"...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*

A little late but.....Christmas finally arrived!!!

   I was so exhausted yesterday I fell asleep around 9pm! It was glorious! Nixon and I got comfy in my bed and settled in to watch Chipwrecked together, when it was over we both fell asleep.

  And now, some pictures from our Christmas morning! Mac came home and woke us up around 630am, because he would be going to sleep as soon as we were done with all the gifts.

Santa was here! 

opening his gift from Santa!

His big gift from Mac and I....I think he likes it, eh?

gifts from the grandparents and his great-grandparents

Mac, fading fast

Clothes from nana!

The carnage!

My first macaroni art gift! 

My surprise gift from Mac...Catwoman figurine!

   Nixon came up to me later in the day, upset because Arwen's stocking was empty. He said "Santa forgot her!"
    I said "Maybe Santa didn't forget her. Maybe it's empty because she's on the naughty list for being mean and chasing Amber all year long. Do you think that's possible?"
   He looks at me, shocked and says "That's real?!"

"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.

Nixon's first board game and a family game day was had!

* I picked up Nixon from school and we headed off to a store so Nixon could pick out a board game (or 2) with the money his Nana sent him for Halloween. I've been hanging on to it, waiting for a reason to let Nixon spend it. Today seemed a good idea because his birthday's coming up and it's starting to get colder so board games will keep him busy when it's very cold outside.
   Nixon chose a Skylander's game that's just like Trouble: popper in the center holding the dice, and pegs you move according to the number on the dice.
    We played as soon as we got home. Nixon won the first game, totally fair and square! And he was super happy and excited too! He wanted to play over and over and over again. He even played a game by himself while Mac and I ate our dinners!

* Nixon's birthday party will be next Monday. We've got a couple friends coming over to celebrate with us. He's finally decided his theme will be My Little Pony. I took him to the nearest party store today and let him see all the options and he was super into the My Little Pony supplies!
   He also got to chose his cupcakes: pastel confetti cake mix, pink frosting and silver sugar glitter! He's super happy about the silver sugar glitter. He spent the rest of our time in the store carrying his sugar glitter around.
   I love my son and the simple things that make him so happy.

'Tis was the night before Halloween and there was a skunk on my steps....

But he's just the cutest, sweetest little skunk ever!! I even gave him some kisses!

Yes, tonight we took Nixon to a neighborhood shopping center that was doing Trick or Treating. Since it was a little on the chilly, and because he has a school Halloween party tomorrow to go to, he wore his backup costume tonight: a skunk. Pinkie Pie will be worn to school tomorrow.

Even though the area was crowded, older kids were rude, and Nixon usually would've been overwhelmed and throwing a tantrum halfway down the strip of store fronts, tonight he did awesome! A little quiet or lacking all-together with his "thank you" sometimes, but he was spot on with "Trick or Treat!" and sometimes replaced  a "thank you" with a "Happy Halloween" instead.

He was overjoyed with his bucket full of candy! He even asked to sit down just to look at all his candy. Last year, trick or treating was a bust. We were new to the area, thought we had a good game plan, but it was raining and we ended up at the mall, with everyone else. It was chaotic and poor Nixon was not really feeling it at all. Tonight he was loving it! His bucket was filled in less than 20 minutes and he was ready to go home when we hit the last store front.

It was fun. Nixon was the only skunk we saw and lots of people gave him compliments on the costume, his manners and how cute he was in general.

There's a smile under the skunk hood!

Nixon's very advanced...he's not going to runaway from home, he's taking an airplane!

* Mac woke me up today and said Nixon was asking for eggs and bacon. I promised him I'd make breakfast for him last night and he was ready for it!
   I made bacon, eggs and toast for the three of us. During breakfast, we started talking about football (duh, it's Sunday, of course football came up!) and Nixon says, out of nowhere, "The Eagles are going to beat the Giants!". I'm an Eagles fan so that was music to my ears!
    Nixon went on to say that the Dolphins (Mac's favorite team) was going to beat the Jets. He didn't actually know who was playing whom, but he was making these predictions and he was sticking to them.
    Sadly, the Eagles did not win and the Dolphins lost to the Patriots.

