Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Nicholas was so excited about going Trick-or-Treating. He was very proud to be Batman. I wore my usual witch costume.





At each house, Nicholas rang the door bell and said "Trick-or-Treat" when they answered the door. After he got his candy, he always said, "Thank you!" and "Happy Halloween!" Everyone said that he was the cutest Batman they had ever seen.

We went by a few houses that had some pretty scary decorations. One of them even had their front yard filled with a haunted house and maze. Nicholas was a little afraid to go in at first but Daddy and I both went with him and he did great. He came out and told everyone that he went into the haunted house. As we were leaving, he said, "I wasn't scared. I'm Batman!" Later he was talking to Stuart and said, "I'm Batman but where's Robin? Next year I'm going to get you a Robin costume so you can be Robin!"

At one house, Nicholas could see a TV on in the living room and he asked if he could watch TV with them! He's a little too friendly maybe. Last year, he asked everyone if they had a dog and if they said yes then he would ask if he could see it.

There were a few times that Nicholas either stumbled or maybe thought he had bumped over his pumpkin. He would stop and say, "Did I drop my candy? Oh no! Did I drop any?" and we'd all have to stop and look for any dropped candy. As you can see from the picture below, he was not in need of any candy. And this doesn't count the leftover candy that we never passed out. Want to come over for some candy?

Silly Hat Day at MES

Today was Silly Hat Day at MES. The children got to wear any hat they wanted. Last night, Nicholas decided that he would wear his knight's helmet. So before we left for school I took a picture of him in his helmet.



Next thing I know, Nicholas decided that he didn't want to bring the knight's helmet after all. He decided that the fireman hat that has lights and a siren would be more fun to bring. So I snapped a picture of him in the fireman hat.



However, I hadn't even finished taking the picture before he decided that he didn't want to wear the fireman hat after all. He finally decided on his pirate hat! AARRGH!

Arbor Hills Nature Reserve

Today we visited a new place - Arbor Hills Nature Reserve in Plano. It's a 200 acre park that is made of three distinct eco-regions: The Blackland Prairie, The Riparian Forest, and the Upland Forest.

We walked the main trail, the Arbor Hills Loop, which is 1.3 miles and travels through all three eco-regions. I like hiking on rustic dirt trails so I was a little disappointed to see that the trail was well-paved. However, there were a lot of dirt trails that branched off of the paved trail that we could have explored if I had been more prepared and had actually brought a map of the park so we wouldn't get lost. Just to be safe, I stuck with the paved trail for our first time out. But next time we'll get a little more adventurous.



There was a giant piece of rock that had been cut through to make the trail we were on. Nicholas enjoyed looking at and touching the different layers of rock. We talked about how long it took for all of those rock layers to form.



Nicholas loves the pocket field guides that I recently got at our library's used book sale. He brought the one on Insects and he wanted to stop on this rock and look through it.



As he was sitting still and quiet (what an unusual thing for Nicholas to do!) he noticed that he could hear a sound. He said, "That sounds like water!" He jumped off the rock and we followed the sound until we found a little stream with a waterfall and a neat bridge that crossed it.





We talked some about the phrase "fork in the road" and what it means. Nicholas enjoyed pointing out forks in our trail and he even saw a tree whose trunk "forked" into two large branches as it went up.

Here's Nicholas walking along the trail while singing and flipping through his Insect field guide. What a cute adventurer!



We found some giant seed pods. Nicholas said they were "humongous!" I didn't know he knew that word. We picked up several of them and had fun shaking them to hear the seeds rattle around inside. We were our own musical band. We got a few odd smiles from passerbys. They were just jealous that they didn't have any seed pods to shake too. We found the tree that the seed pods came from and looked at a bunch of them still hanging from the tree. We talked about how seed pods help to nourish and protect the growing seeds inside and that the pods also helps the seeds to catch a ride on the wind to eventually spread the seeds to farther areas.



Of course, every walk that a little boy goes on must involve picking up giant sticks!



This was a fun moment. Nicholas found a little grasshopper on our trail. He sat down to watch it then he started watching his own shadow. Here he is "touching" the grasshopper with his finger's shadow! How creative!



We had to take a break along our long walk and this neat rock bench was the perfect resting spot.



