I love my little geek!

* Nixon was counting random things today. I hear him saying "25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 100, one million! Mommy, I just counted to one million!" Well, he wasn't totally wrong. He did count to a million, he just skipped a lot of numbers in-between.

* Nixon was doing his lessons on abcmouse.com today. He earned enough tickets that he could buy a new hamster. He did and then came time to name it. His first virtual hamster's name is Avenger. me: Nixon, what do you want to name this hamster?
Nixon: Avenger!
me: Nixon, you already have a hamster named Avenger. Can you think of another name?
Nixon: OH! I don't know!
me: Well, let's think of things you like. Then you can pick a name.
Nixon: Sheldon Cooper!
me: *typed in Sheldon Co* Honey, you can name him "Sheldon" or "Cooper" but you can't name him "Sheldon Cooper, it's too big of a name for such a little hamster.
Nixon: I'll name him Cooper! Cooper's an awesome name!

* Nixon is becoming a whiz at addition! It started with simple math, using fingers to help him count.  But lately, if he recognizes the numbers he's being asked to add, he's doing it without using his fingers! And he LOVES counting and adding things! This past weekend, Mac bought Nixon a simple 6-sided dice. Nixon will roll it, then roll it again just so he can add the dots together and then hop the appropriate number of times he gets as a result.
   The math geek in me is overjoyed that he's taking to math and numbers so easily! Math for me was simple and numbers just made sense. So for Nixon to have fun with the very basics so far, I'm bursting at the seams with motherly pride!

he had fallen out of his bed just moments before I took this photo. I went upstairs to check on him and he told me, in his sleepy-child voice, that he was chasing BeBe and they fell out of bed. I snuggled him and we sang my special song for him together. He's too much, even in his sleep! 

Lazy Sunday

* Nixon and I spent a lazy day together. With Mac off for 2 weeks, we had lots going on and never really truly had a lazy day together in about 2 weeks. So today was our lazy day. We started our lazy day in bed watching TV (Nixon loves Dino Dan. He pronounces dinosaurs names that even I can't say correctly! It's amazing how much this kid catches on when he wants to).

* Nixon wanted to put a collar on Amber. He was nervous about doing it and asked for my help. After I put it on her, Nixon says "Mom, Amber is sleepy. She needs a song to put her to sleep." He then sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to her. ....and got annoyed that she wasn't sleeping when he was done singing to her. Poor kid.

* Nixon was sitting next to me looking at some photos on facebook. Nixon saw photos of Jack and says "Mommy, we need to get in the car and go see Jack"
me: Baby, we can't go see Jack. He and Aunt Franny had to move away.
Nixon: Why?
me: Well, remember last year when we had to take the long airplane ride to come here? Because Daddy had to start his new job?
Nixon: Uh-huh and we lived with Jack and Tessa and Aunt Claire and Killian...
me: Yeah, the commune was great. Well, Aunt Franny had to move to go to her new job and Jack and Tessa went with her. Now they live a very far way away.
Nixon: That's stupid! She needs to come back here!
me: I know baby, I miss her too. But like Daddy, she doesn't have a choice. She got told where to go and she had to go.
Nixon: We should go to the airport and pick her up again.
me: That'd be nice, but she's not waiting for us.
Nixon: Oh....well, I miss Tessa and Jack and Aunt Franny. I even miss Jack stinky, messy face. He's stinky cause he's so big and has a lot of germs in his mouth! And he makes big farts!

He melts my heart

* Nixon and I made a short trip to the Post Office today, to send out a package. As the woman was putting the postage on the package, Nixon who had been super well behaved watching his PSP, he says "That's going to mommy's friend.", so completely matter-of-factly. He then went right back to watching his PSP. Before we left, she asked if he could have a dum-dum. I approved it and he accepted it very graciously.

