"...please let me like you, please"

December 30th, 2013
BeBe is back where he belongs!
Day 364

* Nixon woke up this morning and woke Mac and I up, because he "needs to go downstairs to brush my teeth, so they don't fall out and then I have to eat baby food. I don't want to eat baby food!" We woke up and brought Nixon downstairs, waiting for him to spot BeBe in the tree.
   He did and it was like he was afraid to believe he was really there. Then, of all the things Nixon could say, he says "BeBe must have decided to leave his hat house and come home. I've missed him!". Mac found Be, under a hat on Nixon's table that I know I looked under! How Nixon knew that's where Be was, is a mystery to me, but Be is back and Nixon is super excited. I don't think he was more than a foot away from him at any point of the day, today. 

* Nixon: *to Mac* Mommy likes me.
Mac: I don't know, buddy. I think you should ask her.
Nixon: * to me* Mommy, can you please let me like you please?

me: *laughing* Of course (and I gave him hugs and kisses)
Mac: That wasn't what I meant, but it works too! *also laughing*

Dear Santa, I hope you like coffee because that's what was decided we're leaving for you Tuesday night!

December 22nd

day 356

* Some days you just wake up and feel loved. This morning was that day. Nixon, for some reason, ended up in my bed around 2 or 3am. He woke up when he heard Mac come home and went to play in his room for a while, letting me sleep.
  Around 9am, Nixon climbs back into bed with me and says "Mommy, you need a cuddle" and cuddles up with me and took a little snooze, sleeping on my shoulder. 

* I had some errands to run, and took Nixon with me of course. Nixon was content in the backseat, counting stop signs! No PSP, no iTouch...just me and him with my GPS telling us where to go. And he was great!

* me: Nixon, guess what we're doing Tuesday?

Nixon: What? Is it Christmas?

me: No, but close. We're making cookies that we'll leave out for Santa Tuesday night. 

Nixon: Yay! Oh yeah, cookies, oh yeah! *doing his little butt wiggle dance while he says that*
me: Nix, what should we leave Santa to drink with his cookies?

Nixon: I don't know. Umm.....I got nothing, Mom.

me: Well, a lot of people like to leave him milk with his cookies. But...Santa has a long journey to make on Christmas Eve. Do you think he might like something warmer? Like maybe coffee?

Nixon: Yeah! Mommy, coffee is a perfect choice! Santa will be SOOOOOOOOOO happy with a cup of coffee and cookies. Coffee is good for Santa!
me: How do you think Santa takes his coffee? Creamer and sugar or black?

Nixon: Mom, you're hurting my head....it's coffee! Just make it hot. 

* me: *switching the channel to the Eagles game* Whoo! Yeah baby! 

Nixon: Mommy, you need to be quieter, you hurt my ears.

me: Nixon, the Eagles are winning 14 to nothing right now! That's awesome!

Nixon: No it's not! The Eagles need to lose win!
me: What did you just say?!? Did you just say the Eagles need to lose?!? In my house?!?
Nixon: *laughing* No I said lose win! 

me: I don't even know what that means, but I'm choosing to only have heard "win".
Nixon: Yeah, I want them to win! Go Eagles!! *and he runs around the living room flapping his arms* 

Nixon met Santa today!

Nixon's school had a holiday party this evening. Nixon got to decorate cookies, play with glitter play dough, made a pipe cleaner/bead candy cane and played snowman cornhole. He even got to see Santa, sit on his lap and tell him what he'd like for Christmas. Nixon was very detailed about the only gift he asked for!

As we left and headed home, it had started to snow. Nixon loved watching the snow falling from the backseat and even better, we went on a little drive and looked at houses with lights and decorations up. 

Before he went to bed, Nixon declared tonight the "Best night ever!".

And we have another cold coming our way....yep, Nixon's sick again!

Dec 16th
"One is better than two"-Nixon
Day 350

* Realized I didn't do a post yesterday:
Mac took Nixon to purchase my christmas gift from Nixon. When they were checking out, the cashier asked if they'd like to purchase a toy for Toys for Tots and said it'd go to a child who might not have a gift otherwise. Nixon, as soon as he heard that, said "Yeah!", and of course Mac agreed. Nixon choose the toy that he wanted to donate and put it into the collection box.
   When they came and got me, Nixon came running over and said "Mommy, guess what?!? We got a toy for a kid that needs a present. I picked it out and put it in the box!", just as happy as could be. Mac explained it to me and I told Nixon that was a very kind and wonderful thing to do for someone else. He says "Yeah, they'll like the toy, because it's cool!".
    He may not totally get the concept, but he knew enough to agree to the donation. And he knew the toy wasn't for him, so he didn't fight abut putting it in the donation box. Mac was super pleased about that!