* Nixon: I'm going to pack my things and fly away?
me: Are you running away from home then?
Nixon: No, I'm going to the airport and go on a airplane.
me: Oh, okay. where are you going?
Nixon: I don't know.
me: How are you buying your ticket? You're cute but you can't fly for free, kiddo.
Nixon: I don't have any dollars!
me: Well, it's a good idea but I think you need to plan a little better.
Nixon: Well, fine! Then I'm not taking BeBe! *as he leaves to stomp upstairs to his room*
me: Oh Nixon, I'll take BeBe. I'll love him while you're gone.
Nixon: Fine! You take him! *brings me BeBe and stomps up to his room*
This was brought on by....well, I have no clue what brought this on. He just decided he was going to fly away from us. And he was unimpressed by my lack of emotion as he tried leaving! Later, he did try extorting a thousand dollars from me, I think for his plane ticket. I was coming downstairs and he was sitting on the bottom step. He stood up and tried blocking my way, telling me "Give me a thousand dollars and I'll move!", I gave him a kiss and tickled him as I passed him.
   I ain't got no thousand dollars for him!

Another catch-up post! (Thursday, Friday & Saturday)

* Sorry for slacking. There hasn't been much out of the ordinary going on and I've been getting some real, quality sleep.
    Thursday was awesome in that I can't recall anything that happened in a negative way.

    Friday Nixon went to school and was super excited because they were going outside to the playground as soon as he arrived. No need to take his jacket off, he was ready!
    I picked him up and he was ready to go. No bad reports from teachers, high-five to one of his teachers on the way out and we were on our way to go meet Mac for lunch again. We stopped for lunch on the way and Nixon was super great. Even while we were in the store with Mac finding a long sleeve shirt and hoodie for Nixon and when he was told "no toys" he was great! On the way home I had to stop and get my prescriptions, which took less than 10 minutes, but Nixon was waiting without his PSP and he was amazing! I was super proud of him!
   Friday was a great day, except that Nixon is getting another cold and not sleeping well. He gets all the snot and stuff in his throat and he wakes up because he can't breathe clearly. Poor baby.

   Saturday....today, Nixon got to wear his Pinkie Pie costume! He woke up singing and very excited! He made a couple friends while waiting. There were 2 little girls dressed as Rainbow Dash and Princess Luna. Nixon spent some time chasing them and having a ball just being himself. It was great that there were no side glances, no rude words behind his back..nothing like that about his costume. Everyone loved his costume and were very wonderful about him wearing it.

Our family today

   Mac took Nixon home because the line for the signing was moving slow and Nixon was kind of at his max. I stayed and Nixon spent time with Mac without me....it was wonderful for all of us.

...and today he wore a size 6 pants for the first time ever. Stop growing, baby boy!! Just slow down!

* Nixon heard Mac come home this morning and proudly showed him the clear path in his bedroom! He's been sleeping in our bed because his room is such a disaster even he doesn't want to sleep in there and possibly have to get up in the middle of the night to pee and walk across the matchbox-car-angry-birds-stuffed-animal minefield he created in there!
    To be fair, he had some help. We had a friend crash here last night and she was up when Nixon woke up. She told Nixon a great way to surprise his daddy and make him very happy would be to clean his room up a little before he came home. He did just that and was super proud of himself. And Mac? Mac was super pleased with the effort!

* It was pretty chilly in the house this morning, so I grabbed a blanket and Nixon and I snuggled while watching our Saturday cartoons together! Nixon would get up, say he was warm, then come back and say "Mommy, let me in, my feet and hands are cold!"

* Tonight was a major milestone! We had to go to the grocery store, and normally we go armed with the PSP or iTouch for Nixon to keep him occupied, but tonight we left without it and went anyways. This was either going to go really well or really bad!
   Turns out, it went really well! Nixon was great! He got a little cold in the meat and dairy section, but he liked picking out granola bars for himself and weighing the fruits and veggies for us. He didn't get antsy until the very end and even that wasn't bad.
    Best part of the whole trip? On the way out, Nixon walked past 2 older men and (of course!) said "Excuse me" as he passed them. These two guys were just blown away, completely awed by our little man's manners. The man closest to Mac and I said "Did you just hear that little boy say "excuse me" as he passed us? That's incredible! He's yours, right? Great job! He is so polite."
    Yep, that's our boy and we are so proud!

Friends are the best form of chaos! (weekend recap)

* Even though he was sick, Nixon had an awesome weekend with his cousins (my friend C's kids are known as cousins, because family isn't always born to you, sometimes we're lucky and we get to pick our family members!). Friday night Nixon and I spent the night sitting up sleeping on C's oversized sofa, because Nixon's cough was so bad.
 
