Sweet Kid, Sports Kid.

Winter has been crazy.

Still teaching two night classes- so our schedule has been crazy.

It's weird.  So many days are the same- work, home, homework, bed.  Work, home, homework, bed.  It's hard to see how fast Nico is growing.  He's really smart, but doesn't like to put in work on stuff that doesn't interest him.

He can be sweet sometimes.

Drake is getting up there.  Unfortunately, I think he is starting the long slide down.  He has good days, but he also has bad ones.  Ones, where he doesn't eat and has a hard time getting up the stairs.  I catch glimpses of his old self, the needy one that just wants attention.  He has stopped sleeping in our bed, for the most part.  I think he doesn't like being jostled in his sleep.  He mostly sleeps in the bathroom now, which seems really uncomfortable.  Sometimes he will come sleep in the big bed in the morning, just before we all wake up.  

In February, I competed in the Women's Raw Powerlifting meet at B&W gym.  It was an awful meet- I got red lights on two of my squats, one of my benches, and one of my deadlifts.  I had heard that it was a thing in this particular association to be overly tough on lifts- this was confirmed in my experience.  I ended up taking second in my weight class.  Not bad, but I am done lifting seriously for a while.  

Nico played two seasons of indoor at Quad sports this winter.  He basically loved it- I mean, what is not to like?

We are thinking about what we want the plan to be for soccer in the coming season.  Uncle JJ says that there is a small window in which to develop skill that sets the good from everyone else.  But my cursory search of clubs online netted some interesting results.  Chicago has youth clubs that are associated with PSG, Chicago Fire, Olympiacos, etc.  Chicago also has youth clubs that require $5000+ per season.

Yeah.

We saw a club team play at Quad during the winter that was intriguing.  They had decent skill, but also not unreasonable in terms of coaches/parents being out of control.  The club is based in Evanston, which is intriguing to us- because its close.  Much closer than some of the more affordable options.  In any case, we're exploring these options this spring/summer, to figure out what we want the next step to look like.

The Nico Sport Life

Nico's reading is really taking off.  He will read just about any book about sports.  Double bonus if you're talking Chicago sports.  In fact, this past weekend, he and Dave were playing "All Star Team of All Time-Cubs edition" which is where you name who you would have on a team, if time wasn't an issue.  Nico drafted obscure historic era catchers and short stops- guys he learned about in books.  

It was pretty great.

  

He really would do all of the sports, if we let him.  We're tying to keep it to 1 sport at a time, but sometimes we get a little overlap.  For example, he was in a hockey skating session while also playing basketball.  We're also in the middle of another hockey skating session- which will overlap with the return of spring soccer by a couple of weeks.  

We've also been on a mission to find a new judo club.  The problem with the club that Dave has been working out at (in Evanston) is that the practices are so late (starts at 730).  This means that if Nico is going to attend, he's not going to bed until almost 10pm, which is no bueno.  So, Dave has been looking around.  He found a club that practices in the late afternoon/early evening- so Nico has tried it out a few times.  Really likes it.  So that is his club now.  He is set to do a club tournament next week.  In conjunction with it, he has a Throw-A-Thon happening- where he is trying to get pledges for every throw he does in 2 minutes.  Maybe some grandparents want to kick in some money for such a worthy cause?:)

Skaty McSkaterson

A couple of Sundays ago, Nico's good school buddies had a play date.  One thing led to another and we all decided to take the boys ice skating.  Wyat (in the red) and Alex (in the blue) are both taking hockey and skating lessons, so their skating was pretty good.  They also had all the equipment- so they bombed around the rink having a blast.  

Given that this was only Nico's 3rd time skating, he wasn't as good.  He wasn't wearing pads- except for the helmet.  So, when he crashed, he was crashing on flesh.  He must have fallen down 100 times.  But he got up every time.  And didn't cry.

The cool thing up here, is that there are a ton of setups where you can take skating lessons.  There will be a 4 or 5 session skating class where you learn the fundamentals and when you can prove that you're not an absolute menace to society, you get to move onto playing hockey.  Which is cool and that Nico wants to do, in addition to lacrosse and baseball.

Turns out that all this school and work nonsense just gets in the way of Nico playing sport and Dave/Me ferrying Nico to sport.

I Love you to the Moon (and Right on Back), I Love you to the Moon (and Right on Back), I Love you to the Moon (and Right on Back)....

The days are getting longer.  Not much longer.  Just a scotch.  But I will take it.  Obviously, this event is heralding spring coming, so we went ice-skating this weekend.  Apparently, outdoor iceskating only happens through February.  So we went.  

Nico was a champ.  An absolute- bonafide champ.  It took us probably 20 minutes to go around the rink once (just like the only other time I've been ice skating, once was enough for me).  He fell a lot.  But he didn't cry and didn't fuss.  He was so grown.  I love it.  

I'm coming up on just a shitty part of the year with my work+teaching.  We're at the midterm- so there are a lot more assignments to grade.  Plus, faculty are starting to think about the research projects they will work on over the summer.  So, I've been working a lot more.  Dave got Nico out of the house on Sunday and went to Kohl's Children's museum in Glenview. 

While there, Nico played at working in a sandwich shop and being a cashier, which is pretty funny.  

Tuesday I went in a bit later than normally, so I got to be at the house when Nico woke up.  He was very snuggly and it ended up being the best part of my day.  He's starting to get into singing and songs.  Which is kind of new.  It used to be I would sing to him and deliberately mess up the words or change the words and he would get annoyed.  But now, he thinks its hilarious.  The latest song?

