Wednesday, March 19, 2008

High Fives


Brothers
Originally uploaded by Chiubacca
Nico, age five, and Nolan, age five months, have a very cute relationship, for the most part. Despite the fact that Nico is constantly squeezing Nolan's head and shouting crazy things at his little bro ("YEAH! This is my rock! My rock! Yeah, I love this rock head! Transform, you rock!"), Nolan absolutely adores his big brother.

The first thing Nico likes to do when he wakes up is find his brother, snuggle up next to him and say, "Hi Angel Face! Hi! Hi! Hi Baby Angel Face! Hi Strong Baby!" Nico's face totally softens when he looks at his brother.

Nolan, in turn, beams at his big brother and even when Nico is tormenting him, tends to put up with quite a bit of his shenanigans before protesting.

The smiles they give each other just melt my heart. It's so adorable!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Note from Nico to Mama

Nico spent a few hours with me at work on Friday, when his after school program was canceled due to the snowstorm.

He was surprisingly well behaved and drew pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to pass the time. Then, he wrote a nice message on my white board. It almost makes up for the note he wrote the night before, proclaiming "We Hate Mommy Day".



Kindergartners are so much fun!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Wednesday is We Hate Mommy Day

The other night, after dinner, Nico announced that he wanted to make a book for Nolan. I praised him for being so thoughtful and kind to his baby brother. We set up crayons and paper and Nico got to work. He started writing a letter: "Dear Noli Poli, today is We-".

It went downhill from there.

Here's a transcript:
Nico: How do you spell Wednesday?
Me: [pauses and decides not to throw him off with the "d"] How do you think it's spelled?
Nico:I don't know. Why don't you tell me?
Me: How about if you sound it out?
Nico: [impatiently] No. How about you just tell me?
Me: Sound it out. Wennnnnnsday. Wennnnnnnnnsday.
Nico: [enraged] JUST TELL ME!
Me: Just try to sound it out.
Nico: FINE! FINE! STUPID!
[one minute of silence]
Nico: [smiling sweetly] Want to read my letter?
Me: Okay.
Nico: I'll read it to you: Dear Noli Poli. Today is We Hate Mommy Day!

For emphasis, Nico made "Hate", "Mommy" and "Day" three different colors, with the exclamation point elaborately decorated in four colors - black, red, yellow and green. Then he circled "Hate" - just in case I missed it.

I would have posted a photo of the drawing, but he scribbled black crayon over the entire paper.

Note to self: Hang on to this drawing so when he's a teenager asking for money, I can whip this out and say, "I don't think so."