NiklasAndZoe.com

NiklasAndZoe.com

Cuddles is looking forward to a box of chocolate or two.

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

2013-02-04: So Niklas was off of school last Friday for a Professional Development Day or something... one of those days that are awesome when you're the one who gets them off but is less great when you have to twice as many kids to chase about. Seeing as how it was as cold as a really cold thing outside, we pretty much laid low except for trips to the Dunkin Donuts (on account of how some fool promised the kids doughnuts before checking the weather) and the grocery store (on account of how some fool failed to procure food when the weather was tolerable outside). I'm pretty sure Zoe through a cabin fever fit at some point which is pretty much expected these days.

It snowed a bit on Saturday so I was able to wear the ruckus twins out a bit by turning them loose in that while Andrya was at work. Highlights included Niklas making a snow angel and Zoe seeing Niklas make said snow angel and throwing herself on the ground in an effort to do whatever it is her brother is doing. After that, we had hot chocolate, sort of. "I don't want my hot chocolate to be hot," said Niklas. After drinking (or spilling in Zoe's case) their hot (cold for Niklas) chocolate, Zoe also put a 50 piece puzzle together by herself while Niklas continued his attempts to master Temple Run 2 on the iPhone.

On Sunday, Andrya and I took the kids over to Jared and Dana's to watch the Super Bowl. More accurately, we took them over there to run around with Aaron and Zack while the rest of us watched the Super Bowl. I assume they had a good time; I heard a lot of laughing and not too much in the way of yelling or ominous silences.

Today, there was more snow so we got to trudge through that to get Niklas to school. It's flat both ways, future Niklas, so don't try to claim otherwise. Zoe is all about walking in the snow these days, so she was cool with that. Zoe also had medal day at t-ball. Nobody gets excited for t-ball medal like Zoe.

There are a few new pictures up here. Speaking of pictures, Niklas got his school picture proofs back today. They were... not good. Not good at all. It does work for this, though:

2013-02-05: So today, Zoe and I traveled the earth getting into adventures and... stuff, much like Caine from Kung Fu. For our purposes, the earth is defined as the north side of Chicago and adventures include music class, dropping off pre-school tuition checks and picking stuff up for Andrya. Zoe had a great time with that on account of how it included rides on the bus and train and also over a mile of walking through the snow. If there were a marathon held in the snow, Zoe would run that right now.

2013-02-06: So Niklas got his second report card today. Through two quarters, he's laying a "me CRAY, you abacus" style beating down on things. I've started working on contingency plans in case he choses a career in Super Villainy.

2013-02-10: Well, it's been a busy few days. On Thursday, Zoe had her swimming lesson. This was her fourth one and she's already vastly improved compared to her first one which wasn't even that bad. She's not clingy at all and, unlike most of the other kids in her class, she doesn't scream when you ask her to do swimming-related things.

On Friday, Zoe and I went to Pump-It-Up. She went down the big slide at least twenty times which was awesome for me because that meant she climbed a twenty-foot ladder twenty times and wore herself out but good. She also kicked me in the eye but good on the obstacle course. That was somewhat less awesome for me.

Yesterday, Andrya had to work so the kids and I hung out around the house. We played some games, put together some puzzles and then Niklas and I built a convection box. Our's involved orange duct tape making it superior to the referenced picture.

Today was pretty laid back. Niklas had Sunday School, Zoe fell down in a big pile of slush outside, so pretty much the usual for a Sunday.

There are a few new pictures up here.

2013-02-11: Zoe had her first t-ball class of the new session today. She got an orange shirt like the three year olds instead of a two year old's green shirt, so she was pretty excited. "I'm a big," said Zoe. We also went to the Dominick's and dropped off some recycling, so the day was action packed. After school, we took Niklas to get a haircut. Although it's been years since he screamed his head off in a barber's chair, I'm still thrilled every time he gets a haircut and I'm not afraid of being arrested because it sounds like I'm beating my kid with a stick. So, if you're ever in Bermuda and you need a haircut, go see David at the Arcade Barbershop. Tell him Niklas says hello and if he doesn't remember the name, just scream for a bit. He'll get it.