* Nixon got up this morning, on his own, and was waiting for my alarm to go off. When it did, he danced to the alarm song I have it set to.
   He ate breakfast, and offered a great gem of wisdom to Mac when I offered him a cup of coffee. (Mac, I offered Mac a cup of coffee, not Nixon. In case someone wasn't following that.) Nixon tell Mac, who declined my offer, "It's good for you, Daddy!"
   He is so my son! He knows how important coffee is.

* Speaking of coffee, Mac was making his usual cup of coffee before he goes to work for the night, and for some reason the Keurig was brewing the coffee. He asked me and I tried once, with no luck. I quickly got onto google to troubleshoot issues. Thankfully, the first tip worked (clear out the puncture points as they get clogged sometimes).
   Nixon kept coming over to see what I was doing and I was trying to remain calm and not flip out that my coffee maker might be broken. I finally got down to his eye level and said very calmly to him "Nixon, I'm trying to fix my coffee maker. It's not working right now and you know how important coffee is to me, right? Please just give me a couple minutes to work on it, okay?"
    He sat on the sofa and became my cheering section. "You're looking good fixing that, Mommy!" and when it was working, and I let out a "Thank you, Google Gods!", Nixon repeated the same statement with a big clap!

* Nixon's fighting another cold. Just sniffles and a little cough. Trying to keep him warm.
   Have I mentioned that I'm over all these fracking colds?!?!

* Finally, another Nixon pearl of wisdom:
Nixon: One is better than two, right Mom?
me: Well, if you're talking about kids...absolutely! At least in my eyes!
Nixon: Yeah!
me: But what about cats? We have two cats.
Nixon: We should get rid of one.
me: What?!? Which one??
Nixon: Um....nevermind. Two cats is perfect!

It's sad my kid has better manners than most of the general public during the holidays

* Nixon and I had to go to the post office today (I know, I know!) to send off a couple orders I'd gotten in my etsy shop. We went to the smaller one, closest to the house because I foolishly thought it'd have a shorter line.
   It did not.
   We waited for almost half an hour, but Nixon was really good. He played with the display toys they've got out (the post office is inside a local gift shoppe) and stayed close enough that I could see him and he could hear me. He was really good, a little resistance before we left but nothing horrible. Especially considering he's not a big fan of lines of people.

* And speaking of lines of people....I took Nixon this evening to go shopping for Mac's Christmas gifts. Nixon decided he wanted to go to Target and look for Mac's gifts.
   It took us nearly 20 minutes to find a parking spot.
   The store was stupid crowded, people were incredibly rude, and Nixon? Nixon was his happy "excuse me" self as we passed by someone. He even pointed out a shattered glass ornament to me, and in turn I flagged down an employee so it could be cleaned up before someone cut themselves on it.
   At the checkout, Nixon helped the lady in line behind us. One of her smaller items almost fell off the belt, Nixon noticed it, caught it and put it back safely. She thanked him and Nixon said "It's what's right, right mommy?" Then he goes on to talk to her about the crayon maker she had in her cart! "You can make crayon cars with that!", he told her very excitedly! She was so sweet and nice to him.
    As we were walking out, another woman bumped into Nixon and Nixon said "Oh I'm sorry, I bumped you", even though she bumped him. She rolled her eyes at him! Nixon said, as we kept walking, "She should have said something to me, right mommy?". I explained that there are a lot of people in the store and some people don't realize they bumped someone or don't remember to use their manners.
    None-the-less I did nothing but thank him for using his manners as well as he did and I encouraged him to keep using them!

* Highlight of my day? I taught Nixon the words to the Jingle Bells, the Batman version! He loved it!!

* Nixon got to pick a game, as a reward of sorts for his good behavior at school this week. He chose a new Lego'esque version of Battleship.
   We played it tonight, Nixon was on my side and Mac was on his own side. Once Nixon got the hang of it (and he stopped trying to give away the coordinates of our ships) he had fun!

