NiklasAndZoe.com

NiklasAndZoe.com

Cuddles From The Future Doesn't Know What To Tell Cuddle From The Past.

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

2013-05-02: Today in unwelcome developments: Zoe has decided that it's funny to put food into her drink glasses. Goldfish in chocolate milk aren't that bad, but I found the the macaroni and cheese in orange juice to be quite disturbing.

Niklas got to go out for cupcakes with his teacher and three friends on Wednesday on account of how we won said opportunity in a fund raising auction type thing. He apparently had a great time as when you ask him about it he babbles excitedly and jumps up and down. Another indicator that it was fun for all of the six year olds involved was how exhausted his teacher looked when I picked him up.

2013-05-08: Well, things have been busy. Last weekend we went to Indianapolis so the godfather and I could run for 13.1 miles like idiots. Andrya, Niklas and Zoe got some pastries while we were doing that. Josh, Niklas, Zoe and I also climbed to the top (331 steps) of the Soldiers and Sailors memorial in the Circle. (It's the tall monument thing you see in Indianapolis whenever they do an establishing shot for a Colts game.) While it was perhaps rock stupid of me to suggest such a climb after running a half marathon, Niklas and Zoe were fresh legged and quite impressive with their mountaineering. They were also full of ice cream at that point which likely helped. Later, we took the kids to Fogo de Chao for all you can eat meat. Niklas put away and impressive amount while Zoe ate slightly more than her usual dinner consumption of nothing.

Niklas's school had half day today for reasons I failed to look up. While he was getting his three and a half hours worth of education, Zoe and I went to two different playgrounds and watched some Disney Channel. Not at the same time; that would be some sort of quantum anomaly. Anyway, after we picked Niklas up, the kids played on the school playground for a bit and then we got some lunch at Michael Diversey's. We blew right through nap time (which should really be called Zoe causes a ruckus while avoiding a nap time now, but that's just too wordy) and went to the park for some bike riding. Zoe does a much better job of steering the tricycle when she's pedaling it herself as opposed to my pushing it, which is a plus. The minus there is she's not that great at pedaling and she's easily infuriated. "It's going backward!," she shouted at me. "You're pedaling it backward," I explained to limited comprehension. Still, a good effort on her part. Niklas did a really good job with his bike, too. We took the training wheels off after about half an hour of riding and he pedaled a bit with me holding him upright. He's just about ready to try it independently, but I need to get some elbow pads on him first cause that dude's gonna fall a bit.

I've got quite the picture backlog going. I hope to get to that this weekend, but you know how that goes.

2013-05-13: So, Niklas attempted riding his bike without training wheels today. A list of things he crashed into would include a fence, a tree, a wall, another (bigger) fence and a much, much larger tree. Still, progress was made and we identified areas for improvement (such as not steering directly into trees). We're heading out tomorrow to try again in a more wide open space, so we'll see how that goes.

As my mom reminded me (twice) this past weekend, it's been a while since I added any pictures. Happy Mother's Day, then.

2013-05-20: Well, what a difference a week makes. When last we reported on Niklas's bike riding, he was smashing into things every few feet. Now, this is happening:

Zoe's been fairly impressive with her tricylce riding as well, which is something Niklas never got around to doing.

There's been a lot of other stuff going on, too. (Looks like I picked the wrong week to slack-slack-slack at the website.) Both kids have been doing well at baseball. Niklas has been hitting the ball well and he made an impressive defensive play that he descibed thusly; "she hit the ball in the air and I put my glove on my head like a hat and I caught it and stepped on the base before she was even halfway there." Of course, he didn't need to step on the base after catching the ball, but still. Zoe, meanwhile, hit a few pitched balls in her class which is pretty impressive relative to the boys in her class that struggle with the tee. Learn to hit like a girl, boys!

The kids also went to Jai Patel's birthday party over the weekend. A fine time was had by all there, though Zoe did break out the furious face when she was the first kid eliminated in musical chairs. More popular with her was soccer, though her constant efforts to pick the ball up and throw it indicate that she might need some work there.

2013-05-23: Yesterday, Andrya, Zoe and I went over to Niklas's school to catch his star making turn as the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood.

You'll no doubt note that I somehow managed to not record the end which goes like this:

Grandma: Take that big bad wolf away from here!
Police Officer: (leads wolf off stage) Wolf, you're coming down to the station.
Narrator: Grandma and Little Red thanked the police officer and everyone shared some yummy treats.

So, there's that. Today, Niklas had a field trip to the nature museum and Zoe and I joined him for his call picnic afterward. As this is Chicago, the weather was in the forties with 20 mph wind gusts. A fine time was had by all, nonetheless.