Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was uneventful.  We are driving to Texas for a few days before Christmas.  Then Mike and Gay are coming for Christmas and JJ is coming for New Years, so we decided to keep it loose at the house.  

Nico and I made a kick ass pecan pie.  The turkey was amazing.  We ended up going through the turkey by Monday.  Leftovers ended up going into a chili and in some turkey and spinach burgers (sssssssssh.... don't tell Dave that spinach was in them).  

Nico bought this dog with some "bobcat bucks" from his school store.  They earn bobcat bucks whenever they are good.  A bit like "10 points for Gryffindoor" type of thing. In any case, the dog is a SHE and Nico calls her PUP.  It is pretty adorable.

I don't know if it was the unually cold start to November, but we got the tree up SUPER early for us this year.  SUPER early.  Which is actually okay, because I could have white Christmas tree lights up all the time.  ALL.  THE.  TIME.  

Santa Elves

We're working on a little Christmas project (psssssssst.  it's for Uncle JJ).  Don't tell him.

Nico wanted to be under the bike, like a car mechanic.  I tried to explain that it doesn't really work like that.

Pukey McPukersons

So, we had a bit of an adventure in epidemiology this past week.  So, how it is in the Bishop-Royse house is that we put Nico to bed in his bed.  At some point in the middle of the night, he wakes up and comes into our bed.  Also, apparently, there is usually some ruckus at some point over night, because all the boys in the family are awake... but I usually don't wake up.  The dogs usually have to go out at 1 am and start their dance (refer to JBR explanations no how they conditioned Dave to do this).  Dave heaves a few deep sighs before kicking the covers off to go let the dogs out.  Sometimes Nico stirs when this happens.  Usually, I am dead to the world at this point.  But on Wednesday night, I stirred a bit too... Nico was fussing around a lot.  I was starting to get a bit annoyed with this when I heard the sound of someone puking.

Its distinctive.  There is no other sound like it.  So I spring out of bed and snatch Nico out- but the damage has been done.  PUKE.  IN.  THE. BED.  Eh.  So we change him and strip the sheets.  We get him back to sleep.  But Thursday morning, he wasn't feeling so great, so he stayed home from school.

Fast forward to Friday, where I had an especially hard workout at the gym and didn't feel right for the rest of the day.  I got home and didn't eat much.  Around 9pm on a Friday night, I PUKED.  On the floor in the basement.  You know you are an adult when you have to clean up your own puke.  Saturday night it got Dave.  It got Dave. I can't even.

Yeah.  So that was our week/weekend.

Upside to having a naturally curious, but relentless 5 year old?  Now realizes that packages arriving at our house may be for him. And insists that we open.  Its not even Thanksgiving and I am tired of explaining why we cant just open presents now, even though he has presented compelling information.  He said that if he could open them now, he will act surprised when he opens them for real on Christmas.  He actually said that.  He clearly doesn't know who he is dealing with.

It's hard to see it, but he wrote that we should not open the package from Amazon until Christmas.

I'm just a little shy...

Nico got in a scotch of trouble at school last week.  Apparently he wouldn't stop talking during class.  And he did not feel the need to participate in school activities.  You know me, I was like:

Precisely.

So we had the conversation about it and I made him write an apology letter.  The next day when it was time to deliver it to her, he didn't want to (he IS terribly shy about approach ANYONE to ask them something or say something to them).  As we were walking into school he was trying to convince me to do the heavy lifting on this.  And I was like, "I wasn't the one disrupting class.  That was you.  You need to apologize and give her the note." And he said, plain as day, "Mom, remember, I'm just a little shy."

It basically made my day.

He's really amazing...

I know, right?  Do I even blog anymore?

It's the end of the quarter.  That is all I can say about that. I wish there were some better reasons why I find it so hard to keep up with the blog.  Nico continues to amaze us every day with the things that he does and the things that he says.

Last week we went to pick up his report card (CPS requires that you actually go and get it from school- it gives the teacher a chance to sit down with parents).  It was a really good experience... Nico is off the chart on a lot of things.  She mentioned that he gets off task some times- but not in a destructive way.  She will say something or they will do something in class and it will remind him of something he thought about last week... so he will tune out for a while.  She thinks that this is partly due to his experience with Montessori school, where that kind of thinking was encouraged and emphasized over the day to day "tasks" of completing work.  She said that this would probably be a struggle for us for a while- because he is so smart and he does have a really good memory... and that is the way learning should work- being able to follow thoughts and ideas to their natural logical conclusion.  Ultimately, this isn't a model that works well with public school where you often have 10 minutes for an assignment or an activity.

