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.   

Fun for the boys, none for the mom!

It's the end of the quarter and I just want it to be over.  I want the grading to be over.  I explicitly set up the quarter to have final projects due the second to last week of class and then exams in the last week of class.  In my benevolent mercy, I granted an extension on the final projects.  STUPID.  Because now the grading seems like it will never end.  Boo!!

Dave and Nico are in Louisville this week.  Dave's parents came up from Miami for a high school reunion (I think).  So Nico and Dave went down there this weekend and are staying with Mike and Gay with Tony and Kathy.  Nico is having a blast with them... following Grandma around, catching lightning bugs with Kaley (Tony and Kathy's grand daughter), and riding on lawnmowers.  

What is not to love, right?

Dave has been doing judo. And I have been stuck in Chicago!  Doing work!!  I never get to have any fun!!  

Spring and Summer

It's been busy here. 

Hey guess what I learned?  Teaching in quarters is actually harder than teaching in semesters.The quarters feel so much shorter than semesters.  I am very much looking forward to not teaching for a couple of months.  Biking to and from work every day.  Hanging out with my boys in the evenings.  Picnics at the Lake. I have even made my list of things I want to do this summer.  It's pretty crazy. I think in the next couple of weeks we might be able to go strawberry picking.  STRAWBERRY PICKING!! 

The good news is that summer is ramping up a bit.  The weather has been nice-so we've been outside a lot more.  We got a new law guy and got the grass cut for the first time since last summer. We were totally those people.  Meh. 

Nico is getting pretty funny lately.  I know I have said it every age since he was born, but THIS age  is my favorite.  We're getting to the age where it isn't all about him all the time.  Case in point: we have started reading The Little House in the Big Woods.  Which is kind of a departure from most books he likes... there aren't many pictures, and its not about super heroes or fireman or police men.  So that is nice.

Also, we have started trying to broaden what he watches... he still likes Lego shows and such.  But he's starting to sit down for things like Ken Burns' The West.  He's also starting to get into playing a lot by himself.  Of course, he is also starting to get very dramatic.  His new thing is lay on the floor and claim to be too tired to ________________.  It's not annoying.  At all. 

Other than that, I have started to do olympic lifting at my gym.  Remember when I had three knee surgeries in college?  Remember when I also had an ankle surgery in 2010? The result was that I hadn't gone down into a full squat (hips below knees) in like 15 years.  And when I started CrossFit, I skipped any day that had snatches (taking the bar from the floor to overhead) or cleans (taking the bar to shoulders).  The full movement results in hips below knees (which was a no fly zone for me).  But then I found out I could modify the movements to the power position (which is standing mostly up) and love them both now.  One of our coaches has been doing a fundamentals class once a week which is pretty great. 

I'm terrible at them.  It's largely a function of the way I approach mastery of movements... which is to do something thousands of times not till I get it right, but until I never get it wrong. I think my movement is getting decent with cleans, but snatches are an absolute disaster.  In fact, last week, I racked myself in the chin with the bar.  And then about 10 minutes later I caught myself on the top of my own head.  My own head.  I don't even understand how that happened.   

But it's pretty fun.  Now that the weather is nice, Dave and I are looking forward to playing outdoor soccer again.  Just gotta find a team. 

Nico's first soccer game

So, it is that time of the year.  The weather is starting to get nice.  Not today, (it is a bit cool), but generally.  There is no snow, so I guess I shouldn't complain all that much.

I have three more class meetings before I am done with this quarter.  While this is the second time I have taught this course, it feels hard because I overhauled the course.  So, I feel like I am constantly on the grind.  Will be very glad when the quarter is over.  I, will have to start prep for a new course that I have been asked to teach in the fall.  It's on the edge of my area of interest, but I never let not knowing much about something keep me from acting like an expert.

When I went to sign Nico up for soccer two weeks ago, they asked if we might want to finish out the rest of the spring season (3-4 games left).  We said yes and got Nico signed up, so he had his first game last weekend.

Let's just say this: there were three goals scored: and Nico had a hand in two of them, and his team lost. By three.  One of the goals, he scored, straightaway.  The other he took a goal kick and kicked it to the other team.  Who then scored a goal.