"I love you to the moon and right on back.  I love you to the moon and right on back.  I love you to the moon and right on back.  Yes, yes I do." (obviously, then I love him to the Lake and right on back.  Then I love him to the train and right on back, etc.  To the tune of "Wheels on the Bus".)  Even better, when I went to sing it the other day, I "couldn't quite remember" the order of the words.  But he did and taught me.  Seriously, that kid has a great ear, just like his Dad 

Marco scores a run!

One of the really funny things that Nico has started doing is "playing" "sports" in the house.  If we're being honest, he comes by this genetically, as Dave did this and drove his mom crazy.  Nico has taken to doing this game while Dave is watching sports.  Lately, its been baseball and hockey.  He'll basically bounce a ball away from himself and run to catch up with it- usually ending with a catch and a slide into something.  It's pretty funny- but the best part is that he has started narrating.  Now until this weekend, it was something like "Number 88 Patrick Kane slides into the goal and scores a run for the New York Fire."  This is hilarious because the Fire (a soccer team) play out of Chicago, and you score runs in baseball, not hockey, which is the sport that 88 Patrick Kane plays.  In Chicago.

This weekend, Nico started narrating himself doing these things, but calling himself Marco.  I have no idea why Marco.  

Friday night, Davn and I went to see Captain Phillips (the new Tom Hanks movie).  We stopped into a Moerer pub on the way home for some late dinner, which was okay.  Saturday morning, Nico had swimming lessons.  His teacher made a special point of telling me that he is ready to move up to the next class... but unfortunately,  his little buddy probably isn't.

Here is a video of Nico jumping in:


After swimming lessons, we headed over to Target, which included a spin through the toy section for items that Nico wants to add to his Christmas  list (we were mostly killing time, allowing Dad to get a workout in before we headed home).  Nico and I have done these little excursions maybe 4 times and his meltdowns after are getting progressively less and less shitty.  I know the natural question to ask is, why do it at all?  But I want him to start understanding the role of patience and waiting for things.  We've also instituted a chore chart and allowance, but it's one of those things that require time and patience and sometimes the parental units just don't have it in them. 

After we took a nap on Saturday, I ran a couple of errands, that included a stop to check out a consignment shop somewhat nearby.  It's one of the great things about living in a sizeable city... This wasn't even the closest one to us.  It was about 2 miles away- which in Tallahassee would seem much further away.  Anyhoo... Nico is growing like a weed.  He's slimmed out a bit, so while the 3T britches still fit him in the waist, they are way too short.  Plus, we dont really have the right kinds of clothing for layering.  This consignment shop is pretty amazing.  Super cheap clothes.  I found a 3T Gap kids sweater for $3 and 4 pair of pants for $2 each and 4 waffle knit shirts for Nico for $2 each. I also got a couple of sweaters for me and a couple of scarves too (including a cashmere one for $5).  The cool thing is that if I had wanted to wait until Columbus Day,  could have gotten everything for half price.  But I wasnt trying to deal with that madness.  After I ran to Joanns and got some stuff to organize the house.  With colder weather coming up, I suspect we are going to want to stay closer to home in the next couple of months, so we will have more time to organize and such.  

Sunday, I had brunch with Julia and Jake out in Oak Park.  They were flying out of OHare and I wanted to find a place that was relatively easy to get from to OHare.  After, I made a run to Fresh Farms super market.  This place is in Niles- we pass it going to and from the YMCA.  Dave has been in a few times and exclaimed about their seafood counter and beer selection.  So I thought I would give it a go.  

The place is pretty much heaven.  There is a huge produce section.  You know the place is has a huge produce selection when I dont know a quarter of the items that are there.  And.  The best part?  Russian candy section!!

  For serious!!

Imma let you finish, but this drum is the best!!

So the weekend was pretty fun. We had Friday off (Thanks DAD and Mike!!) But I went down to the county for a team bonding session that consisted of a short run and some stretching and yoga. After, we went to one of our players’ houses for breakfast. Mama Williams threw down… egg casserole, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, the works. It was pretty good. Nico and Dave joined us for breakfast. After breakfast, we ran Nico home and hung out for a little while, till our sitter came. Then we had to run back down to the county for a game against Pensacola. It ended up being a pretty good game, despite the fact that we were missing several players due to injuries and cross country (who were running at Regionals. Damn them- they made it to state… so now we’re without them for another week).

Saturday we hung around the house for most of the morning… I rearranged the kitchen cabinets and did some cleans. In the afternoon we headed to a birthday party where Nico made like Kanye West (remember when he jumped on stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the VMAs?) The gift we got for the birthday boy was a little drum/musical instrument set. But Nico kept trying to play with it… it was like, “Yo! Dillion, Ima let you finish unwrapping all dese gifts… but this drum is the best!” It was pretty great.

Saturday night I ran a couple of errands that included cracker barrel corn muffin mix (for Thanksgiving) and a serious conversation with the meat guys at Earth Fare… I reserved our Thanksgiving Bird from the hippie store. I know.. . Could I be more of a yuppie?
Sunday we hit up the fare. We happened to get there during a special time that was super cheap. We made our way to the petting zoo part of it, where by Nico fed sheep, goats, cows, lamas and such. He had a pretty good time! He kissed several of the animals on the nose… it was pretty much adorbs!! He also kept grabbing all the hay and throwing it on the animals. I don’t know why he kept doing this. But he did.

Other than that, it was a pretty chill weekend. Nico is really getting interested in sports lately. He has taken to throwing balls in the house… which I know I should stop… like its all funny and cute and everything, but if he ever develops a fastball, we are in trouble. He catches a lot now, which is cool. He is also “throwing a soccer ball in” proper now… which is hilarious, because his throw in is better than half the girls that play for Rickards. Just sayin…

He is also starting to incorporate the high front leg throw (like baseball pitchers, which is funny). Even better is he is starting to argue now. Last night he argued with Dave that horses don’t sleep, they just eat hay. I have no idea where he gets this from…