About last night....Sept 30th's post

   I couldn't write a post last night. I was raw and emotional from the day.

   It started really bad, with Nixon crying and refusing to go to school. Ultimately I sat down with him and talked to him (and listened). My poor, sweet boy is dealing with what sounds like a bully situation at school...in preschool?!?! For real!
   Mac and I took Nixon to school, and I spoke to his teachers about the situation we face at home (sadly, this is not the first day Nix hasn't wanted to go to school) and what he had told me that morning. Nixon pointed out the child to Mac, who in turn brought it to the teachers attention.
   When we picked him up, the teachers assured us nothing out of the ordinary happened and they saw no inappropriate interactions between Nixon and the other child. It was also mentioned that Nixon sometimes overreacts to some social interactions (example given was Nixon telling a teacher she was mean when a Lego she tossed into a pile, bounced and hit Nixon's arm. The group was sitting on the floor and it was clean up time, and the Lego toss was part of a clean up effort, apparently) and perhaps Nixon is just misinterpreting normal play with bullying. It was also said that Nixon was playing with all the boys yesterday, as they were all chasing each other and "shooting" each other (gun play is not allowed on school grounds and this was quickly discouraged).
   While I'm not totally opposed to listening to that, I've witnessed the child Nixon pointed out mock Nixon in the past. Nixon has a very sweet voice, and has trouble with some pronouncing some words and I heard this child mocking Nixon's voice and speech. Nixon, at the time, laughed it off and walked away that day. It makes me wonder what happened since then.

   I was, and still am, upset over the idea that Nixon is being bullied already. But I'm listening to him, talking about things and helping him deal with this at home, all while letting him know his parents are here for him no matter what. Sometimes I just need to slow down and listen to him instead of reacting to him. Yesterday morning was that day.

School's going well, Nixon is thriving at home too!

* Nixon started the day skipping and dancing into my bedroom when he heard my alarm go off. He came over to my still sleeping body and said "Mom, your alarm went off and I danced, did you see me?" No, but I felt the floor move when he jumped all over my bedroom. He said to me, not liking my answer, "Well, next time open your eyes and watch me, okay? I'm a great dancer!"


* Dancing was the theme of the morning:

* Nixon was also making up silly songs today.  Have you heard the dreidel song? Well Nixon was making up a song in that tune
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy
I love every day
or
Mommy instead of Daddy.
 Too damned cute! 

* The best part of my day was listening to Nixon spell a word and sound it out. He started spelling "taxi" then sounded it out. He moved on to "jet", "boat", "fire truck" and a few other words. He was reading these words from a book he's had since he was a baby, but he was actually spelling then sounding out the words!
   Mac and I are a couple of super proud parents today. He got good report from his teacher at school. He was so happy to see us when we picked him up, he ran over to me for a hug!

Another major milestone reached today: Nixon's first "injury" at school at the hands of another child....holy crap is it really only the 2nd week of school?!!?

* Nixon gleefully returned to school today, after staying home Monday due to some pretty bad congestion issues he had going on. He bounced back from that very quickly and woke up excited for school today.
   When I dropped him off, he went skipping...literally skipping, towards the toys singing "It's time to play! It's time to play!" without a single glance back at me.

* When it was time to pick Nixon up, he rushed from the center of the group circle and came over to tell Mac and I about his day, which it turns out was not that great.
    It seems Nixon got hit in the head by another child. He was hit with a wooden block, and Nixon was given an ice pack while the other child was spoken to about why hitting others with blocks is not okay. The other child apologized and Nixon has no bump so all is well in his world.
    His teacher also said, other than this incident, Nixon was incredible today! He helped her, followed instructions, stayed in circle during circle time.

