I wish everyday was Sunday.

I must admit, being an older parent has it’s privileges. Time has managed to tame my A-type personality and I am no longer obsessed with the trivial. I know I appreciate Nic more because of my new found calm. Though John has always been mellow (and when I say “mellow”, I mean Jedi level mellow), it took Nic to make me appreciate the, “watching the grass grow” mentality. Sunday is our family day. It’s the day we’ve chosen to show Nic “life” and all the wonders it has to offer. We show him things everyday, but on Sunday, he gets Mom and Dad - all day. We schlep him to tide pools at 8:00 a.m. (that’s right, cause that’s when the tide is low), we take him to the local farmers market (he hand picks his own strawberries for snack), or we go to the beach to build sandcastles (and also feed seagulls stale bread). Last Sunday we took Nic to Bonfante Gardens http://www.bonfantegardens.com/. It’s a cool place for kids around Nic’s age. It’s an even better place if you have a WOW season pass (you don’t have to pay the $40 admission). This pass includes Great America admission as well and I highly recommend it for anyone with a family (best $100 bucks we’ve ever spent). Bonfante Gardens is a place where the grown-ups appreciate the gardens and the kids appreciate the rides. It also has a water park section that helps cool down hot minds. Just something to think about for your , "Sundays”. Bring a small towel and lots of batteries for your camera.

C is for Cookie… and cake, and chocolate, and candy, and CRAP!

The older Nic gets the harder it is to control what he eats. Easy enough when we’re at home, but pre-school, play dates and parties have put a thorn on my, “no junk food” rule. Don’t get me wrong, the occasional treat is fine, but it shouldn’t be the main dish. With the exception of jumping out from behind a bush and grabbing the offending food out of my sons hand, I ask this question: how do you stop a 2 year old from having JUST sweets at a party? Somehow people associate sweets with happiness, and they mean well (I guess). They like to see Nic’s face light up when they shove junk into his mouth or a treat into his hand. Don’t people know that sweets are like crack to kids. They’ll do anything for the next mouth full, sit on your lap, give you a hug, give you a kiss… sit up, bark, roll over. It’s bad enough trying to control the culprits with the polite, “STOP FEEDING MY SON CRAP!”, but now Nic knows what this stuff is and he asks for it, or worst, he’ll help himself to it. It seems I may be losing the battle… but hear me now, I’m GOING to win the war.

School projects already?

My 15 year old nephew was assigned to tap his parents memory for some of his childhood facts. What were my first words; when were my first steps; what were my favorite toys, blah, blah, blah. All the things a new mom can recite in her sleep. However, after 2 kids, 15 years and countless other memories, his mom’s answer was, “I forgot”. A response I’m sure my nephew wasn’t expecting. After I laughed out loud and I did the verbal equivalent of finger shaking, my sister told me, “You laugh now… but wait. You’ll see. You’ll forget too”. Me?? forget??? Never! Maybe other moms, but NOT me. After the ego subsided, I realized she was right. Against my will, time has blurred some of the “smaller” milestones my son has managed to cross. So, in preparation for future school projects, here are some Nic-isms:

On Love:
We saw a cat that was obviously scared and he went up to it and said, “It O.K., your mommie comin’. She’ll be right back”.

On Encouragement:
When he tries something new or if the task is just beyond his abilities and he can't quite get it, he doesn’t cry, he smiles and says: ALMOST!

On Vanity:
When he likes an outfit he’s wearing he stares in the mirror, points to himself and says, “I’m sexy”.

On Sharing:
(ear piercing, window shattering scream) NOOOOO! DAT MINE!! MOMMMMIEEE ~ HE TOOK MINE TOY!!!!

Hey, I didn’t say he was perfect.

Jumping on the bandwagon.

For several years now John and I have been reading our friends and families blogs with great interest. Getting a snippet of everyone’s lives in CliffsNotes version was great, it just wasn’t for us… until now. A friend of ours said, “The blog, it’s really not for you, it’s for Nic. He can look back and read all about himself back when”. A sort of online baby book if you will. Hmmmm, we thought, yet another way we may fail our son if we don’t jump on that bandwagon. So, here we are, the first installment of “Nic – Back in the Daze”. We’re a bit behind – you haven’t read all about his first words (which were: WOW, YUP and AH-HUH) or his first steps (taken two weeks after his first birthday), or how all four of his molars came in at once (hell week in a whole different perspective), but we’ll do our best to catch up.

For now here is Nic’s scoreboard at 2 years and 4 months:

*Stands at 37 inches tall and weighs in at about the same.

*He knows that a wallaby is, “like a kangaroo” and he can tell the difference between a hexagon and an octagon.

*He’s done Disneyland three times and Disneyworld once (we are SO Disney’d out) and in his short life, he’s been on a plane seven times.

*When he’s looking for something he says, “Where my shoes R” because I always say, “Nic, where are your shoes”.

*His favorite pastimes are doing push-ups with daddy (too cute for words) and eating his weight in mandarin oranges.

That’s it for now. Keep coming back and keep scrolling down, Nic’s life is sure to be a journey!

An obligatory shout out to our friend Sharonda - Thanks for the great advice.