Blow Out!

So before the rain/warm weather hit us on Saturday, we were able to hit a local Forest Preserve and do some sledding on Thursday while we still had a good two feet of snow on the ground. My sled had a hole in it that was unfixable, so we left it home. Which is a shame, since mine was the faster of our three sleds. So we hit the hill with Chris's inflatable sled that I bought him for Christmas 14 years ago. Hmmmm. Wonder if plastic gets old? We took a few turns and then Chris/Nick flew down together and I watched as the sled collapsed under them. They'd hit something sharp and ripped a hole on the bottom of the sled. That left us with one plastic sled between the three of us. Luckily we've got time to order new sleds before the next snow. (jeesh - am I trying to jinx us with snow tonight?!)

Robbers

Ah, the holidays! Everyone is so cheery and happy. So imagine my disappointment in coming outside yesterday morning to find my driver side window busted out. And my hand lotion and Prada lip balm scattered on the street. The nerve! But seriously, I was totally bummed that someone would break into my car when it's parked three houses down from my house. Just far away that we didn't hear the alarm. I popped Nick in the backseat while I cleaned the glass out of the front seat. He was wimpering as I reported it to the cops. Had to explain that there are bad people out there who try to steal things. Then he piped up with "That movie. With the little boy who gets left home all alone. What were those guys called?" Yes! The little brain was working! "Yes Nick! Those are robbers. And robbers are the ones who broke mommies window and stole my CDs". He then asked if the cops were going to come and get the robbers, like they do in the movie. Ahhh, if only life were like the movies. We think the rat bastards saw the wire for my new navigation system Santa brought me, but didn't realize I was smart enough not to leave the system in my car. Hope they enjoy the Gwen Stefani and Cold Play CDs they stole.

Anyway, thank god for Insurance and Body Shops. I'm sure Nick gave his teachers and the kids at school an earful today. Live and Learn.

Time Off

Time off at the holidays is so needed. But imagine our dismay when Chris and I realized that our idea of time off (naps, house projects, lounging) didn't jive with Nick's idea of time off (call Lewis to come over and play (Good God Lewis - when do you get back from your grandparents house!!!), wrestle, play transformers, play Batman, play in the snow, play race cars, play...). It rained for 12+ hours on Saturday (but brought 50 degree weather for a day and melted all the snow!) So on Sunday Nick and I headed to Navy Pier for their Winter Wonderland. Nick rode every ride he could. And ate as much cotton candy as is humanly possible for a four year old. My plan was to tire him out. And it worked like a charm. Until we headed to the car for the ride home. And he fell asleep. 4+ blocks of me lugging a 35+ lb. frozen turkey (boy). I was huffing and puffing up a storm. As soon as we got to the car, he magically woke up and said, "Can I have some cotton candy?" Sigh...

Merry Christmas!

Ho ho ho! A little Christmas cheer from a few years ago - December 2005. We still talk about this photo and Nick wanted to see it this year. So I pulled it out and was laughing. Nick wasn't. He felt so bad for the crying baby. Especially once he learned it was him!

Therapist, yes, take note of this one. This might have started it all...

Home Alone

Home Alone was on TV Saturday night. We thought Nick would get a kick out of seeing the little kid outsmart the robbers. But instead it was an hour or so of Nick saying "Where are his mommy and daddy?" "Are you going to go on vacation and leave me?". Oh jeesh. I should start writing these down to make the therapists job easier.

Batman

Um, do you catch a theme with Nick? Something about super heroes? maybe one particular super hero? Nick was jumping off his bed the other night and saying “I’m Batman – see my wings?” Then he wanted me to be his announcer. "Mom, say 'Gentlemen, gentlemen..." And if I didn’t say it exactly right, he’d make me say it over. I think he just wanted to do more jumps. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Batman is about to fly. One your mark, get set, go Batman, FLY!” Yes, that’s the announcement he likes. Cracks me up. He got a new Batman robe and thinks that helps him fly.

Lil' Kickers

I signed Nick up for Lil’ Kickers. It’s soccer for little ones, where they learn the basics (kick the ball, don’t pick it up and run with it) and do a lot of silly running around. The first week didn’t go so well. He wanted me to be on the field with him. He also had me and parents yelling at him from the sidelines (I'm sure the coach appreciated that). But the second week I walked him out to the field and then said “Oh! Coach Boogie (yes, real name) is ready for you guys to race!” before darting off. Well, guess who now totally loves soccer?! He’ll race off the field every now and then to give me a hug. So cute. They speak his language there. "Let's pretend we're race cars!" "Who's wants to be a monster?". Our little guy is lucky number 7.

All I Want for Christmas...

