Nicholas Maravillas’ Blog

Friday was the first day that I dropped Nicholas off for a full day of school on his own.   We arrived right at 9am and he carried his snack sack in as I followed with his bag.  The teachers had asked all the parents to keep drop-offs short and sweet… and to fake a stiff upper lip if we had to!  The kids play outside as everyone gets dropped off (and picked up) so Nicholas was excited.   He loves to play outside!  We walked in and the teachers greeted him.  I reminded him to put his snack sack in the basket, and as I hung up his bag I asked him for a hug.  He barely stood still so I could hug him.  I told him that I was going to go, but would be back and to have fun.  He took off back out the door to play with his friends as I yelled, “I’ll be back, love you baby!”.  I am not even sure he heard me!  I started to walk out of the gate back to my car and looked back.  He was standing there smiling, then saw me and sort of look confused but ran to the slide.  That made me feel better, but I won’t lie, I still shed a few tears once I got in the car.  I just cannot get over that he is old enough for “school” and not just daycare, ya know.  Anyways, another mom that I talked to for awhile on Wednesday dropped her son right after me and as she walked past my car told me that he was all smiles and no tears.  At least he was holding it together!  I ran a bunch of errands that morning, and actually found myself missing him!  Not picking up the trail of cheerios we leave in stores or going to the bathroom 3 times in an hour, but I missed his sweet smile.  I got back to the school a little after noon and picked him up.  They were back outside and I got a big smile and a “mommy!”.  The first thing the teacher said to me was “he loves to laugh!”.  That made me so happy!  I told him that he should say bye to his teachers, so he hugged them along with anyone in a four foot radius including two other moms and a little girl!  He is such a sweet little guy!  He carried his snack sack bag to the car and we stopped for cheeseburgers on the way home.  All in all, he seemed to have a great day at school!  We are so proud of our big boy!

Nicholas has been so excited about school!  We have had to tell him that it was closed the past few weeks because he’d ask about it frequently.  Well, today they were open and it was the first day of school!  To help with transition, his class has a modified schedule.  Today he went for an hour, and I stayed the whole time.  On Wednesday, he’ll go for two hours and I’ll stay but take a break in the middle and then Friday I drop him off at 9 and pick him up at 12:15 for his first regular day on his own.  We really don’t think that he’ll have a problem with separation but I know not every kid will take it so well.  He acknowledged my presence maybe twice today- once to briefly show me a toy with a “blue circle” and once he looked at me from across the room while trying to open the fish tank (perhaps he felt my eyes in the back of his head telling him “hands off”).  I shook my head “no” indicating the hands-off the fish tank, and he found something else to do.

He played with new friends and seemed to really have fun.  At the end of the hour the head teacher was trying to take questions from the moms in the room.  Well, she was having trouble talking over some very boisterous giggling… Nicholas’ giggling.  He was on the other side of a bookshelf with 1 or 2 other kids so I couldn’t really see what he was doing but whatever it was, it was hysterical.   I was trying so hard not to laugh out loud myself!

The only pictures that we have are from Matthew’s Blackberry.  Nicholas was NOT happy about taking pictures this morning.  He’d catch sight of the camera and get mad, making for very uncute pictures.  Fortunately he doesn’t know what the Blackberry is yet so Matthew was able to snap a few shots before Nicholas figured it out!  I’ll try again on Friday since that will be his first “real” day of school.

Nicholas’ teacher provides each child with a plain canvas bag to carry a change of clothes, notebook, etc. to school each day and we decided to decorate his this afternoon.  I ironed some letters for his name and he went to town with puffy paint and a brush!  We think it looks great.  Stay tuned tomorrow for his first day of school pictures!

Edited to add a new picture… he decided later that it needed more color.  So we made green paint!

Our camera is broken so we don’t really have any new pictures to share, hence no new blog posts!

We are doing well here these days.  Matthew started his new job last week and we have all been adjusting to that transition.  Nicholas loves it when Daddy gets home every evening.  I tell him when Daddy will be home soon and he starts planning out their activities (i.e. play trains, then whoosh, then tickle, etc.).  It’s pretty cute!