Family game night
Dec 14th
day 348

Another day, another example of Nixon's infallible logic

Dec 13th
"Elves work in Santa's sweatshop"
Day 347

* Nixon decided this morning he wanted a cool hair style. I gave him a fauxhawk, which looked awesome until it was time to put on his beanie to leave for school. It was no fauxhawk when the beanie came off. He didn't care, he was happy to be at school with his friends.

* Evidently, there's a tattletale in Nixon's classroom. This little cutie saw me come to pick Nixon up and he came running up to me "Nixon's Mommy! Nixon's Mommy! Guess what Nixon did today....", and then Nixon's teacher asked the child to stop tattling and told me what happened: Nixon was being whiny and instead of asking for help he'd say "Someone come help me!" or "I can't do this!". His teacher would tell him that wasn't how to ask for help. They worked on it and by the end of his day he was saying the correct "Can you help me please?" when he needed help.
   On the drive home, we talked about this. I gave him a couple examples of "right" or "wrong" ways to ask for something.

* Finally, another example of Nixon logic:
Nixon: Mommy, Santa's elves are busy making all the toys at the sweatshop in the North Pole.
me: What? Wait...work shop or sweatshop?
Nixon: Sweatshop, Mommy. The elves work there. They're almost done with all the presents.
me: Nixon, I think and hope, you mean work shop. Sweat shops are bad places and I don't think Santa runs a sweat shop.
Nixon: Uh-huh! Santa lives in the work shop, Mommy.

I asked him later, after Mac woke up, where the elves worked and Nixon said "They work at Santa's workshops. Not the other bad places." Good to know my talk this morning about sweatshops being bad got through to him!  

I am LOVING this kid and his behavior at school!

* I had my concerns about today, especially when it started with me having to wake Nixon up for school. My worrying increased when my car doors were all frozen shut (thankfully Mac was able to get them open) and Nixon was being a bit of a pill about getting ready for school and then again when it came time to put his gloves on.

* My concerns were for naught. Nixon was standing at the classroom door, looking out it, waiting for mac and I. Uh-oh, here we go, I thought as we approached.
    He had a band-aid on his pinkie and wanted to tell us about his owie. Other than that, he had a great day! His teachers were happy with him, I was proud of him and best of all, Nixon was smiling and proud to show-off his sticker card for the day! Just a really great and awesome day at school!

* Nixon comes running in from the kitchen to the living room and says "I LOVE YOU, COOKIE MONSTER!". Mac was at work, so I asked him, "Am I Cookie Monster?". Nixon says "Yes, and I love you!"
   It was just a random outburst of affection for me from Nixon, and I ate it up! He is wonderful! I even got snuggles tonight before he went to bed.

I'm melting.......

Dec 9th
Nixon's mini-snowman
Day 343

* Nixon was awake today when I found out his school day was cancelled. School wasn't cancelled, just delayed but because of the delay, his morning part-time preschool class was cancelled. I asked if he wanted to do what you always do on a snow day: go back to bed, but he said no. 

   I made him a sheet-tent in his room, set him up with his PSP in the tent in his room. 

* When we came downstairs for the day, his very first question was "Mommy, what's my snowman look like today?". I opened the door and we looked. He was melting but not too bad. He looked pretty much exactly like he looked when I saw it at 1am before going to be (the picture above). 

   He didn't get to look at his snowman before bed tonight, but right now it's not looking pretty. But the plus side is, we're expecting 2-6 inches of snow tomorrow, so there's a chance Nixon will get a real snowman in the next day or two!

missing his head, floating eyes and nose, but the scarf is still on! 

The night he went to bed without dinner....by choice...because he said my soup smells "gross"

December 7th
Day 341

* Nixon woke up today and kept coming over to my side of the bed saying "Pssst, Mommy, it's me Nixon." I'm not sure why, but he feels the need to introduce or announce himself every morning.

* I made soup today. It was a yummy potato and ham soup. I asked Nixon if he'd try a bite when it was ready. He had said yes....until the time came to try it. He refused, fought, cried and ultimately asked to go to bed instead of having to eat a BITE of my soup.

* Nixon did not go right to sleep. He was in his room, but not yet sleeping. Mac and I were watching Will & Grace and Mac got a little loud with his laughs. Nixon comes down the stairs and says "Daddy, can you please be more quiet? You're laughing so loud I can't sleep." He also asked if Mac would help him open the fold-out chair in his bedroom for him. Mac apologized for being loud, but said no on the pull-out chair. He told Nixon to go to sleep in his bed.
   When we went to check on him Mac mentioned the pull-out chair thing. I grabbed the camera, because if I know one thing about Nixon, it's that he tends to be adorable when he wants something and has to do it himself.

