NiklasAndZoe.com

NiklasAndZoe.com

Cuddles would like you to pass the turkey.

Niklas will tell Zoe the names of all of these buildings, even if he has to make them up.

2012-11-01: So, after what seems like thirty one straight days of trick or treating, today was pretty laid back. Zoe is already thinking about Christmas; "I like Santa Claus. He brings toys and he brings presents." Yes, yes he does, but we can talk about that next month.

2012-11-05: Well, it was an exhausting weekend of exhaustion. On Friday... well, Friday wasn't that exhausting. Niklas had a good day at school, as is per usual, and Zoe and I ran a bunch of errands. On second thought, maybe it was a bit exhausting. Zoe behaved herself really well, though. She charmed salespeople in four or five different stores downtown and didn't throw any fits of note, so I took her to McDonald's for lunch. I'm pretty sure I could load a Happy Meal with carrots and she'd eat them without question. (Note to self: try loading Happy Meal with carrots.)

Saturday is where the real exhaustion kicked itself in. Niklas went to a birthday party for his friend Peter in the morning. It was at the Windy City Fieldhouse (Home Of The Dirtiest Floor Hockey League In Chicago And Also Children's Parties) and featured all kinds of running about games, so that was good. They played sharks and minnows, Mr. Fox, broomball and soccer and then finished up with a relay race where they propelled themselves about on some little wheeled platform things. Niklas had a blast with all of that. In the evening, we went to a house warming party at the Patel's house which featured a ton of running about by Niklas, Zoe and ten or twelve other kids. At one point I watched Zoe swing herself around a basement support for three solid minutes. Niklas spent most of his time engaged in what were either highly disciplined or completely anarchic lightsaber battles.

Sunday, we went to Mass and Niklas had Sunday School. While he was doing that, Zoe and I spent what seemed like days going through the storage closet. You wouldn't think you could spend that much time digging through stuff in a four by five room, but there we were. Zoe had fun trying to climb up piles of bins, emptying out carefully organized bags and yelling excitedly about the bins of Christmas stuff. You'd think she owned some sort of retail establishment as excited as she is about Christmas. In the afternoon, we went to a Christening for Charlie Iammartino (Alice and Thomas's little brother). The kids behaved themselves reasonable at the service (which was, no joke, a good two hours shorter than Niklas' thank you very much Holy Name Cathedral) and then we went to the Iammartino's and the kids ran around some more, apparently tapping in to some vast reserves of energy. We had to leave earlier than expected after a catastrophic diaper blowout knocked Zoe's pants and my shirt out of commission. It's been a while since I've picked Zoe up only to find my arm immediately drenched by diaper overrun, so that was a trip down memory lane.

Today, Zoe had t-ball. "I listen to Coach Matt and Coach Callie" said Zoe. We also ran some errands which will be a recurring theme as we gear up for Thanksgiving. According to Niklas, his day consisted of music class, recess and lunch. I'm sure that's not comprehensive, but I have no evidence with which to dispute him.

2012-11-07: So yesterday, Zoe and I ordered a turkey, went to her music class, did a bit of voting and took a trip to craft store. We managed to hit all of those stops without having to purchase any broken merchandise, so success. Today, Zoe did a bit of training for American Gladiators, should it ever become a thing again:

2012-11-08: So Zoe hears a lot more traditional children's type music than Niklas did. When he was two, he listened to whatever I was playing in the car and that was pretty much it. He called his favorite song "The Orange Bus Song", but it was really "Silent Treatment" by Cleveland metal band Disengage. Zoe, though, has some Yo Gabba Gabba CDs and hears some kids' songs every week at her music class, so usually when she's singing it's something from one of those (or Little Einsteins, which Niklas also watched now that I think of it). This is why I was so excited to hear her describe a can of soda as "straight up cold evil."

There are a couple of pictures up here.

2012-11-11: Well, Andrya and I are going on vacation, so I probably won't get an update up until 20th at the earliest. This probably isn't the best place to tell you that I don't have much to say about the past three days, but here we are. We went to the Goose Island yesterday at the request of both kids. That was cool. I'm sure Niklas and Zoe will have a great time with Grandma and Papa Meeker while we're gone, so I should have more to report (be it second hand) when we get back.

2012-11-20: So, the kids certainly had a great time with Grandma and Papa Meeker over the last ten days. It turns out that we missed one of the busiest weeks of school to date (despite the fact that it was only three days long) as Niklas got his report card, had picture day and was Scientist of the Week. His report card was excellent, as expected. We won't know if he turned in a normal smile or not for picture day for a while, but he claims he did not look too goofy. His science experiment went well. I at least got to help him decide what to do before we left; we picked an experiment that we did while the teachers' strike was going on that hooked a bunch of different objects (paper clips, string, coins, popsicle sticks) into a circuit with a battery and a lightbulb to see which one would conduct.

