Nicks says...

Nick talks from the moment he wakes up until the moment he drops to sleep at night. Even after we’ve turned off the light and left him alone, we can hear him chatting away or singing a song he’s made up. He’s taken the game of “why?” to new levels, relentless in his follow-up to each answer with another “why?”—it’s exhausting.

 

So many of his thoughts come out of thin air and, with his deadpan delivery and amazing comedic timing, he keeps us cracking up. I really wish I could just have a running transcript of all the things he says in a day. Not so practical, but I’ve been trying to be better about jotting some gems here and there. Here are a few from the past week or so…

On multi-culturalism…

 

Nick talking to Lainey—“‘Duh’ means ‘you should know that already’ in Spanish.”

On taking care of his things…

“I’m going to break the iPad!” Pauses and smiles. “I’m just being silly. What would we do if the iPad was broken?”

 

On physiology…

Nick: I’m not going to grow for 35 days.

Me:  Why?

Nick: Because that’s just how my body works.

On keeping it on the sly…

 

Nick was being too loud (as always) in a public place.

 

Lainey:  Nick whisper.

Nick: <whispers> So, Daddy doesn’t hear me say the bad words?

 On family bonds…

 “Can we get rid of Lainey and get a boat?”

  

Really, putting these down on paper don’t do them justice. You need to see his big brown eyes, tiny hand gestures, and impish smile to really understand his charm. But, I can see all that when I read these and I know I’ll be happy to have these on paper one day, when this little guy is all grown up.

Pumpkins and Puddles

Well, we've had some really beautiful weather this week! Too bad we didn't have it last weekend while Dad and Sharon were visiting. I poured rain all day on Saturday, making for a muddy mess for our annual trip to Didier Farms on Sunday. The mud wouldn't have been so bad, but it was overcast, windy, and cold! Even with the yuck weather, we still had a blast. The kids probably could have stayed the whole afternoon!

We picked out our pumpkins, per usual, and even though Mark and I had agreed each kid would get one pumpkin, we ended up leaving with six! Two big, two small, and two really small. Nick was excited to find a large one that was shaped like a heart--later realizing it also looked like a butt--oh the laughs that ensued from the wee ones! He then found it's twin among the tiny pumpkin bin. How could I say no?

We've been really lucky the past 4 years to have amazing weather, so I suppose we can take a year of clouds! Thanks for treating us, Dad and Sharon! Another tradition carrying on!

Uncle Chris! Uncle Chris! Uncle Chris!

 

Uncle Chris rolled into town last Friday and our house was almost shattered with Nick’s excitement. This is not to say Lainey wasn’t also enthused, but Nick was just off-the-wall. He had been counting down for the past week, asking multiple times a day if it was Friday yet, before launching into all the things he was going to do with Uncle Chris. It was really sweet, and luckily, Chris delivered on Nick’s expectations. There was lots of Star Wars play, and we watched Episode II: Attack of the Clones, something Nick was particularly anticipating. (I will say, however, he seemed just as into watching Girls Just Want to Have Fun.) Both of the kids were really sad Uncle Sean couldn’t make the trip and are anxious to see him at Thanksgiving. Lainey did get to do some texting fun with him yesterday, which she loved! She’s already a tween, that one.

                The big event of the weekend was hitting the Jurassic World exhibit at The Field Museum. It was pretty cool—even if a little on the intense side at times for younger kids. We had the bad luck of crossing paths with a couple and their son asking for a refund, because the son decided it was too scary to go in. Doh!! So, that put Lainey on edge before we even inside (to put it very, very mildly), and both kiddos had a hard time at the Raptor and T. Rex portions. Even so, I still highly recommend it for any families with kids who are into dinosaurs. The real trauma for poor Nick came in the gift shop, when I refused to buy a $35 stuffed dinosaur. With lip protruded and hot tears on his cheeks, he said, “You ruined my whole day, Mama.” As it turns out, his day was, in fact, able to recover from this brutal blow.

                The rest of the time we just lolled about hitting the park and the forest preserve. It was a great weekend and Nick took Chris’s departure okay. (I was worried after he wept when Chris left to meet friends for dinner on Saturday night.) A big thanks to Chris for making the trip and the memories! We all love you!