* Sometimes, Nixon knows he needs a nap but he refuses to take one. Today, as he was fighting sleep, he went upstairs to his room and said he'd sleep, if I napped in his room with him. I pulled out his foldout chair, laid it flat, grabbed my pillow & blanket and hunkered down. He fell asleep holding my hand. I fell asleep holding his hand.

* Nixon and I had a movie night. We watched Wreck-It Ralph (again) and snuggled on the sofa, under a blanket. Totally content and happy to be together.

Enter the fan voice

* It's getting hot and we're trying to save our power bill by not running the central air, so we ran the  small floor fan instead. Today, Nixon discovered the joy that almost every kid at one time in their life has enjoyed: talking into the blades of a moving fan! He had a blast! He did the "Luke I am your father", then he came up with "Bob's Burger, food's ready" and even more random things.
   Some things can't be planned. Some moments just happen. Today, those moments with Nixon talking into the fan, it was like reliving that same simplistic joy I felt doing that same voice as a child. Simpler times and easier life.

Sometimes it takes the smallest thing to put the biggest smile on his face

* After a rough morning on my part (a migraine and then allergies kicking my behind), we made an attempt to run some errands in the early afternoon. Nixon started to get very upset and I was ready to throw in the towel, fully expecting him to just continue his meltdown as we left the house.
  I'm happy to say I was wrong! He was exceptionally well-behaved! We completed all our errands and Nixon had not one meltdown!
  As we were driving home, we were at a long red light. I turned around to tell him I was proud of him for being so good and I was happy he proved me wrong. He was wearing the biggest smile on his face when I said that to him!

* Nixon has a small Hasbro X-wing, but no R2D2 co-pilot. Mac managed to find one on ebay for him. It arrived tonight. Nixon got him as a surprise before bed. He was overjoyed and started making his R2D2 sounds as he put R2 in his co-pilot seat. He thanked Mac for "bringing R2D2 home to me".
   Yep, today was a good day.

Big, important day of sorts

* Nixon had an evaluation today with the county's public school system. I'll write a more in-depth post about that on my Random Mom-ments blog, but the jist of it was: Nixon is not on the autism spectrum (a concern of mine) but he does have some sensory issues (we've known this and have made adjustments when possible accordingly), he's doing things above age-level and is perceived to be intellectually bright with above average cognitive skills.
  He is a self-led learner, which may be an issue in a classroom setting, so we were given information for a program to see a behavioral therapist to help with that.
   And no day is complete without Nixon being given tasks to complete, completing them and then when it's time to leave (before he's ready) he offers a tantrum of epic proportions as a parting gift.
We'll be hearing from an occupational therapist soon about the evaluators findings overall.

"I want to drive!!"

* Another day, another short road trip to Virginia for another visit to the DMV. My GPS decided to send us through DC, but Nixon was awesome. He was playing with his iTouch, headphones on and totally content. We reached the DMV and the wait was 45 minutes give or take and Nixon was fairly well-behaved.
   When it was time to go, Mac took him to the car so I could use the restroom before we headed off to meet a friend for lunch. Before going to the car, I handed Nixon the keys and told him it was a very important task. Apparently, I accidentally told him he'd be driving, because when I got to the car, Nixon was upset that he wasn't in the driver's seat. How do you solve this? If you're me...you give Nixon a silicon bracelet and tell him it's a steering wheel and he's driving. He was overjoyed by that and "drove" the whole way to our lunch date. At one stop light I turned and asked him how he's doing and he said "I'm fine, just waiting for the green light, because red means stop."

* Lunch was another story. He drank his strawberry lemonade, but when his food came he was trying to get under the table and squirming around. He was warned twice and then told he ate or went to the car. He chose the car. Mac texted me, from the car, and said Nixon wanted to stay in the car because he was tired. Less than 3 minutes later I got another text from Mac that Nixon was asleep. Guess he was tired...
   I stayed and talked with our friend, getting Nixon & Mac's food to-go leaving about 15 minutes after Nixon and Mac left for the car.