Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! Nixon and I spent the day in our jammies and never left the house. We watched the Macy's parade in the morning together and then had to turn off the cable because it was acting all wonky.
Since we had Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday we didn't do much today but veg out, nap and watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving specials!

Nixon's still sick and is starting to complain that he can't hear out of his ears. Yep....it might be doctor time, for real.

I'm going out tomorrow night with a few people Mac works with, who I met Tuesday. I haven't gone out with anyone in well over 6 months. As Nixon was getting ready to go to bed, I told that tomorrow night he and Daddy would be doing his bedtime because I was going out with some friends. He freaked out and started crying! He was convinced he was never going to see me again, and I was leaving him forever! I mean, this was a for real freak out! I've never seen him do this before! It took me over 45 minutes to get him to finally stop crying and calm down so I could read him a bedtime story!
Talk about some serious Mommy guilt!
He finally laid on my chest and listened to my heartbeat. I asked him what it was saying and he said "I love you, Nixon".

Oh the conversations I have with Nixon!

* I was lucky enough to be given the morning to sleep in. And sleep in I did. I didn't get out of bed until almost 11:15am. When Nixon saw me he said "Mommy, your hair is a mess!", child's honesty knows no bounds.

* I took Nixon to Third Eye Comics today, to catch up on my comic books, and Nixon was a gem. As I was cashing out he was playing with these fingertip tentacles. He likes to make an entire hand of them. I was done and ready to leave, Nixon was staying put continuing to add more tentacles to his hand. I said "Nixon, you need to come here now or I'm leaving without you". He suddenly runs up after me and says "MOM! You can't leave without me. I'm a little boy and you have to take me with you.", I tell him "But you're cute, I'm sure someone else would take you home and keep you safe, especially since you never want to listen to me.", his reply was simply awesome "But no one else is my mommy like you are. You have to take me home because I belong with you!"
   Yes, yes you do, my love.

* This final conversation was a doozy:
Nixon: Do you have a baby in your belly?
me: No! I'll never have another baby in my belly again. You were the baby I'll ever have in my belly.
Nixon: I was little when I was in your belly.
me: Thank gods yes you were.
Nixon: I was in your belly and I was little, then you pushed out of your belly.
me: Yep, you were ready to come out and I pushed you out of my vagina. And you've been in my arms ever since.
Nixon: Awww
me: Nixon, do you think I need a baby in my belly?
Nixon: No, lots of people have babies in the bellies. You don't need one.
me: Really? So you're okay with us having a small family and never having a baby in the house?
Nixon: Yes. Because babies are noisy and hurt my ears. And...they poop in their diapers. That's gross!
me: Oh, kiddo, I love you so much right now!
Nixon: I love you too, Mommy!

excuse the runny nose....snot faucet remember?!?

* Nixon got his library card today! He was so proud, so happy and so excited! He picked out 3 books and a dvd to check out. He even chose a book for me! He was wonderful and loves the library.

He gets a crazy cowlick every night as his hair gets longer. 

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.

He "blahed" in the morning, tripped over the cat and calmed himself by listening to my heartbeat.

Last night I spent the night moving flies onto an external hard drive and then backed up my laptop. After that I defragged and cleaned my hard drive...turns out that took a lot longer than I had expected. It was still running when I went to bed last night. 

This morning Nixon comes into the bedroom and tells me he "blahed" Nixonese for vomited. I go into the bathroom and he did, in the toilet, but it didn't look like anything serious. I tucked him back into bed and went back to sleep myself. He came back in a couple hours later and said he "blahed" again. He's had an awful wet cough lately, my thoughts were that he was coughing too hard and ended up bringing something up.
We woke up and I made Nixon some toast.

Nixon and Amber were both in the kitchen with me. Some how, Nixon ended up getting tripped by Amber and fell hard on his knees and hands on the kitchen floor. He was good about it, even apologized to Amber for falling over her. I iced his knee, while he sat down on the love seat.

He's in bed now, has been for almost 2 hours. He woke up crying a bit ago. He always wakes up crying when I put the vaporizer in his room. The odd thing is (odd as in this is a total mom thing) the heat is running and I have the TV on, his bedroom door is closed and I still heard him without him ever getting out of bed. I get into his room and snuggle him. He always says the most incoherent things when he's half-asleep. Tonight he told me he needed to go downstairs because he lost me and I was falling. I assured him I was not lost, I was holding him and we were not falling. He asked to listen to my heartbeat, so I let him listen to it. He relaxed in a few seconds and was ready to get back under his blankets. This kid kills me he's so sweet.

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.....