Soccer and Chores

Not much going on around here.  Nico is hot and cold with the potty training.  Still wearing a diaper at night- still sometimes has accidents.  Including this weekend at practice, when he peed in my car seat.  Awesome.

Here he is telling me about a book he is reading:


We had a pretty low-key weekend.  Just soccer and chores.  Boooo!  One of Nico's favorite things is Busy Town, which is a series of books and videos by Richard Scary.  His memory is awesome.  He also has a really good ability to describe what is going on in a picture.  He pretty much knows ABCs, although sometimes he gets V and Y mixed up.  He pretty much knows his numbers, but sometimes get them mixed up too.  He knows how to spell "STOP", "ON", "OFF" and "GO".  He also knows my phone number.  Which is pretty cool.

All for now.

Nico Mops

So not much new to report around here.  I am going to be backing off of the posting, as we are now in the season of the job market and there are only so many hours in the day.  :(  I think its likely to be a once a week type of thing until October- when most applications are due.

I took Nico by his new Big school on Friday, so that he could have a look at the place.  He really likes it.  In fact, he didnt want to go to FSU (meaning he had a meltdown).  I am sure this will wear off soon, when he realizes that none of his friends (like Ovid and Mila) go to Creative.  And I will be sad for him.

They have a "fluids deck" where the kids put smocks on and mop, wash babies, pour water, play with shaving cream, paint, and stamp.

It was way cool.  Nico loved the fluids deck.  Even awesomer is that Creative serves as a special needs preschool for the Leon County School District.  So while leaving FSU means that Nico won't have as much contact with black and asian kids (there are more there), it does mean that he will be around special needs kids more.  There was one little downs girl in the class he played with on Friday, which is cool.  

I found a new place in town that does consignment baby and toddler stuff.  I grabbed this chair and table set for like $25 and the shelf with the bins for $40.

Really in love with it.  Trying to figure out stuff for Nico to do, since he doesnt really "play" at home.  We went to the store on Saturday and stocked up on art supplies including SCISSORS, which Nico apparently loves.  The only thing I have to do now is train someone whose name rhymes with SAVE how to properly administer the crafts supplies.  No, its not an inherent skill, you actually have to learn it.  

Vacation!

So we had a really great vacation in Gulf Shores!  The whole family (except for my Dad) was able to come! Even JJ, from New York!!

We had a lot of fun. And didnt go to the beach once.  We stayed in a condo neighborhood, that had two pools.  I made lots of good noms and napped pretty much every day. The cousins had a blast running around together.  In fact, less that 12 hours into the trip, Nico had managed to scratch Max's face with a hard plastic sword.  I guess we play a little rough?

We all got plenty of Becks snuggles, and Nico was really good with him.  That is a good sign.   

So, since we have been doing this potty training thing, Nico has this thing, where after he goes to the bathroom, he runs out of the bathroom and around the house in just his underpants.  On Tuesday night, he did this.  Next thing you know, no one is wearing any shirts.  

While we were there, we did Maddox's birthday.  The gift of the day was a batman suit, which was really cool.

Nico got a bunch of ideas for stuff he wants for his birthday.  When we left, his major comment was that he wished he could have played with Max and Emme's toys more.  Which is fair, since they do have lots of cool toys.

Nico and Dave made friends with a very friendly looking beagle.

And I got the first official smile from Becks (official, because Nicole saw it.  My mom claims to have gotten one- but Nicole didnt witness it, so it doesnt count).  The one you see below is like the second or third smile.  Isn't that cool?

So it was a great trip.  We're back on the grind today.  Trying to get caught up from all the work I didnt do last week.  Nico is mostly potty trained.  He hasnt had an pee accident since Friday.  Of course, he still does #2 in his pants.  But he's really sad about it.