As far as Nicholas, he’s doing great!  He talks all the time now and continues to impress us daily with how smart he is.  He can talk in complete sentences and demonstrates his growing comprehension all the time!  Not much gets past this kid that is for sure.

He says “thank you, Mommy (or Daddy or whoever gives him anything)” all the time now, and is also saying “excuse me” in the correct context.  It really is adorable!

He wants to “help me” all the time now and I’ll admit it takes some patience on my part to let him help since whatever the task is ends up taking almost twice as long and is messier but he loves to help and it’s easier to let him than deal with the ensuing tantrum!  Some things he enjoys are helping to stir my tea in the morning, emptying the dishwasher, taking his shoes off, carrying his plate to his table, setting the table, cleaning up (only certain toys!), putting the lids on his cups and getting his juice out of the fridge.

Potty training is going well!  He is getting much better with #2 and hasn’t had one of those accidents (even in a pull up at bedtime) in a long time.  He occasionally has a #1 accident, but he catches himself and finishes on the potty.  He hasn’t even asked for “treats” (aka MnMs) in a couple of weeks now.  Also, the novelty of the public potty has worn off- thank goodness!  We would have to visit the “store potty” 3 times in about 30 minutes.  The first time he’d actually go, but the other times, nothing.  One day a couple of weeks ago, I called his bluff.  On his 3rd request in about 40 minutes, I told him that we could go but he wasn’t getting another treat.  He looked at me as if to say “what?!” and holding back my reaction to his surprise I asked “do you still need to go?” to which he replied “nope”.  Luckily, he really was just gunning for more chocolate and didn’t leave a puddle in the cart!

He loves the pool and is getting much braver in the water.  He doesn’t even play with his trucks anymore and prefers to “swim”.  He is gaining more control with floating on his stomach and kicking (all while wearing his Puddle Jumper floaties).   The other week he decided to jump off the edge into the water.  He loves to do this when we catch him.  He has also put his face underwater a couple times and comes out okay but I am not sure he enjoys it!  I think we’ll do swim lessons next summer to get him more proficient in the water.

He starts school next week!  We enrolled him in a local Montessori school three mornings a week.  Open house is this Friday and he transitions next week and his first full day on his own will be Friday.  He is so excited and drives his big fold out bus to “Nicholas school” almost every day.  Hopefully that excitements lasts through me actually dropping him off  and leaving next week!

We gave him our old digital camera and he loves taking pictures.  I’ll have to dig out the cord for it and post them.  He loves to look through it and say “cheese!”.

Stay tuned for Nicholas’ photography work and his first day of school pictures!

Well, it’s about time Nicholas helped out around the house!  He got the idea to set the table himself tonight, with no help!  He got the placemats out, took each fork very carefully to the table and laid them out with the napkins.  He also helped clear the table after we ate.  I think he did a pretty good job! I tried to get him to stand by the finished table, but he told me “camera down, mommy! get pastas on plate!”.  Kid has a one track mind when you mention raviolis (aka- pastas).

Nicholas is doing great!  We are so very proud of him.  We’re quickly learning where every restroom is in every public place.  Soon he’ll need a t-shirt that says “been there. done that. peed in the potty”.  It’s almost to the point of being ridiculous, for example we were out for maybe 2 hours yesterday during which time he went to the bathroom no less than 5 times.  And he’s becoming known for yelling “potty” as soon as we get on the highway, despite the fact that he went right before we left.  But at least he’s not afraid of it and having accidents so we’ll deal with it!  He is also pooping on the potty, which is so fantastic.  And of course, I have another funny poop story to share… man he’ll love me for this when he’s older!   The other day after he pooped and proclaimed “what was that?!”, he got up and looked down and said “train poop!”.  Then continued to talk about ‘train poop’ the rest of the night.  Ever since, every time he poops he calls it “train poop”, “baby train poop” or “freight cars”.  Whatever motivates him, I suppose!

