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

The night he went to bed without dinner....by choice...because he said my soup smells "gross"

December 7th
Day 341

* Nixon woke up today and kept coming over to my side of the bed saying "Pssst, Mommy, it's me Nixon." I'm not sure why, but he feels the need to introduce or announce himself every morning.

* I made soup today. It was a yummy potato and ham soup. I asked Nixon if he'd try a bite when it was ready. He had said yes....until the time came to try it. He refused, fought, cried and ultimately asked to go to bed instead of having to eat a BITE of my soup.

* Nixon did not go right to sleep. He was in his room, but not yet sleeping. Mac and I were watching Will & Grace and Mac got a little loud with his laughs. Nixon comes down the stairs and says "Daddy, can you please be more quiet? You're laughing so loud I can't sleep." He also asked if Mac would help him open the fold-out chair in his bedroom for him. Mac apologized for being loud, but said no on the pull-out chair. He told Nixon to go to sleep in his bed.
   When we went to check on him Mac mentioned the pull-out chair thing. I grabbed the camera, because if I know one thing about Nixon, it's that he tends to be adorable when he wants something and has to do it himself.

This is what we found when we checked on Nixon....adorable!

Teacher's compliment, birthday gift secret, manners lecture from my 4-year old and sharing food with each other....Nixon and I had a great day!

* Taking Nixon into his class this morning, and he does his usual "Hi everyone! I'm here!" and skips over to say hi to a group of kids. I see his teacher, and I needed to let her know he'd be getting picked up a little early today, and she says "I love his enthusiasm! He is just so great and happy! Some kids come in and look like they still need another hour in bed." I laugh and say "Yeah, he wakes up like that...every day. Straight from the minute his feet hit the floor." She smiles and says "That must be awesome."
   You know what? It kind of is.

* Okay, so I took Nixon with me to go pick up a piece of his birthday gift today. SHHHHHH....but we're getting him a fish, well a beta fish to be exact. I found a fish tank for sale and went to go buy it today. Nixon never saw it.
   After it was safely stashed in the back of my car, Nixon and I went into Walgreen's for a snack for the drive home. On the way to the store entrance, we passed a lady and her dog on the sidewalk. It was a little tight but enough room for us to get by when Nixon walking directly in front of me. Suddenly, Nixon stops in front of me and says "Mommy! We've gotta go back. I didn't use my manners and say "excuse me" to that lady when we walked by." He was genuinely distraught by this but after I assured him we were okay, he went into the store. He did chastise me "Okay, Mom, but we have got to use our manners all the time! Because it's the right thing to do, you know.".

* Nixon picked a bag of Ranch Doritos and I grabbed a bag of Lays Cheesy Garlic Bread chips for the car ride home. Nixon asked for a couple of my chips and I had no problem sharing them with him. A minute or two later, he asked for a couple more. By the third request for MY chips, I had a solution: Making sure Nixon had some of his Doritos left, I offered him to trade bags. He took me up on the offer and he was super happy. Until his chips were gone and then he says "Mom, I'd like my blue chip bag back now."
   Yep, sorry kiddo, you're not the only one who finished their bag of chips.

Have you met my son? Apparently he has 3 heads because he says "excuse me" and likes broccoli...at least that's what the people in the grocery store thought tonight.

* Nixon was super excited this morning when I woke up, made him breakfast right away and started getting ready for the day. We were meeting Mac at Third Eye Comics for a big tent sale. When we got there Nixon sat down and played Angry Birds while we waited. He was amazingly well-behaved. Only a couple times did he try to dart beyond the line of people which would have put him in the parking lot with cars possibly coming through.

* You know what's cool? Having a kid who will ask for broccoli over apples in the produce section. You know what's even cooler, watching other adults look at me with a secret awe look when they hear that request!
   That's right! If given the choice of apples or broccoli, Nixon will choose broccoli. But today he choose blueberries and bananas, because blueberries were cheaper. He then walked past a guy, said "Oh excuse me", to which I praised him for his use of manners. The guy? He turned 3 different times to look at Nixon, like he couldn't quite figure out what to think of him.
   That's okay, a lot of people are often puzzled by a child who has manners these days. I won't hold it against the guy. I'll just keep tell my kid he's awesome for using his manners, because...he is!

* Oh yeah...Nixon read a word all by himself today. He went into the spare bedroom, making sure everything was turned off. He went to the switch that controls the fan and said "'o-f-f' Mommy, that means off! I turned it off!" I almost cried I was so happy and proud of him! I even bragged about him to Mac when we saw him at Third Eye.