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 Wherein Niklas Watched The Same Two Videos Twelve Times Everyday. |
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Pictures News |
2008-12-02:
So, Niklas and I braved the crowds, by which I mean there were possibly marginally more people than usual about, to do some shopping on the day
after Thanksgiving. (Thanksgiving not being a holiday here, the holiday shopping kicks off after Halloween, as far as I can tell.) Anyway,
Niklas was quite excited, as we were in Hamilton to shop for toys. Niklas is a fan of toys. Unfortunately for him, we were buying stuff for
Toys For Tots. Still, Niklas had a great time running about the toy store and causing all the stuff that makes a racket to make a racket. Also,
he made a racket with some stuff that's not intended to make much of a racket. Anyway, we paid for the stuff we got (which include a Niklas
approved Elmo and a fretted over to an excessive degree by me My Pretty Pony which was absolutely the prettiest of all the pretty ponies, some
of which are kidding themselves if they're thinking they can trade on their looks) and headed off to the toy drop. I should note at this point
that all of the toys were in an opaque plastic bag. We handed the bag off and headed home. Niklas kept saying "play with toys" and I told him
sure, we could play with his toys when we got home. Then for a while, nothing happened. The next day, Niklas started pawing at my backpack
chanting "play with toys" as though he were trying to conjure some toys using ancient backpack-pawing magics. Andrya and I assured him that there
were no toys in the backpack and opened all the pockets up to show him. That's when his face crumbled and the crying started. Apparently,
despite my continued explanations to contrary, he was under the impression that I had bought a bunch of presents for him and put them in my
backpack (as I often do with purchases I make when he and I are out and about). Once Andrya figured out what was going on, we gave him the Elmo
he already had and peace returned with the house. Apparently, you shouldn't take two year olds shopping for things they want if you're just going
to give said things to other people. I'm sure I won't remember this next year, but by then I'll have a three year old. As I understand it,
they are renowned for their logic and reasoning skill.
 2008-12-03: Niklas slept in until 7:30 today. A couple of months ago, this wouldn't have been anything to shout about, but since he's been drifting closer to the fives than the sevens lately, it was cause for much rejoicing. I'm guessing his sleepitude was due to all the running about we've done the past couple of days. Niklas and I have been to see the dolphins at Dockyard twice (once, they were getting their teeth brushed which Niklas thought was the height of hilarity) and we've hit various playgrounds five times. Also, he's been running around the house like a madman (who is naked) again before and after his bath. That's gotta wear a guy out. 2008-12-07: There's been quite a bit going on the past few days. We've been hitting the local playground quite a bit. There are usually a bunch of kids there in the afternoon, so Niklas is able to do some socializing. Granted, this still consists mostly of awkward stares and the occasional high five, but there's also some running about and yelling, which is popular. Yesterday was St. Nicholas Day. Niklas celebrated by waking up exceptionally early. Since he had been sleeping in his tent in lieu of his crib, he wandered out to the living room to get some toys when he woke up. Fortunately, Andrya heard him, so we were able to apply proper parental supervision before he really had a chance to bust anything up. Anyway, since we were all awake, we turned Niklas loose on his stocking. He had a fine time opening his presents (a couple of Christmas books and Sesame Street DVDs) and he was thrilled to find that St. Nicholas had also left him some biscuits and a banana. Bananas are very in with Niklas these days. Niklas followed up his early rising on St. Nicholas Day by waking up even earlier today. Since last night was Andrya's company's holiday party, this was most unpopular with me. Niklas took advantage of my somewhat compromised state to empty the armoire and the drawer under his crib. Also, he brushed my hair with a vacuum cleaner attachment. Later, we went out to lunch and to see Santa Claus at Dockyard. Unlike last year, Niklas was willing to sit on Santa's lap without any screaming or anything. Despite the fact that we had well rehearsed what he was to tell Santa ("Hi Santa Claus, I like Elmo"), I ended up acting as his spokesman due to Niklas's apprehension. Still, there was no screaming and he waved at Santa when we left. Also, when we were walking back to the car, he said "good time see Santa Claus", so I guess that sums it up. There's a picture of Niklas with Santa (and a bunch of others, too) up here. 2008-12-10: Niklas has been enjoying the non-terrible December weather here in Bermuda. On Monday, we hit the Exploritorium (which still refuses to call itself such, settling instead of the far inferior title of Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute) where Niklas pretty much had the run of the place seeing as how this is the least touristy of seasons. So, run he did! Also, we saw shipwreck treasure, which is