2013-02-13: So, Niklas had the day off from school yesterday on account of it being Lincoln's Birthday and Lincoln being a much bigger deal than the concept of the Presidency in general here in Illinois. If nothing else, I kept the kids occupied for most of the day. We kicked things off with Zoe's music class which featured singing, dancing, two year olds exchanging Valentine's and Niklas hanging out in the hall playing Temple Run. After that, we went to the high end doughnut place for a snack. Niklas declared it to be not as good as Dunkin' Donuts which leads me to conclude that his palate is at best a work in progress because those doughnuts were straight awesome. Zoe and I recommend Glazed & Infused on Armitage for all of your doughnut needs. Anyway, once the kids were loaded up with sugar, I took them to Pump It Up to run some of that off. Success, that. We were there for about five minutes before Niklas ran into one of his lady friends from school and ran off with her leaving Zoe and I to our own bouncing devices. He met back up with us after a bit ("What happened to Anastasia?" "I guess I lost her.") and helped Zoe through the obstacle course and protected her from the bigger kids in the one Thunderdome-ish slide/tackling dummy/basketball court thing. We finished the pre-nap time part of our day up with some Happy Meals. Zoe was too wiped out to eat much which I guess means our morning was a success. In the afternoon, we had some popcorn and M&Ms and watched the film version of The Fantastic Mr. Fox to celebrate Niklas's successful completion of the novel of the same name. If you see Niklas anytime soon, it's likely that he will say to you "here, put this bandit hat on" and then laugh like a loon.

Niklas was back to school today, so Zoe and I went to the gym. Her report from the playroom: "I play with some guys and I play some basketball and I play with some blocks."

2013-02-17: Well, a belated Happy Valentine's Day from Niklas and Zoe. Niklas celebrated Valentine's with a trip to the dentist to get a spacer installed to replace his recently pulled tooth. As no trip to the dentist is ever easy for Niklas, they didn't have the right sized spacer so they had to order another one ensuring yet another trip to the dentist in a few weeks. After we took Niklas back to school (where he exchanged Valentine's with all of his class mates), Zoe and I went to swimming class. She did really well yet again. She can move herself about the pool if you give her a barbell thing to hold onto and she can get out of the pool without any help. She's also no longer bothered by getting dunked, which works out for me as a strong desire to dunk your children runs in my family.

On Friday, I was carrying Zoe on my shoulders (she calls this sitting "up up high") when she started bouncing up and down. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was helping me go fast. I tried to explain to her that breaking my neck wouldn't make us go faster, but I'm not sure she followed my logic. Zoe also got to spend the night in Niklas's old sleep tent in lieu of her crib. The highlight of that was her walking out of her room about a half hour after bedtime and telling Andrya, Niklas and me to be quiet so she could sleep.

Saturday was night two of the tent experiment. As I found Zoe playing with her dollhouse at both 1 AM and 5 AM, we've gone back to the crib for now.

Niklas had his swimming lesson today. Apparently that went well. Other than that the most notable thing was Zoe's new found obsession with trying to steal Niklas's socks. Yeah, it's pretty weird.

2013-02-18: So apparently, people were either out of town or thought that t-ball would be cancelled today. Zoe was both in town and under no such delusions which is how she ended up as the only kid in the 2-3 year old class. She rather enjoyed her private lesson which featured just a ton of hitting (both off of the tee and a little bit of soft toss), a bunch of throwing and some running to finally wear her out. Zoe was very thankful to Coach Noah for playing ball with her today!

Niklas took his 100 day collection in to school today. We built it on Saturday but apparently I didn't mention it when I was writing about what we did on Saturday. So the deal was he was supposed to bring a collection of 100 things in to celebrate the hundredth day of school. He did similar stuff at Chalk (he took hockey cards one year and Star Wars Micro-Machine guys the next), but the twist this year was that it was supposed to be presented in an interesting way. Is there anything more interesting than a ferris wheel built out of popsicle sticks and tinker toys with 100 M&Ms glued to it? I'm sure a picture would convince you that there is not. I didn't take one, but trust me.