She is encouraging us to do even more activities with Nico at home- because she is afraid he isn't going to get anywhere even close to his potential only doing the work that they do in class.  The good news for us, is that he is starting to get curious about a broader range of subjects and topics.  He is passionately curious about nature and animals and geology.  Combined with his interest in military history and his now developing interest in reading and writing, and I am floored.  His writing needs work- and his drawing/coloring does too.  But he is actually trying to figure out how to spell things.

 
This is such a departure from before, where he wouldn't even try to write his own name because he didnt want to be wrong.

What is crazy is that the writing thing came on very fast.  For so long, he resisted sitting down to write and just wanted no part of it.  And now, whenever we are watching sport on TV, he's finding a notebook or a scratch piece of paper to write down the scores to the games.  He likes being the score keeper for games that we play at the house and even had a go adding items to my grocery list!!  Even better is that he is starting to be able to self-direct on homework.  So when he started school, one of us usually had to sit right next to him and encourage/goad/admonish him to do homework.  And now he knows what to do... so it just tears through it.  This morning, it was sitting on the table at breakfast and he picked it up and did a sheet of it without either of us even asking.  Even crazier is that we don't do homework in the morning.

I say this about all the ages, but this one is really fun.  I love that he is getting curious about the world around him.

The Photog Game

We are settling into the rhythm of Fall.  This week was the first week that Nico's soccer team was on "winter break", so we had LITERALLY nothing we had to do.  These kinds of weekends make me equal parts anxious and excited... anxious because I feel like there are things I am supposed to be doing.  Excited because I have so many things I am going to get done.

For example, this weekend, I made apple sauce from the apples we picked and blueberry muffins (from the blueberries we picked during the summer).  I also made Shepherd's pie for dinner tonight and a kick ass slow cooker shredded pork dish for dinner last night.  I made a serious dent in the laundry and caught a nap on both days.  Of course, there is all the teaching stuff that I had planned to do, but somehow didnt have the time for it.  :)

In other news,  I have been booked for two weddings.  As a photographer.  Wait, what?  What am I even talking about?  I have been trying to breathe life into JBR Photography, whenever I am not teaching and doing the 23498723498 things it seems like we have to do.  Back in the Spring and the Summer, I was bidding on smaller, one off jobs: someone needing photos for med school applications, someone needing photos of products for a website.

To be honest, I've been weary about shooting weddings.  Mostly because the stakes are so high and I get nervous.  An old friend from Tallahassee recently got engaged and was looking a photographer so I submitted a bid.  One of my gym girlfriends also got engaged over the summer and was interested in whether I would be interested in shooting her wedding- but that is not till 2016.  So I have time.

In an effort to take my photog game to the next level, I purchased a new Canon camera.

I thought about going with a Nikon- as it seems like a lot of the photographers that I know shoot with Nikons.  However, I wanted to be able to use my current lenses.  I'd been keeping my eye open for the Canon I got on eBay and Amazon.  It is the lower end of the professional grade cameras- but I love it so far.  I am definitely looking forward to shooting more when the quarter is over.

The One When Aunt Judy Visited

Last week Aunt Judy came to visit.  It was pretty fun- I think Nico liked having someone else to wear out.  And Aunt Judy had no problem wearing Nico out! Nico and I headed down to the train station to pick her up on Friday night.  Dave had Lou Malnati's and beer waiting for us when we got home, which was very nice.

Saturday morning, we took Aunt Judy to Nico's soccer game.  He had a really good game- the kid scores at will.  As much as I hope that he will be a goalkeeper- I think he likes playing defense too much.  And let's be honest: defenders who attack out of the back and are legitimate threats are rare.

Saturday afternoon, we got Nico dressed up as Captain America and headed to Lincoln Park for some type of Halloween Spooktacular Fest... where kids trick or treat at businesses in the Lincoln Park area.  Aunt Judy and I may or may not have had macaroons from a french bakery.  After, we grabbed a couple of pints and lunch at an Irish place called Gallway Arms.  

Sunday was pretty chill: we wanted to try a new restaurant in the neighborhood, so walked up there while Nico rode his bike.  After, Nico and Aunt Judy had a water fight at the park while I sat on a bench and knitted.  I'm not sure how that happened, but I think Aunt Judy didn't realize that Nico would hold her to it.  She was a terribly good sport.  After, we took her down to the Loop so she could catch her train back to Michigan. In all it was a really fun weekend.  

Apple picking in Woodstock

We had another brilliant weekend here. Nico's soccer game was cold and rainy on Saturday, but he warmed up just fine at the birthday party of his best friend from his preschool.