In all, it was pretty fun.  They started with like 30 minutes of "practice" where they warmed up and then just did fun little games.  For some reason, this kid was OBSESSED with his jersey and with sticking his tongue out.  It is very Michael Jordan, which is cool.

What is completely crazy is how completely unprepared Dave and I were for this day.  No water coolers, no water, no chairs!  It was almost like it was amatuer hour.  ALMOST!!

I think Nico might not have really understood what was happening with the game.  And he definitely lost focus for a bit.  On throw-ins, he'd zone out along with all the other kids on the field.  So, we will have to work on that- but overall, it was a pretty fun game.  I think he is going to like playing!

The Saga of the Bike

So last year, when I started riding bikes to work, I actually road a bike that I bought Dave for his birthday one year.  At the time, we had three bikes, Dave's, my mountain bike, and an old red hipster bike.  The old red hipster bike was an impulse buy at a garage sale in 2005 for about $10.  I didn't like ride it much, because the handlebars are very forward and very narrow.  And I always felt like I was on the verge of crashing into a pole.

That said, we bought the bike trailer and had it hooked up to the mountain bike (for Dave to tote Nico to school and home) when Dave's bike (re: my primary mode of transportation) was stolen.  It was shitty and I was annoyed.  And it forced me to reconsider old red hipster bike.  After a new seat and a tune up, and about a week riding around on it, I loved it.  The guys at the bike store were super cool about it- especially since they were like, "The manufacturer doesn't even exist anymore... and they made the size very weird".    Since its so anti cool, I was very aware of how hipster I was being riding the thing.  I didn't want to be one of those people wearing skinny jeans, a plaid shirt, and infinity scarf pour $$$ into this old bike.  The guys at my bike store got this.

Anyways... I got the bike tuned up in the fall and they said, that my tires were pretty far gone and that I should consider getting some new ones.  I was about 2 days away from putting Old Red up for the season, so I made note of their suggestion and went on with my life.  Well, when I got Old Red out for a ride, I ended up needing a new tube for the bike tire.  I got a friend to help me change it and she said, "You should get a new tire ASAP. Otherwise you're going to keep getting flats."  This was on a Wednesday.  I got a flat the next time I rode it, on Friday.

So, I took it to a ANOTHER bike shop and gave them the speel: "Its an old bike.  I've been told the wheels are not a standard size, so I'd like to know what to do about special ordering tires."  The guy who helped me (who liked like that dead-eyed mutt Todd on Breaking Bad) proceeded to pull tires down off the ceiling and attempt to put them on the bike.   Aaaaaand none of them fit. Even better?  To totally replace the wheels?  $100.  Dollars.  EACH.  Seriously?  That is almost half what I paid for my first car.

Much miscommunication ensued.  I finally got the bike back on Friday and have been anxious to get back to riding.  I rode to the gym on Saturday, which was cool.  Of course today's weather report would call for rain+gale force winds.  Of course it would.

 

Speaking of the gym, I have started the beginning olympic lifting class (OLY).  I'm not sure I will ever do it competitively.  I only started doing it because I felt like I could do CrossFit better if some of my technique was a scotch better.

Easter

Do I even blog anymore?
I know.  I know.  I wish there was some excuse that was better than, "Busy", but sadly, no.

Easter was fun.  We did the egg "hunt" in the our neighborhood park.  I say "hunt" because it wasn't so much a hunt as it was a "walk around and find only 4 eggs, because that is the limit that the park imposed so all the kids could get eggs."  Note to self, find an actual egg hunt next year.  Makes me miss those crazy egg hunts that the daycare used to put on.

Nico has this great thing he is doing with his face lately, mostly when he is in on the joke.  It's pretty funny.

It's  a half smile, but with his eyes glancing off to the side.  It's pretty great. He is also starting to *finally* get helpful when it comes to arts and crafts and cooking (except for the cracking of the eggs... he's got some more work to do in that arena.)  This is great, because this was the first year that dying eggs wasn't a major debacle.  Seriously, its a bit of a beat down when the kid knocks over the egg dye.  Yeah, Nico totally did that his first and second easters.

Finding eggs is starting to get pretty fun.  Totally a far cry from these days:


The week before easter, Nico's school was out for Spring Break, so he and Dave hung out.  There is some type of Lorax expedition down in the Loop, so Dave took Nico down to it.  Which is cool.