We started back on our walk and Nicholas found a giant tree that had fallen and was beginning to rot. He said, "Wow! That piece of wood could give you a giant long splinter!" Nearby the tree he was also looking at some plants. I told him to be careful of a vine on one of the trees because it could be poison ivy. He asked, "What are the other plants that have three leaves?" I didn't mention anything to him about three leaves. He recalled that on his own from his recent run-in with poison ivy. I'm always amazed at how incredible his memory is.

Y marks the spot!

Today Nicholas was pretending to have some pirate treasure. He wanted to keep it safe so he said, "Y marks the spot! No pirate would look for it under a Y! They only look for treasure under an X!"

Fall Festival

We went to a local Fall Festival today. There was a costume contest, bounce house, cheerleader demonstrations, a horse drawn carriage ride, games, balloon artists, and so much more. The shops had big bowls of candy and the children had fun getting a head start on Trick-or-Treating. Nicholas loved getting to wear his Batman costume before Halloween. He even found a pumpkin decorated like a bat! One lady saw him and said, "Oh, It's Batman!" Nicholas said, "Well, actually it's just a costume. I'm really Nicholas." At the Mad Science table, he made some green slime. What messy fun! He met a puppeteer and her caterpillar puppet that liked to dance. However, I think his favorite part of the event was eating cotton candy!

Welcome Home to Our Heroes!

This morning we went to DFW airport to welcome home some of our military troops returning home for some well deserved R & R. We talked to Nicholas a little bit about the soldiers and we explained that these men and women were real life super heroes and that we were going to the airport to tell them thank you for doing such a good job at fighting the bad guys.

There are only two airports in the country that receive the international flights of our soldiers coming home, DFW and Atlanta. There is one flight every day that arrives at DFW and every day there is a big group of people gathered in the terminal to wave flags, hold up signs, shake their hands, and say thank you for protecting our freedom. What a great way to say thank you directly to the men and women serving our country. Today we met up with Reese and Emma Rae at the airport. There were signs everywhere in the terminal, home made and professionally made, welcoming the troops home and saying thank you. There were buckets of flags available that you could use to wave as the soldiers came through and great patriotic music playing in the background. I have such a patriotic heart that I was tearful but Nicholas was just excited about getting to shake the hands of the soldiers. There were 114 soldiers that arrived on the flight today.

After the soldiers left we spent some time with some other friends of ours that just happened to be there as well - Sir Earl Toon from Kool and the Gang and his wife, Carla. They attend Fellowship Church which is where we met them. Sir Earl made a guest appearance on stage on a weekend that I was serving on Stage Crew so I got to spend a lot of time talking with them about how Katrina had impacted their lives and how they are doing in their new home in Dallas. Sir Earl is a jewel. He is so charming and friendly with everyone he meets. And although he doesn't preach about God, you can walk away from him feeling fed by His word. Today he spent a lot of time just playing and talking with Nicholas. We almost got Nicholas to sing for him but he got shy on us and wouldn't perform. Sir Earl said that he hopes someday Nicholas will tell him, "Hey man, listen to this song I wrote" and that Nicholas may teach him a thing or two.

Great Harvest Bread Company

Mrs. Debbie planned our Parents as Teachers class today. It was on baking! We got to take a tour behind the scenes at Great Harvest Bread Company which is just down the street from our house. The store is owned by Shelley and Craig. We were lucky to get Mrs. Shelley for our tour guide this morning. At Great Harvest, they grind their own wheat daily right there in the store. Shelley showed us a real stalk of wheat and explained its parts. She explained how they use only freshly ground flour that they mill from wheat everyday right there in the store. We got to see the mill and the large bins of freshly ground wheat. Next, we saw the giant mixer that they use and the huge dough hook that goes with it. Nicholas liked this part because he loves our mixer at home and this one looked a lot like it, just much, much bigger! We saw dough that was just starting to rise and then also saw dough that had doubled in size. We watched them weigh the dough for baking. Then we met Mr. Craig, baker extrodinaire. The oven they use is huge. It can bake 200 loaves of bread at a time! After the tour, we all got to taste some freshly baked bread and each child also got a special cookie. They were also given seed packets to grow their own wheat grass garden as well as a coloring sheet that they can bring back to the store for another free cookie.

Next we went to Mrs. Debbie and Diana's house to do some baking of our own. The children made pizza snacks and watched them bake in the oven. They also got to decorate cupcakes. Then there was a lot of time spent playing with all of Diana's cool toys. What a fun morning!

You can't have too many books!

