The last weekend of 2013....and I missed Saturday's post

December 28 & 29, 2013

BeBe's back!
Day 362 & 363

* Saturday was pretty nice. Nixon and I woke up and watched My Little Pony together. There wasn't much going on except that I went out with friends last night and Nixon was very okay with it.
    Unlike the last time I went out, Nixon was very okay with me going out. Even telling me to leave so he and Mac can spend time together. They had a great night together, according to Mac.

* Sunday...football day!
Mac and I were excited because both of our teams had playoff spots on the line. Miami Dolphins had a chance....and needed a few other teams to lose, but the chance was there. They just needed to win. They did not. The Philadelphia Eagles (my long-loved team) had an easier path...they only needed to win. And they did!

We played Jenga Tetris tonight with Nixon. It's a lot harder than regular Jenga, but still fun! Nixon liked when everything fell down.
We also played Cars 2 Monopoly. The first game went by quickly, but the 2nd game lasted almost an hour and Nixon won! He was good at counting out the money and rolling Lighting McQueen around the track. It's a great game, I'm glad we got it for the family. It'll be a lot of fun for all of us.

Finally....we had a belated christmas miracle happen tonight. Mac found BeBe!!

He's home, been in the house this whole time! Nixon's sleeping and doesn't know he's been found yet. I placed him in the tree, waiting for Nixon to notice him tomorrow. He's been missing for almost a month (I think) and Nixon's been okay, only asking for him a couple times since he's been MIA.
   It's great that BeBe is home before the New Year.

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

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"

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.

Music, teaching him to lose and awesome shopping experience today!

* Today I had some shopping to do to get ready for Nixon's very first field trip tomorrow. Since Nixon was home with me today, I took him with me. I had my lists, Nixon knew where we were going and our game plan was set.
   We hit the first store and Nixon was awesome. Went to the second store and Nixon was so much better than the first! He helped me chose fruits, asked for broccoli, and even showed me (but didn't ask for) cupcakes he'd like for his birthday to take to school.

* In the car on the way to our shopping adventures, I had my iPod hooked up. We were listening to Miley Cyrus' newest album, and Nixon suddenly says "Momma, can you turn it off for a second?"
   I do and he says, "I wanted to tell you, I really like the music! It makes me want to dance!".
   After Miley, Nixon and I were both in the car singing to songs from My Little Pony. We started with Winter Wrap-up and kept singing together song, after song.
   It's the first time Nixon has really sang in the car and honestly, I love that he let me sing with him.

* Finally, Nixon asked me to buy him a tic-tac-toe game. It's winter themed, but it made him happy and he was super awesome, so I bought it.
   We came home and he wanted me to play it with him. I taught him a very important lesson: Pay attention to your moves. After losing several games, deciding to switch from 'X' to 'O' because he thought that was why he was losing and finally he started listening. He stopped just thinking about HIS next move and started looking for MY next move. He may not have beaten me, but he did stop me and we had more than a couple games end with no winner. He learned that having no winner was sometimes better than having a winner. It meant he was keeping up with me and planning his moves.
   He really liked that he stopped me from winning.