Nick's 1st Poem

When you have a daddy around,
      it is all fun.
When you have a daddy and son around,
      it makes it all feel fun.
         - NJK '04

My Simple Pleasure: Taking a moment to watch my kid sleep.

It is something of a special, simple pleasure to me seeing Nick and Corinne sleep. The opportunities are rare. Nick sleeps lightly so, walking in on him would be a bit on the selfish side. Corinne, on the other hand, sleeps wonderfully behind a closed door. But, on those rare opportunities, be they on a long car ride or when they sleep late and need to be aroused, I like to take the opportunity to stare into angelic peace. The pleasure of that brief moment is derived from a number of perspectives: shear beauty, grace incarnate, a sense of accomplishment and good fortune to have a peaceable place for my child to find rest and perhaps even a ting of jealousy wishing that I could be in that carefree world that sleeping child resides and last but not least, they aren't screaming, wanting, crying... ;-). I have always sensed the power of the Nativity icon, but I think I have been given an opportunity to gain new incite.

I expect that those opportunities will become rarer still. The kids will expect their private space and their faces will certainly lose their 'angelicness' all too soon. At least, that's what they tell me...

"Courderoys....aaaagain"

Stated as Nick opened up a Christmas package containing his second pair of courderoys of the holiday. The kicker was not the drawn out way he announced this present's contents but the way he was holding them up with his thumb and index finger and dropped them to the floor as he said the word "...aaagain".

"This looks like fun. What is it?"

...then Diane explains what fun a game of word "flash cards" can be.

"I managed to drag it away from the dragon."

Nick extricates from daddy's hands a cool book he got from Santa...

"This doesn't look fun. I like trains."

Mapa & Papa had boxed a cute Care-Bear in a Digital Blood Presure Monitor box.

"I was right! I needed one more magic prune."

Now we all have our "magic" regiments for regularity, so its no surprise that Nick has developed a regiment for himself. The time honored prune regiment does the job for him. But Nick adds his own special twist, fore it isn't a prune from yesterday or one ingested hours ago that provides relief. That type of investment in the future is not grasped until one reaches his 30's much less a four year old. No, the magic prune is one of the three prunes jammed into his mouth during the eventful moment. You see, the regiment involves a search for the magic prune. So, not only were two of the three prunes in his mouth at the moment of fruition duds, so were the previously consumed five or six! It isn't how the task is accomplished, just that the desired object is achieved.

This blog entry was brought you by our friends at Sunsweet who wish to remind you that The vitamin A in Sunsweet dried plums [I think "prune" is out...] is necessary for healthy skin, the body's first line of defense against toxins and invading microorganisms. Emphasis added...

"Corinne, I'm going to tire you out...

...so you don't sing opera tonight. Cause, if Santa hears that, he's not stopping at this house."

Corinne is pretty good about not crying or screaming when she is put to bed, but she will talk, sometimes loudly for a while. We refer to these discussion "sessions" she has with the stuffed bears as Corinne "singing opera"...

Anna was't in school today...

...so Nicholas applied his charms to Elizabeth. Elizabeth caught his eye with her fancy wardrobe of "stockings and a black dress". He went right up to her and asked if she wanted to play "nappy" behind the puppet shelves. "She just sat there." Smart girl. Note to self: Talk to Elizabeth's mother about how I can make sure Corinne doesn't fall for playing "nappy" from cute curly-headed types...

With resignation: "He'll say no, too...."

Nick: "Mommy, can I bring up the big blue ball upstairs?"
Mom: "No. Maybe you should ask daddy."
Nick: "He'll say no too."

That "ask daddy" part was the 1st time Diane has ever used that shift-bad-guy-to-other-parent-line and I hope Nick's response makes it the last time...I play the "heavy" too much already. The good news is that Diane and I must have impressed upon him that she and I are on the same page.

"Something wonderful came in my dream...

...I dreamed of Kim (last nanny) and she fed me peas and corn" No question about it, he was dreaming. Both of Nick's nannys had far more success feeding him veggies than Mom & Dad.

"I know everything and I'll prove it!!!"

There have been variations on this theame in past logs... He shares something in common with most of us "normal" folks where what we know is everything we need to know so, we know everything. Yet another sign that Nick is completly "normal" and, therefore, correct?

The "Anna" Saga Continues...

We had to draw this out of him in pieces... Nick wanted to share with us that "...Anna did something funny to me." The "funny thing" was that she tweaked his nose. The part that really got me and Diane going is when he shared with us more of the scene where the "funny thing" transpired. As the story was retold to us, Anna took Nick behind the puppet shelves to have "nappy time" and that is when the "funny thing" happened. With Nick only in a 2 ½hr day, there is no regimented "nappy time". This isn't in any of the "parent books" either...

"Dad, getting a Christmas tree with you is better than time-out."

Now mind you, this came up in the car on the way to getting the tree where the topic of "time-out" was not on our minds in the least and I don't think time-outs had been a topic that entire day and, all-in-all, the whole tree trip thing was greeted by Nick as a fun, cool, man-to-man task. So, one might easily interpret his quote along the lines of: "Dad, getting a Christmas tree with you is better than a hot poker in the eye." But, I know he was honestly trying to just come up with a way of saying how much he enjoyed doing the tree thing with me instead of some other, less desirable activity....at least that is the way I am going to interpret it!

More about Anna...

Nick: Mommy, do you know why I call Anna "My Treasury".
Mommy: No, I don't. Please tell me.
Nick: Because her face is as beautiful as gold.

"I love...

...Anna (preschool classmate), Corinne, You (Mommy), Grandma (she's in town this weekend), Daddy, but most of all, I love God."

"Mommy, I'm going to do something different...."

...I'm going to co-operate everyday."

"Bill is a good name for a husband."

After being introduced to Bill F., husband of our friend Laurie.

God Does Not Imagine

Mom: "Who invented you?"
Nick: "God."
Mon: "God has a good imagination and a sense of humor."
Nick: "He's NOT imagi-nat-ing!"

"She'll make a good wife someday."

After Nick had a good long look at a picture of Ariane R., the 5 year old daughter of our dear friends Laurent and Agnes R. in Paris.

"Snow is nothing to worry about."

Mom did not look convinced. Nice try though.

"Men like to have fun too."

Alas, so much to learn...

"Even though we make you do things, we still love you."

...excuse me. I have been instructed to get off the computer, clean my breakfast dished, gather my lunch and leave for work.