Sunday we went up to Woodstock to an apple orchard. The fall color is happening now, so it was a nice drive.

Nico is funny. I caught him leaning up against the wall waiting for Dave and me to finish getting ready to go. Like some type of little model or something. 

WOWZA.

So, fall is definitely kicking up.  Nico's soccer season is in full swing, and he is really getting to be pretty good.  Most of the teams are pretty similar- a couple of kids that are in it to win it, and four kids who would rather be playing on the play ground.  I subbed for another coach a couple of weeks ago.  Following a water break, we couldn't find 6 of the 8 kids who were supposed to be on the field.  Well, they were off the field. Using a huge branch to stab a tree next to the soccer field.  Because of course.

There is another kid on Nico's team who is pretty good.  They play well together.  Nico has been focusing a lot more on defense lately.  And sometimes he just does things that are so right, so above what a 5 year old should be able to do.  It's pretty remarkable.

But even if he is a big tough soccer player, sometimes I can get him to snuggle with me.

Nico got his first school progress report last week.  It was interesting- he is off the charts with the numbers and the reading and the writing.  But less so with the staying focused and finished tasks.  The teacher says he does the least possible.  I'm not really surprised, in fact, I kind of expected it coming from a montessori school.  He's also super excited about stuff at his new school... like apparently, after lunch kids are allowed to play outside whenever they are done eating.  So naturally, Nico takes three bites of his lunch and rushes outside.  Guess who is a bottomless pit of hunger when he gets home from school?  You guessed it.  My guess is that it will sort itself out during the winter, when kids won't be rushing to play outside.

I got a bit sick last week.  It come on quick, but I was out of commission for Thursday night and Friday and Saturday.  I'm not all the way better yet- I've acquired quite the cought.  I thought my end was near on Monday- I had a couple of coughing fits and I couldn't catch my breath.  My throat goes from being incredibly sore to not, to sore, to not.  I might have strep, but other than that, I feel fine.... tired and run down, but not really that bad.  I haven't done a crossfit workout in nearly a week- I feel like the website that posts our workouts is mocking me- I havent taken this long off since, I don't remember when.

My aunt Sandy died last week, so I went to Michigan on Sunday, to be there for Dad and Aunt Judy.  And to help in anyway.  I saw Cousin Ben and Uncle Danny, who I hadn't seen in a while.  Which was nice.  But, this past week has just kicked my tail. The work and the responsibility is at about the right place where I can feel motivated and move quickly on things.  Much more stacks up and I'm going to have to hit the reset button- which is the equivalent of pushing everything off my plate and starting over.  :)

The Corn Maze

We had a really lovely weekend!  On Saturday, I went to a CrossFit "competition" after Nico's soccer game.  It was only a friendly competition, but my partner and I "won" the scaled division....we only won because he should have been competing in the tougher competition.  Also, it's not that big of a deal, since winning the scaled division is a bit like being the fifth grader that wins the kindergarten field day. But it was fun.  Nico is averaging a hat trick, plus in soccer games lately.  Even better, he actually completed a pass to a teammate.  Somehow, we have to figure out a way to make that happen more.  Because this dribbling the ball down the field and having a go at the goal isn't as much fun for everyone else, I suspect. 

Saturday afternoon, we went up to the Richardson Adventure Farm, which is on the border with Wisconsin.  There is a corn maze, jump pillows, a big slide, and pumpkins.  

The slide was really cool.  Nico could have done it all day... which is hilarious, because getting to the top required this long walk up this hill.  He had a blast.  

He still comes and gets in bed with us during the night.  He's still very snuggly.  I'm sad for when he gets to be too big for it.  I realized that he's going to be getting too big for stuff now.  When I take him to school, usually, I walk him into the gate... most parents just drop their kids at the Kiss and Go lane.  But I walk Nico in.  Usually, I will sit on the bench and watch his bags while he plays.  He plays on the playground until the bell rings and then comes sprinting over to me to get his bags and give me a hug.  Otherwise, there is no real reason for me to stay.  Today he said he would keep his bags with him so that he wouldn't need to come back for them.  That didn't take long at all. 

And he's reading.  Check this out:

Fall is coming

It's defintely getting to be fall up here. We're three weeks into school and are starting to find some routine.  Which is nice.

Nico scored four goals in his soccer game on Saturday.  There are a couple of other kids who are fairly decent, and the Cheetas seem like they might be a dream team of sorts.

Nico is doing this funny thing whenever I take a picture of him.  He poses.  