Most people who know me, know that I love to read books and I love reading books aloud to Nicholas. You might say I'm a book addict. I have books in almost every room of the house. There are books in boxes under the bed and in boxes in closets. Nicholas has quite a nice collection of books as well. Buying books, even just little children's books, can get expensive pretty quickly so most of the books I buy for Nicholas are used. I buy them from used book sales at various libraries, Half Price Books, and on ebay. Nicholas has a stash of books in his playroom but most of his books are on a little book case in his room. They are easily accessible to him and he loves to get out books to "read" on his own.

Last weekend, our local library had a used book sale and I only went shopping for books for Nicholas. What fun! I came out with a bag full of books for him for only $9.00. I bought some educational ones - Nature Hikes by Golden Books, Discovering Trees by Douglas Florian (great children's author for nature-themed books), All About Seeds by Melvin Berger, What Happens When Fire Burns, a book and CD-rom on outer space, a "Bob" workbook which is a series of beginner reading books. I also bought a 12 book collection of pocket-sized field guides such as Insects, Butterflies and Moths, Rocks and Minerals, Stars, etc. We can bring these with us on our nature walks to help identify the neat things we see along the way. I also bought some fun books like a Batman book that has buttons you can press to make different sounds that go along with the stories, a Spiderman book, a book on a silly red carpet that rolls all over the town, a book of stories about giants, a book of Halloween stories, a book about a dragon.

This week, I volunteered to work at the Scholastic book fair at Montessori. Yesterday I baked 4 dozen cookies for the book fair patrons to enjoy while they shopped. Volunteers get a special at buy 3 books, get 1 free plus yesterday was a special "no sales tax" day for the book fair. I bought 8 books! 7 were for Nicholas and I donated one book to his classroom. I bought Froggy Rides a Bike, Diary of a Fly, Bats on the Beach, The Three Snow Bears, Santa's Stuck, Snowmen at Christmas, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and If You Decide To Go To The Moon. Nicholas also won a drawing at school in which he got to pick out one free book from the book fair. He picked out Poor Puppy which is a story about a cute little puppy who likes to play with kitty but kitty doesn't like to play with puppy but puppy finds all kinds of other wonderful things to play with. Wow! Where are we going to put all of these books? His little book case in his room is packed full and we're just stacking the extras on top of the book case or on the floor. But that doesn't mean that he can't have any more books....



Grandmama Owen sent a card to Nicholas letting him know that she got him a subscription to Highlights magazine. How cool! She got me a subscription to Highlights when I was little too! Thank you, Grandmama Owen!

Next week, Half Price Books is having a coupon sale!! I think there is even a coupon for 50% off your entire purchase. I can't wait! I love to get great deals on books for Nicholas there!

Speaking of deals, I recently bought a set of Great Illustrated Classics on ebay for a great deal. In case you aren't familiar with these books, they are hardback books of true classic stories like The Wizard of Oz, Huckleberry Finn, and Black Beauty. They are original versions of the classics with short chapters and line drawings - great for children! These books retail for $9.99 each and I bought a whole collection of 14 of these books on ebay for a winning bid of $10.00! And they are in "like new" condition!

If you love books but hate to spend money on new book prices, just keep your eyes open. There are wonderful deals on great books all around you!

Cars and Donuts with Dad

On Sunday, I was helping to redecorate the preschool at church so Stuart and Nicholas had some good quality time together. They went to a car show in Parker Square. Daddy was very excited to see a Lamborghini there. The car is so low to the ground that with the doors were closed, Nicholas is actually taller than the car!




I had fun on Sunday too. Our church has an incredible graphics department with an awesome printer that can print on foamboard, wood, anything. Part of what I did on Sunday in the preschool was to remove some old printed foamboard that was going to be replaced with new pictures for a new theme. I realized that I could use many of the pieces that they were going to throw away so they let me keep them. I got some great cartoon-like pictures of sea creatures which will go great in Nicholas' bathroom. He already has a sea creature shower curtain and these characters actually match his shower curtain rather well. I also brought home some realistic pictures of some astronauts and galaxies. Nicholas loves space and we are working on turning his backyard fort into a spaceship, per his request. These space prints will look awesome in there!

I've had requests to see pictures of the fort/spaceship. We keep thinking of one more thing that needs to be done so in my eyes it's not finished yet and not ready for its reveal. However, I know this is silly because Nicholas and his friends have been playing in it for months already and they all love it! Maybe I'll get some pictures of it up in the next week or so.