I also spent some quality time with C's dog, Leonidas. For those who don't know, L is a husky and I have a serious fear of that breed. I was good with him, so much so that I offered to brush him last year when we had all returned to Maryland after being apart for 3 years. I was good...until I hit a snarl in his fur and he yelped and growled at me. Yep, not so good....my old fear hit me head-on and I was a basket case around him.
 But we made peace this weekend:

* Saturday went by way too fast! We spent some time at a neighborhood bbq, Claire made an incredible chicken curry for lunch and the kids all crashed and slept well.  Nixon stayed in bed all night and had very little coughing. 

   The bbq was a house full of kids, noise and friends. It's obvious C has a great support system where she's at. And Nixon and K-bug were fast friends...even if they did spend most of the time fighting over the same toys!

*Sunday we had to leave. My goal was to leave early, but we got waylaid a bit. We left 30 minutes late and with all our stops along the way home plus the traffic we hit we made it home in about 8 hours. Not bad and Nixon was a champ in the car. Did not get sick once, liked the music I put on and never watched his PSP during the whole ride. Yeah, I may have bought new toys for him when we stopped for Boogie Wipes, but they weren't expensive and he was being awesome!

Just before our good-byes...

It was a low-key day but that means no tantrums and no time outs, so I can totally dig it. Also, Nixon is learning that purposely using incorrect grammar drives me nuts!

* Nixon was so cute today. He drew a stick figure on the window with glass markers, he also drew a heart, a tree, a sun and a bush. He named the stick figure Nixon.

* Nixon made a video today: It's my sister's birthday, so we made a video of Nixon singing "Happy Birthday" with me for her. He sang a verse and then I sang, when it was his turn to sing again, he said "No, I don't want to do it" and stopped singing the song. He did say "I love you" which was good enough for me.

* New phrase in the house "Nixon no understand". This is coming from Nixon. I corrected him, so he was saying it correctly "I don't understand". He would say it correctly and then he would say it incorrectly because he knew it'd bother me.


(no pictures of Nixon tonight....my camera battery is dead)

Today's lesson: budgeting

* Today I tried teaching Nixon about money and budgeting. It was a fail, but not really on his part.
   There was a large yard sale very local to us, that was all geek stuff: GI Joes, Transformers, Star Wars, video games, comic books...just amazing years of collection. We gave Nixon $5 for the yard sale, it was his to spend on whatever he liked. He saw an old GI Joe Cobra 4-wheeler, and went searching for a red guy to ride it. It had to be red because the 4-wheeler was red. Later he found a Bumblebee transformer that he liked. Those 3 totalled his $5 and he was good with that.
   He spent the rest of the time playing with all three toys, and making his awesome robot sounds and "pew, pew" sounds. The guy selling everything came over and started talking to Nixon (and us). He ended up just giving Nixon the toys he'd picked out! He even grabbed another Transformer and gave him that one as well.
   We paid for everything else we'd picked out and all said our "Thank you"'s. Seriously, this guy was just looking to know that his collection was going to be appreciated and enjoyed and while he is selling to raise money for his family, you could tell it was more about seeing the joy his collection was bringing to other people.
   He is a wonderful guy and Nixon is very happy because of this man's generosity.

* Nixon is picking up on sarcasm, almost a little too well. He keeps saying "I love you Daddy" but the way he says it sounds like he just told us to eff off! As long as we're not getting complaints that he's doing this at school, we're good with it. He's gotta be allowed to develop his own sense of self and there's no safer place than at home.

My little birdie has left the nest....for 2.5 hours and then he came back home, until Friday when we do this all over again.

* Nixon had his first day at his preschool today. He came into the bedroom only 10 minutes before my alarm went off, and he asked to snuggle with me. Mac came home, also before my alarm went off, and Nixon went to say good morning to him.
   Mac was in bed when my alarm went off and Nixon got a kick out of my alarm song "Oink, oink, oink" by Pinkie Pie! Nixon and I got out of bed and left Mac to get some sleep.

* Nixon was so excited to go to school. He barely gave Mac and I a hug when we dropped him off! He was happy to meet the kids in his class and go see all the new things in his classroom.
   When we went to pick him up, we got the expected report: He had some trouble transitioning from one task to another. I knew this was going to be an issue, which is a large reason why we sought out a preschool setting for this school year in the first place. But we also found out he helped with snack time, by helping set it up! So he wasn't a total terror, just a normal unacclimated-first-day-at-school kiddo.
   He didn't want to leave, another thing I was prepared for, which is why we had a surprise ready for him: an after-school trip to FroYo! That was all it took, he happily left the classroom and was good to go!

* Best news of the day: I made it all day without shedding a single tear!

Another catch-up post....vacation is over, so tonight's post will be business as usual, I promise!