2013-02-19: Well. It seems that Zoe got a taste of freedom over the weekend what with her ability to just wander freely out of her tent. She seems to have enjoyed it so much that today's nap went like this:

1) I put Zoe in her crib for a nap.
2) Two or three minutes later, Zoe wanders out after climbing out of her crib.
3) Repeat steps 1) and 2) for two hours but with increasing yelling on my part.

That of course led to me having to deal with a nap-free Zoe who was also being punished all afternoon, so that was delightful.

2013-02-21: So. Zoe's crib escape routine has not yet abated. The "How To Get Your Kid To Go To Sleep" book (probably not its actual name) says you need to be silent and just drop the kids back into the crib. THIS GOES AGAINST ALL OF MY NATURAL INSTINCTS. To sum up, my sleep cycle is wrecked up and I've got a ton of rage bottled up the end.

2013-02-25: Well, our battle against Zoe's crib escapery is half won. She's stayed in bed throughout the night since Satureday, which is a big help, sanity-wise. She's still pretty much againgst taking a nap which, apart from wrecking up my own plans to take a nap, has caused some late afternoon jerkery. She's expected to phase out her nap around the age of three, so I guess she's ahead of the curve in the worst possible way. There is one funny thing about Zoe's jailbreak act. We put some bells on her door so as to prevent Andrya and I sleeping through Zoe's early morning adventures throughout the house. The first night we were there, she set them off twice. The second time when I was putting her back to bed she whispered to me "Daddy, can we put those things away? They make too much noise." So there's that.

I didn't mention it last Thursday, but despite her lack of sleep, Zoe did an awesome job at swimming. She's the least terrified of the water of any kid in her class. She doesn't even get upset anymore when she forgets to close her mouth when I dunk her, so things are looking good there.

On Friday, Zoe had a fairly awesome meltdown on the way to pick Niklas up from school. Something else probably happened, but screamy meltdowns really wipe my brain. Saturday was all right. The kids and I ran some errands while Andrya was at work. I got Niklas a new glove in preparation for baseball season and we got Zoe a pink batting helmet because she looks super cute in it. Also, I guess it has some sort of protective properties.

Yesterday was a big day for Niklas. He had Sunday school, baseball evaluations and he went to a birthday party at a ceramics studio which is apparently a thing that six year old boys enjoy, possibly because of the similarities between pottery clay and mud. He did really well at baseball, too, though running the bases with a helmet on wasn't part of the evaluation. Hopefully he can manage that in less ridiculous fashion than last year.

I've only taken a few pictures over the last week and I lazily haven't gotten around to posting them yet. While you wait, please enjoy five hours worth of home movies featuring Niklas from ages 0 to 2.

2013-02-26: So both kids had pretty good days today. Zoe went to music class which she's always a fan of. There was clapping, dancing and jumping galore. We also went to the gym, so she got to playroom it up a bit, too. Niklas had a good day at the learnitorium, then both kids played in the snow after school. That was awesome for me what with the sidewise blowing snow and ice and all.

There are a few new pictures up here. Few might be a strong word.

2013-02-28: So yesterday was a busy day. Zoe and I went to the gym in the morning and then we went to pick Niklas up from school on account of how he had half day for some reason. We went to Goose Island for lunch which is popular with the kids for some reason that's not beer and is popular with me because beer. Later, we had popcorn and M&Ms and watched Wreck-It-Ralph which resulted in sugared up children running around the house yelling "I'm gonna wreck it!" So there was that. Oh, and at one point, Zoe and I had this exchange:

Me: *obscenity of some sort I don't remember*, Daddy said shoot.
Zoe: Oh, no. Not again.

Today, Zoe had swimming. That went well enough despite her insistence on opening her mouth whenever she went underwater. Niklas had a field trip to some sort of science thing that featured both static electricity and somebody spitting, but I haven't got all of the facts on that yet.