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 Wherein Niklas Witnessed The Failure Of The Internet. |
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Pictures News |
2009-07-06:
So, On Sunday, we took Niklas to church. He was on his typical church behavior which means he was quiet, but extremely squirmy. I don't know
what he plans on doing if he ever escapes from the pew, but in the interest of not being chased about by torch bearing
church folk, I'm going to try not to find out. Anyway, he did switch it up a bit by unleashing a fart that you could probably hear in all the
way across the island. For the record, Andrya laughed much harder than I did. 2009-07-12: My, Niklas has been slacking when it comes to updating his website. What's that? I'm supposed to do it? We'll chalk any delays in posting up to this misunderstanding, then. That, and work. Anyway, Niklas had a busy weekend. As he's a three day weekend type of guy, state recognized holiday or not, we'll start with Friday. So, Friday, Niklas and I hit the zoo in the morning. He's really into the recently renovated "Discovery Room" lately. Unlike the U of I's "Discovery Room" physics (or "physics", if you will) program, this is not geared towards people who have lost the majority of their brain function in auto accidents and accountants. Rather, it's an area where crazed toddlers and elementary school students can run around sticking their hands in touch tanks and screaming "ewwwwwwww!" upon contact with starfish, conchs, suck rocks and sea cucumbers. There are fish in the tanks, too, but they're too quick for the average Imagination Mover aficionado. Niklas also spent a bunch of time using a magnifying glass to look at butterflies. After I drug him out of there, we had our monthly staff lunch at the Swizzle and went home for a nap. In the afternoon, Niklas sous cheffed it up real good. "Niklas," I asked him when he woke up from his nap, "do you want to help me make some pizza crust?" "No," he replied, "I make some chocolate milk, I think." Once we did that, he was much more amenable to helping me with the crust. I dump a bunch of stuff into a crust, which works out well with Niklas's cooking philosophy that everything can be improved by the addition of "more ingredients". The highlight of our time in the kitchen was when I asked him to scoop some sugar into the bowl for me and he instead through the scoop down, grabbed a fistful of sugar and tried to stuff it into his mouth. On Saturday, Niklas woke up early and made biscuits with Andrya. She is wise to his ways with the sugar, so there were no major crap ups on that front. After I rolled out of bed at a totally reasonable hour that I won't mention lest you think it quite unreasonable, we made another trip to the zoo at Niklas's insistence. We spent a bunch more time slopping about in the touch tank and looking at butterflies and playing with some sort of toy where you try to get some balls to roll into a spider web or something. After that, Niklas tore it up for a bit in the playground and favored us with his giant outdoor xylophone stylings. Also, we saw some animals. We took him to lunch at his (and my) favorite brew pub where he scored restaurant chicken nuggets for the second day in a row. After a nap that was delayed an hour by someone screaming that he under no circumstance wanted or needed a nap, we went to the beach where I taught Niklas how to build a dam out of sand and demonstrated his knowledge of how to smash puny sand dams. Today was my day to get up early with Niklas. After we watched some Elmo and had some breakfast, we went down to the beach where we picked up some trash that had washed ashore and played Niklas's new favorite beach game which involves him grabbing some seaweed and possibly placing it atop my head. After that, Andrya took him out for a tricycle ride which was great fun whilst I guarded against any spontaneous couch levitation. Niklas had a much better nap than yesterday which we followed up with another trip to the beach. Finally, he made some cookies with Andrya and then ate some of those same cookies. When Andrya put him down for the night, he said "we had lots of fun today, Mommy." 2009-07-15: So it's officially one month before our departure from Bermuda, which works out seeing as how Niklas and I have done pretty much all there is to do here about fifty times. Niklas likes doing things fifty plus times, I guess, so it's not a thing for him. I, however, have had a relapse of my long dormant senioritis. Anyway, since there are a finite number of opportunities left for us to go to a pool located within fifty feet of our home, that's what we did today. Niklas is getting closer to actually swimming. Instead of trying to run through the water with his legs directly underneath him, they now form more of a 70 degree angle to the surface of the water. Progress! Also, he no longer gets upset when I toss him into the water or dunk him, which is good as these are things I rather enjoy. 2009-07-19: So on Friday, Niklas had a haircut appointment in the morning. He was pretty excited to get to ride the ferry into town with Andrya and even more excited when he got to have breakfast with her while I got my hair cut. Niklas had a chocolate muffin which he is still talking about which means it was either really, really good or that it was made of chocolate. Both, possibly. Anyway, his haircut was the second in a row that didn't feature any screaming. Progress! He even let the barber blow the hair trimmings off of him with the hair dryer which was previously akin to telling him that we were going to Dunkin' Donuts but he wasn't allowed to have any doughnuts. After that we ran some errands and caught the bus back out to Southampton. The bus lets us off about half a mile from our house. This is usually a fairly pleasant walk that features the dogs that Niklas laughs at when they bark at him. Let me also note at this point that it was sunny while we were in town and for most of the bus ride back. As soon as we stepped off of the bus, however, the one cloud in the sky (or perhaps one of those fire fighting helicopters disguised as a cloud) rained rain upon us with an unheard of ferocity. I suppose it's possible that you've heard of such a ferocity, but still, it was some pretty heavy rain. This lasted pretty much exactly until we got home, when the sun came out. To sum up, my boots are still wet. To sum up using Niklas's words, "we got of the bus and the rain and we were all wet." 2009-07-21: Niklas is getting better with his swimming. Well, he's getting better with his attitude about swimming; he still swims like he's made up of about 50% lead. Even so, he's having a good time, which I guess is the point. So that's what we did today. Yesterday, we went to the Exploritorium which Niklas used to be fairly ambivalent about, but now that our membership has expired, he wants to go every other day. He had a fine time running about and trying to bust up some shipwreck artifacts. Luckily, Niklas is slightly less powerful than the sea and there was no damagae that a panicked glance before running away could detect. 2009-07-30: So, we are experiencing an internet outage here. Luckily, our neighbors are cool and have granted me access to their wireless network, so I should have a proper update up this evening. If Niklas had any appreciation for patience, he would thank you for yours. He doesn't, though. Not a patient one, he.  
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