
Joe went to New York for a memorial service for his aunt and even though he was only actually going to be out of the state for 27 hours, Nicholas would be going about 48 hours without him, and Nicholas was really anxious about it. The kid may not be permanently scarred by our fall living situation, but he does not take it as lightly as he used to when one of us goes somewhere. (In fact, every Tuesday night when Joe leaves after dinner for choir we have to reassure the worried little boy that Daddy will be back when he wakes up.) So in addition to reminding Nicholas repeatedly that Daddy would be here when he woke up on Sunday (and making a big deal about the fun Superbowl party they are going to have), I decided to turn Joe not being here today into a special thing in and of itself.
Anyway, Mommy and Nicholas Day started with 2 episodes of Little Einsteins after breakfast because Mommy was tired and after dozing on the couch off and on during the first episode, I put on another one and fell sound asleep. We then finished getting ready for the day and Nicholas was a huge help, gathering up his library books and getting them loaded into the bag. He did stop to read one for a bit, but we weren't in an actual rush for once and he was so careful with the book!
We then hit the library soon after it opened. This is always one of Nicholas' favorite Saturday activities, but today I had promised him something extra special . . . that we'd look for a movie. I may regret having spilled the beans that you can check out things other than books from the library, but I really wanted a movie for us to watch in the afternoon. Have I mentioned that I'm tired?
After the library we did the grocery shopping and because he was being well behaved and asked very nicely, I let him get down and walk when he asked 2/3 of the way through. We had a delightful time and accomplished one of our weekend errands at the same time. Golden.
As we got out of the car at home our friends from the next building were coming out and so we stopped to talk to them for a few minutes, which Nicholas always loves because he is completely infatuated with their 6-month-old daughter. In fact, we now have a song about her. Very creatively, it goes: "It was fun, fun, fun, to see Lei-la-la." He loves Leila!
Two trips with a "helper" to get the groceries up, then we made lunch together, and by the time we were eating Nicholas was leaning his head on his hand. He was too tired to eat much so I let him get down to play while I finished my lunch. And he was playing alone so nicely that I was able to eat lunch while reading a novel! Amazing!
Then we both napped. Heavenly. He even went back to sleep after waking the first time, ending up with over 2 hours. I read, I napped, I read some more. It was like a vacation.
At the library I had promised him the movie after his nap, but he woke up and wanted to play with a puzzle instead. I thought it would be too hard for him because each of these pieces was so discrete and told its own story, but he was much more attuned to subtle visual clues to match pieces than I was.
Once again he played mostly by himself and I was able to do some work in the kitchen.
After a bit he either got bored or suddenly remembered the movie. And the special movie treat I had promised him to go along with it. And so we spent the afternoon curled up on the couch together watching Ratatouille and eating soft pretzels. Really, can it get much better?
We then did 3 loads of laundry and Nicholas was actually a huge help. I despise the front-load machines because clothes are constantly falling out and onto the gross basement floor, but it does mean that Nicholas can load and unload the machines. So since we have two sets of machines in our building, I left him to load one or transfer clothes from the washer to dryer in one while I did the other. Teamwork.
We made dinner together (omelets because the "mouse" in Ratatouille made them), had a delightful dinner, Nicholas did some jumping jacks to burn off energy, and then it was time to get ready for bed.
The wheels came off the wagon a little bit in getting ready for bed. He had been doing so well all day that I sent him to his room with instructions to get undressed while I went and loaded the dishwasher but when I returned to his room to find that he had gotten as far as taking one sock off before he got distracted with playing with the velcro on the shoes on his floor. We had a couple other minor conflicts at bedtime, but nothing big. And he is only 2 1/2, which we sometimes forget.
And, to top it all off, three successful potty trips today! Still less than 50% on the day, but better than the last couple weeks.
Overall, we somehow managed to have a day that was both relaxing and productive and I really felt like we had lots of good quality time. Part of it was luck of the draw that he was in a good mood. Part of it was that he is getting old enough to both play independently and be helpful. And part of it I think was that I wrote off any possibility of doing schoolwork today and so napped while he napped, did housework while he played, and watched the movie with him instead of going off to work. I'll pay for it next week, but I'm beginning to think it was worth it.
Joe went to New York for a memorial service for his aunt and even though he was only actually going to be out of the state for 27 hours, Nicholas would be going about 48 hours without him, and Nicholas was really anxious about it. The kid may not be permanently scarred by our fall living situation, but he does not take it as lightly as he used to when one of us goes somewhere. (In fact, every Tuesday night when Joe leaves after dinner for choir we have to reassure the worried little boy that Daddy will be back when he wakes up.) So in addition to reminding Nicholas repeatedly that Daddy would be here when he woke up on Sunday (and making a big deal about the fun Superbowl party they are going to have), I decided to turn Joe not being here today into a special thing in and of itself.