Nick is addicted to the toy commercials on tv. For every commercial he yells out "I want that!" I told him to make a list for Santa, so for the last month I've been saying "Add it to your list". We went to visit Santa last Sunday (1 1/2 hour wait - Chris is so happy he opted not to come with us) and the only thing he told Santa he wanted was Batman legos. I looked back at his list and the number one item on it was Batman legos. Problem is, they've been sold out of Batman legos for over a month now. So Chris and I let the parent guilt get to us today and scoured the web for Batman legos. Amazon.com had them for $134. Excuse me? I was winning a bid on ebay until someone stole it from me with 20 seconds to go. grrrrrr. I've got two more bids going on. We've got to find these legos...

Holiday Concert

Holiday Concert! Nick’s big night finally arrived last week. Grandparents timed their trip wrong and flew home the morning of the concert (note – next time buy tickets AFTER you find out the date of the concert). Other grandparents had long-standing dinner plans they couldn’t cancel. So it was just me and Chris. Chris snagged front row seats for us to catch all the action. You'd never guess by my lame videoing. Little man's entrance was so cute. He was so confident in walking up those stairs. We're not sure if Nick knew the words to the song or was just being shy. His friend "Big Nick" was standing one person away from him, so Nick was constantly looking over to him to see what he was doing. Nick was also embarrassed. Later he asked me why I was laughing at him the whole time. I told him I wasn't, I was just smiling and so happy to see him. Seems he thought I was laughing at him. Poor little guy. I didn't understand a word of their Swedish, except for "Kouk ouk ouk". Apparently that's the sound frogs make. Swedish frogs. Ours is the first cone-head frog on the left.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDY4l2U9p1s - 1st song

Birthday!

Nick had his birthday party at McDonald’s Playland last weekend. Chris is still highly embarrassed that we had a party at McDonalds. Two hours of French fries, sugar and running/sliding/climbing. Who wouldn’t have a good time? I tried out my new flip recorder. Thought I had turned it off, but when I went to film later it said my 30 minutes of space were full. Huh? Yep, seems I didn’t turn it off the record button, so we have 26 minutes of me telling someone how great my flip video is, as the recorder dangles from my wrist and films everyone’s legs. Upside down.

The hard part is now convincing Nick that he’s not 4 until December 24th. I tried to have that talk with him last night and it didn’t go well. Sigh. Ok bud, you’re 4. The loot he brought home was unbelievable. I don’t know what to do with all of the toys. My parents were telling Nick that some kids don’t have toys and he looked at them in disbelief and said “What kid?!” I think it might be time to donate some toys and explain a bit more about how not all kids get spoiled rotten.

Snow Storm

Sooooo, we had a fun ice/snow storm last week and woke up to find our car doors frozen shut. The main streets were clear, but not our side streets. Chris was driving a bit too fast on the way to drop Nick off and apparently did a few Pop Pop maneuvers. Sound effects and all! When he finally stopped the car (without hitting anything) Nick said “You were driving like Pop Pop!”. Ha ha! A little later he asked Chris if he was smiling. Unfortunately, Chris still had his scared face on. So it seems Chris is starting his own set of tales for us to tell… Lesson learned – Ice is slippery.

Pop Pop Stories

My family shows their love by teasing. So growing up (and to this day) we tell stories about each other to make each other laugh. Doesn’t matter how many times we’ve heard them, we still love them. My dad by far has the most stories. So either he’s extremely loved, or he just does some ridiculous stuff. Or both ;) A few months ago I started tell Nick some “Pop Pop stories”. He eats them up. Can’t tell him enough. “Tell me about Pop Pop and the hot dog”, “Tell me about Pop Pop and the lawnmower”. There’s always a lesson learned on each of them. One of our favorites is “Pop Pop and the Snowstorm”.

“PopPop, Shannon and Heather were in the car on the way to church one Sunday. Mom Mom said “It’s too snowy to go out” but out they went anyway. Once on the main road the car started to fishtail. The car went right and Pop Pop turned the wheel to the left (add in sound effects here “huh huh huh” – in a huffing/puffing voice). Then the car went left and Pop Pop turned the wheel to the right (more sound effects here). Shannon started to giggle in the backseat. Heather turned her head to face the side window so Pop Pop couldn’t see her laughing. Pop Pop finally pulled the car over and said “Girls, I think God would understand if we didn’t go to church today.”

Lesson learned – if you wouldn’t go to work or school in it, then don’t go to church in it. This counts for snow and clothing.

