January 29, 2011
Agua
My favorite part of the video is Nicholas' reaction when we're about to pour the water. It made me laugh so hard every time. Just so you know, before we started record he was actually drinking the water we gave him.
Danger Boy
My son has the unique ability to sense and find danger in any situation...in every normal setting, he will find a new method of tempting fate to kill him.
He has fallen head over heels down the stairs...twice.
He has punctured his soft pallet running with a sharp metal stick that was hidden at the back of our chest of drawers through two years of marriage and a cross-country move. He found it.
He's run, full force, face-first, into the edge of the bathtub several times resulting in a bruised forehead, nose, cheek and temple.
He fell off a stool in the kitchen three times, the kitchen table once, and the kitchen chairs two times all in a matter of ten minutes on the same day.
He swallowed enough toothpaste yesterday to prompt me to call poison control, and while I was on the phone with poison control he ate two felt tip markers.
"Oh come on," you might say.... "These are all normal toddler accident prone behaviors." And you might be right....but try to explain these:
I went to a play date with two other women. There were five children all playing happily in a room full of toys and other children. Pretty soon, we hear a huge CRASH! I look over to see my beautiful little boy holding one five pound dumbbell above his head while the other one lay at his feet.... He then proceeded to try to carry the dumbbell above his head across the room, instantly dropping it mere millimeters from his head. My friend quickly apologized for leaving the weights out.......on her highest shelf, behind the couch, in an untouchable book case. Yes, shame on you.
Yesterday Mando and I were talking in the kitchen while Nicholas played on his footstool, climbing on and off, pretending to be included in the conversation with his cute jibber-jabber. Then, he all of a sudden runs away, and about ten seconds later comes streaking back into the kitchen with a handful of highly flammable polyester stuffing that he had dug out from the stomach of his fat fish finger puppet. He runs directly over to the counter that has the plugged-in toaster, climbs up on his little stool and starts cramming the stuffing into the toaster as quickly as he can. Honestly....1. how did he know where to get the stuffing from?? 2. That small handful of stuffing was relatively harmless if he had been playing with it in any other location. How is it he knew the most dangerous place in the entire house to put that stuffing???
He has fallen head over heels down the stairs...twice.
He has punctured his soft pallet running with a sharp metal stick that was hidden at the back of our chest of drawers through two years of marriage and a cross-country move. He found it.
He's run, full force, face-first, into the edge of the bathtub several times resulting in a bruised forehead, nose, cheek and temple.
He fell off a stool in the kitchen three times, the kitchen table once, and the kitchen chairs two times all in a matter of ten minutes on the same day.
He swallowed enough toothpaste yesterday to prompt me to call poison control, and while I was on the phone with poison control he ate two felt tip markers.
"Oh come on," you might say.... "These are all normal toddler accident prone behaviors." And you might be right....but try to explain these:
I went to a play date with two other women. There were five children all playing happily in a room full of toys and other children. Pretty soon, we hear a huge CRASH! I look over to see my beautiful little boy holding one five pound dumbbell above his head while the other one lay at his feet.... He then proceeded to try to carry the dumbbell above his head across the room, instantly dropping it mere millimeters from his head. My friend quickly apologized for leaving the weights out.......on her highest shelf, behind the couch, in an untouchable book case. Yes, shame on you.
Yesterday Mando and I were talking in the kitchen while Nicholas played on his footstool, climbing on and off, pretending to be included in the conversation with his cute jibber-jabber. Then, he all of a sudden runs away, and about ten seconds later comes streaking back into the kitchen with a handful of highly flammable polyester stuffing that he had dug out from the stomach of his fat fish finger puppet. He runs directly over to the counter that has the plugged-in toaster, climbs up on his little stool and starts cramming the stuffing into the toaster as quickly as he can. Honestly....1. how did he know where to get the stuffing from?? 2. That small handful of stuffing was relatively harmless if he had been playing with it in any other location. How is it he knew the most dangerous place in the entire house to put that stuffing???