He sets up his feet like so and kind of leans back from the camera.  Its adorable.  I've asked him where he got it and he just says that he learned it himself.  But it is adorable.  

He's growing up so fast, some days I can't believe it.  

First Week

Nico's first week was awesome.  It may be early for this, but Dave and I are kind of doing a victory lap with how well it went.  In the course of a week, we completely changed the home/night/morning routine and Nico loves school.  LOVES IT.  He's excited to go- and he's starting to make friends.  His teacher is amazing.  She's African-American (squeeeee!!) and just loves on her kids.  She had no problem telling me on the first day that Nico had a little bit of a hard time listening, but it was okay, since he was going to get a chance to listen tomorrow.  Awesome.

Nico didn't cry and didn't fuss.  He was curious about what was happening, but was not in any way anxious for us to hang around.  He's excited that he will get to do PE, drama, art, and the library once a week.

At home, we have dramatically changed everything... since he has to wake up so early, we're getting to bed and doing dinner a lot earlier.  This means, we've cut down his TV watching and playing.  But he seems to be doing fine.

This weekend he also started soccer up again.  What a difference a couple of months makes!!  Nico was a completely different kid this go round.  Part of it had to do with the fact that he has been playing a lot more soccer lately.


But also, he was playing against a bunch of kids who'd never played soccer before.  And at least he played a couple of games in the spring.  

He scored three goals and had an assist!

Isn't that crazy?

One of the goals happened when a teammate was dribbling around in our defensive third and he just took the ball from her, dribbled down the field and scored!  It was very funny!  Still no goalkeepers yet, but I think he had a good time!!

The End of Summer

We had Nico's birthday party this weekend!  We invited a bunch of his little friends from school and had an olympic field day event at the park.  I broke out the poles for jump the creek.  Nico was in "rare" form.  He apparently misunderstood what it meant to be having a birthday party.  He must have somehow thought it was okay to be a maniac because he was OUT OF CONTROL.  Seriously, we haven't spanked him, but he came pretty close...

Unfortunately, Dave had a coaching thing in the morning, so we were dragging on getting things set up, and consequently, we ended up not getting very many pictures of the day.  I will say that a highlight included Nico taking a big bite out of the #5 candle that we had for him to blow out candles.  I was busy distributing cake, and didn't notice, until he had had a go with it.

In other news, we are on the countdown for the last days of summer.  Nico's school closed on Monday, and so we're trying to squeeze the last drops out of summer and get ready for school next week.  On Tuesday, I stayed home from work and we cleaned his room.  We got his closet set up and most of his clothes clean.  I even bought an iron last week and pressed some of his nicer long sleeve button ups.  We have most of his school stuff ready to go.

I wish I could figure out what it is about kids feeling the need to be a pack rat.  Seriously, he wants to hang onto every single little crappy birthday party toy, happy meal toy.  Ugh.  I guess I need to start a box to transition toys out of the house.  Although, his memory is so good, I'd be nervous that I transition some of his toys (like the bigger trucks and such) and then, one day, he asks, "Mom, have you seen that bulldozer I haven't played with in 6 months?"  No good can come from this...

Nico is still having fits.  It was something that I had hoped that he would grow out of by now: but alas, he hasn't.  I am hoping that this is merely a temporary thing... that there will be kids in kindergarten who are WAY too cool for that.  It could also be due to the fact that he isn't really napping anymore; but hasn't fully aged into the age of reason.  Obviously, we need to handle night time a little better- getting him in bed earlier.  Apparently at his age, he needs to be getting 10-11 hours of sleep at night.  Which means, that if we are waking him up at 615-630 to go to school, he needs to be asleep at 830.  It could get very ugly in here.

I am a mess.

You probably would never have guessed it, but I love back to school time- mostly because of the school supplies.  The smell of paste and paper and fresh crayons.  You can probably guess how weird the emotions are with Nico going to Kindergarten.  I am excited for him, because I think he is really going to like school.  He is really excited about bowling in the gym and blowing stuff up in science lab.  And I am excited for getting all the school supplies. And some new clothes.   

But, then he's going to be in kindergarten.  Kindergarten.  After this, we'll start counting time by the passing school year... and the next thing you know, he'll be going to high school.  And graduating high school.  I remember being a kid and talking myself out of the alacrity that comes with big events by saying to myself, "Stop thinking about it.  As soon as you stop thinking about it, it will be here and gone."  I feel like that now; like I am going to close my eyes and open them to find that I am sitting in the car as Dave drives us to Nico's high school graduation.  