This morning, MES had Donuts with Dad. Stuart let Nicholas ride to school in his truck (Nicholas loved it!). I followed along in my car because I had to go to school too to deliver cookies for the book fair and this way I could get the car seat back from Stuart to pick Nicholas up at the end of the school day. At school, there were donuts, milk, and orange juice for the Dads and kiddos. Stuart said that Nicholas ate about 2 donuts and 1/2 dozen donut holes! He also said that Nicholas was very playful with some of his friends and quite a social butterfly.



After donuts, Stuart had to leave for work. I was still shopping at the book fair when the children came walking through to go to chapel. It was fun watching Nicholas in his school setting and with so many of his friends, especially since he didn't notice me at first. After everyone was seated in chapel, I went in and sat in one of the back rows to watch. It was such a wonderful experience. All of the children were singing sweet joyful music like This Little Light Of Mine and Jesus Loves Me. Nicholas was singing along perfectly with a little smile on his face. It was so much fun to be a part of that and I'm so thankful that he gets to do this each week with his friends at school.

Salt Dough Ghosts and Halloween Clings

Last week, we had some family fun as we made our own salt dough ghosts! Nicholas measured the salt, flour and water and mixed it together in a big bowl. Then we each got a piece of the dough to shape into ghosts. Nicholas had to play with his dough first before he made his ghost. He flattened the dough by putting it on the table then leaning over to press his chest into it. He poked it, rolled it, stuck his fingers in it, and even stepped on it to form his footprint. Finally I had to help him to shape it into a ghost. Once the dough was shaped the way we wanted it, we put it in the microwave for 20 second intervals until firm, about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes total. Let cool then draw the spooky faces on the ghosts. I also made a spooky tree out of a brown paper bag to complete our scary scene!

I bought some Halloween gel clings for Nicholas to use to decorate the kitchen windows. He was very excited about them and he arranged them all just so. He even placed one bat upside down "because bats like to sleep upside down". Every day he goes over to the window and moves some things around. I can overhear him talking to the bats as he tells them that he is going to put them over on this other window so they can spend time with their friends or he asks a pumpkin if he wants to go back to a different window and be with his family. So cute!

Marching Bands Competition

We found out about a local high school marching band competition. It ties in perfectly with the marching band class we had yesterday so we just had to go check it out. The bands were impressive and Nicholas had a great time. One of the schools had a garden theme to their performance. They had a ladybug run across the field and stargazer lillies open up during the performance.

Butterfly Flutterby

This morning we went to Butterfly Flutterby, an annual butterfly event in Grapevine. They have hundreds of live butterflies to see, butterfly arts and crafts, and butterfly exhibits. There are even multiple butterfly releases throughout the event. The butterflies were beautiful and watching their release was pretty.

Nicholas was amazed by the man on stilts. He asked, "Mommy, how did he get that tall?" I told him that he ate lots of fruits and vegetables. I let him think about it for a minute then I explained to him how stilts work.

We saw some wonderful butterfly and moth displays. One of our favorites was the Atlas moth. Its wing tips look like the head of a Cobra snake. This protects the Atlast moth because it scares away potential predators.

Nicholas got to talk to a real fireman and police officer. He also enjoyed riding on some toys and making things at the Play-Doh station. Nicholas and I pressed Play-doh into several different extruders and he did a great job of cutting the Play-doh hair with his scissors. He has discovered, to my chagrin, that he can press Play-doh on to his chest to flatten it. It works but it can be messy.

Dinner at the Pumpkin Patch

Last night our Bible study group met at the Pumpkin Patch. We played for a while then had our dinner and dessert at the picnic tables. Nicholas had fun but it got dark before we were finished playing so we might have to make another trip over there soon.

Marching Band of Friends

Today we met at a park gazebo for our Parents as Teachers educational playgroup. Mrs. Macey taught a class on Marching Bands. She let the children make drums from empty baby formula cans. They put some rice in the cans for added noise effects then they decorated the outside of their drums with markers and stickers.

There were lots of different instruments on a blanket in the gazebo. Everyone got a chance to play with them while Mrs. Macey talked about the different instruments and showed us some pictures of instruments. She even played a real flute for us! Next she gave each child a band leader hat that she made out of paper bags and we all lined up to form our own marching band. Mrs. Macey had a great CD of band music that she played as we all marched around the park lake. Everyone took turns being the leader of the marching band. We learned that when the leader wants the band to stop marching, he stops, turns towards the band and holds up his baton. Nicholas loved being the leader!