Anyway, Mommy and Nicholas Day started with 2 episodes of Little Einsteins after breakfast because Mommy was tired and after dozing on the couch off and on during the first episode, I put on another one and fell sound asleep. We then finished getting ready for the day and Nicholas was a huge help, gathering up his library books and getting them loaded into the bag. He did stop to read one for a bit, but we weren't in an actual rush for once and he was so careful with the book!
 |
| From 2012 Feb |
We then hit the library soon after it opened. This is always one of Nicholas' favorite Saturday activities, but today I had promised him something extra special . . . that we'd look for a movie. I may regret having spilled the beans that you can check out things other than books from the library, but I really wanted a movie for us to watch in the afternoon. Have I mentioned that I'm tired?
After the library we did the grocery shopping and because he was being well behaved and asked very nicely, I let him get down and walk when he asked 2/3 of the way through. We had a delightful time and accomplished one of our weekend errands at the same time. Golden.
As we got out of the car at home our friends from the next building were coming out and so we stopped to talk to them for a few minutes, which Nicholas always loves because he is completely infatuated with their 6-month-old daughter. In fact, we now have a song about her. Very creatively, it goes: "It was fun, fun, fun, to see Lei-la-la." He loves Leila!
Two trips with a "helper" to get the groceries up, then we made lunch together, and by the time we were eating Nicholas was leaning his head on his hand. He was too tired to eat much so I let him get down to play while I finished my lunch. And he was playing alone so nicely that I was able to eat lunch while reading a novel! Amazing!
Then we both napped. Heavenly. He even went back to sleep after waking the first time, ending up with over 2 hours. I read, I napped, I read some more. It was like a vacation.
At the library I had promised him the movie after his nap, but he woke up and wanted to play with a puzzle instead. I thought it would be too hard for him because each of these pieces was so discrete and told its own story, but he was much more attuned to subtle visual clues to match pieces than I was.
 |
| From 2012 Feb |
After a bit he either got bored or suddenly remembered the movie. And the special movie treat I had promised him to go along with it. And so we spent the afternoon curled up on the couch together watching Ratatouille and eating soft pretzels. Really, can it get much better?
We then did 3 loads of laundry and Nicholas was actually a huge help. I despise the front-load machines because clothes are constantly falling out and onto the gross basement floor, but it does mean that Nicholas can load and unload the machines. So since we have two sets of machines in our building, I left him to load one or transfer clothes from the washer to dryer in one while I did the other. Teamwork.
We made dinner together (omelets because the "mouse" in Ratatouille made them), had a delightful dinner, Nicholas did some jumping jacks to burn off energy, and then it was time to get ready for bed.
 |
| From 2012 Feb |
The wheels came off the wagon a little bit in getting ready for bed. He had been doing so well all day that I sent him to his room with instructions to get undressed while I went and loaded the dishwasher but when I returned to his room to find that he had gotten as far as taking one sock off before he got distracted with playing with the velcro on the shoes on his floor. We had a couple other minor conflicts at bedtime, but nothing big. And he is only 2 1/2, which we sometimes forget.
And, to top it all off, three successful potty trips today! Still less than 50% on the day, but better than the last couple weeks.
Overall, we somehow managed to have a day that was both relaxing and productive and I really felt like we had lots of good quality time. Part of it was luck of the draw that he was in a good mood. Part of it was that he is getting old enough to both play independently and be helpful. And part of it I think was that I wrote off any possibility of doing schoolwork today and so napped while he napped, did housework while he played, and watched the movie with him instead of going off to work. I'll pay for it next week, but I'm beginning to think it was worth it.
Plotting
Joe was gone the past two days and will get back tonight after Nicholas is in bed. Tonight at dinner Nicholas and I had the following conversation:
S: "Daddy will be home when you wake up in the morning. In fact, when you wake up, you should say, "Daddy, come get me!" (As I was talking I realized I could maybe sleep in if I played this right.)
N: "Mommy, come get me!"
S: No, you say, "Daddy, come get me!"
N: "Daddy, come get me!"
S: "Yes, that's better. Okay, in the morning, what are you going to say?"
N: "Daddy, come get me!"
S: "Yes! I like it when we plot."
N: (giggling) "If I don't plot I say, "Mommy, come get me!"
S: "Daddy will be home when you wake up in the morning. In fact, when you wake up, you should say, "Daddy, come get me!" (As I was talking I realized I could maybe sleep in if I played this right.)
N: "Mommy, come get me!"
S: No, you say, "Daddy, come get me!"
N: "Daddy, come get me!"
S: "Yes, that's better. Okay, in the morning, what are you going to say?"
N: "Daddy, come get me!"
S: "Yes! I like it when we plot."
N: (giggling) "If I don't plot I say, "Mommy, come get me!"
Thursday, February 2, 2012
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