Christmas Eve Pictures

Christmas Eve has always been celebrated with my mother's side of the family, only now Greg's mother joins us as well. The kids tend to get a lot of the attention, but I feel that's how Christmas should be, with a focus on children.

I like the photo below because of the details. I am the only one posing. Henry is engrossed in the soft teddy bear. Rusty the dog is also interested in the teddy bear, but for more nefarious reasons. (I believe he likes to chew on stuffed animals.) Nick is looking bored and impatient because it isn't his turn to open a gift. 

Auntie Mandy got Nick a hexbug, which looks remarkably like a cockroach. I told him to make sure not to have it crawling around the floor or I might stomp on it.

Nick also got a nerf gun from his Uncle Andy, and boy did all the guys have fun with it. Even Grandpa Ray joined in.

Henry got the neatest bristle blocks. I haven't seen those in years, and he adored putting them together. I am thinking we'll have to get more so he can build bigger things.

Nick got a V-Reader that he calls his "Nook." It is a kind of e-reader, so he's not too far off, actually.

Grandma Linda was just as excited about her books as Nick was about his "Nook."

Henry adored all of the cars he received. He loves cars, and "Ca!" is one of the few words he has been saying consistently. He also makes car noises.

Grandma Toni had a great time watching the boys play with their presents. I think my sons must be some of the most photographed children in the world. I believe there are over 900 pictures on my computer just from the 24th and 25th of this month.  :)

The boys were MOST excited, though, at the end of the evening, when Grandpa Ray brought out his new helicopter and let the boys play with it. (All the boys. . . Uncle Justin, Uncle Andy, Nick, Rusty, and Henry).

Besides the helicopter, Nick also loved the all time favorite. . . empty wrapping paper tube. Typical.

Here's Henry rocking around the Christmas Tree.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Here are the two brothers building together.    : )

This Boy is Well-Loved

Here are the promised pictures from Nick's visit with my mom, stepdad, sister, and grandma. Nick had a ball and loved all of the attention. He knows all of his relatives by name and he even knows how they like to play. Auntie Mandy likes to tickle him, and Grandma Linda likes to read with him. Gigi likes to sing with him--in this case they sang "The wheels on the bus."

Nick knows that he can play pinball with his Grandpa Ray, and that Grandma Linda will let him make biscuits and eat "cookie bears" anytime he wants. (I'm talking about those chocolate graham cookies--my mom keeps them at her house just for him.) Nick sometimes chooses to eat them with a spoon.

Nick even knows how to play blocks with different people. With me, he wants to make houses for his little animals, but with Grandma, he likes to build with squishy blocks. Plus, also chew on them.

Grandma Linda also makes a delicious dark chocolate bundt cake. Nick really loved that. I'm going to have to get her recipe. Anything with dark chocolate is a craving of mine lately.

Grandma Linda also likes to play Wii with Nick. He loves the balance board, and even requests to stand on it when he visits. Chewing on the Wii mote is even more fun. I think he was playing a game where you're a penguin and try to catch fish and not fall off of your iceberg. Nick got to visit his grandma and grandpa again this week, and he exhausted them with all of his energy.

We don't have any sort of video gaming system at our house, so this is very special for Nick. Also tasty, apparently.







A Visit from Auntie Mandy

I got a call from my sister last week, saying that she hadn't seen Nick since Christmas, and that this travesty must be corrected, and soon. So we invited her over for dinner Saturday. Nick was over the moon. Finally, there was someone new to play blocks with. . . someone worthy.

Indeed, my sister is the master of playing blocks.

Aunt Mandy kept Nick focused until they had used every single block in the whole house. The final product was taller than Nick! Check out their creation.

They also played with Nick's Little People animal collection, and Aunt Mandy was surprised that Nick knew the names of practically every animal--even the rhino and the penguin. That's because when Nick and I build houses with his Mega Blox, he chooses a different animal to make a house for every time. So he's had lots of practice.

There was also lots of coloring. . .

and the reading of stories. 

I think Nick had a great time. Such a great time, in fact, that he's been asking for his Auntie Mandy ever since she left.



The Tallest Tower EVER!

Lately Nick and I build a tower nearly every evening. A few nights ago, we built one that was especially tall. I think my son has a future career in middle management, because he sure likes to order us around. He was all, "Put the blue one there!" and "No, not that one. The red one!" Nick added quite a few pieces himself, but he was particular about what went where. This particular tower took at least a half hour to build, because my perfectionist son kept unbuilding it and then building again.

This tower was so big that Nick put his stuffed mouse in it. "Mouse goes in there!" he said. "Mouse house."