This is what we found when we checked on Nixon....adorable!

Gems from today....

* Today started with this:
Nixon: Mommy, it's dark outside, I have to go back to sleep so the sun will come out and it will be a sunny day.
me: Sorry baby boy, but it's time to wake up.
Nixon: No Mom, that's wrong. It's time for sleep...see, the sun is still sleeping.
And with that he got back under his blankets.

* When I picked him up at school. the little girl who adores Nixon greeted me with "Nixon had a bad day today. He made a lot of bad choices.". *sigh* I was totally prepared for a meltdown when I found him. It wasn't bad. He was in the play kitchen area, with one of his teachers, putting away the plates/bowls they had played with.
His teacher told me "He had a good day. He came over and asked if he could cook me dinner. He set the table, made me food and then told me he had to clear the table and wash the dishes. He was very polite about it all.", with a big smile on her face!

As we made our way to the door, his teacher stopped and asked if I knew about the "painting situation". Oh boy, here it comes, I thought when I heard her say that to the other teacher. It wasn't that bad. The class was doing a painting project, but Nixon was insistent that he couldn't do it "because my hands will get yucky with all that messy paint". His teacher came up with a very good solution: she gave him a pair of gloves to wear. He put them on and had no problem with the paint.
So my kid likes to be clean and not make a mess? Most moms would kill for a kid like that, right? It's less the mess and more he doesn't like the feel of paint on his hands. Either way, he had a great week at school and I couldn't be happier!

* Driving in the car today, Nixon suddenly says "Mommy, someone is talking to you. It's a little boy named Nixon!" I had to laugh, because he was the only other person in the car with me, but because it was raining and kind of crappy out, I was so focused on driving I wasn't exactly listening to him.

"R2 has to come down from there....it's not safe, Mom!"

* Nixon woke up this morning and was ready to find R2D2. He finally found him...."sliding" down the wall in the living room. Nixon was so upset! He told me "Mommy, he has to come down! It's not safe up there!", then to looks right at R2 and says "R2 come down here!". He even got annoyed that R2 wasn't listening to him.

* When I picked Nixon up from school, he came running over and said "Mommy, I made some bad choices, but a lot of good choices too!" His teacher came over and said "He made all good choices today. He had a good day today."
   His face lit up when I told him we were on our way to go pick up the tress and other decorations! He was so excited he said "Hey everybody! I'm going to go get my tree so I can decorate it for Santa now!" as he was leaving his classroom.
(By the way, I think it's adorable that the kids in Nixon's class will talk to me about random things and I'm always "Hey, Nixon's mom" before they start talking to me. Today the little girl who likes Nixon told me about the big green tree she has at her house: "Hey,um...Nixon's mom, I have a big green one at my house!" When I asked her if she had a big green tree, she said "Yeah! It's a big one too!" Kids are kind of awesome!)

* And decorate the trees we did! We also decorated the windows with some fake snowflakes and Nixon decorated some small wooden ornaments. Nixon told me, while I was setting up our tree, "Wow, Mommy, you're doing a great job! That looks amazing!", and there wasn't an ounce of sarcasm in his voice when he said it!
  He's excited and ready for Santa to come. We've got a few more days, but Nixon's feeling the holiday joy a little more.
 ....even if he did ignore me when I tried teaching to him about Pagans and the truth of christmas trees. I also explained why we won't have a real tree corpse in our house, ever.

"I'll tell him it's okay, Momma"

* Nixon woke up this morning and was overjoyed when he saw R2D2 waiting for him! He was a little more excited when he saw C3PO in the window. He tried telling me that C3PO needed to be with R2, but I assured him 3PO was fine where he was. "He's in the window to let Santa know there's a good little boy in the house. If he's gone he's probably talking to Santa, you don't want that."

* Santa was the theme of the day. Nixon and I went out together to grab dinner. On the drive there Nixon and I start talking about Santa and what he (Nixon) is going to ask for.
Nixon: Oh, I want a race track, for my cars. And new cars, for the race track so they are fast cars. And Fluttershy.
me: Sweetie, we've talked about this, Santa only brings one gift, remember?
Nixon: Well, I'll ask for one for me but I think I want Santa to bring you a gift too. You're a good mommy and you deserve it.
me: Thanks baby, but Santa can only bring gifts to boys and girls who are good. Not mommies and daddies.
Nixon: It's okay, I'll tell Santa it's okay, Momma. He'll bring you a gift.
me: That's sweet honey, but that would mean Santa has an extra gift that might mean less room for another child's toy. Is that nice?
Nixon: Oh no! See, mommy, it's like this: The elves make the toys with magic. They take something blank and *whoosh* magic makes it a toy. Santa brings the elves with him, so they make the *whoosh* at each house. See? Enough room!

