Tough and Strong

As friends and loved ones of me, you are, friends and loved ones of a CrossFitter.  Sorry, it is what it is.  For the next five weeks, all the CrossFitters will "compete" against each other all around the country in the same workouts.  The top finishers from each region get invited to Regionals and the winners from Regionals go to The Games.

I have been organizing these events for my gym, where one night a week, we have two athletes face off against each other.  We're trying to have a solid balance between the two that compete, so that someone isn't getting buried by their competitor.  This has made me think a lot more about how I stack up against the other female athletes.

There are a couple of things I can't do (pullups, ringdips, muscleups, and efficient Toes 2 Bar), but there are other things I am good at; heavyish deadlifts and cleans, shoulder to over head, double unders (depends on the day).  And then there are things that I am just terrible at burpees and pushups, but I can still do them.   I'm in this weird middle place, where I am not improving much compared to the people around me.  I'm better than a lot of the scaled women at most of the things they do.  But then So and So will get a pullup.  Someone else moves onto a double bodyweight squat.  And then I'm like:

A lot of days, it doesn't bother me.  I was in a bad place (physically) when I started CrossFit- and sometimes I am amazed at some of the things I can do.  Look me!  I have double unders.  And I can clean like a champ!

And then there are the rest of the days... Days when I remember, I am the fourth oldest woman at our place, and the only one that has had a kid, that was brought into this world with a long cut through the middle of my body.  And the only one that spent 7 years of their life sitting on their ass in grad school.  And it's impossible for me to spend as much time as I want in the gym.  If it were up to me, I would spend three hours in the gym every day.  As it is now, I'm lucky if I get 1.5-2 hours, which usually includes showering, and transporting to and from.

The thing is: I used to think of myself as being strong and tough, which I will take.  At the very least, if I wasn't terribly mobile, or quick, or fast, at least I was strong and tough.  But maybe my conceptualization of strong and tough are different from everyone else's.  Like maybe I am not tough for dragging my ass into the gym when I've only had 4 hours of sleep, when stress is eating my will alive, and when it's really inconvenient to go.  Maybe tough is really only going unbroken in workout sets, or pushing yourself all the way through a workout (and not shifting into survival mode 10 minutes in).    

Big Feb

I know what you are thinking: how is it that someone who likes blogging as much as I do, can be so terribly bad at it?  My sister, who has four times as many kids as I do, manages to update her blog several times a week.  I don't know how she does it.  Really.  I'm just over here, trying to determine whether the "shower" I took at the gym yesterday indeed counts as a shower (the water was cold- so I didn't really get under it) and if I am gross for not having taken another shower.

We've had a fun February.  We managed to get to a DePaul women's basketball game.  Which was fun.  There were two late lead changes, which made the game very exciting.  I was worried that Nico wouldn't like the womens game because there is less dunking in womens basketball.  But he liked it just fine.

Speaking of basketball... I can only guess that the way that he is now is like how Dave was 40 years ago.  He gets very animated whenever the Cards are on.  He has opinions about players... like Owanakahu- who he thought should be kicked off the team (instead of Chris Jones).  But he can still recognized when a player like that makes a big play (like the other night, whoever they played against, Syracuse?)  He is just as serious about it as he is about the games he plays.

A couple of weeks ago- we went over to Jakey's house.  Jakey is one of Nico's classmates from Wonder.  Along with the little brother, the three of them played well with each other for 4-5 hours.  Even if some of that playing was wrestling fighting wrestling.

Valentine's Day coincided with the end of my Whole30 nutrition challenge at my gym (funny: growing up, I thought I would be peer pressured more into sex, drugs, and booze, and less with the "healthy eating").  I was really jonesing for a bacon cheeseburger and Dave humored me, so we had bacon cheeseburgers for dinner.  Nico had one and declared it to be his new favorite food.  Cue us making it for him 2 days later, and him not eating it.  Per usual.  

February 17th was Paczi day.  I dont like to make fun of other people's religions, but this sounds kind of made up.  But I'm not gonna throw a big fuss about it, because donuts!!  Right? 

The Great Blizzard of 2015

We had our first blizzard this weekend.  What is crazy about it, is that I knew we were in for 6-10 inches of snow, but I kinda shrugged it off, thinking it wasn't a big deal, since New York and the East Coast were supposed to get a blizzard last week and the actual amount of snow fall was in, many places, underwhelming.  So, when we got 10" of snow on Saturday night, I thought, "oh, well, that is nice."  But then Sunday, the snow kept falling.  And I made the classic new parent mistake of agreeing to take Nico to Target to spend some $$ that Aunt Rosie sent him for Christmas.  

Well, let's just say that there is a funny thing that happens to side streets in Chicago when there is a lot of snow.  If it is still snowing, they often don't get plowed.  So, that is what was happening Sunday afternoon when we were trying to make it back to the house.  Spaulding Ave. was a parking lot.  

At one point, I got out of my car to help dig out a car a couple of cars in front of us.  I was gone for a while, but by the time I got back, Nico was in tears.  Apparently, he couldnt see me, so he had gotten upset.  Man oh man.  Both of us were pretty upset at that point.  In any case, my car ended up getting stuck.  Around that time Dave had just gotten home with groceries and he suggested just parking it near where we were (side note: Dave had gotten stuck trying to leave to get groceries).  We ended up parking by a fire hydrant, and let me just say, I would have raised quite the commotion had I gotten a ticket.  Quite the commotion.  

