All about Nolan

Where to start? So much to catch you up on! I think I've mentioned this before, but Nolan is quite the conversationalist. He usually kicks off the chit-chat at dinner with:

"What's something you remember from - ?"

And then it's fill in the blank:

the movie Cars
the movie Finding Nemo
the movie The Incredibles
Shallow Seas from Planet Earth
Fresh Water from Planet Earth
Great Plains from Planet Earth

He listens to your comment, often looking into the distance, blinking, remembering it for himself. Sometimes, while you relay a snippet, he will interrupt to finish it, excited to add all the detail he can remember. Recently, he's been adding books to this framework as in "What do you remember from the book we read at Everett's house?" (That's a pal of his from pre-school. He has a little group of kids he talks about a lot. Today, while he was telling me that he thought Theo was the silliest kid he knows, he was just smiling away, as if just the concept of Theo was funny.)




Nolan has also integrated the "drill" about behavior and expectations and how it's usually accompanied by a lot of explanation from me, ahem. For example, the other day, Dadsie got home late form work, just before jammies and bedtime, and Nolan was still going bananas when it was time to settle down (yeah, right!) Anyway, I started the whole "I know it's exciting that Dad is home - " and he totally cut me off and said "Okay, okay!!" and just started putting on jammies. Enough with the verbal emotional feedback and description blah blah blah. He would rather do what he's supposed to be doing than listen to me jibber-jabber. Hey - that's win-win!! (Especially for Dadsie!)



Pretty much every night after dinner we have a Family Dance Party. We play an old ska song by The English Beat that has a part of the song where the singer says "and now STOP!" and the music stops for a beat, we all freeze, then start dancing when the music comes back. Nolan sometimes wakes up in the morning and I know one of two questions will be at the ready:
Can I have a muffin?
Can we have a dance party?

Sometimes we do both!! And, yeah, those are homemade muffins. The house might not be spic and span, but I bake up a mean muffin, and Nolan is my best customer.


A few recent tidbits:

* He wants to move our house to an empty farm. In Africa.
* He doesn't just like peaches, he loves them.
* He doesn't just like dirt, he loves it.
* We don't kill bugs. Except dangerous ones like the brown recluse and the black widow. Oh, and mosquitos are fair game, too.
* Whenever we require him to wash hands, we hear his voice yelling from the bathroom "Soap?" and usually the answer is "Yes, soap!" Sometimes he's in there for a while, making faces at himself in the mirror.
* Can *insert friend's name here* come over and play?
* Can I go over to *insert friend's name here*'s house?
* Mom/Dad, can you play with me?
* Dessert days are Monday and Friday. "What day is today?"



Today he got his haircut across the strret from Mitchell's ice cream parlor. For a treat, we headed over there and he wanted chocolate ice cream, but not in a cone. In the end, he chose to have a milkshake. He offered a sip to Zadie and then some to me, too. Handing that cup back and forth, taking turns sipping, watching each other enjoy the chocolatey goodness. A moment I will remember for a long time.


Zadie's update soon to follow!