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.