I wanted so bad to argue with him about that, but man, that is some well thought out logic for a 5-year old!
Ultimately, Nixon settled on Fluttershy because he knows that Santa has elves who run a Build-A-Bear workshop at the North Pole, it's how he got his Iron Cub last Christmas from Santa *wink, wink*

The last post of November....wow, that came fast, right?!?!

* Friday we kind of chilled. Well actually, we woke up early and hit the only Black Friday sale we cared about: Third Eye Comics! Thankfully, we missed most of the crazy insanity by avoiding the midnight madness sale and just went during the regular sale hours.
   After that, I left Nixon and Mac to help a friend. They had the whole day together for the most part.

* Saturday was a rough one, but I did manage to make a learning lesson out of my own misery/stupidity. I spent Friday night out with a few people and did a little more harm than I'd intended with my drinking. Mac was wonderful about keeping Nixon quiet'ish, while I was sleeping.
   Nixon came in and saw me when I came home, late in the morning. Nixon gave me a big hug and said "Oh, Mommy I was so worried about you!", best welcome home ever!
   Later, Nixon asked me why I wasn't feeling well. I told him the truth: I drank too much last night and my body is recovering but it's a little slow. I told him, someday 15 years from now, he might also feel this way and I will be as nice as he was to me. Which, was really nice, so he's lucky. He came over and gave me a kiss on the head and told me he loved me.

Since Saturday was the last day of the month, Mac and I put out our special holiday helper, R2D2! I did this last year with Nixon and he loved it! R2 is our little reporter to Santa, like elf of the shelf but a geekier version!

Monday & Tuesday (Nov 25 & 26th) Recap

* Monday morning Nixon woke up excited about the library. I really should've checked out the hours before I told him we'd go on Monday....our closest branch didn't open until 1pm on Mondays! To say he was disappointed would be an understatement. I'm pretty sure he was beginning to think the library was an imaginary place.
   We did have to go grocery shopping, since we were celebrating Thanksgiving on Tuesday and I was making several dishes including the turkey and ham. We grabbed some McDonald's before going as Mac hadn't eaten yet, and Nixon got a Happy Meal. Turns out that was the best choice, as it kept him seated and quiet while I did the shopping. It wasn't crowded but I did have a couple multiple lists to shop off of.
   As I mentioned, Nixon was great until we got to the register and he saw all the holiday toys next to it. Mac ended up taking him to the car while I finished checking out.
   He went to bed as usual on Monday night, feeding Scootaloo first. He got super excited because he noticed Scootaloo had gotten a little bigger! Nixon says "good morning" and "good night" to Scootaloo every day, and every day Scootaloo is looking right at him seeming to be returning the greetings.  

* Tuesday started super early. We had a good friend come over to spend the day with us and start cooking the big dinner in the afternoon with me. The three of us made a quick trip out for a couple errands and then grabbed donuts for breakfast on the way home.
   We had an awesome, bacon-themed Thanksgiving meal made. So what's Nixon ask for, for dinner? Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Yep....bacon wrapped green beans, bacon wrapped stuffing balls, bacon deviled eggs, ranch mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, ham, bacon wrapped boneless turkey breast, green bean casserole and pumpkin pies! And Nixon says "Mommy, this food smells stinky. I think I'd like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich please." Sonuvabitch!

In other news, Nixon is still dealing with a cold. He's had it for over a couple weeks now mostly a runny nose and a cough. No fever and not at all lethargic, just a snot faucet for a nose.

Today we welcomed Scootaloo into the family!

Meet Scootaloo

* Nixon woke up this morning very excited for school! He was excited to give his teacher the card he made for her. We took him to school and he went right over to her, handed her the card and said "I'm sorry I pulled my pants down.", gave her a hug and was off to the playground with the rest of his class. 

  We never mentioned the fish, I wanted him to be good in class because he knew he should be not because he wanted his fish. There was some serious anxiety in my chest as we headed into his classroom.