* When Mac and I got Nixon into the car we talked more abut what happened at school. I did what I do best, I focused on the good. Nixon didn't hit the other child back, he didn't retaliate and he accepted the apology. He focused in class today and was on good behavior. I was (and I am) so proud of him! This is really the first time he's been in a situation like this, without me around him, and he handled it like I've always tried to teach him to: without losing his temper or resorting to violence in response. No whether this was a conscious effort on his part or he didn't respond because he was shocked, I can't say for sure, but to me it really doesn't matter so long as he didn't hit back.

My Little Pony, helping Nixon enjoy writing without him even realizing he's writing! Thank you....

* Nixon has been fighting doing any kind of writing, or holding a writing utensil of any kind, lately. He gets easily frustrated when trying to write letters especially.
   Imagine my surprise when Nixon and I spent over 45 minutes drawing and coloring in a My Little Pony coloring book, with Nixon doing most of the drawing. We played tic-tac-toe and Nixon drew both "x" and "o" in the game and he beat me 2 of 4 games, we tied once.  Nixon connected matching ponies over 10 times, drawing perfectly straight lines.
   But the most incredible moment of the whole moment happened when Nixon was looking to match cutie marks to pony names. He asked me to read the name, instead I asked him to spell out the letters. He saw "P" in the first one, and based on the possible cutie marks, Nixon blurts out "Pinkie Pie!" which was correct. We moved on to the next choice, and he saw the "A" and gleefully said "Applejack!", again correct!

* Tonight is the beginning our our new bedtime routine. Bath at 7:30pm, in bed by 8pm. Nixon was very excited when he learned that the reason for the new bedtime was because he starts school tomorrow. He even shampooed his own hair! For those not aware, this is a huge deal! He's always had issues with water in his face and ears, but he seemed to get over it as long as he was doing it for himself.
    He came downstairs, after Mac left for work and asked me "Mommy, how is the operation going?"
me: The operation is not going well. *I wave a hand all over him* It's been a complete bed-ectomy. Now let's get you back into bed.
Nixon: No, it's too early.
me: How about, if you help me pick out your clothes for tomorrow, before you go to bed?
Nixon: Yay!

   So we picked out his shirt, went back to his bedroom, more hugs kisses and another good-night.

Amber taking advantage of a few moments she's allowed in Nixon's room by getting into bed with him 

I feel like this post is just the beginning of the apologies I will be making to Nixon future teachers....is there a template I can find, maybe a mad-lib would be best?!? This is going to be great, right??

* I called this morning and found out Nixon has a spot in the pre-K class we signed him up for last month!! He'll be going 3 days a week, 3 hours each day starting September 4th.
   Let me just say: for a kid who has been begging to go to school for over 6 months now, when I told him he will be going to school in a few weeks, even going so far as to show him the first day of school as I wrote it on the calendar, he was far from impressed. In fact, he was pissed off! Why? He was pissed that he had to wait until we got back from NY and then another week.
   He even tried telling me "But mom, we already went to New York, don't you 'member? We put all the x's on the days and we're home now. Now I can go to school!"
   I believe I will be apologizing a lot to his teacher for his creative logic....like, a whole lot.

* I painted my toe nails this morning. Nixon asked for his to be painted as well. He chose the very neon green/yellow color I have. But hey, he sits still for 20 minutes, so I see it as a win.

* Have you met "mini-Mac"? Mini-Mac is Nixon, when he is in full-on mimic daddy mode. He repeats almost any and everything Mac says, good or bad. But he doesn't just repeat the words, he copies the tone and voice inflection. He is getting spot-on dry sarcasm from this.
   Again....I apologize to his teacher for producing quite possibly the most dry-witted, sarcastic 4.5-year old she has had the pleasure of teaching. Thank gods this school has a heavy emphasis on creativity, Nixon surely has a ton of that!

Boring day and it's okay by me.

* I like boring days that really nothing happens. It means no great disasters and no big meltdowns, in my book it means an epic win!
   He even choose a book not a toy when we were doing a quick grocery shopping trip today. A book!! What parent would turn that down?!? Not us.