I know it's weird, right?  Because it's not like he is not in school... because he is.  He's been in three really great schools.  He's made good friends and learned alot.  It just feels like everything just got real.  And it's weird because I am so nervous for him- because he's not going to know anyone at this new school.  And some kids are just shitty, horrible monsters.  God, I remember the feeling of sheer terror on the first day of school, hoping, praying that there was nothing that anyone could use to make fun of me.  I could handle the loneliness of not having friends in my classes, as long as I did not have to deal with some Daughtry's Creek brat declaring my shoes were ugly or my lunchbox was stupid.  

Here is the thing: Nico believes what his peers tell him.  I don't know how it came up, but he told me that he had had a conversation with one of his friends about who were the smartest kids in the class.  So, I asked if he was the smartest, and he said no, but that he was near the top of his class.  I asked if he knew who was the smartest and he said, "Jake".  I asked how he knew that.  It was because Jake had declared himself to be the smartest.  And Nico believed him.  What I am worried about is that some kid will see Nico's new light up shoes (from Grandma and Grandpa) and say that they are for babies and that Nico is going to believe him.  

The thing is, Nico is pretty introverted.  Still, at the age of 5, he won't talk to people he doesn't know very well.  Case in point: the last time I took Nico to the gym a bunch of my gym friends (who are also facebook friends) asked Nico about his burpees (because I posted a video of him doing them).  Has nothing to say- won't even look at them.  Compare that to some of the kids in his class now, who don't even know me from Santa, have no problem walking up to me and telling me what's up.  So I am nervous that some little douchebag is going to declare Nico to be a cry baby or that his clothes are babyish (or something) and that Nico is going to have a hard time making friends.  And he's going to be lonely.      

I know, intellectually, that this needs to happen.  He will only get good at making friends by being in this place.  He may hate going to school.  He's so young compared to so may of his peers.  He may not have the patience yet to do the stuff the other kids are doing.  He might get really frustrated.  Add that to not wanting to go, and its possible that that first week of school is going to be a shit show.  

But it seems like everytime I log into Facebook there is something from HuffPost or some parent friend about the "the last time" and how you don't know it's the last time until it's over (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/devon-corneal/parenting-lasts_b_1874086.html).  Like the last time Nico asks me to hold him before he goes to sleep.  Or the last time he wakes up in the middle of the night and slips into bed with Dave and me.  I know, intellectually, that those lasts are replaced by other firsts, but that doesn't make me any less of a mess.    

My First CrossFit Competition

I participated in my first CrossFit competition this weekend.  It was weird/cool/fun/weird.  It was a really good competition- because a bunch of my friends and my main coach were there.  Nico and Dave showed up for two events- including the one where I set a new personal record.  On Saturday, during the competition, we had 5 minutes to find a max clean for both me and my partner.  

I had already hit 125, and got to the bar with 130lbs on it and 15 seconds left on the clock.  I must have had some adrenaline going because when I cleaned it, it felt likes it weighed 10 lbs.  So that was cool.  The above photo isn't the best, but you can see the weight and the time left on the clock.

Overall, it was a pretty fun experience.  

 

Nico Turns 5

It's so weird that Nico is 5. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: it's disorienting, because it's hard to remember a time before him. But it's weird, because it seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.

We had a pretty fun weekend. Dave's parents came up- so you know Nico was happy.   Nico requested that "do something special" for his birthday morning. I had big ideas about making a net of balloons and streamers in his doorway so that when he opened his door, all the balloons would fall in. But he still comes in our room sometimes, so I opted out of that. Ultimately, I hid his presents in the house, so he had to start the day off by finding them. This was a pretty big hit. 

I accidentally went a little overboard in the present department. Yikes! Even crazier, Nico requested a pineapple upside down cake for his birthday. When he and Dave went to Louisville a couple of months ago, he had about 3/4 of one and declared it to be really good. So I obliged (it was his birthday after all). It turned out really good and well, it's long gone. 

Overall it was a very fun weekend.  Nico's birthday dinner was at Laschatt (our favorite German food restaurant)!! We hit the park several times and Grandma took Nico shoe shopping. Only a few weeks till he's off to Kindergarten. I can't believe it. 

In the Feels!!

Nico's elementary school sent an email today with a school supplies list.  I'm not going to lie, I am kind of tearing up at the idea of him starting kindergarten in a month.  Seriously, where did the last five years go?  Truly?

The good news is that 30 years later, and school supply lists aren't much different.  With the exception of these:

Isn't that cool?  A place to practice writing AND draw pictures?  SPOT ON!! I am pretty excited about those.