Art Fair

My mom is in town and we ventured off with some friends to the Renegade Art Fair on Saturday. They had some great stuff, but by the 3rd room, you were kinda tired of seeing silk screened shirts and jewelry made out of bottle caps. I got Nick a shirt of a monster saying “Make me a Sandwich”. It makes me laugh. Although if it were true to Nick it would say “Get me some warm, big milk.” As we were leaving, one of our party members gasped and said “Uh oh, I’ve seen these guys before”. In came some sort of alternative marching band. I don’t know how to describe them. Punk? Wide-eyed zombies? Grown up band geeks? Scary clowns in uniforms? The weren’t playing their instruments (except for the drummers) but were doing some sort of scary dance as they weeded their way in. Think of a Dr. Seuss marching band – facial hair, uniforms, legs going every which way. That’s closer to describing them. Needless to say, the crowd easily parted for them as they made their parade through the auditorium. Words really can’t describe.

Holiday Parade

So I'm a bit late in posting this, but every year we go to the Harris Bank Holiday Lights Parade. It starts at 5:30pm and is usually dark and chilly, but fun because of the festive atmosphere. The floats are nothing to write home about, but the Disney characters are there and Nick gets excited to see how big they are. We think he has a little crush on Minnie. Luckily it's only 45 minutes long, so you're heading home by the time your toes start getting cold.

The girl in the white coat isn't with us. Guess she just likes getting her photo taken? It's amazing how often that happens to us.

Snow!

Our first snow usually doesn’t come until closer to Christmas. So imagine my surprise and unpreparedness when we got 3+ inches on Monday! Poor little Nick went to school in his rain boots since we hadn’t bought him snow boots yet this year (I was holding out til the last minute in case his foot grew. Again.) So after I picked him up from school Monday night we picked up some snazzy SpiderMan snow boots. I know, Batman is his fav, but they didn't have Batman. We actually said "Bring us anything you have in a size 10". After dinner, Nick asked to go for a walk. "For a little exercise" he told me. (That's how I get him to go for walks). Well, that was a guise to get out in the snow in his new boots. Every yard that didn't have a fence was walked on. And we came home with two icicles. One for Nick and one for Chris. Cute.

BTW - Nick doesn't have a deformed face. He was posing here after our walk.

I Want a Brother

So Nick was telling me the other day that he wanted a brother. "How cute" I thought. Until he said "I want Lewis (bf) to be my brother." I tried to explain that Lewis was his friend, but couldn't be his brother because Lewis already has a big brother. Great logic, eh? Huge tears and sadness ensued. Sigh. And all this in the car. It ended with, "Ok, Lewis can be your brother." I haven't let Lewis' mom know yet.

Getting a dog suddenly looking better and better.

Christmas Concert #2

So I'm still hung on on the fact that I'm supposed to teach Nick a song that I don't know the melody or language. Here's the second song he's singing. This one actually has the word Christmas in it.

Nu är det jul igen, och nu är det jul igen
Och julen varar väl till påaska
Nu är det jul igen, och nu är det jul igen
Och julen varar väl till påaska

Men det var inte sant och det var inte sant
För däremellan kommer fasta
Men det var inte sant och det var inte sant
För däremellan kommer fasta

Translation:
Christmas is here again, Christmas is here again
And we will celebrate till Easter!
No we can't do that, Oh no we can't do that
Because Lent is coming soon.

What the heck kinda Christmas song is that?! Makes Jingle Bell Rock sound like the best holiday song ever! But maybe if all the Swedish kids are walking around with candles on their heads, then they need a very mellow song to sing...

Christmas Concert

The annual Christmas concert at school is coming up. This year the theme is "Christmas Around the World". They always send home lyrics for the parents to practice with their kids. Well, Nick's class gets Sweden this year and this is what we were sent:

Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se
Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se.
El öron, El öron, ej svansar hava de
El öron, El öron, ej svansar hava de.
Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,
Kou ack ack ack ack kaa.
Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,
Kou ack ack ack ack kaa.

What does all this mean? It's a traditional Swedish dance and song performed at midsummer and sung about frogs. Uh - hello? This is December we're talking about, right? Couldn't they find enough Swedish Christmas songs?!

When I attempted to sing these words for Nick (without even knowing the melody), he cracked up laughing. Oh...this could be the best Christmas Concert ever!!!

Pet

So we're finally recarpeting our basement after the big flood. While talking wtih the carpet guy about what type of padding we should use (one that floats), he asked if we had any pets. We said "No" and he asked "Well, are you thinking of getting a pet?" That sure perked Nick up. "A pet? Are we getting a pet?!". Thanks Mr. Carpet man.

Funniest Home Video

So I’ve seen too many Funniest Home Videos. And heard too many family stories to ever back up in a car wash. But last night I found myself wanting to do just that. Nick and I were trying a new car wash. You had to drive deep into the car wash and then it moved around the car. All went well until it was time to drive out. I waited for the "GO" sign to light up and then drove over the bump. The doors at the end of the car wash opened slightly, but not fully. So I found myself trying to steer the car in between the doors. But that wasn't enough. So my choices were either:

a) back up and reposition the car to get through the small opening

b) get out of the car and mannually push the doors open

But luckily my brain was on and said "no no no!!!!". So I nudged the doors with my car and we got out. I won't be going back to that carwash.