* Nixon's kind of the coolest kid I know. Did you know he tells me when he's ready to go to bed? He'll grab his teddy bear and go to the stairs and say "Umm, Mom, I think I'd like to go to bed now. I think it's time."
   Yeah, he really is the coolest kid ever!

Ah...his dry-sarcasm training is coming along nicely!

* Nixon: I love you, Mom.
me: *kiss* I love you too, baby.
Mac: What am I, chopped liver?
me: Nixon, what about Daddy? Do you love Daddy?
Nixon: Yeah, I love Daddy too.
me: I think you should go tell him.
*Nixon goes running over to Mac*
Nixon: I like you Dad.
me: HOLY....*and then I lose my mind laughing*
Mac: Seriously?
Me: Nixon, that's not nice. Don't you love Daddy?
Nixon: I do. *gives Mac a hug* I like you Dad. I really like you Daddy.
Mac: Gee, thanks buddy.
me: Nixon, no more playing around. You're hurting Daddy's feelings.
Nixon: I'm sorry. I love you Daddy.

I know I shouldn't have laughed, but damn that kid is hilarious! He's so random and he's totally got our humor down to an art now. 

* Nixon is sometimes incredibly honest. Ask him a question, then ask him if he's lying and he'll tell you if he's lying.
Today he asked if he could ring the bell at the Post Office. Since we were (a) already at the counter and (b) had the clerk helping us, I explained no, he could not because it'd be rude. He asked to sit on the counter "to see better". I asked him if he really meant to "ring the bell", he said "yeah" then smiled, like he was so smart. I told him again, ringing the bell when you're already being helped is rude and not nice to the person who is helping us. He said he would be good and crossed-his-heart not to touch the bell. And he didn't, he sat there, quietly, the whole time. The clerk gave him a lollipop when we were done.

*Finally, the biggest Top News Story of the day:

Nixon completed Level 3 on abcmouse.com! It was a preschool level, focusing on numbers and letters, basic shapes and colors. All the things he should know and would have learned in preschool.
Mac and I are so proud of him, but most importantly Nixon is proud of himself! So much so that he went right into Level 4: Pre-K lessons.
Monday morning we're going to take him out an let him get his reward for accomplishing this amazing fete! 

I'll bank all his kind and loving words said now for later days.

* Nixon wrote the letter "E" today! I couldn't be any prouder of I tried. He's doing so well with practicing his writing.

* Nixon says to me today "Mommy, I pooped a lot and now I'm out of energy to wipe my butt." When I tell him he won't get his sticker if I wipe his butt, he says to me "Waitwaitwait....I got my energy back. I'll do it." And he did!

* Nixon, king of the one liners today, says "Mom, what's that smell?", as Amber walks into the litter box. I say, "I don't kiddo, I think Amber's taking a poo." He says, "It's Amber's BUTT! She's POOPING! Stinky butt Amber!" and runs off chuckling.

* We ran to the store for milk and ice cream. While standing in line, Nixon grabs one of the tabloids and says "Mom, I need to read one of these." He opens it up and says "Do you believe this mess?" The couple behind us started cracking up!
   He was hugging me and telling me "I love you" and "You're my best friend". The woman in front of us turned to look at him and then me. I smiled and she says, very quietly, "Enjoy those words, because they aren't always that loving as they get older."

Bacon?!? Hell yeah I bought him a bacon print tie! I know he'll rock that mo'fo too!

* Nixon has wonderful manners. I can not complain about his "please", "excuse me" when we're out and about. But he's not so good at looking and talking to people when we sit down and eat out. He doesn't talk directly to the server, he speaks super softly and he gets annoyed with Mac or myself if we tell him he needs to speak louder.
  This morning at Denny's he got so annoyed he huffed his annoyance, grabbed his menu, opened it up and pointed to the smoothie choices. "Here! This one...please" he said as he pointed to the strawberry banana smoothie. I resisted the urge to ask her to "hold the attitude" haha

* There's something about Nixon when he gets super excited about something. I bought him a simple dry erase board to help him practice writing him letters and numbers on. He immediately wanted to start using it! Sat down at his table and wrote 4 lines of "words". I read an "F", "T", "S" and "I". I was most impressed with the "s" because it was the most legible.
    The dry erase board? It might have been a Star Wars Angry Birds one. Okay, it IS a Star Wars Angry Birds dry erase board. It hardly matters though because I'll use what ever it takes to get Nixon excited to start trying to write on his own. Learning is not learning when he thinks its a punishment....

