Hard Workin' (little) Man

Nathan is a hard worker. Over the past couple of weeks, he's helped us re-do our landscaping by raking (Son! Don't rake the flowers!), shoveling dirt (including "christening" Evan with it), pulling weeds (and good grass, and flowers, and entire new plantings).

He also won a fight with a miniature rose bush (the roses are miniature - the bush is twice his size). He had been chasing a lizard near the bush and apparently chased him into the bush. He came to me as I was working behind him and asked, "Daddy, what's this?", extending his bloodied fingers. I immediately realized what had happened and explained that the rose bush had cut his fingers and he was bleeding a little bit. He was so excited that he had an excuse to get a bandage!

He also worked really hard to help keep everybody cool with his water guns. I had issued his pistols to him so he could shoot at bugs and lizards. That lasted all of about five minutes, and then he turned on me... and Evan... and our neighbor, whom he calls "Aunt Liz"! Good thing they're small pistols!

Nathan's World

Welcome to your view into a day in the life of Nathan Peck. It's 9:00 AM, and Nathan is awake after a night of fever and cold/allergy symptoms. All things considered, he's quite wound up! He spends some time fighting with Daddy over whether or not he's going to have breakfast, and finally eats some oatmeal. He then spends some time running around to various rooms with his overturned bucket, turning lights and ceiling fans on wherever he can reach them. Daddy reads a book to Nathan and Evan in their room, sitting together in the glider chair. As we are all tired from the somewhat sleepless night, everyone takes a nap from noon until around 2:00 PM. Afterward, we eat a late lunch and get ready to go outside.



Daddy's re-working the flower beds as Evan watches and Nathan helps.











Nathan disappears to/reappears from the garage frequently, pulling various toys, balls, etc. out to play with. At one point, Nathan is out of sight for too long and Daddy calls to him with no reply. An immediate search finds the rear car door open, with Nathan sitting in his car seat and looking around. "What are you doing, buddy?" asks Daddy. "You wanna go for a ride?" he says.

Later in the day, Daddy is working in the yard while Mommy feeds Evan inside. Nathan is inside, too - supposedly in his room, playing. He scampers into the living room and says something about a light and a bulb "getting him" and hurting his finger. Upon investigating, Mommy disovers that Nathan had found a small blue night-light bulb and decided to replace the bulb in Daddy's night-stand lamp with it. He then turned on the light to see the difference. It apparently popped and smoked, as evidenced by the black powdery residue on the bulb and the re-arranged solder on the contact! (Our little Edison!)

After supper, Nathan rides with Daddy to Home Depot to return some unused plants and buy some more mulch. He has to spend several minutes checking out riding lawn mower engines - he's mostly interested in the fans, filters and batteries. Back home, he helps to take out the recyclables and trash, making sure to replace the liner for the kitchen trash can (yes, he does this himself - quite well, I might add). Nathan enjoys a bath where he deposits a good third of the tub water onto the floor and walls via his energetic tub-time play. He insists on washing himself with soap and a wash cloth, although mommy makes sure to get the places he may have missed. After bath-time, he selects his own sleepwear and picks out a bed-time book. "I think it's time to go night-night," he says very matter-of-factly. (I think so, too!)

Bug Off!

Nathan is curious about bugs and creepy-crawly things. He first learned that mosquitos, wasps, and flies were "bad bugs", and that "Daddy's gonna get those bad bugs!" Since those early days, Nathan has become more familiar with a variety of bugs and such, investigating them curiously and even catching a few. He's collected more than one Junebug that found it's way inside and returned it outdoors. He's helped several lost earthworms return to the dust. And he even caught a lizard just last week (with a sucker in his mouth and a water bottle in the other hand)!

Share and Share Alike!

We've been (sort of) teaching Nathan to share. I know many experts say that, at this age, children don't quite understand the concept and sharing shouldn't be rigidly enforced. I'm cool with that. I figure, if something is Nathan's and he's playing with it, he can choose to share it or not. The only real problem we've had with sharing is when Evan gets something that used to be Nathan's. Things like the baby swing, jumper, bouncy seat, electronic toys... Nathan will say, "that's Nathan's!" Laura usually says something like, "you need to share it with your brother." I have started saying, "that's Evan's now." Anyway, Laura had some yogurt and fruit a couple of nights ago, and she had a pudding cup for Nathan. Nathan decided he'd rather her snack, and started eating all of her strawberries. When she told him, "Nathan, that's mommy's snack," he looked at her sternly and replied, "Mommy needs to share with Nathan!"

