"You really have gems." - Nick's pediatrician

Nick got his 5yr. check up and a couple more shots (bravely taken). Corinne and Nick share the same pediatritian. With the mainstreamness of international adoptions these days, she comes into contact with many. After having examined both recently, not knowing it could be possible, she helped us feel even more grateful. I'm pretty sure she wasn't talking emeralds. Truly a testament to FANA's pre & post natal care!

Just how much?

Diane and I often wonder about how much Nick should be involved in educational projects, sports, lessons; otherwise known as 'extracurricular' activities. Since Nick shows much in the way of talents associated with verbal skills, I often lobby for language lessons, especially Spanish. Once he started pre-school, we stopped his Spanish lessons for a few reasons, but one of them was Diane's sense that doing both was too much for him.

So, this [non-political] Doonesbury hit home as we attempt to figure out what he is capible of handling.

I did say non-political, but those that follow Doonesbury know full well that the mother complaining about all the time spent exhausting her child is not the mother whose husband is a casualty of war, whereas the other's huband is...

[Like most pictures in this blog, clicking the image should present a readable image.]

Quiz

Daddy: "How many hours would it take to walk around the earth?"
Nick: "It would take hours."
Daddy: "How many?"
Nick: "I think 52 hours."
Daddy: "How many hours would it take to walk to the moon, if you could?"
Nick: "I think that would be millions of hours!"

Averaging 3mi/hr, to walk to the moon 239,000mi. away would take 80,000hrs. or 9 1/2yrs. If Nick took a walk of a million hours, not to mention "millions", he would have walked to the moon and back 6 1/4 times.

Nick, like all "inteligent designers", lacks a comprehension of the concept of time in the grand scale (See Post Comment below). 1 million is a very significant number. 3.5 billion years of biological history is a number that is extrodinarily difficult for Nick and the rest of us to comprehend.

"STOP!!!"

Actually, that was dad as Nick ran to greet Corinne and Diane at night. The path he was traversing was going to end with 5ft. drop had he not stopped. He stopped, along with everyone else across the lake in a 5mi. radius.

"Only men can make a fire."

The wisdom that this child possesses at his tender age is simply astounding. Take a boy into the wilderness, unencumbered by silly civil rationalizations and a natural understanding of gender role responsibilities just seems to kick in.

Oh, while on the subject of fires, who thought it was a good idea to jack kids up on a pure sugar jag via roasted marshmallows around what amounts to be about thee most dangerous of wilderness pastimes just prior to bedtime? Everybody survived, but the desired primal and pagan meditative communal experience one may seek from softly glowing embers licked by hypnotic tongues of fire was definitely not achieved. Maybe next decade...

"He might like to swim a little...

...before his execution in my MOUTH!!!

Corinne: GROSS!!!

As indicated by the previous post, Nick and Daddy caught our first fish. I have no idea what it was, perhaps a small mouth. We caught it late in the evening and we let it swim in a cage before daddy executed it the next morning. There is nothing like cleaning a fish over a shot of espresso in the morning. [Yes, I brought the back-up espresso machine...]

Contrary to expectation, Nick ate and enjoyed that entire, small though it may have been, fish for lunch the next day. Recipe:

1. Remove head, guts, fillet then, using whatever magnifying glass may be on hand, tweezer out a the microscopic, transparent bones.


2. If you want to make it really appetizing, skin the darn thing.


3. Wash over-and-over again.


4. Pat dry.


5. Flour.


6. Heat skillet medium-hot providing enough olive oil to fry, but not immerse the fish.


7. Fry each side 2 mins until flakes.


8. Serve in tiny bites (to be sure if you missed a bone!)


9. Lick chops.

1st Fish

Nick was most excited, until the still flopping fish squirmed out of dad's hands as we prepared for this picture. It bounced off the floor and brushed off of Nick's leg as he backed away and fled. After that episode, the best we could conjole him into was a cameo appearence in the photo with Hemmingway's Man of Man and the Sea between him and Moby Jaws. Actually, we never named him preferring instead to keep "lunch" annonymous.

"There's your fresh air!"

Mommy told Nick that while he was resting, she might take a walk to get some fresh air. Now, Nick is generally not ammenable to Mommy departing the premises in any fashion whatsoever. So, as amusing as it was, it was hardly suprising for him to raise his tail in Mommy's general direction and call upon his skunk-like talent to fart on demand and then provide the punchline quoted above. No mistake; that is how he felt about that.

Priorities

John, this is affirmation that we are raising the boy with a keen sense of his mandated-by-god, masculine priorities...

While doing the dishes, Mommy asked Nick what he would like to do with her this fine morning.

Nick: "Are you done with your dishes?"

Right. First things first.

"Can we play a DVD?"

D: "NO!"

This was a whitish lie since we purchased a portable DVD player for the trip. Fortunately, the kids didn't need it to start the car trip until 4hrs in. Since there is no TV here, should the rain keep up... Winne the Pooh will be called in for story telling.

Follow-up: We successfully went one week without a DVD. Yahoo!

The next few post refer to Nick's 1st Family Vacation...

... at a cottage we rented from a neighbor. The cottage is on Buck Lake between Kingston and Westport, Ontario Canada.

Yoda

Darth and His Wookie Prisoner

"They [batteries] come from here in Daddy's cellar."

The Flashlight, that looks like a frog, ribbiting when you push a button that opens its big mouth to shine a spotlight has gone dead.
Dad: "How did that happen?"
NIck: "Well, I left the light on."
Dad (in Southern drawl): "Well, wot do ya' thin'; batteries grow on trees?"
Nick jovially responded in a stating-the-obvious intonation..

"I only tell her she is a big girl to please her; and the way she acts, she thinks she is."

Nick thinks he has his sister all figured out.

"Is that the house for the dead people?"

Nick and I walk up to the library each week for a month long reading derby of sorts. The walk inevitably turns out to be the best walk and the most relaxing 30mins. of the week. I stayed at work a bit late today and Diane had to call and remind me that it was Library night. Wot's wid dat?

The walk up was kind of quiet though he did give me a tour of the soccer fields that he scampered around this past week for the week long "introduce-an-impessionable-kid-to-a-soccer-ball" clinic, but the walk back was taken under a beautiful sunset at a perfect temperature and, well it was just terrific and loaded with much conversation. As we passed by the cemetery, he asked me about the office building there at the cemetery. (Question above) I explained the fiduciary responsibilities of being interred for a millennia and how those arrangements are made at that office. He gave every indication that he didn't want to stay 6' under. Instead he wanted to sneak out as a ghost and scare people. He thought that would be a hoot. We then talked about God. Still, he thought hanging around scaring people sounded like a lot more fun than hanging with God and those angels.

"I'm looking at the young female."

As usual, when at soccer camp Nick spends much of his time checking out the girls. This one was a strikingly beautiful 4 year old blonde that he could not take his eyes off during a gatorade break.