All told, we ended up with 19" of snow-which isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  Nico had a snow day on Monday,which was great. It gave us a chance to do a little shoveling and time to get caught up on homework and reading and snuggles.  I even got a nap in. 

The good news is that, which this much snow, you know sledding is going to be off the hook.  Except that the last sledding outing resulted in Nico and Dave breaking the old sled.  So, now we gotta get a new one.  Imma try to get one of those big ones with a strap on it, so Dave and Nico can tote me around in the snow.  

Dave got a proof of the second edition of his book in the mail last week.  It's pretty cool- except that now he has written two books and me none (unless you'd count my dissertation- which I wouldn't- since I didnt get it bound up).   

Birthday Ski Trip

This weekend, we headed up to Wilmont (in Wisconsin) for skiing  (for Dave's birthday).  It was a great place to go, because overall, it was pretty mild.  Also, we didnt have to board the dogs anywhere, so that is a bonus.

Nico was pretty much a gem all day.  He listened to his instructors and tried hard.  After he realized that he didnt need to hit the deck all the time, he actually ended up being a not bad little skier.  

We let Nico do a kids' ski class, which put him on the right track to try the tow rope and the bunny hill.  He hit that hill a bunch of times, by the end, pretty much having the hang of skiing, which was cool. After, we hung out in the lodge with the ipad and let Dave ski some more.  He reported that the lines weren't that terrible for the 6-7 lifts that were running.  There were some steeper parts, but largely, it was a very comfortable experience for people who hadn't skied in 10 years.  

We had Cracker Barrel for dinner on the way home.  Even though it was his birthday, Dave humored me and let us have CB, which was okay.  Even though I didn't eat what I normally would (because I am doing this gym Whole30 challenge.  Funny, when they told me about peer pressure in high school, I just assumed that there would be more booze, sex, and drugs involved.  And less "healthy eating". )

Basketball Boy

Wow, we have been busy, so busy.

Nico is reading.  Really reading.  It's awesome.  He is still into just about every sport imaginable.   As I write this, he is running around the living room knocking a ball at a goal with a hockey stick narrating with a play by play "Henry runs the ball down, but he can't hold on to it.  Lauren is onto it now, she's hit a shot onto the back post, but now Nicholas brings it back..."

It's pretty great.  

We also started basketball.  

Dave has been hired by a company that staffs charter schools with subs.  During the interview, one of the interviewers picked up on his real mission (to get back into coaching) and called him on it (in a good way).  She suggested that he use this as a way of figuring out if there are any coaching gigs out there.  

Me- I am not teaching this quarter- but I am no less busy.  I have the incredible ability to jam pack my schedule with stuff.  A lot of it is stuff I like doing, so it's not too bad.  

The Long Overdue Christmas Post

Wow... what a crazy month.

First, it started with the FLU.  Yes, we got it.  The worst time to remember that you didnt get a flu shot is the second after your kid's pediatrician tells you that he tested positive for flu.  That was me.

But we recovered pretty fast.  Nico responded quickly to the Tamiflu and was back at school quickly. Just in time for his winter performance.  The performance we interesting.  I think it suffered a bit from "too much going on".  There was a re-enactment of scenes from Frozen, not to mention some actual music playing.  Frankly, I feel like it would have been better to just sing songs and do little dances, but I admit, I am a strange duck.

Nico's class was very well behaved.  No one lost their mind while having to sit through the entire performance, even though it was quite hot and they were all over dressed.  Look at him. Isn't he precious?

Nico played hookie on the last Friday before Winter break.  We rented a MINIVAN and packed the dogs and Christmas gifts and drove to Texas to see the Cousins and Aunt Nicole and Uncle Cody.  It was a long drive... one that was punctuated early on with the sounds of Gordon having diarrhea.  In the way back.  So, our progress was slowed by stopping every hour to walk them and avoid that happening.

We got to meet Jojo, who'd been in the states for less than a month.  It was really exciting, because she is adorable, but also because she is learning so many new things.  Nico, Maddox, and Em are finally at an age where they can play pretty well together unsupervised... so they were a little rabble running around the house playing together.  Beckett is pretty close to being able to join in.  But he mostly played with Jojo and hung out with us.  

One of my favorite things was telling Beckett that I was the boss of him.  And he telling me vice versa.  It was fantastic.  

We also did this:

Note to self: Don't do that again.  Ever.  I had never done one as a grown-up, so I was curious.  This was completely edible... and we definitely picked at it a little... but it occurred to me that this is a perfectly good waste of candy.  And besides... I don't even like most of that candy.  So in the future, just buy the "good" stuff and eat it.... no need to decorate a house with it.  

We made it back to Chicago in time for Christmas eve.  We did some quick cleaning and shopping for groceries before I finished off the night with gift wrapping.  Even though I have been chipping away at it since Thanksgiving, it seemed like still so much to wrap.  

Nico made out like a bandit, per usual.  Some hits from this year: the food prep set and storm trooper set that Santa got him, the science fair kit from Dave and me, a Batman robot that Grandma and Grandpa got him, Legos from the cousins, and a compass and military book that Gran and Grampy got him.  

For dinner, we had a pork roast, green beans (with bacon), mashed potatoes, and chocolate pecan pie.  I did the roast and the green beans in crockpots, which was nice, since I didnt have to stand over the stove all day.  Grandma and Grandpa came to town and Dave picked them up at the airport.  We spent most of the break with them watching sport, playing sport, doing science experiments, and reading.  It was a pretty fantastic great holiday.

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.