January 16, 2011
Growing up
Picture: Nicholas "smiling" for the camera at the Cincinnati Zoo while we were visiting the family back in Batesville over Christmas 2010Nicholas now asks for, "agua" when he wants something to drink. Today at Stake Conference he pointed at the water fountain and said, "Agua." I didn't even know he knew what a water fountain was. And, amazingly, he drank from it and didn't just play in the water!
Also, he ran over to a picture of the Lamb and the Lion together, pointed to the Lion, put his little hands up like claws and tried to roar! I have NEVER seen him do this before, and I laughed so hard! I think he must have picked this up reading books....I think I might do that (and I know Mando does it) when we read stories about lions.
Picture: Nicholas "smiling" again-- I don't know where he learned this-- before bedtime in his way-too-big-jammies. Bedford, Jan. 2011Speaking of stories, his favorite book is now, King Bidgood's in the Bathtub. Which is great because that's always been one of my favorites---unlike the Hungry Caterpillar. Thank goodness that phase is over.
He's also quick to point out any and ALL balls in every story we read. "Ba! BA! BA!" he shouts at the top of his lungs, gesticulating frantically at a tiny little ball in the corner of the page in the middle of a book about animals.... who even knew it was there?! He did.
He can now climb on and off the couch and our bed now, without help.
Picture: Mando and Nicholas (or should I say Fifi and Fido) at the playground behind Batesville Primary School, Batesville, IN Jan. 2011He can also wiggle his way into the bathtub---which I found out as I was filling up the tub and heard a splash behind me. I turned around to see him holding himself on his arms, almost face-down in the water, as his feet didn't quite make it over the edge of the tub.
He has full-length conversations with his stuffed dog (also a leash/backpack that we had to buy because he's just too darn fast!) in his car seat....which is now forward-facing. eek.
He almost understands how to do the koala-hold :) He understands that he has to hold on tight around my neck whenever I say, "Koala, Koala!" But he doesn't get the feet yet, and isn't really sure what I'm doing, I think. But he giggles and laughs and likes when I do it, so that makes it fun for me :)
Picture: Liz and Nicholas on the train at the Cincinnati Zoo for the Festival of Lights while visiting Batesville for Christmas/New Years 2011
You know you're a mom when...
- you find Cheerios with every tissue you pull from the tissue box
- when your son breaks your favorite necklace and beads go EVERYWHERE.... your first thought isn't, "Oh no! My favorite necklace!" it's, "Crap! How am I going to find all those beads before you start putting them in your mouth?"
- You smell your clothing before putting it on....because you just pulled it out of your dirty clothes hamper.
- bowel movements rule your day
- simple things like going to the chiropractor (next door) for a twenty minute appointment suddenly become a huge to-do that need planning and childcare
- you find yourself staring at a toddler with one hand in the toilet and the other in his mouth, dunking and sucking toilet paper
- part of you relishes when your son gets scared or tired because that's when he comes over and willingly sits in your lap, rests his head against your chest and holds on tight, and your only responsibility is to "be Mama." (like when he sees a dancing Santa...that maybe I keep in my house even though it's not Christmas just for this reason)
All things that happened this week, by the way.
- when your son breaks your favorite necklace and beads go EVERYWHERE.... your first thought isn't, "Oh no! My favorite necklace!" it's, "Crap! How am I going to find all those beads before you start putting them in your mouth?"
- You smell your clothing before putting it on....because you just pulled it out of your dirty clothes hamper.
- bowel movements rule your day
- simple things like going to the chiropractor (next door) for a twenty minute appointment suddenly become a huge to-do that need planning and childcare
- you find yourself staring at a toddler with one hand in the toilet and the other in his mouth, dunking and sucking toilet paper
- part of you relishes when your son gets scared or tired because that's when he comes over and willingly sits in your lap, rests his head against your chest and holds on tight, and your only responsibility is to "be Mama." (like when he sees a dancing Santa...that maybe I keep in my house even though it's not Christmas just for this reason)
All things that happened this week, by the way.
January 12, 2011
Santa
I was packing up the Christmas decorations the other day, and in order to fit everything in the boxes, I had to take everything I didn't decorate with out of the boxes and start fresh. Among these items was a dancing Santa statue/robot/thing that Mando had when we got married.