Dancing Banana

So one of Chris’s websites that he reads has someone posting with a dancing banana icon. Nick loves to see this icon and requests it often. C&N found a dancing banana on You Tube that sings “Peanut Butter Jelly Time”. It is so funny. Nick just yells “louder Louder LOUDER!” until Chris cranks it. Then everyone starts dancing. What must our neighbors think? Want to imagine what life is like at the Nordloh house...More info than you want to know.

Lightning McQueen

Every day when I pick Nick up from school he asks me “are we in a race car” and I answer “you bet we are”. Well now it’s morphed into N: “what’s that thing on the back of a car called?” H: “a spoiler” N: “do we have a spoiler” H: “you bet we do. Did you see it on your way in the car?” (we don’t have a spoiler) N: “oh yeah. Are we in Lightning McQueen” H: “oh yeah. Didn’t you see how red our car was?" (we don’t drive a red car). Makes him so happy to pretend we’re driving around in Lightning McQueen.

Move It Move It

Nick and I met his friend Cooper at the movies on Sunday to see Madagascar 2. Doesn’t matter that he never saw the first one. If an animated film comes out, we’re there. Very cute movie with a totally catchy song that Nick sang all day long. Seeing a 3 year old sing “I Like to Move it Move it” is a sight to see.

Sick day

Nick woke up last night and asked to come into our bed. Half asleep, I wasn't able to argue so I brought him in. He kicked the covers off, complained I was taking up too much room and caused other such chaos. When he finally fell asleep, I noticed that he was breathing really heavy. I finally got up at around 5:15 to see how the election had turned out. (yeah!). I came back upstairs to find Chris standing over the toilet and two little feet sticking out near him. Turns out our little guy was close to throwing up, but only phlegm at this point. He then asked to get into his bed. This is when Chris and I exchanged glances that said "wow - he really is sick!". While we tried to figure out our schedules for the day and how we could juggle staying home with him, Nick starting asking if the toy store and PotBelly's were open today. Well, that ended the "stay at home" thoughts...Until Chris called from the car at around 8:30am to say "We didn't make it to school. He barfed in the car. Thank god for wet vacs". Ewww. Poor little man. Any coincidence with receiving 10 tons of candy last Friday?

I have a secret...

Nick has learned how to tell secrets. Almost. He’s got the “cup your hand around the other person’s ear part”, but then he breathes really heavily into your ear, tickling you so that you can’t hear him. And when you finally hear him, you realize that he’s just giving you orders rather than telling you a secret. “Go get me some milk”. “Let’s wrestle”. “Do you want to eat some candy with me?”

Atlanta with MomMom and PopPop

Nick and I met my parents in Altanta this week. We were worn out (you have to drive to everything there) but Nick had a great time. As soon as they pressurize the cabin on the airplane, he’s out. It’s funny to watch, bc he fights it, but it’s like kryptonite. We visited Coca-Cola world, where Nick experienced his first 3-D movie. His exact words were “get me out of this movie”. I kept him in it. Hope I haven’t scarred him for life. Once we got out of the movie, we got to try 60 Coca-Cola products. That seemed to make him happy. The big polar bear was touring around. Nick rounded one corner and was back in 2 seconds. Turned out the bear was walking towards him. Ha. But he finlly shook his hand and got his photo taken with the bear and Pop-Pop.

The Games We Play...

Nick has a new thing where he doesn't just ask you to play one game, but you have to come up with five short games that you play one after another. (It's the list in his head again). One of the games we came up with is Astronaut Obstacle Course. You put on the astronaut helmet, zig zag between the orange cones, spin on the frisbee, zig zag again and then back to base. It's much safer than Skateboard Alley (which almost knocked me out last week).

Alleys

It’s been a while since we had a good pee story... I took a day off last week, so I had the morning to hang with Nick and walk him to school. It’s about a 2 mile walk, so it’s nice not to drive if you have the time. Well, about three blocks from school he starts squirming like there’s no tomorrow and tells me he has to pee. Sigh. Where are we going to go? I try running, but we’re still not getting there fast enough. The bumps on the stroller are making it worse. So I find an alley, thinking he can pee there. But alleys here are really just people’s garages. And I’d be pissed if some kid were peeing behind my garage. Luckily I spotted a water bottle under the stroller. A few minutes later, all was well. But the entire time he was peeing, I was sure a cop or neighbor was going to come out and see a very suspicious site.

