The sea turtle came to see him...

Well, we had a brilliant holiday here!

We left for Atlanta on Sunday, and drove the four hours up with Nico being a peach most of the way.  I worked on a christmas gift- getting it started early!!  Woo hoo!!

When we checked into the hotel, we noticed a rather large presence of weirdos.  Turns out there was a dragon convention called Dragon Con.  A full on festival of dorks dressed up as characters from sci-fi and fantasy books, movies and television shows.  Seriously. 

We've been telling Nico for a week how much fun he was going to have, that we were going to ride on a train (the MARTA subway) and taxis. So after Nico's obligatory swim in the pool  we headed out for dinner.  We found a place online called Marlow's Tavern.  We took the MARTA three stops to get there... Nico was kind of nervous.  Lets be real, he was scared.  He didnt want to go on the subway train.  But after a while, he warmed up a bit to it (some Mama Snuggles helped).  I am a terrible mom, so I didnt manage any pictures of his first train ride.  :(

The dinner was awesome... I had shrimp and grits (yeah, dont tell mom) and Dave had a burger.  Nico had "fish sticks" that were grown up quality.  We took a taxi back to the hotel and Nico was asleep in about 2 minutes.  Monday morning we woke up and headed to the aquarium.  We walked, even though it was raining... a lot of fun. 

When we got to the aquarium, we bought tickets to see the dolphin show, which Nico really liked. 


There were some parts that were a little scary- there was some thunder and it was dark... but overall, he was intrigued.  He seemed to really like the dolphins... and I want one... they are kinda like dogs, like you can hug them and everything.  They are pretty cool. 

There were some other things that were pretty cool, like the acryllic tube that goes through a fish tank.  Lots of cool things to look at like sharks and sea turtles and penguins.  Nico has been saying tha tthe sea turtle came to see him (because he swam right up to him while Nico was standing in front of the window looking at him).  Very cool.  I think Nico would really enjoy it when he gets older.  There is also this thing called the "Beluga Program" where you can get in the water with Beluga whales... am thinking this would be an amazing birthday gift when he gets a little older one day. 

The trip back was relatively uneventful.  Fast forward to last night when Dave was giving Nico a bath and he said he wanted to sit on the frog (its a little kid potty that Grandma and Grandpa Royse got Nico when they were in town last month).  I wasnt really sure what path we wanted to take with the potty training- the, everyone is on lock down, Nico drinks five gallons of juice and only goes in the potty trainer method, or the more gradual, lets let him show some interest and then move on to going onto the big/real potty with the seat on it method that they use at his school.  I know some people (like Nicole and Cody) who have been really successful with the lockdown weekend method.  But I also have Nico's school to contend with... plus while he has shown SOME interest in using the potty, he seems a little young and not quite ready to make the leap. 

So guess what he did last night?  Peed in the frog potty?  WHA-WHAT?  Couldnt believe it!!  It was awesome.  Part of the problem for me has been, does he know what "peeing" is, what should go where and when?  So him peeing (and our subsequent celebration of it) I am hoping is proof that what he did should go in the potty... so who knows? But very cool though. 

Know what's also cool?  This video of Nico doing Judo.  He is growing up to be quite the judoka.