So, I put it on the ground while I sort through the other stuff. Along comes Nicholas, running like the wind into the room to see what I'm doing. He's laughing and smiling and running up to me like he's about to give me a big hug when, all of a sudden, he sees the Santa and he stops DEAD in his tracks. His eyes get as wide as platters and he is frozen in place. Then, he slowly starts to back away from the Santa without taking his eyes off of it, as if it were a wild boar about to charge. Taking tiny little steps, as slowly as I've ever seen him move, he maneuvered his way over to my side and grabbed my shirt with all of his force, pulling himself up until he was hugging me, koala style. I couldn't help but laugh! I felt bad for getting the Santa out because I already knew it scared him (he FREAKED out when I pulled it out to set-up the decorations), but it was so funny to watch him panic.
I tried to tell him it was just a statue and it was fine, not to be scared, but he wouldn't let go of me for anything. So I tried to show him that Santa was friendly by turning on the music so he could see Santa dance. He tightened his grip on me, and his eyes grew even wider....but, there was music, so despite his absolute terror, he started to bounce and move to the beat----all the while keeping the look of sheer terror on his face, never taking his eyes off of Santa.
It wasn't working, so I put santa face-down in a box and carried Nicholas into the other room with me. I carried him for a few minutes while I kept doing my thing, waiting for his grip to loosen. When it finally did, I set him down while I dismantled some more decorations. He stood right next to me, the entire time, and kept glancing behind him. Then he slowly walked to the corner, and peeked around looking for Santa.
I finally had to put Santa outside to get him to calm down and play normally.
Sheesh! The great part about having Santa outside is that Nicholas won't go near the front door now! (He just learned how to open the door by himself this week. Problem solved.) And if you ask him where Santa is, he points a shaking finger to the front door and starts whimpering. Is it bad that this makes me laugh?? :)
All of these pictures were taken a few days later after he's had time to get used to Santa. He still hates being near it, but at least he doesn't flip out like he did before. He can get close to it now, which he wouldn't do before!
Yes, this is close for him.
So, I put it on the ground while I sort through the other stuff. Along comes Nicholas, running like the wind into the room to see what I'm doing. He's laughing and smiling and running up to me like he's about to give me a big hug when, all of a sudden, he sees the Santa and he stops DEAD in his tracks. His eyes get as wide as platters and he is frozen in place. Then, he slowly starts to back away from the Santa without taking his eyes off of it, as if it were a wild boar about to charge. Taking tiny little steps, as slowly as I've ever seen him move, he maneuvered his way over to my side and grabbed my shirt with all of his force, pulling himself up until he was hugging me, koala style. I couldn't help but laugh! I felt bad for getting the Santa out because I already knew it scared him (he FREAKED out when I pulled it out to set-up the decorations), but it was so funny to watch him panic.
I tried to tell him it was just a statue and it was fine, not to be scared, but he wouldn't let go of me for anything. So I tried to show him that Santa was friendly by turning on the music so he could see Santa dance. He tightened his grip on me, and his eyes grew even wider....but, there was music, so despite his absolute terror, he started to bounce and move to the beat----all the while keeping the look of sheer terror on his face, never taking his eyes off of Santa.
It wasn't working, so I put santa face-down in a box and carried Nicholas into the other room with me. I carried him for a few minutes while I kept doing my thing, waiting for his grip to loosen. When it finally did, I set him down while I dismantled some more decorations. He stood right next to me, the entire time, and kept glancing behind him. Then he slowly walked to the corner, and peeked around looking for Santa.
I finally had to put Santa outside to get him to calm down and play normally.
Sheesh! The great part about having Santa outside is that Nicholas won't go near the front door now! (He just learned how to open the door by himself this week. Problem solved.) And if you ask him where Santa is, he points a shaking finger to the front door and starts whimpering. Is it bad that this makes me laugh?? :)
All of these pictures were taken a few days later after he's had time to get used to Santa. He still hates being near it, but at least he doesn't flip out like he did before. He can get close to it now, which he wouldn't do before!
Yes, this is close for him.
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