Batmobile

Our first Halloween party of the season was last weekend. Will the costume make it to Halloween? Hyped up on sugar and being around other kids, Nick was a total disaster by bedtime. Photo below gives a whole new meaning to Batmobile!

Donuts

So you’ve heard of Nick’s love for McDonuts. Well, the other night we were out kinda late and the only thing that would get him to hurry up and walk to the car (other choice was me carrying him several blocks) was to entice him with a donut from the shop we pass on the way to the car. Well, they were closed, but he knows there is one near our house. So I actually went through the drive thru of a Dunkin Donuts at 9pm. It’s not fun going through the drive through because I have no idea what the donuts are called. Three chocolate cake donuts brought me three cake donuts with chocolate frosting. Nick really wanted a vanilla one (what is that?! Vanilla icing? He wanted a strawberry for Chris and a chocolate for me.) When we pulled away from the window I handed the bag back to him. Of course they were all the same. I blamed it on the girl at DD – “Oh, did she mess up our order and give us three chocolate ones? Grrrr. Will you be okay eating one of those?” Of course he was. Oh well, those are good too…Anyway, here’s a typical “Nick-eaten” donut. Yes, it’s a donut with the icing gone. Like a mouse got to it.

Track Suit

Shannon bought Nick an adidas track suit before he was even born. She bought a size 4 and saved it for a few years before finally giving it to us. It’s hung in his closet ever since. Well, it finally fits! He’s been wearing the jacket to school lately, with a hoody under it. Looks like a hoodlum. So Saturday morning, I was heading out for a little exercise and Nick wanted to come with (but was still in his pjs). So Chris put the entire track suit over Nick’s pjs. Red track suit with navy piping. So we’re strollering along, with me jogging every few minutes (interval training – fun!) when Nick decided he wanted to run too. “I have on my running suit!” he said. When I reminded him that he had his crocs on, he explained that they were “running crocs”. Who can argue with that? So out of the stroller he hops and there we are, mom and kid jogging along. Nick with a hoody and track suit on. I can honestly say the looks we got weren’t “awww-how cute. They’re running together” but more like “omg – gangsta in training”. I promise to post some photos soon.

Real World

So you remember the Ben 10 Omnitrix watch we were bribing Nick with? Well, he finally got it. And was so excited until he realized that he wouldn’t really turn into a monster alien like Ben 10. Thought he was over it, but four days later we’re in the car and he comes up with “Mom, why didn’t I turn into a monster like Ben 10?”. Heart break. I had to explain the difference between real world and tv world. He seemed to get it when I said “Scooby Doo talks in tv world, but dogs don’t talk in real world”, but I still felt so sorry for him. He really thought he was going to turn into a monster.

Kitchen Roles

I hate to cook. I wouldn’t mind if I were good at it, but whenever I try, nothing turns out like it should. Luckily Chris is really good at cooking and enjoys it. Apparently Nick has the same love as Chris, because when we popped into Pottery Barn Kids over the weekend, he hit the boy toys first and then ran to the kitchen set on the girl side (yes, PBK does segregate the genders). After examining all the doors & knobs to see what was what, Nick assigned us roles. He wanted to be the daddy and me the mommy. So I said “Daddy, what do you want for dinner?” and he shot back “No, you’re the mommy!” to which I replied with “Ohhh, Daddy, what are you MAKING for dinner?”. He nodded and then started his dinner.

Daredevil

Seems Nick has become something of a Daredevil. He figured out how to climb onto the counters a few weeks back by scooting his little stool up to the counter and then using the handles on the drawers as stairs. Then last night he was standing on the one countertop (which is at least 3 feet off the ground) and jumped down. He was wearing his Batman cape, so maybe thought he could fly? His Grammy was with him and couldn’t believe he jumped! She thought there might be a hole in the floor. But all was well – with Nick and the floor. What a nut.

To-Do List

So anyone who knows me well knows that I have a constant to-do list. Actually, I have about 3-5 floating around at all times. It’s good because it clears my head of all the things I need to remember. It’s bad because who needs a to-do list reminding them to do laundry and get their winter sweaters out of storage? Anyway, turns out I’ve passed this curse to Nick. Saturday he told me “three things Mom – 1) I want to play Batman 2) I want you to swing me around 3) I want a snack. Three years old and he already has a to-do list. Sigh…

Secret of the Omnitrix

You’ve probably heard me talking about Ben 10 before. He’s a cartoon boy who has a watch-like device that lets him turn into creatures that fight evil. When we were in Hong Kong, Nick would watch “Ben 10 – Secret of the Omnitrix”. You should hear a three year old trying to say “secret of the omnitrix”. Anyway, the watch device is called an Omnitrix and Nick is so excited to get one. So much so that we’re using it as bribery to get him to fall asleep in his own bed. All of our travels this spring totally screwed with his bedtime, so he’s been falling asleep in our bed and then gets moved into his own. Well, two nights down and 5 more to go before the Ben 10 watch is his! Hope he’s not disappointed when he finds out that he won’t turn into a monster.