I am probably way more excited about this than Nico will be.  I don't know if you knew this or not, but school supplies are pretty much my favorite.  And you know Nico isn't gonna get any of that RoseArt nonsense.  All crayola, baby.  So excited!!

In any case, I leave you with a video of Nico's latest goalkeeper training.

Allez

We are having a blast this summer.

Nico being home from school on Tuesdays and Thursdays has been fantastic.  I have been able to take a vacation day here and there in order to hang out with him.  Yesterday we managed to just hang out at the house.  I went to the gym in the morning while Dave and Nico headed to the Y.  When we got back to the house, I ran out to drop my computer off to the computer guy (DO NOT EVEN GET ME STARTED.  Note to self, if you ever hear me talking about buy a new HP, that is your clue to stage an intervention.  Worst debacle ever).  I swung by to get some icecream and headed to the park with Nico.  While we ate our ice cream, we watched some older kids to a soccer practice.  Which was cool.  But then we got on with our main reason for being at the park: gk training.  It's a bummer that little guys' soccer doesn't have gks.  He's looking forward to playing actual gk for a team in a game.



Even better, is that we have started having a go at each other in the form of one on ones.  Only Nico doesn't call them that.  He calls them "tustles".  Which is hilarious, since I use the word "tustle" like this: "Nico Royse, if you pop me in the face with that sword you're swinging, we're gonna tustle, so I'd stop if I were you."

We are going to try to sneak up to Michigan tomorrow to see Uncle Scott.  I wanted to get up there earlier, but just couldn't make it happen.  Other than that, not much else is happening.

I have a CrossFit competition next weekend (on the 17th).  I haven't done a competition before.  The previous competitions my gym has held, I've been like, "Oh, Damn.  I'd like to.  But who is going to take pictures?"  Or my personal favorite, "Oh, I meant to sign up for that one in Arlington Heights, but registration is closed.  Bummer."  In all honesty, I am kind of nervous about it.  It's a team competition, so it shouldn't be too much of a grind.  As far as our team goes, there is another girl who definitely has a motor, but isn't probably as strong as I am.  The two guys each have their own strengths... I just don't want to be in a place where the team is counting on me to full snatch 95 lbs.  Because that is just not going to happen... unless the competition calls for me to fail horribly.  Because I am all over that :)

In any case, I asked Nico if he was going to cheer for me.  He said yes, and I asked if he had any cheers for me.  His answer: "Allez la putain!" Which is not nice.  Not nice at all.  To be fair, I taught him this accidentally in the car... you know how it is.  It's french for "Go Whore!"  But he also knows Allez is GO.  So, I can understand the confusion.  I hope he doesn't really cheer like that.  That would be terrible.

The Amazon Debacle

I got home late on Friday night... the train trip was easy.  And good.  I got to read and play candy crush most of the way.  I also picked up the TNT cowboy brisket rueben from Zingermans to have on the train.  It was amazing.

Nico was glad to have me home.  I ended up taking him to CrossFit with me on Saturday.  I am working on an advertising campaign for them, and we needed Nico.  If it works out, I will probably post a picture here :)

Nico wanted a go at wall balls.  Wall balls are were you go down into a full squat and stand up, throwing the ball at a target above your head.  He did pretty well.  It's the second time he's been to CrossFit with me, and was a gem both times.

After, we swung by a birthday party for one of his classmates.  It was pretty fun- and the weather was perfect.  Before I left for Ann Arbor, Nico and I were watching TV and we saw a commercial for Planes: Fire and Rescue.  Nico thought that looked pretty good, so we made a plan to go see it when I got back, if he could be good for Dave while I was gone.  Well, we ended up going after the party on Saturday.  And this is when the fun began.  

When we were leaving, Nico saw a kid with a Dusty plane (Dusty is the main character) and wanted to get one.  I didn't see it, and I am not trying to go to a toy store looking for this thing.  So, I got the great idea, to let Nico look at Planes toys from Amazon on my iPad so I could identify the plane, yada yada yada, problem solved.  

Well, I dont know if you knew this or not.  But if you are signed into Amazon on your iPad and you touch the "one-click to buy" button, you can buy that item.  And Nico bought a tent.  It was on my wishlist, so when he was navigating the app, he must have bought the item.  He also managed to buy a play station and a dusty toy.  And then I realized I should sign out of the app. 

Luckily, we're not getting a play station.  Amazon let me cancel the purchases.  But seriously, how hilarious is that?  Good thing he is cute...