I like nights like this, where we can just sit around in our pajamas and play for a good hour. It's these simple moments that I hope to remember with this blog. Nick is growing so fast, and he's very different now even than he was just a few months ago.

Here is Nick's version of "ta-dah!"  Molly the cat was duly impressed with our hard work.

Building Block Towers with Grandma and Grandpa

Last Saturday, my dad and stepmom came to visit. Nick had a fun time exhausting them. He especially loved building block towers with them. Running from room to room, showing off his toys, Nick was super excited to play with his Grandpa Mike and Grandma Patty.

Nick gets everyone to build with him. He also insists that everyone sit on the floor while building. "You sit. You sit on the floor. Build. Build blocks!" He especially likes to build houses for his little plastic animals.

It's funny--I can remember my dad sitting on the floor with my sister and me when we were little, playing with Legos. It's kind of neat to see him building with Nick, now. I do think Nick, with his floor-sitting demands, is far more demanding.

It's funny how you revert to a child as soon as you start building. At least I do, and I've seen others do it, too. I like to build for stability, alternating blocks rather than making each wall seperately. Nick likes to build straight up, without much regard for whether the blocks will fall down.

Oh, and you know what made Nick even more happy?

Grandma and Grandpa brought cake!

Christmas Post #4: Santa Came Late

Since we spent Christmas Eve night and all of Christmas Eve day at my mother-in-law's house, Santa decided to hold off on leaving presents until the night of the 25th. Since Nick cannot read a calendar yet, no harm done.  ; )   He was pretty excited when he came downstairs to find what Santa had left him.

Santa noticed that Nick loves building with his Mega Bloks, which I picked up from http://www.napervilleyardsales.com/ last year for $7. So he brought Nick a whole new box of Mega Bloks, plus a table for building. He was duly impressed.

Nick also got a neat train puzzle that, when completed, makes train noises. Plus, Santa brought him a stamp set with vehicles and colored pencils, so that Nick can stamp his own airplanes and fire trucks and then color them in. Or, he can get ink everywhere and smear it on the furniture. Either way, he'll have fun.

I have decided that next year, (from Santa at least) Nick will get one thing to play with, one thing to wear, and one thing to read. I'm sure Santa will agree that this is for the best. My boy is already spoiled silly by presents from all of his grandparents and various other relatives. I cannot imagine the intense level of toys that will hit my home once I have two little boys at various stages of development.  I can imagine, however, that it will be great fun.   : )  It's a very good thing I'm not afraid of messes.

 



Blocks? Sure, these can be blocks.

In fact, Nick seemed to think that these blocks were way more fun than the regular kind, since they stack up so high. Shopping at Costco means I have lots of stackable boxes, especially Kleenex, since all of us are suffering from nasty colds.

As I was putting away a considerable number of boxes, Nick passed the time by creating his own towers. He looks rather pleased with himself, I think.

Block Towers of Fun

And now I present, for your viewing pleasure, videos of Nick building with blocks. There are also some nice snippets of conversation. It's interesting how parents each have their own special thing that they play with their kid. Greg likes to look through art books (the big coffee table ones) with Nick and look at the pictures. He also does wrestling and they play basketball together with Nick's little hoop.

Me? I read tons of stories with Nick, both fiction and nonfiction. He likes the stories I've read over and over. He likes to say "I read it," and then he tells me the story by pointing to the pictures. But something I do with Nick just about every day is building with blocks. He has a decent attention span for it--the day I took these two videos, Nick and I built towers and such for at least 40 minutes. He loves knocking them down, but I also have noticed that he gets excited when he's able to add blocks to the towers.

If you haven't figured it out, "No Say You" means play with me, or come here. I'm not sure what that actually stands for, but he says it constantly. I need to take more videos of Nick, if for no other reason than to track his linguistic development. As an ELL teacher, I've had lots of training in linguistics and in how people learn language. I am constantly reading books about the evolution of languages and how people learn them, whether they're first or second languages. Every day I work with kids learning English as a second or even a third or fourth language. But it's amazing to me how quickly little ones learn their first language.

Nick has gone, in about eight months, from having only two or three words to speaking in short sentences. If you had to ask me how many words he knows, I wouldn't even know where to start. I would guess it's into the thousands. He already knows how to add 's to show ownership. (I'm still working on this one with my 5th grade ELL students who've spoken English since 1st grade! There's a big difference between learning a first and a second language.) Nick already mostly gets the concepts of over/under, up/down, in/out, etc. Every couple of days he blows me away with something he says.