Grandparents

My folks (Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop) were in town late last week and early this week. Nick stayed out of school to hang with them. Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled. A new space rocket, candy, gum, Scooby Doo/Batman DVD. That’s their job as grandparents. Nick loved every minute of it. Except when it came time for them to leave on Tuesday. He’s been sad and moody the past 2 days. He’ll cry at the littlest thing (“Dad flushed the toilet!” Or “There’s red stuff on my chip!”), refuses to go to sleep at night and was stomping around and complaining while setting the table last night. When I asked him what was wrong he just pouted “I don’t know”. Poor little guy. He doesn’t know. Just knows he’s sad. He’s going through Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop withdrawal. Luckily I’m taking him to see them in October. But hopefully this grumpiness wears off before then!

Wink

So I can’t wink. I mean, I kinda can. It feels like I’m winking, but Chris says both eyes usually close. The other night we were out and I winked at Nick. Without a pause, he winked right back at me. So adorable.

The Great Wall

Ha ha - Isn't that photo a hoot?!

One of my must-see's while in China was the Great Wall. We trekked about 1 1/2 hours outside of Beijing to see a "nicer" area of the wall. You know every now and then when you see something and think "wow, my life just changed a little bit after seeing that". Well, the Great Wall was like that for me. I can't fully describe the oldness of it. Not that it was falling apart, but you looked at the stones, the layout, the coldness of the stones and the smell and it all just screamed history.



A group of us took the chair lifts to the top and walked around a bit. The wall isn't really a continuous wall. It has several off shoots along the way. And several places to climb up/down to enter. One of our colleagues warned us that we could get lost. "Sure" we said. Until we realized that we'd lost half of our party in front of us because they'd exited the wall and we were still going. Yikes! A frantic run around and we found them. Then rode the luge down. The luge would have been insanely fun, except one of our colleauges leading the luge had a bum one that wouldn't go fast. So the rest of us were riding down with our breaks on for most of the ride.

Olympics

Well, a few of us visiting Beijing had hoped to see the Bird's Nest and Swimming Cube. The Paralympics were going on while we were there, so we actually thought we could get tickets to an event. But everyone told us no. Looking back, I think we should have sucked it up and just tried to scalp tickets. What's the worse that could have happened? We would overpay for tickets that turned out to be fakes? A few of us toured around the city one morning before our meetings started and our driver wouldn't even (couldn't even?) go near the stadiums. Leaving us with sorry photos of the stadiums from across the highway. In the rain. You can just make out the torch flaming in the second photo.

Bargaining

So I hate bargaining. The stuff in Beijing is already inexpensive as it is. And who needs the $20 more? I would gladly hand over my money without asking for a discount. But all the locals and expats tell me that I'm ruining it for the rest of them and must not tip or buy without haggling. So I try my hand in one store and they see me for the fake that I am. I walk away feeling fine that I tried and got a tiny discount. They sat there as I walked away and laughed crying "sucker" in Chinese. The next store I didn't even try to haggle. A few days later I went with a colleague who helped me play good cop/bad cop. I walked out amazed at the price we had negotiated. Granted, it involved the sales lady hanging onto my arm and almost crying at one point. But damn if I didn't get $20 off the price. Wait, all that for $20. Oh jeesh. I hate bargaining.

Welcome to Beijing!

Since Hong Kong is more "special area region" than China, Beijing was my first visit to China! But of course I had to compare everything with Hong Kong.

Weather - not as humid as HK. I mistook the first few days of overcast skies as smog. But then once the rain cleared up, I swear they had gorgeous blue skies! We had so many locals tell us how happy they are with their new skies that they’re willing to keep the “drive on even/odd days” routine going.

Traffic - So people are assigned to even or odd days to drive to keep car pollution down. Jeesh-that was traffic with only half the normal drivers out there? I seriously can’t imagine full blown Beijin traffic. So I thought I would rent a bike here during a few of my free hours, since that seems to be a preferred mode of transportation. Well, a quick walk around the first night and I realized that I wouldn’t survive here on a bike. Cars, bikes, mopeds and people all criss cross each other on the street. Stop lights mean nothing. Pedestrians don’t have the right of way (not sure anyone does) and they all just narrowly avoid hitting each other. Unbelievable. I'm not exaggerating this at all.

People - Eager to help, but not helpful. Everyone wanted to help us with our maps, directions, etc. But their English was generally very poor and found us in a cab heading in the opposite direction of where we wanted. Or found us meeting our tour bus on the wrong side of the hotel.