* Wednesday my parents wanted to treat Nixon (with Mac and I) to a day at the Zoo. Any zoo trip is a good trip for Nixon, but this one included rides!

the train that Nixon had to go on alone...meaning no parents. His first "just me" ride *tear*

the carousel that started with Nixon sitting in the bench next to me and ended with him on the horse in front of me. 

* Wednesday night Nixon spent the night with his Geema Jes and Mac & I had the night to ourselves. We did nothing special. But Nixon enjoyed movies with his godmother and some very special bonding time with her.

* Thursday we went to my grandmother's for lunch. Geema Jes brought Nixon out there to meet us, and my sister came out a little later with her kids. Nixon got to play with his cousins, chasing bubbles in the backyard until it started to rain. I'm so glad he got to spend the time he did with his cousins, making memories similar to memories I have with my cousins from my childhood.

* Friday was packing day and we left to drive home around 3pm. Actually, we left 5 minutes early. For us it's kind of a big deal!
   No big events on the road. We made good time home, Nixon slept for about 3 hours of our drive. Mac and I had some silly bonding time while he slept. It really was a great vacation, minus every moron on the road seeming to target our car with their stupid driving.

Daddy's turn to drive! 

Yeah, we're kind of weird like that. 

* Saturday was our recovery day. The cats were super happy to see us and Nixon even slept in until after 9am. We all stayed in bed until after 10am, Nixon saying he had a "yucky tummy". We got dressed and went to go eat breakfast at Denny's, when Nixon got sick on the way.
   We cleaned him up and changed him (yay for being lazy and not unpacking the car yet!), I was ready to go home but Nixon insisted he was good and wanted to eat. We took a chance, armed with wipes, and asked to sit at the booth closest to the restrooms just in case.
   It was unnecessary because he was totally fine, ate all his breakfast and didn't get sick again.

Our vacation home couldn't have been any better, but we could have used more hours in the day. It's never enough time.....
Until next time: We love you, New York!

Meeting the family....for the first time that he's likely to remember for the rest of his life!

* Nixon is awesome! I know, I say that a lot, but really he is. He woke up today, and came in to wake Mac and I by saying "The sun is put and today is Sunday! It's a great day!". How awesome is that?!
   He had a great morning chilling and relaxing before we headed off to my aunt's house to see Nixon's godmother and the rest of my immediate family, who would be also arriving at said house soon after we arrived there ourselves.

* Nixon had a BLAST running around with his cousins and it was great to watch them play together. It brought back memories of my own childhood visits from my own out-of-state cousins and our summers together. I love that Nixon's making memories of his own like that with his cousins now.

family....we are who we are. 

He's a trooper, even if he's cranky!

* Nixon and I both got up around 830am today. For him this is late, for me this is a miracle! I had a lot to get done, since I thrive under pressure and I'm a professional procrastinator. Nixon was great while Mac slept, for the most part, letting me get things done around the house and even helped me sort the laundry by pulling all his clothes out and putting them in his own basket.
   We had a bunch of errands to run when Mac woke up, including gifts for my nieces. Not an easy task with a kid in tow, but Nixon was totally into picking out gifts for his cousins...we'll see if he's still totally into it when it comes time to give said gifts to his cousins.

* He did not take a nap today, unless you count a 5 minute snooze in the car a nap. I'm hoping this means an extra long nap in the car tomorrow, but it could backfire and mean an extra cranky kid in the car tomorrow. Either way it'll be an adventure!

* We stopped at the grocery store to grab some last minute snacks and things, and Nixon had this one cashier completely in love with him. She kept telling me how she loved his little voice and listening to him say things. She just kept asking him questions to hear him talk. Thank gods I was right there otherwise I might not have had a kid anymore she looked like she was going to gobble the sweetness right out of Nixon! I get it, my kid's kind of cute and very adorable when he's not being an ass, but please middle-aged cashier, control yourself!

Medicine juice and other things that will lead to a pre-breakfast meltdown....

* Poor Nixon had the worst morning today. He was eating his apples and drinking his OJ that I had gotten for him, while Mac and I were up in our room still waking up and getting ready to go out to breakfast. Nixon spilled his OJ and was so upset! He was crying, just devastated that he made a mess and had spilled all his "medicine juice". He's got a cough and some chest congestion, so to get him to take his cough medicine I put the dose in a cup of OJ. He saw me do this today and realized it was "medicine juice". He was suddenly very okay with drinking medicine juice (which he hadn't been before, hence why I resorted to mixing it in OJ in the first place) and was upset when it was spilled.
   We cleaned him, the carpet and the chair up, assured him it was fine and eventually we got out of the house and had a really nice day together. Lots of errands completed, getting things ready for the road trip this weekend and even got Nixon's health forms for school completed!