always awesome. Later that day, we went to the lighthouse. Niklas failed to equal his all time personal best in stair climbing (which is making it all the way to the top), but he did much better than his all time personal worst (which is making me carry him all the way up). Yesterday, we went to two different playgrounds and also the zoo. At one of the playgrounds, we ran into our neighbor, so Niklas and James (who is also two) took turns going down the slide about a thousand times. This was awesome because it allowed me to stand around and do nothing for a while, which is something I'm really into. Today, we cleaned up some trash on the beach in an effort to suck up to Santa Claus. Then we went to Fort Scaur and hit the playground again. Also, we watched the Elmo's Christmas DVD he got for St. Nicholas Day for about the twelve thousandth time in five days. That one is wearing on me. 2008-12-12: So as you might expect (or, if you have a particularly low opinion of me, might not expect) I try not to swear in front of the boy. This is a challenge on account of how I'm known for my colorful use of language. Still, I think I do pretty well. If I do let something slip, I always say to Niklas "Daddy said 'shoot', buddy". This has worked out well for me, as the only time Niklas has used any type of expletive (assuming that you are like me and don't count "crap"... note that Andrya is not like us) TV has been to blame. Anyway, yesterday I was doing some stuff for work that was not going as well as I may have hoped. "This is a pile of" this, I said. "Daddy said 'shoot'," replied Niklas. So that's working well. 2008-12-15: Niklas has taken a liking to How The Grinch Stole Christmas. We've watched (also, read and listened to) that even more than Elmo's Christmas the last few days. This has been very good for my sanity. Anyway, Niklas is pretty excited for Christmas in general. He's all "Santa Claus!" and "presents!" and "ride on airplane!" I'm sure he'll be less excited about that last one once we actually get on the plane, but I'm glad he's up for it now. 2008-12-16: So generally, I make it a point not to leave the house without my backpack. It contains important things like diapers, a change of clothes for Niklas, some snacks and diapers. Also, diapers. Anyway, the exception to my always, always, always take the backpack rule is when Niklas and I take Andrya to the ferry in the morning or we go to pick her up in the evening. This is a ten to fifteen minute round trip, so I figure that any type of disaster can be address when we get home. Figure? Figured. Figured is what I mean. Yesterday evening, Niklas and I drove to the ferry stop to pick Andrya up. We usually get there a few minutes early, which is fine with Niklas because he likes to watch the ferry pull up before running down to meet Andrya. Things went a bit differently yesterday. As soon as I took him out of the car, he said "wet". I thought that this was a positive development in his potty training, as he usually only tells me if he's poopy or if he has to pee, never that he's already wet himself. As I explained earlier, my thought was that if he was wet, he could wait ten minutes until we got home for a new diaper, so we headed down to the ferry anyway. Once we got on the ramp leading down to the dock, though, I noticed that the tab from his diaper that was supposed to be attached to the front was actually sticking out the back. While that's not good, at least I had caught it before anything went terribly wrong. Oh, how I wish that were true. As I was reattaching the velcro, I noticed that when Niklas had said "wet", what he had meant was "I have defeated the structural integrity of my diaper and have urinated all over my pants and, as you will notice later, my car seat." This was how Niklas came to wear a diaper/pants combination made out of my t-shirt. 2008-12-17: We've been hitting a bunch of Niklas's favorite spots of late on account of how he's going to be spending exorbienent amounts of time in a car over the next coupe of weeks. Yesterday, we hit Fort Scaur. The new brickwork there shares a common origin with Niklas, but as always, he was more interested in the cannon and the precipitous drops (not pictured on account of how I was busy keeping him away from the precipitous drops). Today, we went to the zoo and then out to lunch. We followed that up with a trip to the drugstore to get some diapers on account of how Niklas was badly in need of a diaper change and we had already used up the usually but apparently not always sufficient number of diapers I had brought with us. Two diapers is usually sufficient. Not always, though. New pictures? Ho, ho, ho. 2008-12-18: So we're off to the airport tomorrow to kick off our multithousand mile extravaganza of holiday travel. I still haven't packed anything, but I'm pretty worn out from preparing for the trip. I'm not sure how that works, but there you go. Andrya's packed up all of Niklas's stuff, so he should be set. Anyway, Niklas wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and, uh, Good Festivus. Also, as it's unlikely I'll update anything until we get back, Happy New Year. We'll see you later, then. Right Click on the picture below and select "save target as" for a copy of Niklas's favorite Christmas song. We can all agree he's a man of good taste.   
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