Since Nicholas has been such a big boy with his potty training, Grandma and Grandpa sent him a special present- a McQueen scooter! We weren’t sure that he would be able to ride it, but sure enough he got it right away!  He doesn’t go all that fast, but that’s okay.  He loves it!!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

When you watch Nana’s video, notice towards the end where he is drawing and says “J”.  Well, here is a picture of the J that he apparently wrote himself!  In case you have trouble, its orange at the end of “happy”.  

We had such a great morning!  And Nicholas jumped another huge hurdle in the potty training journey!  We hadn’t been to the pool in awhile so today we decided to go.  I didn’t entirely trust him to not put him in a swim diaper so he wore one.  He knows it as “swim pants” so at least there is no diaper in the name to him.  I just assumed if he had to go, then he’d take advantage of the diaper.  Well, I was wrong!  He told me once that he had to go, so we went.  Of course I didn’t bring our new cushie folding potty seat, so he was faced with a regular toilet.  He freaked and we went back in the water.  About 10 minutes later, same thing.  He refused to sit on the toilet and we went back to the water.  I told him it was okay to pee in the swim pants if he had to go.  I even asked if he wanted to go home to use the potty because he obviously had to go and he said no.  Then 10 minutes after that, he tells me again “potty” so we go yet again.  This time he insists I take off his swimsuit and “swim pants”, so I oblige, wipe off the seat as much as I can and he sits right down to do his business.  Wow, was I shocked!  And so proud!  We’ve been out several times since we started potty training, but he never has had to go so using a public restroom hasn’t been an issue yet.  I never thought the first time would be at the pool!  When we got home he got a super cool prize for his accomplishment- a bubble gun!  This is seriously the best $3 I have spent in a long time! Such a fun, awesome toy!

Also, while we were at the pool he did some new things in the water.  He put his face right into the water!  All on his own!  And was absolutely fine afterwards!  He also tried to swim by himself (laying on his tummy and saying “kick feet” while actually doing it!) and jumped off the edge into the water.  All in all, it was a great morning and I am so proud of our big boy!

Yes, after a week of being couped up in the house we got brave and ventured out today with a very irritable, potty training little man.  For some reason he had been super duper cranky since yesterday.  I mean just crazy and not himself.   One example is that he got hysterical to the point of gagging himself when I dared tried to take his pj shirt off to get dressed this morning.  Needless to say, he went out today with his dinosaur pajama shirt and shorts on.  Tylenol didn’t even seem to help, in case it was his last molar coming in.  We thought maybe he was just really bored of being home for so long.  We are usually out at least every other day so this had been a big change in addition to the whole potty training transition.

We decided to go to Walmart of all places for cheeseburger bread and pickles- lunchtime essentials in our house.  He did well there and it didn’t take very long, so we pressed our luck with lunch at Chick-Fil-A.  Nicholas inhaled his 6 count nugget meal and had a blast playing with “friends” on the playground.  As they came in, he addressed them by the color shirt they had on.  There was an “orange friend” and a “blue friend”.  We’re encouraging him to ask friends what their names are rather than simply saying “hi friend, whatcha doing?” but is hasn’t quite sunk in yet!  He threw a few fits, one of which was in the bathroom when he insisted that I change his diaper despite the fact that he didn’t have one on, but overall I think it did him (and us) some good.  And he stayed dry!!  So proud of him for that!!

He was still a bit cranky when we got home but after a 2+ hour long nap, he woke up a new man.  Happy, playful and sweet.  Just like the little guy we all know and love.   Man, did we miss him and are thrilled he decided to come back.

He did have one tiny accident this evening because he didn’t get to the potty in time.  Which really isn’t that bad for a week into potty training!  He’s still trying to understand that he can stop playing to go potty and when he’s done, his toys will still be there waiting for him.  One notable thing today was that while playing out front in the sprinkler, he stopped to come inside to go potty!  I was so impressed!  I thought for sure he’d take advantage of being soaked and just pee in his swimsuit without Mommy noticing.  But nope, he took a potty break like a big boy!  We are just so proud of him!!!