   It was all for naught! Nixon had a wonderful day! When I heard that and we got him out to the car, I told him we were going to get him his fish today! Holy cow was he excited!! 

* At bedtime, Nixon came down stairs to tell me "Mommy, Scootaloo isn't going to sleep! He's still playing, even though I told him he needs to go to sleep now!". I mean, for real, how cute is that?!?!
   I took him back to bed and explained that Scootaloo isn't like us or the cats, meaning he won't lie down to sleep Instead he'll drift peacefully in one spot or hide in the plant in his bowl, but he needs to move a little to breathe. Nixon said "Oh, well that's okay, but I need my sleep!" as if Scootaloo was being noisy in his tank and keeping Nixon awake. 

* Watching Bubble Guppies tonight, Nixon saw an episode about the library. He asked me if he can go get a book about baby kitties. I told him we'll go next week (because of the Thanksgiving holiday, Nixon has the week off from school) and we'll get books. He was really into it, telling me what books I should get and Daddy should get. 

   Why hadn't I thought of this before?!?!?

Day 2 as a 5-year-old verdict: Not a total loss.

From the get-go today had a vibe about it. Not a bad one, but a change. Nixon woke up and was kind of awesome, maybe in part to the blanket fort I set up for him last night before I went to bed.

When it was time for breakfast, he started pouting/talking back and refused to go to his room when I told him too. The end result? No TV before nap time. We did play games, action figures and made his teacher a card for tomorrow.
   Nixon did help me make scrambled eggs this morning. He helped me crack all the eggs and even broke 2 of his own (1 totally on his own!!) with very few pieces of shell falling into the bowl. They were large enough that I could pick them out before mixing the eggs.

After our nap, yes I took a nap as well...we're all fighting a cold. Nixon asked for a snack and to watch TV. I waited until he asked the correct way AND apologized for this morning. It went like this "Mommy, please can I apologize for not listening and for pouting this morning? AndnowcanIwatchTVplease?!?" He got one hour of shows, then Mac got to choose what we watched, then dinner time and after dinner came bath time to bedtime.

Overall, today was NOT a horrific day. We did spend a little more time talking about good behavior at school, respecting his teachers and also how to be a gracious winner. He is an overly celebratory winner which I'm going to help work on with him.

Nixon and his Ace McCloud from Centurions, taking a break from our good vs evil "battles"

He's 5!!! Happy 5th birthday, Nixon!

I wish I could say today was wonderful from the start. That butterflies came out just to celebrate the day my son entered the world and that at the exact moment of his birth a lark landed on our windowsill and serenaded him.
Unfortunately, none of that happened. Here's what actually did happen:

He woke up and was kind of awesome. He was excited to get ready for school and share his birthday cupcakes. We got to school and he wanted to play with the toys but the class was going outside....I left, letting the teachers do what they do. I made purple cupcakes at home for him, totally ready to celebrate Nixon's birthday.

Instead, I was greeted by a crying child who told me "Mommy, you're heart's going to be sad. I had a bad day at school." when I entered his classroom. And oh boy, he was not lying! My newly 5-year old son was defiant, crass, disrespectful and last but by no means least, exposed himself. All to a teacher. He entered the teacher's office area, was asked to come out, refused, asked to come out again, yelled and refused again, when the teacher went in to the office to bring him out Nixon pulled his pants and undies down...this happened 3 times before they got him to keep his undies on and his pants only dropped to his knees. (This was told to me as if I should be comforted by this "progress").

Nixon and I talked about this in the car. We talked about it when we got home. I finally came up with a punishment by the time Mac woke up and the 3 of us talked about it. Nixon is not phased by spankings, or taking things away, or spending time in his room without toys, but he has been looking forward to getting a pet fish for weeks now. We had planned on doing it for his birthday, taking him to pick out his own fish.  I decided to put that on pause and told him we're going to wait to see how he behaves on Friday in school. The tank is set up, in his room, it's just waiting for a fish. But it's not happening right now.
Just talking to him about what happened he was dismissive, rude (looking away, trying to get away from me while I'm talking to him) and....I just don't know what was going on in his head.

