A Bathtub, a Duster, and a New Song

In case you can't hear this very well, Nicholas is singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", which he learned at school the other day.  The bathtub is his boat and the duster would be his oar.  I just love watching him use his imagination to come up with this stuff!

3 Ring Circus

The circus was in town this weekend and there was no way we were going to miss it.  Nicholas was so excited to see the tigers, elephants, clowns, and acrobats that we've been talking about for weeks but the excitement started to wear off pretty quickly.  Don't get me wrong, the show was very nice but there were a few slow parts that left him feeling a little bored.  Almost 2 hours into it.....as we were sure the show was wrapping up.....they announced that it was intermission.  INTERMISSION????  At this point the only thing I wanted to stay for was the elephant ride at the end.  But the second I saw them bringing the elephants out for half-time rides, we seized our opportunity.  The ride wasn't cheap and it wasn't very long, but how often do you get to ride an elephant?   So, Nicholas got to see his first circus, ride his first elephant, and eat most of Daddy's corndog and an entire bag of cotton candy all by himself.  I'd say it was definitely a good day.

Warning: these pictures were all taken with our phones so they're not the greatest.



Partners In (anti)Crime

Nicholas introduced Jillian to his very awesome police car this weekend and the two of them drove at least a million laps around the backyard. Nicholas has become quite a good driver after some very necessary lessons from Daddy (need I remind you of the picture of him driving up the slide???) and was more than happy to show off his new skills with his cuz riding shotgun.  I'm pretty sure this will go down in the books as one of the cutest things EVER!

Potpourri: Volume 2

The Truth Comes Out

We kid, we kid!  The real truth?  Nicholas and Daddy are the very best of friends and I don't really think he could love him any more than he already does.  One of my very favorite things is to just quietly sit back and watch the two of them go.  The banter, the play, the laughter.  Does my heart good.

Button Pusher

I always joke around about how much Nicholas likes to push buttons, including mine, and yesterday his curiosity struck again when he decided he needed to set off the fire alarm at preschool.  All of the teachers were laughing about the incident when I came to pick him up, which made me feel much better, but unfortunately caused an unnecessary fire drill outside....in the cold.....and the rain.  But that wasn't even the funniest part of the incident.  I had to explain to them where I work and that I had been working earlier in the morning when the fire alarm was called in to be dispatched.  It had quickly been canceled as a false alarm and everyone had teased me that it was probably Nicholas who had set it off.  They all know too well about his ornery streak so we had a good laugh, then carried on about our day without a giving it a second thought.  I didn't REALLY think it would have been him!!!  I didn't know what else to tell them except that I was so, so, so sorry but he's a very curious little boy and it probably wouldn't be the last time that something like that happened.  After we got to the car and I was able to shake off the embarrassment a little, we had a serious talk about how important it is to only use the fire alarm when there is truly a fire.  He looked me in the eye and said "yes ma'am" with the sincerity of a Boy Scout, but I'm not holding my breath.  ☺

The accused:

Imperial Meeting

I'm pretty sure that last night was one of the biggest nights of my boy's life.  An innocent basketball game turned out to be the rendezvous of his dreams when he came face to face with the evil Darth Vader and a few of his loyal minions.  Greg said that all of the other kids were scared and crying when they saw the Star Wars clan, but not our boy.  He's been patiently preparing for this moment for as long as I can remember and he wasn't about to squandor this rare opportunity.  I wish I could have seen his face when he realized what was happening!

Seriously, how totally cool is that???!!!

My Heart

There are so many times that I find my mind held prisoner to all of the trivial nonsense that life throws my way.  I get wrapped up and dragged down by the sheer weight of it all.  But then after I've done a decent amount of wallowing, my heart finally steps in and says enough is enough.  It steps in, grabs me by the shoulders, and delivers a metaphorical slap to the face that quickly reminds me what's really important in this world. And it looks something like this....
....this is my heart.  Blessings don't come any clearer than that.

Potpourri: Volume 1

From here on out, the title "Potpourri" will refer to those posts that are filled with a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but nothing especially noteworthy.  No long stories or funny anectdotes.  Just sweet, simple moments I was lucky enough to capture of Nicholas just being Nicholas.  Enjoy our first edition!