* Nixon also got a new tie today. It's a bacon print tie. He loves it! It was a dollar at Target.

The night Nixon asks me to create a costume for BeBe

* Nixon comes up to me and whispers in my ear "Mommy, its ice time". "Ice time" is Nixonese for popsicles. He didn't ask, so he didn't get one until he looked me in the eyes and asked me the correct way.

* Nixon was getting scared of the thunder that was part of the storm rolling through this evening. He kept saying it was loud and scary. I told him its just noise and won't hurt him. That didn't seem to work. I continued "Baby, thunder is like your Daddy. It's loud and sounds scary, but it won't ever hurt you." Nixon looked at me and said "Thunder is my Daddy?" SO not the point I was trying to make, but he wasn't scared of it anymore!

* We are going to a local Comic Con tomorrow. All our costumes are figured out and Nixon decides tonight to drop this bomb on me: He wants BeBe to have a costume too! BeBe is his teddy bear, and a total part of the family, so I of course tell him "I'll see what I can come up with". I end up with a cape and eye patch for his bear. It took about 90 minutes, because I had to take apart and put back together my sewing machine, but none of that will matter as long as Nixon likes what I came up with for his bear.

He's a dapper, chill, smart little guy

* Nixon and I took a short trip to Third Eye Comics tonight. Nixon was sporting a bow tie and was looking extremely dapper. There was another little boy at the store, probably 2-3 years old, who pointed out Nixon's tie and Nixon pointed at the boy's shirt and said "Mom look, it's Yo Gabba Gabba!" Kids bond over the most random things, eh?

* I adore Nixon's random ways of picking new things to learn. Today he's decided to memorize our house number. I added our street name, which is kind of a mouthful, but he repeated it and then says "Mom, it's a big deal I know this, right?"

* Phrases of the week:
   Oh.My.God- he says this when he sees an ant almost anywhere.
   Crap on a stick- he says this when something goes wrong.
   Umm, no, I'm Nixon- he says this any time Mac or I call him by something other than his name.

He read a little today!

* ...he brought me the apples from his Happy Meal and asked me to open them because "Your super strong, Mommy. You're even stronger than daddy." I'm not going to argue with that, since all that means to him is I'm his hero.

* I had tea for breakfast this morning, instead of my usual coffee. Nixon, who loves to help me make my coffee, say the different k-cup and said "Um, Mommy...you should put this one in" and hands me a coffee k-cup. When I tell him my throat is sore and I need tea to help it feel better Nixon says "But mommy, coffee makes you smile".

* We sent a couple packages off last week. Since Nixon is starting to learn his letters and write them, I wrote out "I Love You" on a sheet of paper so he could write it inside the cards we were sending out.
   Nixon brought that same piece of paper to me today and said to me "Look mom, this says "I love you", see? Right here. Look! MOM! Look!" I looked up and he was pointing to the words as he said them. When I wrote the phrase, I only told him the letters, I never told him what it said. No, I think I told him once what it said, but the letters were the important part.
   My baby read a phrase all on his own!!!

Skip a nap crash on the sofa early!

* I have a sore throat and have been under the weather because of it. Nixon, on the other hand, has been feisty and feeling just fine. Today he refused to pick up his toys and as a result of refusing multiple time and yelling in my face after I told him to go to his room, he was in time out in his room...with a gate in front of his door to keep him in there.
  Or so I thought.
  Around the time I was going to check on him, because he'd been quiet for a while and I thought he'd fallen asleep (secretly hoped), BeBe comes tumbling down the stairs, followed by a very stealth Nixon. Nixon comes over to me and says he "escaped" by crawling under the gate...he was very proud of his escape and very apologetic for the actions that got him sent to his room.