We made it back to the gazebo and enjoyed a snack while Mrs. Macey read a book called Froggy Plays in the Band. Then Mrs. Macey showed us how to twirl a baton. The children loved trying to twirl the batons but it was a little scary seeing all of these 3 and 4 year old children swinging batons around. Fortunately no one poked their eye out! Each child got to leave with their band leader hat, a handmade drum, a maraca, and a CD of the marching band music that we marched to.

This week at MES

There was a special visitor in class this week. His name is Molar Man and he talked to everyone about dental health. Each child was given a toothbrush as well as a toothy coloring sheet and a pack of crayons to bring home with them.

In class, Nicholas learned about harvesting. He practiced his cutting and pasting skills and he was excited to explain his work to me. He worked on musical phonics and words which begin with "t". He also learned how to work Montessori knobless cylinder extensions. For math, Nicholas worked on the Montessori spindle box and practiced the addition of one. He is still talking about a rice activity that he told me about last week. I think this is one of his favorite activities to work on for the time being. The Good Shepherd lesson for this week was on Daniel.

On Wednesday, I had to go to the school office to pick up items for the school book fair that I'm volunteering for next week. So instead of dropping Nicholas off in the car line, I parked and walked him to class. He was so proud to have me in his class, even if it was just for a few minutes. Mrs. Carrico has each student sign their name when they come into class so they can practice writing their name. She has their names already written out on the page with a yellow highlighter. This helps the children to focus solely on pencil control and their fine motor skills since some of them can not spell their names yet.

On Thursday, the class had "Show and Tell". Nicholas chose to bring the little cardinal and nest that I used in my educational playgroup presentation on birds. We had a special box picked out to put it in and everything. However, as we were heading out the door in the morning, Nicholas changed his mind and decided he wanted to bring his "Handy, Dandy Notebook" which is a little notebook he has like the one on the cartoon "Blues Clues". It has laminated pages and you can write on it with a crayon and then wipe it off. Although I thought the bird and nest was a much better (and more educational) item to bring to show and tell, I let Nicholas bring his notebook. We cleaned off all the pages and picked out a new crayon for him to bring with it. After school he said that he was glad he brought the notebook. And, of course, I'm glad I let him.

Oh, I almost forgot! Nicholas was the class leader this week. Let me tell you, he was so proud of this! He talked about it to me every day. Anytime the class lined up to leave the class for chapel, the art room, P.E., or anything, Nicholas got to be the line leader. He loved it!

After Dark in the Park

Oh what fun we had last night! We went down to Arlington, our old stomping grounds, to visit River Legacy Park. It's a big, beautiful park with playgrounds, picnic tables and wonderful hiking trails. Last night they had a special program called After Dark in the Park. We love to explore outdoors and the fact that we were doing it in the dark made it even more exciting. They had several fun hayrides that picked up guests in the various parking lots and carried them to the main event.

The hayride took us to the main trail head. The trail through the woods had cool glow-in-the-dark footprints for us to follow to find all the events. There was a starlight stroll, storytelling under the stars, a bounce house, cool arts and crafts projects, science exhibits, and even a live raptor show.

We took a hike on a trail that was set up to demonstrate animal "eye shine" and how their eyes glow when a light is shined at them. Each child was given a flashlight before they got on the trail. Nicholas thanked the volunteer for his flashlight then he asked for two more flashlights so that his Mommy and Daddy could each have one too. Obviously we declined the flashlights because it was an activity for the kids but it always touches us greatly to see how thoughtful Nicholas is of other people. The activity was just great and Nicholas had a lot of fun shining his flashlight into the woods to look for the glowing eyes.

Here's what we learned about the different eyes you might see at night:
Moving tiny scintillating specks of white - Wolf Spider
Bright yellow eyes - Raccoon
Yellowish eyes - Bobcat
Opalescent green eyes - Bullfrog
Bright white eyes - Coyote/Dog/Fox
Amber eyes - Skunk
Dull orange eyes - Opossum
Red eyes - Owl

We listened to the storyteller. When he was finished Nicholas told him about a bug he had seen during the performance. The storyteller explained how there are a lot of bugs out in the woods.