That day was funny because we were all at the chiropractor together (it's a long story).  But as we were leaving, Nico blew a kiss to the lady chiro doctor.  I don't even know what that was all about.  It was pretty funny though.

Score one for the parents!!

Okay, so I mentioned it last post, but I need to elaborate on it here: We may have turned the corner with Nico.

We did baby time largely standing on our heads.  He was a super easy baby- and my expectations were pretty low.  Plus, that first year really flew by.  But then when he got to be about 2.5- the shit kind of hit the fan (sorry, Nico honey, that is just how it was- I can't sugar coat it).  I think a big part of it is that he is clearly very smart and a scotch stubborn, so he'd sometimes get his mind set about something, and was not to be dissuaded.  So, we'd go from 0 to a meltdown in 5 seconds flat.  The worst is that Dave and I are super flexible about stuff.  Oh, we're out of beer?  That's okay.  I will drink something else.  Compare that to Nico.  Out of mac and cheese?  THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST!! I HATE MY LIFE.  I HATE YOU.  I HATE EVERYTHING. (He didnt say he hated everything, that was the tone of his fit).  Now imagine that every.single.time something doesn't go his way.  HOLY BEAT DOWN CENTRAL.

It's been ramping up for the last couple of months, but was really apparent on the trip.  He is mellowing out.  And he's growing up.  So now, when something doesn't go his way, he's okay.  Out of mac and cheese?  That's alright dude, he'll just have some PBJ.  No big deal.  This is all fine and grand, but I haven't even mentioned the best part.

He does stuff that we ask him to do- without fussing or fighting it.  And he is starting to use "Yes M'am" and "No M'am", "Please" and "Thank You" without being asked. Brilliant.  Its awesome.  The best part is that we have been able to do this largely without threatening him or putting him in time out or other such measures.  Parenting FTW!!

Been around the world...

We had a fantastic trip to Florida.  Seriously- it was just what we needed.

We left late on Wednesday night (after I taught), but we settled into the drive quite nicely.  Nico went to sleep right away and I dozed till Indianopolis, where I took over for Dave, who was quite tired. I got us through to Nashville over night (in terrible rain) and Dave took over.  We pulled into Tallahassee late on Thursday to stay the night with G and LJ, (Nico's good friends from Creative Preschool).  I was a little nervous that they would be awkward- like suddenly they would think, "Why did we hang out so much together back in the day?  You're lame!"

But my fears were unfounded.  In about 45 seconds, they had picked up exactly where they'd left off.  Which was fantastic.  Nico was a scotch bummed when we left the next day to head down to Ft. Myers Beach, which makes me think that they are still good friends after all.

We got to Ft. Myers Beach around mid afternoon.  My and Dad have a week in a time share on Ft. Myers Beach, at Spring Break, which is why we were that far south.  Once we got there, it took us about 20 minutes to get in the pool.  Seriously,we swam for probably 2 hours.  It was fantastic!!

We ended up doing some shelling on the beach and Granny made us smores (in a kitchen- weird).  Nico even entertained by singing his rendition of "Let it go" (from Frozen- which is just weird... normally he is pretty shy about things like that, with people who are not Dave and me).  Saturday morning, we checked out and headed over to Miami to see Dave's parents and Aunt Rosie.

We didn't do much there- except hang out and swim.  Grandma and Grandpa got Nico a toy heliocopter, which required some playing.  I got sunburned at the beach.  We went to bed late and slept late.  It was really restful.  I am so glad that we got to go and the weather was nice.  

We left Monday night to head back.  Yeah, we ended up driving 4 days in a car, to stay 3, but I really liked the trip- mostly because I like road trips.  If we were on vacation, I wouldn't do much more than I did in the car (read, listen to music, talk with my boys, and eat snacks).  The car had XM radio- so we blasted Radio Margaritaville and The Bruce Springsteen channels pretty much the whole way.

I should add, that save the 10 minutes while we were leaving G and L's house and 10 minutes just outside of Louisville- Nico was an absolute gem.  Seriously... I am reluctant to breath mention of it... but we might have turned a corner, which I will talk about more later.