Death By Chocolate...

"I like chocolate!" Milk Chocolate. Dark Chocolate. Bunnies. Eggs. Candy-coated. Mint Chocolate. Pudding. Ice Cream. Pie. These are some of the forms of Chocolate my two and a half year old has sampled in his young life. Thus, the familiar quote at the beginning. The problem is that he occasionally becomes quite aggressive over the stuff. Now, usually he is only allowed a few M&M's, one chocolate cookie, or one bite of that rediculous Easter bunny. We keep chocolate flavored items out of (easy) reach from him. But... Nathan is resourceful, and so the following episodes have transpired in recent weeks:

Kiss-Kiss - Nathan noticed I'd shoved a bag of dark chocolate Hershey kisses into one of the cubby holes in our kitchen cabinet next to the refrigerator. He'd asked for them once or twice, and I did let him have one recently. But when you've got the chocoholic gene in your DNA, one is never enough! I knew he couldn't reach that high on one of his "stools" (overturned storage bins), but I failed to consider that he could use a kitchen table chair to climb up onto the counter and stuff his little cheeks with as many kisses as he could unwrap before being caught!

Bunny Love - Laura had to buy the boy a candy-filled (and I mean, filled!) Easter basket! It's the middle of May, and he's only had half of it. And that's with our "assistance". The main prize for him was/is the bunny. A solid milk chocolate bunny. (SOLID??!! - What was she thinking?) So, every few days or so, as he remembers there is a bunny to be had, he asks about having a bite of the bunny. I decided to let him have a bite a few days ago after lunch. I should have held onto that little critter (the bunny, not Nathan!) myself, but (mother of all mistakes...) I let Nathan hold it's half-eaten chocolate carcass. At first, He took a nice, civilized bite and smiled at me in satisfaction. I told him that was enough for now, and asked him to hand the nibbled remains back to me. Then, He went "cave-man" on that bunny! He had two more big bites chipmunked in his cheeks by the time I crossed the five-foot distance between us! And as I placed the re-packaged rabbit on the table while I tended to Evan, Nathan sneaked behind me, grabbed that box, and ran around the table where he quickly secured one more bite before I cornered him. I'm confident he believes the spanking he received was well worth the high he was on the rest of the day. No pain, no gain!

So, yeah... death by chocolate! Whose is yet to be determined...

That's OK!

Nathan has one of two personality traits. 1. He's really laid back. OR 2. he's into positive confession. Allow me to explain...

Nathan is a very verbal child. When he makes a mistake, a mess, or breaks something, he routinely says, "It's o.k..." followed by something like, "Daddy'll fix it", or "Mommy will clean it up", and "that was an accident!" Now, the truth is, sometimes Daddy does fix it, Mommy does clean it up, and it may have actually been an accident. But he uses this phrase often times in the hope that Daddy can fix it, or Mommy can clean it up, or that we'll believe it was truly an accident.

I've tried to explain that some things are not accidents (like when he tried to pour milk from his glass into a bottle and it got all over the table and floor). Sometimes Mommy cannot clean it up (like when he used a black sharpie to doodle on the sofas - yes both of them!) And Daddy cannot fix everything (like when Nathan's Jeff Gordon Hot Wheels car got run over by my truck - oops!)

He's still convinced though, and I'll even try to fix things I would have just thrown away before (like the candleholder I crazy-glued back together). All because he has this radical faith and hope in us. (I sense a portal blog brewing here...)

Oh, yeah! His Grandad and Grandma Soldner came to visit last month and they showed up with a new Jeff Gordon Hot Wheels car! THAT was O.K.!

Nathan with Grandad Soldner "playing cars"

Fridge-A-Raider

Nathan is always trying to get things out of the refrigerator. Anytime it's open, he runs over and battles his way to the contents. He doesn't even care what he gets - it's just a challenge just to get something out before we catch him! This past weekend, he realized he now has the strength to open it on his own. I was in the living room when Laura announced, "Nathan can open the refrigerator!" I immediately imagined him standing in the glow of the light, eyes wide open, big smile on his face, and that song from Disney's Aladdin - "A Whole New World" playing in the background. So far, he's retrieved several pudding cups, a jar of olives, and the milk. Hopefully the novelty will wear off quickly so we don't have to "jail" our "Fridge-A-Raider"!