By bedtime he was better. He snuggled with me for a bit, after he managed to fall off the love seat in the living room, and had a blanket bunker he was hiding under watching his psp before Mac left for work. We even went out to get our traditional Taco Bell dinner we've done every year since Nixon's birth.
As I was putting him to bed, I was talking to him telling him how much I loved him and he starts moving his hand mimicking me as I was talking. I stopped talking and just looked at him. He kept doing it, I still said nothing, just looked at him waiting for him to stop. He didn't so I left his room and didn't say goodnight.
I cried silently once earlier today, I'm not going to do it again tonight.....

'Tis was the night before my baby turned 5 and being the only one awake in the house, my eyes were totally dry and yes, I am also surprised!

* Today was rough, but not because of anything Nixon did. I had my first real, painful migraine in a few years. I woke up with it and it got progressively worse as the day went on. Mac let me nap before he napped today. Nixon was pretty quiet, thankfully.
   When it was time for me to get up, Nixon came up and asked me if my head was feeling better. It wasn't, and I couldn't even lie to him. He gave my head a kiss.

* Nixon asked me what my head felt like. I was flinching when he made noise and he noticed it.
 I explained it as best I could: It feels like I had a troll in my head, with a shovel and he was digging deep in my brain and scooping out parts of my brain every time I heard a loud noise. Nixon looked at me, eyes wide, and says "Ouch!", then walks up to my head, kissed it and said (very softly) into my ear "Now you leave mommy's head you mean troll!"

* Tonight, Nixon headed up to bed at 745pm. After he brushed his teeth, and put Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to bed in his bed since they "wanted to sleep without me" according to Nixon, I tucked him into my bed for the night.
 




  I was lying there, telling him how much I loved him...grateful I was he was mine, how happy he made me, all the mushy things I had swirling in my head right before he turns 5. He was listening, until he rolled away from me and said "Shh, I'm sleepy. I have a big day tomorrow. I'm going to be 5!", as if I didn't already know!

November 14th.....day 320

 Sorry for the lack of posts. I was going to post one last night, but Nixon has another cold and came downstairs asking for me to come to bed and snuggle him. He doesn't sleep well when he's congested and he wakes up scared when he can't breath. He took his medicine before bed, but was still super congested. All he really wanted was to see me next to him when he woke up scared. 
  I couldn't deny him that. 

  As for school, he had a great week! He earned two index cards of stickers in class and he was one of the few kids NOT sitting on the ledge in Time Out when I picked him up Friday. He's also started belting out totally random songs to the tune of Jingle Bells! Even though I don't like all the christmasy things going on before Thanksgiving, I'll let this one go because he is adorable when he makes up songs!

* Nixon came into my bedroom and asked me when I was getting up. I set the alarm on my phone and handed it to him. I said "When my alarm song plays you can wake me up." It was set for 10 minutes from when he asked.
   He's in his room and I can hear him talking to my phone "Why aren't you going off?" and "This is taking forever!" and finally, as he slams his bedroom door and stomps into my room "You didn't even set the alarm, right! It's never going off!"
   I laughed, told him I did set the alarm, showed him the time it was set for even...and then got out of bed.

* Nixon's birthday is in 4 days. His very quaint (re:small) party, is in 2 days. While he's in school Monday, I'll decorate. In the afternoon a couple of our good friends will come over and we'll all take Nixon to Build-A-Bear for his birthday gift. Then he gets to pick dinner and we'll have his pink frosted with silver sugar glitter on top. At his wonderful, My Little Pony themed party.

* I spent this morning inadvertently explaining drag queens to Nixon this morning. He asked me about my bra and then said "I'm too small to wear one." So I explained boys don't wear bras. Then I amended that statement and said "Some boys like to play dress-up and they wear bras, dresses, wigs, high heels..the works. They are beautiful too!"
   It wasn't the most elegant explanation, but for a nearly 5-year old it was easy to understand.  

Opps...that's one joke that went too far.

* Nixon had an awesome day at school today! He had an index card full of stickers! Not one meltdown and was totally playing nicely with other kids when I arrived to pick him up! It was a wonderful change from the past couple weeks.

* I heard today, that Disney has their own on-site jail. I jokingly said "I just decided my goal is to go to jail at Disney! It sounds like a lot of fun!".
   Nixon was in the room with me and he got real serious real fast. He come over to me and said "Mom, you can't go to jail. We need you here with us" and he gave me a hug and kiss.
   He told me more than once I shouldn't want to go to jail, because jail is for bad people and I'm not a bad person.
   I told him I wouldn't be going to jail and I'd behave.

   He's such a buzzkill! (kidding....I'll go to Disney jail when he's old enough to WANT to be rid of me)