Not Getting Things Done

Like I mentioned in my last post, I was in Ann Arbor this week.  ICPSR (the Interuniversty Consortium for Political and Social Research) holds trainings every year on lots of topics, from Data to Methods and its basically awesome.  I have been wanting to go for a long time, and this summer I finally managed.  I ended up signed up for a 5 day workshop on Structural Equation Modeling.  Unfortunately for all involved, I only got about 50% of what we covered in class... but its been several years since I had a formal stats class.  The good news is that the materials were ON POINT.  So, I have everything I need to get in lots of trouble with SEM when I get home.  SO that is good.

But being away from home for that long is hard.  I stayed in the dorm- so I didnt have easy access to a fridge or air that didnt feel like the inside of someone's shoe.  Also, it was pretty structured... so my MO of grazing on healthy food all day was thrown out the window. So instead of eating 4-6 smallish meals/snacks throughout the day, I had to eat three BIG meals.  Plus, with that kind of learning, it's real hard to be motivated to do anything when I got back to my room.  I'd like to say that I worked out, wrote, and saw Ann Arbor, but I would be lying.  I did manage to get through the 5th season of Dexter... so there is that.

I think I just need to stop kidding myself about being "productive" on trips like this one.  I had grand intentions to GET SHIT DONE.  But then, Netflix Happens.

Party On.

The only bad thing about summer is that Chicago loses its damn mind with the nice weather, so everyone decides to HAVE THEIR BIRTHDAY PARTIES! HOLD THEIR FESTIVALS!! EVERYONE BE OUTSIDE!!!  And we have just been having TOO much fun.

In the last couple of weeks, we went out to the Botanic Garden to see some weirdo kid's music band. We went with R and J and their daughter Lil M.  Nico quickly found an older boy to play with and spent his time running amok with them.  Then the boy, unbeknownst to Nico invited Nico for icecream with his family, which he accepted.  In other news, we have started talking about stranger danger.  

After the garden, we headed over to Northwestern and checked out their showing of Frozen.  Nico has probably seen the movie, conservatively speaking, 30 times.  And was as engrossed as ever while watching the movie with a bunch of weirdo undergrads at Northwestern.  Which was hilarious.  During the songs, it basically became a sing a long.  

Last weekend, Nico was invited to a friend's birthday party.  The party was tacked onto a neighborhood block party, which was pretty cool.  So, there was the birthday part... and then there was the running amok with a bunch of older kids from a neighborhood that he doesn't even live in.  Which was hilarious.  

He had an important lesson at the party.  There was a face painter and he got his face done up like batman.  But then he got upset about something and had a fit.  This caused the paint to start coming off.  But, then he became aware that the face painter had left, which caused another fit.  And this fit caused him to miss the pinata.  I hoped he learned the lesson that causing a fuss over little things cause you to miss out on other fun things.  

Nicholas M. Royse, M stands for Fun.

The only bad thing about summer is that Chicago loses its damn mind with the nice weather, so everyone decides to HAVE THEIR BIRTHDAY PARTIES! HOLD THEIR FESTIVALS!! EVERYONE BE OUTSIDE!!!  And we have just been having TOO much fun.

In the last couple of weeks, we went out to the Botanic Garden to see some weirdo kid's music band. We went with R and J and their daughter Lil M.  Nico quickly found an older boy to play with and spent his time running amok with them.  Then the boy, unbeknownst to Nico invited Nico for icecream with his family, which he accepted.  In other news, we have started talking about stranger danger.  

After the garden, we headed over to Northwestern and checked out their showing of Frozen.  Nico has probably seen the movie, conservatively speaking, 30 times.  And was as engrossed as ever while watching the movie with a bunch of weirdo undergrads at Northwestern.  Which was hilarious.  During the songs, it basically became a sing a long.  

Last weekend, Nico was invited to a friend's birthday party.  The party was tacked onto a neighborhood block party, which was pretty cool.  So, there was the birthday part... and then there was the running amok with a bunch of older kids from a neighborhood that he doesn't even live in.  Which was hilarious.  

He had an important lesson at the party.  There was a face painter and he got his face done up like batman.  But then he got upset about something and had a fit.  This caused the paint to start coming off.  But, then he became aware that the face painter had left, which caused another fit.  And this fit caused him to miss the pinata.  I hoped he learned the lesson that causing a fuss over little things cause you to miss out on other fun things.  

I was in Ann Arbor this week doing a stats training.  I missed my boys. I ended up at Target buying a gift for another birthday party and got Nico a ninja turtle mask. 

He seems to be pretty excited about it.  

Working the system

We started the weekend with Movies in the Park. This week we went to a park about 3/4 of a mile from the house and saw Despicable Me 2 on the big screen. We took a picnic and remembered the bug wipes. Nico was a gem for most of it. And I was glad to be living in a city that offers these kinds of events.