We did a craft project where Nicholas made a bird feeder with Cheerios and a pipe cleaner.

We also watched a great educational presentation by Blackland Prairie Raptor Center on raptors. We learned that a raptor is a family of meat-eating birds that have sharp talons to help them grasp and carry their prey and a hooked beak to tear apart their food. The presenter pulled out some raptors for us to see up close. We saw an American Kestrel Falcon, a Screech Owl, and a Great Horned Owl. I would have loved to have gotten some pictures of the raptors we saw but we didn't want to startle them with the camera flash.

We learned lots of interesting facts such as:

~ A Barn Owl's hearing is so good that it can hear a person's heart beat from 20 feet away.

~ A Screech Owl doesn't actually make a screeching noise.

~ A Peregrine Falcon is the fastest animal in the world. It can dive for prey at over 200 miles per hour.

~ An owl's eyes are so big and take up such a large part of their skull that there isn't room in there for eye muscles. Therefore, they can not move their eyes from side to side like people do. Instead they have many more vertebrae in their necks to allow them to turn their whole head 270 degrees!

After the presentation, Nicholas wanted to go up and ask a question. He waited patiently for his turn and then asked the man, "What about the Bat Owl?" The presenter seemed a little surprised by the question but started telling Nicholas a little bit about Bat Owls. We figured out that Nicholas was probably just wanting to talk to the guy about the bats that he had learned about at school this past week and there just happens to actually be an owl called a Bat Owl. Nicholas enjoys telling people about bats and explaining how they use echo-location to find their food.

This Week at MES

Nicholas worked on some Montessori activities this week including Color Box, Large Peg Board, and Rice Box (his favorite). He also learned about mirror polishing (I'm going to have to get him helping out around the house more!). He also continued to practice printing letters and improving his cutting skills. The class learned about Bats and "The Bat Lady" came to visit them. She brought a bat with her and Nicholas loved watching it flap its wings. She told stories about bats and had some fake bats for the children to hold. Each child got to bring home a booklet about bats and they even got bat rings! They learned that there are 1000 different species of bats and they have been in existence for 50 million years. The class learned that bats eat 500 bugs per hour. They measured rice grains to guess how many bugs are in a teaspoon. The Good Shepherd lesson was on Samuel.

More fun with Granddad

We went to Rheudasil Park with Granddad this morning to feed the ducks and play on the playground.

We carved our first jack-o-lantern of the season with Granddad. He drew the face on it and cut the hole in the top. Nicholas started cleaning it out but he has never liked the stringy stuff in pumpkins so I had to finish cleaning it. Next, Nicholas used a punch tool to poke holes along the lines on the pumpkin's face. Then he was able to easily use a pumpkin carving saw to finish cutting out the face. I was impressed with what a great job Nicholas with his part but it was most fun because it was a team effort.

We went to lunch at Love and War in Texas for some good Texas-style cooking. Yum! While we were waiting for our food, Nicholas showed us how to "giddy-up in place" then he told us all it was our turn to do it. Believe it or not, Granddad got up out of his seat and did a little giddy-up for us (but he was too quick for me to capture it!) Way to go, Granddad!



Well, today is the last day of Granddad's visit. We've enjoyed spending time with him and we are sad to see him go. Nicholas gave him a big hug as we dropped him off at the airport. We love you Granddad!

Silly Granddad!!

Nicholas loved having Granddad sit next to him in the back seat as we drove around because Granddad was always playing with him. Granddad pretended to crack an egg on Nicholas' head then he slowly spread out his fingers so it felt like drippy egg running into his face.


Nicholas loved this and made Granddad do it over and over. Then Nicholas had to do it to Granddad - over and over and over again! He loved getting Granddad's reactions to the slimy egg all over his head.

Next, Nicholas tried to break the egg on his own head and make it run down his face.


Granddad also showed Nicholas how he would pull off his thumb (an old trick he showed me when I was little). Granddad pulled and pulled and made it very dramatic but finally pulled his thumb off!

Then Nicholas tried unsuccessfully to pull off Granddad's thumb!

...and, of course, he tried to pull off his own thumb...

Then Granddad pretended as if Nicholas had pulled off his entire arm (as he pulled his arm inside his shirt!)

As I think back to the special bond I had with my grandmother, I hope that Nicholas and Granddad Owen will continue to build on the great relationship that they have together.