I'm not saying Nick is advanced for his age. I think he's about where he should be, with speaking. I just love watching the process unfold each day. Today, for example, Nick was looking at the Christmas tree, and he saw this snowman ornament, pointed to it, and said "See snowman over there, by moon? It's breakable. No touch." Now, this ornament was right next to a moon ornament, and I had been talking to him the other day about not touching that one because it was breakable. I may or not have used the word breakable a bunch of times. Anyway, I was astounded that he remembered.

Wordless Wednesday: Captions, Please!

Garage Sale Joy

Last Friday I took Nick garage sale-ing. I could tell that he was bored with his same old toys, but I certainly wasn't going to up and buy him new ones. So I set myself a budget ($30 in cash) and off we went. Yes, I am cheap. But I also like my son to have lots of toys. Yes, you can have it both ways. I also feel kind of good about reusing things that other kids have outgrown. I wash/sanitize everything that I buy secondhand, and Nick doesn't know that his toys are mostly used. Does it look like he cares?

I am always surprised at how many cool toys I can find at garage sales. I guess it makes sense, because kids outgrow stuff long before it gets ruined. I always start out by looking on www.napervilleyardsales.com to see what places near me are having garage sales and what they're selling. I almost never go with any particular items in mind; instead, I just browse and see what I can get.

Above you can see Nick in an adorable outfit ($1) I found that says "I'm a 'lil firecracker." He's playing with his toy zoo, which makes animal noises and came with a ton of little people. After I gave his new toys a bath, Nick gravitated immediately towards the zoo. He really likes the bird. When you sit her in her spot, she sings a song and Nick dances along. He likes to try to name the animals, although he's lately been calling most four legged creatures that aren't dogs or cats a cow. He says, "Moo."

Lately, Nick likes to point up every time he sees a plane. "Pane!," he declares dramatically. I always look up and confirm that yes, indeed that is a plane. So I thought Nick might like his own airport to play with. I love the look on his face when he realized that I had bought him his own toy plane. The airport also comes with a building and a road that, ironically, goes in a big circle. It has a helicopter and a taxi, too. I think little boys are born knowing how to make car and plane noises. Mine sure doesn't need any help with that.



















I did find a stack of books at one garage sale, and I got Nick a few, including this bunny book that he really likes. I also found several paperbacks for me, a nonfiction science book by Brian Greene, and a second copy of "The Happiest Toddler on the Block," by Harvey Karp. We're always losing our main copy.

Nick has Mega Bloks at his Grandma Linda and Grandpa Ray's house, and he loves them. I've been wanting to find him some for home, and I did. This huge box of blocks was only $4. Nick immediately wanted me to help him build with them. He got mad every time I tried to move away, so we ended up building together for a good hour. Not bad for a $4 investment.

So, in case you've never thought of garage sale-ing before, let me recap what I got for roughly $30:

• Big box of Mega Bloks
• A Little People Zoo (all pieces included)
• A Little People Airport (all pieces included)
• Six books for me and two for Nick
• Three fun-shaped ice cube trays (heart, star, doughnut)
• Two pairs of toddler pants 
• Three pairs of toddler jeans
• One shorts outfit
• Four 2T tee-shirts with cute sayings
• Five of the heavy duty toddler bibs with the pockets
• An extra booster seat for Greg's car

In conclusion, the shopper in me cannot resist the allure of a garage sale. Nick appreciates my efforts.

Architecture 101: Introduction to Block Towers

My son is finally figuring out the fine art of building a tower. Up to this point, Nick has only been interested in demolition. He's shown absolutely no interest in architecture or construction. I am a firm believer in toys that encourage creative play, so Nick owns at least four types of blocks, which are usually used for chucking at the cats or his mother. When I take out the wooden blocks, he smashes them together or tries to break things with them. Nick sees the plastic blocks and thinks, "Those must be for chewing." Building with them did not occur to him before today, even though I've been encouraging block play for months. Kids, I've learned, tend to develop at their own rates, and when they're ready to do something, it just happens.

Today Nick was ready. I am proud to announce that my little boy figured out that towers are for building, not just for kicking over. Note the intense posture he's assumming in the photo above. He actually paid attention while I was building and then copied me. Perhaps it was the way I clapped for him every time he added a block to the tower. Nick got to four blocks! The squishy blocks we were using stay stacked very well, so he had some architecturally unsound structures that miraculously stayed together. His attention span wasn't bad, either--we were using the blocks for a good 20 minutes before he lost interest.

 

I'm very proud of Nick's newly discovered aptitude for building. Perhaps he will support his father and me in style one day with his wages as an architect. Or maybe he'll buy us a cheap bottle of wine with the wages he earns as a demolition man.  ; ) Because, you see, he still prefers knocking the towers over. But at least he's building his own towers now!