* He might be outgrowing naps...but I'm still doing quiet times. Today he didn't nap. But he did fall asleep on the sofa at 8:30pm!
   I'm a little worried he might be sick because he looked very flush and sweaty when I went to take his pictures tonight. He's been drinking from my water bottle, in spite of my warnings that he'll get sick if he does.
   Please don't let my baby boy don't get sick......

poor flushed, sweaty kiddo :(

Explaining old age without offending anyone isn't as easy as you'd think it would be....

* Leaving the Post Office today, Nixon points out an elderly gent using a cane.
Nixon: What's wrong with him?
me: *trying not to cringe as he'd said this loudly and there were 2 other patrons nearby* Nothing's wrong with him, baby. He's just old....umm, he's lived a long life.
Nixon: Why's he walking funny?
me: Well, part of living a long life means your body doesn't stay fresh. He's using a cane because his body needs help.
Nixon: Oh.
me: But he's also really lucky. He's lived to see a lot of birthdays! And that's pretty cool, right?
Nixon: He's had a lot of cakes?! That's awesome!

He has a twin bed, but seems to only need the top portion where his pillows are...

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! 

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.

Nana put him to work!

* Mac called and checked on things at home this morning. His mom was home with Nixon while we were still at Free Comic Book Day, standing in line at the time. Nixon was fine, he was actually putting his laundry away with Nana! He's done this once or twice with me, but it was a major battle. But with Nana, it was apparently fun.

* We got home a little after 130pm, and Nixon was napping! He'd apparently had a bad night's sleep, woken up early and when asked if he wanted a nap he accepted. I can't say I blame him, I also took a nap shortly after getting home!

Nana has arrived!!

* Nixon helped make eggs for Mac today. He did it by himself with a little supervision from me.

* Nixon made his nana a card today. It had 5 smiley faces on it AND he wrote his name...for the first time...ever! I wasn't home, Mac helped him do it. But it looked amazing!

* Nixon's nana was supposed to fly in around 2pm. Due to flight cancellations, weather issues and other  situations she didn't end up finally getting here until 11pm! Nixon was still awake and so excited to see his nana.

Amber is happy to see Nana too!

Nixon, guardian of freshly made beds

* Nixon has been having a real issue with cleaning up his toys lately. So much so that it's come to 3 times of getting asked to clean them up, and then Mac or I clean them up and take them away. Today was that same thing, Nixon had just gotten his cars back and he decided to not pick them up. I was picking them up and he knew that meant they were going to be taken away again. So what does he do? He sits on the stairs and says "BOOOO" when he realizes I'm not going to let him come and save his "favorite" truck.
I ushered him into his room and put him in Time Out for that. I can ignore a lot of things, but a blatant disrespectful act like that...no sir, we're going to address that.

* Nana (Mac's mom) is coming for a week long visit starting next week. Nixon is excited and has even been happily, even at some points begging, helping me getting the house ready. Today he helped me wash the sheet for the spare bed. He then told Amber, after he saw the fresh clean sheets on the bed, "No Amber, that's Nana's bed. You have to stay out! Okay? I said stay out!"

A mostly uneventful day

* Nixon could not wait for me to get out of bed this morning. He greeted me, smile on his face, with an incredibly sweet "Good morning mommy. It's a beautiful day! The sun is up and the bugs are outside! The bugs AND spiders are outside, mommy. Isn't that a good day? Now come downstairs its time to wake up."

* His reason for being so excited was mostly due to our creating a membership on abcmouse.com for him. Since we can't get him into a daycare or preschool program, I want him to still know the basics. Hoping this website will help, we signed up and today was Nixon's first day.
He completed 2 lessons and multiple games. He was overjoyed to be learning! He calls it "going to school at the computer", it is the most accurate description there is.