Sweet Kisses

Nicholas just amazes me at how thoughtful and sharing he is. Before leaving school today, he got some treats - a Tootsie Roll pop and 2 Hershey Kisses. When I picked him up, he asked if he could eat his Tootsie Roll pop and I said yes. Then he handed me his two Hershey kisses and said that they were for me. I thanked him but refused and said that they were for him. He said, "No, I want you and the baby to have them. They are for you!" Such a sweetie.

Funyuns Make Me Smile, Socks Make Me Cry

Even though they are a Frito-Lay/Pepsico product, I don't usually buy Funyuns.



They are quite yummy - deep fried cornmeal with the flavor of onion rings. They just aren't very healthy so we don't get them often. However, Nicholas was grocery shopping with me and he somehow convinced me to buy a big bag of them (I always end up buying more groceries when he's with me!). He just loves Funyuns! Here he is with his "Funyun Smile":



Although he doesn't usually nap anymore, there are times that he just seems exhausted by the afternoon and you can tell that he needs to nap. This was one of those times. He was trying to pull off his socks and when it didn't come off on the first try, he had a bit of a melt down. Poor little guy!

Jump for Joy

Nicholas really seems to love jumping on his bed. We don't want to encourage it but Stuart couldn't help but get the camera out for a mid-air shot.

Sir Nicholas Attends a Royal Ball

Nicholas was thrilled to get to go to his dear friend Emma Rae's birthday party today. What fun! There was a bounce house, face painting, balloon swords for everyone. They even got to throw water balloons at a big inflatable dragon.



The party theme was knights and fairy princesses. Nicholas marched over to the face/hand painting table and had a sword painted on his hand. This seems like a simple thing but for him it was a big deal because he has never ever let us even get close to a table of people getting their faces or hands painted. I never figured out why he was so afraid of it but at least for now he seems to be over it.



Then we all got a big surprise when a fire truck pulled up in the front yard just for the kids at the party. As many times as Nicholas has climbed on a fire truck, he never gets tired of it. He got to sit in one of the seats that the actual firemen sit in on their way to a fire. He also learned about the water intake where the firemen hook up the hose from the fire hydrant to the truck's pump and then the output value where the hose the shoots the water comes out. I guess I never really thought about it but I didn't realize that the water from a hydrant actually ran through the truck's water pump before getting shot onto the fire.





About the time we were all done playing on the fire truck, a police car showed up for the kids too. Next everyone lined up and Mrs. Deb knighted each of the boys and turned the girls each into princesses. Then each child got a custom gift bag with their name on it. The boys all got knight helmets and swords. What a hit!



Here are some pictures of the little knights and fairy princesses.

Photographer Nicholas

Stuart and I have been discussing new dishwashers. Not that we just want to spend the money or take on a new household project. No, as usual, something broke and now we have to replace it. So is the way of home ownership. Of course, as we are trying to compare the millions of different dishwashers out there, the subject of cost keeps coming up in the decision making process.

Nicholas decided that he would contribute and said, "Don't worry. I can help with this" and he disappeared for a while. When he came back, he had put some money from his piggy bank into an old treasure chest box and gave it to us to buy a new dishwasher.

Of course, being the shutterbug that I am, I had to take a picture of the treasure to capture the moment. Then Nicholas climbed up on the coffee table to take a picture of the box with his own camera.





He took several shots standing up then others as he squatted down closer to the box. He told Stuart that the pictures were too bright and he asked for us to close the curtains because he was getting too much light. So cute! The other day he also announced that he needed a tripod and a backdrop for taking pictures!

We've been cleaning out lots of old stuff around the house lately. It's sort of a pre-baby, last-time-I'll-have-time-for-this, late spring cleaning. We found an old camera that we bought in 2000 that had something wrong with it so we replaced it. Yet for some reason we never got rid of the broken camera. We have now finally gotten rid of the broken camera but we kept it's camera bag to give to Nicholas. Boy, was he proud to have a real "professional" camera bag similar to the one that Daddy has. He has carried it around with him all day long.

This Week at Preschool

Nicholas is having fun being back in school but he's had to be redirected several times for being noisy and talking too much. Lately at home he just seems to talk non-stop all day long so I guess I'm not terribly surprised. I'm not sure if this is attention-seeking or just his way of sharing all the things going on in his busy little mind. I know the constant talking can wear me down by the end of the day and I'm sure it is disruptive in the classroom. I hate to tell him to stop talking and expressing himself but he does need to learn that there is a time and place for talking and a time and place for being quiet. We'll have to work on this some more.

This week at school, Nicholas did some work on improving his fine motor skills for writing such as push pin work, tearing paper into specific shapes, grinding, and painting. He learned the parts of the turtle.

For reading, I usually focus strictly on the phonics of the words with him and I have not tried to teach him any sight words yet. However, at school this week, he was presented with sight words including me, home, no, hot, and mom. I would like to work with him more on sight words and maybe this is a good time to start doing so.

For math, Nicholas worked on the spindle box, sandpaper numerals, and math mats.

He has Spanish class and a trip to the library every Tuesday. On Wednesdays, he goes to chapel, P.E., and music class. On Thursdays, he has art class. This week in Spanish he learned that "pequeño" means small and "grande" means large. He is really proud to be learning Spanish and has enjoyed going around repeatedly telling us the translation for these two words over and over.

Toothbrushes Can Clean So Much

Stuart or I usually supervise Nicholas as he brushes his teeth to be sure that he brushes long enough. However, he finishes up, rinses, and cleans up his toothbrush on his own. Well, maybe he still needs some supervision on this part of the process too. Recently Daddy noticed some lint or hair on the toothbrush and asked Nicholas about it. He said, "I used it to clean my sink and my mirror too!" Ewww! Time to go to Target for a new toothbrush!

Little guy, I appreciate your willingness to help Mommy clean the bathroom but let's keep the toothbrush for cleaning your mouth only please!