* how do you know Nixon's under the weather? He takes a 4 hour nap and then still goes to bed on time. Yep, that happened today. Poor baby, I hope this cold is short-lived so he can really enjoy our time in NY with my family next week.

Life kind of sucks, even when you're only 4 with no real life issues.

* Another great signing at Third Eye Comics today. Nixon and I arrived way earlier than usual, got there before 9am. It was a great crew, chill day, Nixon was great. The creators we met were awesome! They even got the "Name Story" because they asked how we came up with his name (I had them sign something for him).

* Tonight Nixon and I had a deep conversation about friends, love, missing people and broken hearts. Much deeper material than I'd thought I'd have to address with a 4-year old, but he needed to hear it. He was saying he wanted to quit making friends. Why? Because his heart hurt from missing his cousin J so much, he was worried that new friends would leave him too and hurt his heart even more.
   Poor kiddo.
   I had to tell him, his heart hurt from missing J because he loved J. We always miss the ones we love when we have to say good-bye. He seemed to understand, but wow, talk about a really heavy moment for us.

Please let him sleep through till morning.....I don't want a repeat of last week's 3am drive with a wide-awake kiddo!

* After several, several long weeks of Nixon's non-stop snacking and then refusing to eat at meal times, I tried something different today. He asked for blueberry oatmeal for breakfast. He then refused to eat it. So I refused to let him have any snacks until lunchtime. If he was hungry, his oatmeal was still an option.
   Guess what? He ended up eating it about 2 hours later. I did re-heat it, just a touch, for him. He then also at him lunch.

* Nixon, one of the cutest little comic book store patrons ever, was in full-on charmer mode today! Just totally adorable, counting Green Lantern rings, telling me about Hulk and talking to all the store employees. He was even trying to set up his own photo op with the tentacle finger puppets. Oh he's so cute!

* It's another early bedtime for Nixon. He's been asleep since 6pm. Tonight I'm not waking him. Hopefully, he'll stay asleep all night....fingers crossed.

Nixon and Pinkie Pie, it's true love!

* Today Nixon got his Pinkie Pie. We went to breakfast, then went off to the mall to get his reward. First stop was to show Mac the giant fish tank in the mall. Nixon has a favorite fish and wanted to show Mac that fish (it's blue with a spiky looking fin on it).
  When it came time to get Pinkie Pie, Nixon was all business. Well, as business as a 4-year old can be. Happy to be going and doing the different areas to stuff his Pinkie Pie, with a couple hiccups. He didn't like waiting in line, he wanted to "wash" Pinkie Pie longer and he wanted something Angry bird he saw.
  When we left he was telling me how BeBe and Pinkie Pie were going to be best friends, and how he couldn't wait to introduce Pinkie Pie to BeBe (who was waiting for us in the car). It was all very cute.
   He napped with Pinkie Pie and is currently sleeping with her and BeBe as well. Totally adorable!

* Nixon woke me up this morning telling me he needed more X's because today is the day we're supposed to go to NY. It's going to be a long less than 3 weeks before we leave....

This is our son....and his defense is he learned it from Star Wars Angry Birds....really?!?!

* Nixon and I were eating breakfast this morning. I showed him the picture my sister sent me of my new nephew. Nixon says to me "Mommy, I'm a baby. I need a diaper". I kind of rolled with it and replied "Well, I don't have a diaper right now but why would you want one?". He thinks and then says "I'm growing up but I want to be your baby. Like a little baby."
  I reassure him that he'll always be my baby and I remind him that babies don't get to play Angry Birds and they have to sleep a lot and can't play with Lego's. I think he was over it at no Angry Birds.

* Nixon is sitting next to me on the sofa, with his fingers in his mouth

me: Fingers out.
Nixon: fingers in!
me: go to bed if you want fingers in
Nixon: (gets off the sofa and starts walking to the stairs) bowchickabowwow
me: *stunned silence followed by belly laughter*

* When Mac woke up, I explained the whole "bowchicabowwow" thing. Nixon then comes upstairs and starts saying it all over again, multiple times. We asked him where he learned that, while Mac was trying to change it to "brownchicken,browncow", and Nixon said "Space Angry Birds". Somehow I doubt that, but looks like I'm going to be putting some hours into that game soon. 

Always my baby....