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)

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.

Uggg....what a damned day.

* You know those hard conversations that sneak up on you out of nowhere? Yeah, me too. This one caught me off guard today.
   This morning started with some coffee-milk (for Nixon), coffee for Mac and I, layers of clothes and a warm blanket for sitting outside waiting for another very awesome signing at Third Eye Comics. Nixon and I got there about an hour before the store opened. Nixon was running around but not being overly rowdy.
   Doors opened, we went in, got our stuff signed and even won 2 drawing from the artist. We were hanging out hoping the line slowed down so we could get the drawings and go home. Nixon spent most of his time playing with the dice, lining them up and what-not. He had become especially fond of this one pink die.
   Nixon had to go to the bathroom. The comic book store doesn't have a restroom, so we take him to the store next to them which does. While in there, Nixon says "Look momma, I have my pink dice in my hand!"
   OH SHIT!

    We went back to the store, found one of the owners and I had Nixon hand her back the dice and apologize for stealing it. We then found a "quiet" area and I explained to him why stealing is wrong. I know he didn't do it on purpose, but to me it's very important to nip this now before he does start doing it on purpose.
   He was sad, because he thought I was being mean and that the store owners wouldn't let him in the store anymore. I dialed it back a bit and told him he did the right thing by returning the die and apologizing. He was much better behaved after that and we left for home around noon.


* In other news, he chose his birthday theme. He wants My Little Pony plates/cups/napkins. He also asked for a Twilight Sparkle mask, but I doubt he'll get it since he hates masks and complain about them when he does wear them.

This is how I found him...curled up in a ball without blankets. 

Nixon's first field trip!

Nixon on the hayride

* Nixon's class went on a field trip to a farm today. I was able to go with and actually rode the bus with him, which was an experience.

* For some reason it was freaking cold! That meant I was extra cold and Nixon was extra cold. It led to whining, fake crying....oh goddess the fake crying, and a clingy Nixon. He had fun in the corn maze running around chasing and being chased. He enjoyed the animals, when he got to see them and he liked the hay ride.

* The best part about being cold for a couple hours and having Nixon running around crazy for a couple hours? The nice, warm cozy nap we both got to take when we got home.

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.

Nixon's making his list....

* During breakfast today, Nixon brings up Santa. He says he wants stompeez (those slippers that move when kids walk. Like they have ears that will go up with every step) and Fluttershy "because Santa has connections at Build-A-Bear, you know Momma". He thinks this because last year he got an Iron Man teddy bear from Build-A-Bear.
   He will have to decide on only one gift, because Santa likes to keep the load light for the safety of the reindeer.

* I started working on Nixon and his excessive whining today. He did one Time-Out in the spare bedroom, and 2 calm downs on the stairs with warnings if he whined he'd go up to the spare room for a time out. The stairs was for talking back, which usually leads to whining.
   By bedtime he was not whining and asking for things the correct way.
   It's a start.