Saturday I went to workout and when I got home, we put the hammer down cleaning. There are some things that we *really* needed to do- like wash the windows and get the baseboards. Nico was a champ. I think he is starting to "get" the idea of allowance. Before we had settled in an amount, he climbed into my lap and groves me to hold him like when he was a baby- which was hilarious. He was working me! He seems to think I will give him whatever he wants just because he is cute! Wait-  what happened? 

We're making him save 25% of what he earns for college. So that is good. 

Today, I had a photo shoot in Lake View. Nico and Dave watched the World Cup final. And when I got home, Nico came up to me and started with, "You know what is annoying? Germany winning the World Cup!"  Which is funny- that he starts sentences like that. 

Summer Funs!

We'll, we had a lovely July 4th weekend.   Nico and I went to the park on Friday afternoon. He's really getting into having muscles and stuff- so he worked on learning how to do the monkey bars. I think he's plenty strong enough- he just needs work on his technique.

On Friday, we were set to bead up to Evanston to grill out with friends. They have a daughter who is 1.5 years old and is just about the cutest thing ever. Another couple with a boy about the same age came over and the kids hung out together. It will be fantastic in about four years when these guys just run around the neighborhood together.  I've been working on a couple of photography deadlines lately. I spent most of yesterday doing that, when Dave and Nico drove to check out an old school arcade. Apparently when they were in Louisville a couple of weeks ago, Nico was introduced to pinball- which he loves. So he basically got to play to his heart's content. 

Summer in the City

I got a notice from work last month that I hadn't taken any vacation days. I don't need to be told twice, so I scheduled some days off this summer. With July 4th on Friday, I took yesterday and today- which is fantastic.

Tuesday night I introduced Nico to "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" on Netflix. It was amazing. He loved it. I think his media viewing tastes are evolving. He's been watching a LOT of the World Cup. He's starting to get into the Nat Geo documentaries- which is fantastic. Because a Kim can only watch so much Cailou. 

Yesterday we rode down to the Loop. We checked out the family fun festival in Millenium Park. Nico played Cornhole for about 2 hours. And did hula hoop (which I am still terrible at). After, we stopped by Margie's on Montrose for ice cream.  

Not sure what we'll get into today. Maybe go for a hike or something. It's absolutely gorgeous. It was 65 degrees in the house last night. In July. Don't be jealous!

Taking him Down to Chinatown!

We're changing Nico's school situation so that he is only going three days a week. It's much cheaper, which is nice, but frankly, I wanted to be able to do some fun things with him- it seems like our weekends go by so fast. I'm looking forward to doing summer stuff with him, since he's starting to get cool. Uncle JJ had a few unexpected days off this weekend, so he came down to Chicago.   We ended up taking him with us to the dragon boat races in Chinatown- which was cool. Nico's still stressing me out with the food. We went to a Chinese place and ordered him fried dough- which came with a dish of frosting. He wanted no part of it. None!!

I guess some day he'll figure it out- that his parents aren't totally full of shit. Until then- I guess we'll do with hotdogs and grilled cheese.

Strawberries and Summer

This weekend was pretty fun.  I had two photoshoots on Saturday- one for a woman who is getting her social media/branding/blogging business of the ground and a CrossFit event.  The first was nice because she was a photographer's dream: she moved and held different kinds of poses, was open and flexible to my ideas, had several different outfits.  The second was fun because it was CrossFit, and since most of my Chicago friends are my gym friends, it was cool. 

Sunday, we drove out to Earlville to go Strawberry picking.  This is our second annual trip.  Last year, it was just Nico and me, and well, he was pretty much done after about 20 minutes.  This year, he was much more into it... although it was a scotch warm.  Dave came with us this time, which dramatically increased our strawberry haul.  All said, I think we ended up with about 4 gallons of strawberries.  Which is good news for me, because I am working on a pie.  And its good news for Nico because well, strawberries.  

Summer is about to be on us.  I am done teaching (yay).  We are going to change Nico's school situation- so that instead of sending him 5 days a week, we'll send him three days a week.  I am pretty excited about this, because it increases the time for adventures.  Let's just say that he'll be glad when school starts, because he will be worn out from all the adventures I am planning on us doing.  

Other than that, not much going on.  Joe and Jack are coming to town (one of Dave's oldest Tallahassee friends and his son), and they're all going to a Cubs game tonight.  Even better, the house is moderately clean (yay for out of town guests!!).  One of my gym friends is doing a thing tonight for the Moth radio hour, so I might go check that out!  Life is pretty great now.