Zoe had a big week, too. It was medal week at t-ball, so Zoe got her first ever award for learning about baseball or at least attending. She also took Grandma to music class and impressed her with her dancing and singing abilities. The zoo, playground and Children's Museum also figured prominently.

If you're interested, Andrya and I spent the week testing out different places to sit around. The beach won out, I think, but the pool, patio, other patio, living room and bar were all pretty popular. Also, it's hard to beat the way the kids' faces lit up when they first saw us today.

2012-11-25: Well. In the words of the magician guy from Frosty The Snowman (which the kids have watched at least four times at this point), it's been busy, busy, busy around these parts. On Wednesday, we laid low pretty much in anticipation of not so much opportunity for low-lying over the next few days. We did a bit of Christmas shopping and hit the Goose Island for what was Zoe's third trip there over the last two weeks, but it was all pretty relaxing. It helps that the kids, for the most part, can maintain their composure in public.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, as I'm sure you remember. In the morning, Andrya took the kids to the playground (temperatures were in the mid 50s) while I debacled up the kitchen (there was an incident with a pepper mill that failed to maintain its structural integrity). They had a great time. Zoe ran herself about the playground as is her wont while Niklas played flag football with some of his friends. Per Andrya's description of the pigskin action, "there were a lot of patient dads there." Dinner itself went well. The kids both ate their weight in cranberry sauce and a fair amount of everything else and then they ate more desert than I would have though possible.

On Friday, I took the kids to Pump It Up to run off the food they had eaten the previous day, all of which they seem to have converted directly into energy. Zoe is finally big enough to climb up most of the stuff by herself, but she still needed help going through the obstacle course which of course she wanted to do about thirty times. I don't think Niklas had been there since his last day a Chalk, so he had a great time running about his old time stomping grounds. I'm not sure that the trip wore them down at all, but they had fun, so that was cool.

Yesterday was Aaron's birthday party, so Andrya and I took the kids out to the Chuck E Cheese in Skokie. As is per usual, the kids had a great time while I felt like I was trapped inside a slot machine. Zoe was more interested in putting tokens in machines than in anything the machines did while Niklas proved via some boat racing game that he will not be driving my boat should I aquire a boat.

Today, we either didn't do much or I'm just too out of gas to recollect what it was. There are some new pictures up. I didn't take many of them, so they're pretty good.

2012-11-26: So, things were pretty much back to normal today. Zoe and I dropped Niklas off at school and then we went off to t-ball where Zoe dropped plates on various posteriors. We followed that up with some errands ("we go see Aaron?" - Zoe) and grabbed some lunch. As is Zoe's wont of late, she ate all of the meat and cheese off of her sandwich and left the bread. There's no legit science behind the Atkins diet, Zoe! After Zoe's nap ("naps are disgusting!" - teary-eyed Zoe seconds before passing out) we picked Niklas up from school. He played some sort of hybrid rugby/soccer/zombie apocalypse game for twenty minutes or so on the playground and then we went to get his haircut. That went well, though I learned that if you let Niklas tell the lady how to cut his hair on his own, he'll say "I don't really need a haircut." When we got home, Niklas did his homework, he and Zoe watched a bunch of Christmas specials, ate dinner and then went to bed. That brings us pretty much up to now.

2012-11-28: Zoe had music class yesterday. As is per usual, she had a blast with that. It had been a few weeks since I had taken her, so I found it less excruciating than normal which was a plus. After that, we took the train to the loop and did a wee bit of Christmas shopping. When you travel about with a well behaved two year old, you get pretty excellent service. Thanks for that, Zoe!

Today, Zoe and I did some shopping at some of her favorite stores. Please note that for my purposes, Zoe loves the liquor and record stores. The weather was a bit nicer today, so after school, Zoe and I hung out while Niklas and his friends ran about playing zombie. As near as I can tell, they're all zombies and they're trying to eat each other's brains and eyes. Also, there is a soccer ball.

2012-11-29: Well, my plan today was to do all kinds of productive stuff. When I asked Zoe what she wanted to do, she replied "I want to stay home." Who can say no to laziness enabling like that? Not me, that's for sure. So instead of going to the gym or the grocery store, we played hide and seek, put some puzzles together and watched a ton of Christmas specials. I declare today to be a success.