Earth

Nick's school celebrated Earth Week last week. Everyday he'd come home with some new, random bit of information. The one night out of nowhere he came out with "we need to save the earth...teacher said". I starting telling him all the ways we're trying to save the earth (recycling, turning lights off when we're not using them, not wasting water). Then we tried to head upstairs to bed, except he was yelling "THE LIGHT! YOU LEFT THE LIGHT ON AND AREN'T USING IT!" Sigh. This from the kid who used to make us leave all the hall lights on when he went to sleep.

The other one he came up with (and which took me several times to understand what he was saying - beems? beans?) was "We're all beings. People are beings". This from the kid who tried to kill worms last weekend.

One Year Ago...

So one year ago last week, Nick, Mary and I were off for our adventure in Hong Kong! And that's when Hong Kong Heather and all the other craziness started. Have to say, our stories from Chicago aren't as exciting. But boy do I prefer my life here! Thought I'd bring up everyone's favorite blog from the HK trip ...


Nail salon. My pedicure was chipping last weekend so I ventured for my first manicure/pedicure since I’ve been in HK. I pass a respectable looking place near our house each day and decided to call for an appointment. The phone call went well and I was scheduled to go in that afternoon. Well, when I walked in, they seemed surprised that I actually showed up to get my nails done. A girl checked me in, called out to someone in the back, shuffled around for about 10 minutes and eventually sat down to do my nails. It took her ages to gather all of her tools, as if she’d never done a pedicure before. Another girl came out of the back a while later. About 20 minutes into it, a guy walks in the front door and looks all nervous. He mumbles something about “5 minutes”. The girls say something else to him and then he hurriedly leaves. They giggle as he leaves. I assume it’s just a guy who’s a little embarrassed to be getting his nails done. But something isn’t sitting well with me. The girl helping me had tons of silver bangles on her wrist that are clanging with every movement. And had long, talon-like nails with gems all over them. My experience with nail technicians is that they don’t wear nail polish because it just gets removed when they go to remove the clients polish. And jewelry just gets in the way. Ok. So is this a front of sorts? Yes, that’s it! Drugs are my immediate thought. I leave the salon with presentable nails and don’t think much of it…Until the next day when I run into the nail gal at the 7-11. Wearing the same short shorts and tummy bearing shirt from the previous day. Wheels start clicking in my head. Nervous guy. Nail technician with talons. Skin-bearing outfit. Confusion over setting up the pedicure station. Wait a minute! They’re not dealing drugs. They’re ladies of the night! Or women of the 5 minute something. Gag.

Priceless

Nick and I hit the grocery store after soccer this weekend. Bad move. The kid was starving and grabbing everything in site. I've turned into one of those people who opens packages in the store and lets the kid chow down. Don't worry - I pay for it. He picked out one of those Luncheable packets. You know, the ones where you get crackers, cheese, ham slices, a snack and a drink for a ridiculous amount of money. Total rip. But we got home and he pulled it out of the fridge the next day for lunch. And he was so excited! And he ate it all! (A big feat for bird boy). Worth every penny.

Not Your Kid

When Nick gets angry with one of us he'll say "You're not my friend". I got smart (or so I thought) and starting using the comeback of "That's fine, but I'll always be your Mommy". (Just what every parent should be doing, eh? Thinking of good comebacks). Anyway, Nick countered that last night with "Well I'm not your kid. I'm Dad's kid". Sigh.

Worms

Nick loves the rain. It means that he can wear his dinasour rainboots and raincoat. A woman at a store yesterday was complimenting him on his alligator coat. He made a point to correct her. The rain also brought out all the worms. Nick was amazed at watching them move. He went from "Run! It's coming to get us!" to "Give me your umbrella so I can poke it". Boys.

Baby Girl

So we thought we had a girl name picked out, but after using it around the house for a few weeks, we're starting to think we might need a few more. We asked Nick what his choice of girl names was and he came up with a great one - Mommy! We'll keep that one in our back pocket. Guarantee she'll be the only "Mommy" in her class.

Tiger

Nick was practicing his numbers the other night, when he started to draw on his hands. I told him not to and then moved onto washing my face. I came back in to find him totally coloring his hands. Then he lifted his sleeves and said "Look, I'm a tiger!" Several minutes of scrubbing barely took the blue away. When we went to take his shirt off (which had gotten wet from the scrub) it revealed tiger stripes on the belly too.