Food - So I didn't enjoy the food in HK much. Unless a local ordered for us. Or it was from Pret-A-Manger. Well, the Beijing food was even worse. One night's dinner consisted of pig's ears (sliced thin), jelly fish (which I mistakenly ate, thinking it was a noodle of sorts), sketchy chicken, and other questionable meats covered in sauce. When a bread basket would arrive, I chowed down. Carbs be damned!

History - Wow. Some gorgeous temples and amazing history. More on this later...

German American Fest

One of our favorite summer festivals was this past weekend - the German American fest. Where you go to have beer and pretzels for dinner. Laugh at the few who come in costumes. Then head over to the midway to waste your money on rigged games. This year our neice and nephew (H&H) were in town and came with us. After several games of "shoot the water in the hole", "catch a frog with the magnet stick" (which is much harder than anyone lets on) and "roll the ball up the table into a hole" each kid had enough stuffed animals and mardi gra beads. You could tell because the adults were holding them all. Henry & Helen were tired and ready to go home. C was too. Nick and I were still having fun. So we said our goodbyes. Then one more game of "water in the hole" and another stuffed snake, 2 more pretzels and a beer and THEN we were finally ready to call it a night. We wandered out of the midway to find the festival in full gear. Definitely time for the parents with kids to head home. The 1/2 mile home was a full force game of "2 snacks chasing the frog". I can only imagine what those walking their dogs must have been thinking seeing a family of three tearing down the street. The dad first with a stuffed frog. The kid and wife behind him with stuffed snakes screaming "gonna get you! gonna get you! ssssss! sssssssssssss!"

Pirate Train

Nick has outgrown his trains. Just no interest. He’s more into action figures and super heroes these days. Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man, Power Rangers, pirates, monsters, dragons…You get the point. But Chris made him a beautiful train table for Christmas a few years ago and I hated to see it all lonely in Nick’s room. Until we figured out how to play Pirate Train. I brought back some great pirates from Hong Kong. Swords and all. A pirate stands on a track and talks trash to Thomas the Engine. Thomas then speeds forward (with 10 + cars behind him) and knocks the pirate off the track. This continues with the 4 other pirates we have until there are no pirates left alive. Then Spiderman comes out. Same ending. And then a dinosaur comes out. Same ending. The grand finale is ALL the pirates, Spiderman AND the dinosaur standing on the tracks. Only to be defeated by Thomas and friends one more time. Who says trains are for babies?

Cars

A few months back we were buying a bday gift for my dad. A huge 007 fan, the only thing he’d requested from Hong Kong was the latest James Bond dvd. I found every knock off purse joint on the island, but no such luck with the DVDs. So back in the states Nick and I headed over to Barnes and Noble to get his James Bond dvd. While there, Nick sees the Cars video and assures me that Pop Pop wants it for his bday too. So we buy it (am I the only one who thinks $29.99 is a rip for a kids dvd?) with me thinking that I'll return it once he forgts about it. Well, I try to return it weeks later to find out that B&N has a 2 week return policy. Are you kidding me? In this day and age? They’re officially on my boycott list now. Anyway, so the Cars dvd sits in the bag on our kitchen table for another 2 weeks because I’m in denial that I bought it. Finally break it out and the new formatting doesn’t work with our old dvd player. You gotta be kidding me. But smart Chris realizes it will play on our laptop. Pop it in and Nick is now entranced. We each have a character in the movie. He of course is Lightning McQueen. I’m the purple one. Chris has watched it so many times now that he was quoting it to me the other day. C: “it’s like when Doc says…” me: “wait, who’s doc?” C: “you know the green car in Cars”

Ice Cream Social

So Nick’s school had an ice cream social last week. On my way to the social (after work), I saw a van almost collide with a biker. Worse part was the biker was a dad from school and had his daughter on the back! The van stopped in time, but not before at least 3 of us had heart attacks. Later at the social, I see the biker dad and say “OMG – I totally saw that van almost cream you guys!” He was really nice about it and said “I know. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone up on his side, but I can’t believe it either”. So there we are complaining about it when ANOTHER dad in line says “Oh, were you the biker? I was the van”. We all just stood there trying to make light of the whole situation, while I’m sure my face turned bright red. Later biker dad said to me “What are the chances?!” No kidding!

Cute

Sorry, I'm a doting mom and have nothing to say today other than "awwww". Chris was taking a photo of Nick jumping around last night (Nick's request) and happened to get this cute little shot in the mix. Love my little man!

Botanic Garden

Evening outing to the botanic garden Sunday night. Not too crowded or hot. It was heavenly! Perfect dusk light to take photos, except for a threesome who were clueless to our photo taking. The front desk gave Nick a bingo card, so we spent the first 1/2 hour running all over the gardens with Nick yelling "there it is!"