Sleeping

So you've heard our issues with Nick and sleep. He just doesn't like sleeping in his room. But it's really more that he likes sleeping with people around. Chris told us how well he slept while Nick and I were in FL. So we resorted to bribing him with McD's. "Sleep in your room and you can go to McD's on Saturday." First night was a little rough. He was in and out several times. Actually saw Chris get mad and raise his voice at Nick. Friday night much better! And a good night's sleep was had by all. So Saturday we were gladly off to McD's for lunch. Two nights and counting...We may be fat from McD's, but we'll be well rested. We need to hoard as much sleep as we can before the little one comes along in July.

Pirate Ship - ARGGHHHH!

So we booked tickets on a 2 hour pirate ship cruise. They handed out hands and pirate hats to the kids as they boarded. Then later they came around with hats for the adults. Shannon could hardly wait to get her regular hat off to put on her pirate hat. Nick was so excited. He really thought he was on a pirate ship. We sat in the shade near a port hole and Nick concentrated on shooting anything that moved outside it. The only time he got freaked was when the bad pirate came on board. They then gave the kids squirt guns to shoot the bad pirate with. But Nick was having none of it. Shannon...she was all over it! Dancing, shooting, calling out the answers to the kids trivia. They offered her a pirate job. Seriously.

We ended up having to check our luggage on the trip home because Nick came off the ship with a new gun and sword. He kept talking about getting home to play pirates with Dad. Thank goodness the folks in Florida were cool getting shot at from the car window on our drive home. Think we might have started a gang fight if he'd tried that in Chicago.

Girls Weekend!

Every year my mom and sisters and I get together for a few days of "Girl Time". But somehow Nick and I are a package deal (they'd kill me if I left him home) so he's the one boy allowed. Silly me was so focused on packing our swimsuits that I forgot my camera :( Nick was so happy to be in the warm weather. The one day he opened the door, stuck his arm out and seemed so surprised that it was warm! We took right to the pool and beach. Wouldn't go near the waves (guess he remembers being clobbered by them last year), but was happy as a clam playing in the sand.

Four days of having four adoring ladies dote on you. Life is good.

Shave and a haircut...

Or maybe just a haircut. Nick was getting a big shaggy, so we went to our local barber shop where Milosh (the boy) cuts Nicks hair. The shop is run by an older woman who's missing the tip of one of her fingers. Nick prefers Milosh. We waited a while and guess who came up available? The lady. Nick was so good. She got the clippers out at one point and I asked Nick if it tickled, trying to alleviate any fear of the buzzing clippers. This sent him into a giggling fit. Not what you want when a lady has clippers by your ears. This got me laughing. She kept saying "Momma, don't say that!" but it was too late. No stopping Nick's laughter.

We might need to find a new barber. $7 for a kids cut rocks. But after sitting there for 45 minutes seeing all the guys come out of that shop with bangs cut straight across and combed forward, I realized that our guy deserves better.

Snow Experiment

Nick's cousins Henry and Helen were over this weekend. We had an early spring snow on Sunday and they desparetely wanted outside, but didn't have their boots. So I opened the back door and let them reach out to grab snow with spoons and put into mixing bowls. They were scientists collecting snow samples. They put them into smaller bowls and in the freezer to see what would happen. While they were downstairs playing, we put food coloring in each of their bowls. They came up later to find their experiments had turned different colors! So fun, until they all started touching the colored ice and dying their fingers. When it came time to check their samples next, they found bowls of clear water. It's fun being an adult.

Dinotrack!

My folks sent Nick a package in the mail last week. Early Easter present. The Hot Wheels Dinosaur track. So most commercials show these toys that look cool, but you get them home and realize you need to put all the effort into them. Not this one. They have it set up so that each part plays off the next. So you set the cars up at all 3 stops and then it's a chain reaction from there. So cool. Nick is in heaven.

Boy's Night

So Chris always stocks the house up with snacks when the guys come over. A few items that always make the list: Reeses Cups, Potato Chips and Twizzlers. Nick can't remember what Twizzlers are called, but whenever he spies them in the cabinet, he get's excited for the "long, red things". Like father, like son.

On the last "boy's night", Nick was downstairs hanging with the guys when he came upstairs to tell me that he saw a man with stuff "here and here", pointing to his cheeks and chin. "A beard and moustache?" I asked. Yes. "I don't want to dream about him." Eeek! Who was this guy who'd scared Nick? The boys were playing video games, so I figured he'd seen this guy in a video game. Then I went through my head of who could be downstairs with a beard. Not Eric. Not Rob. Darryl! I bet Darryl grew a beard. I tried this idea out on Nick, but he assured me it wasn't Darryl. Those are the regular guys, so I hesitated to go down in my pjs and yell "hey, anyone down here with a beard?" just in case there was a new addition to the boy's night. Turns out there was a new addition. Kevin. Nice guy with a beard. Nick is still worried about dreaming about him.