Last Weekend of Summer

So while on vacation I make a point of trying to have ice cream every day. Figure the last weekend of summer is a mini-vacation, so we should try the same. Oh, how I love Dairy Queen. If only they made them in the bite-size cones like Mr. Softie back in Hong Kong…After a long day of errands and playing with our nephew, Charles, who was in town, we headed home. Nick fell asleep in the backseat, but I still wanted/needed my ice cream! So we stopped at DQ. Chris came back to the car with a small choc dipped cone for me and a huge medium cone dipped in crunch for him. He had the biggest smile on his face. We were happily eating our ice cream until we pulled up to the house and Nick woke up. He saw my cone and immediately asked where his was. Dad to the rescue. Chris happily handed his over and said “I was saving it for you buddy. I had to lick a little because it was melting”. Nick was happy and knew no better. Then he realized Charles was gone and a whole new set of tears started. Ohhhh, it’s so hard to make everyone happy. Bottom pic is Nick beating ants with his shoes. Is he going to grow up to be one of "those" kids?!

Hold it!!!

Warning – this is a poop story…So Chris usually takes Nick to school and I pick him up. Works out well. Nick likes his leisurely mornings. He wakes up, calls out our names, then asks to go lay on the couch. I take him downstairs while Chris sleeps or reads the sports page in bed. With his pillow, the green, fuzzy blanket over him (making sure it covers his feet!), warm milk and Higglytown Heroes on TV, Nick’s a happy camper. Chris then feeds him breakfast and gets him dressed. I’m out the door by 7am and pick him up by 6pm. Chris is out the door around 8am and gets home around 6:30pm. Well, today I needed to take Nick in, so we were out the door early. So not as much leisure time for Nick as he likes. And we missed going to the bathroom before we left. Uh oh. So on the way there, Nick says, “Mom, I have to poop.” I say “No worries. We’re almost there.” Well, that wasn’t good enough. I could hear the fear in his voice. So I zoom to school and try to give him pointers along the way. Me – “hold it”. Him – “like this?” with hands on crotch”. Me – “No, use your muscles, like this…” with me making faces and noises. Not one of my more glamorous moments. We get out of the car and Nick is holding both ends saying “Hold it mom!”. So I pick him up and put lots of pressure on his bum. Unsure what to do but run. We make it to the bathroom (zooming by the teacher with a “hello, bathroom emergency”) and get his pants down in time. Phew. What a way to start the day. Then we both strut out, so proud of ourselves for having made it. Next time, I’ll take the extra minute for a potty break before we leave the house.

Tell me about today...

Nick has started to reminisce. Especially when he’s had an excited day and not the typical – breakfast, school, dinner, play, bed. “Tell me about today” he’ll say and then we go through everything that happened that day. “Dad dropped you off at school. You had a nap. Mom picked you up. We met Lewis at the ice cream social. You came home and were tired & grumpy and didn’t want to go to bed. Now we’re all relaxed and ready for a good night’s sleep” or “You were on the dock and jumped into dad’s kayak, but you bounced off it, went under the dock where bubbles came out of your mouth. Then Dad saved you and you were very brave”. He’ll chime in and add his own sections (“I swam!”) or correct our recollections (“we didn’t see the Batman movie!”). It’s just fun to see his little memory at work. See how that mind is working, thinking, processing everything at the end of a long day. So much to take in!

Good job, Mom!

Nick has been very giving with compliments lately. I was looking through his toy box for a missing action figure arm and got a “Good job, Mom!” when i finally found it. Cleaning up some cereal that spilled – “Good job, Mom!”. It’s so cute and makes me laugh every time. But then also makes me feel slightly lame, as if he feels like I need that extra encouragement to get things done. Wonder if that’s how he feels when we praise every little thing? “Oh, you peed standing up! Good job, Nick!”

Best Friend

So Nick has a best friend – Lewis. Lewis and Nick are exactly alike. They have the same sense of humor (potty humor), the same likes (Scooby Doo and Legos) and the same inflection on many of their phrases. They are just too cute together. Lewis used to go to Nick’s school, but left last month to attend a new one. So sad. But they see each other just about every weekend.

Boots

I was pulling some of Nick’s “too small” clothes out of his closet this weekend and he saw his snow boots. Which have got to be two sizes too small for him. But he put them on and insisted they fit. A while later we were off to the grocery store and took the stroller since we were walking. Get outside to find him in shorts/t-shirt/snow boots. Whatever makes you happy kid! He also insists on wearing his rain boots a lot. We recently bought the matching rain jacket, but can usually talk him out of wearing that (unless of course it is raining). Never fails, someone will see us and ask “is it raining outside?” Uh, no, he just likes to wear his raingear on sunny days.