Ok, Nico has redeemed himself today, and I am ready to wax nostalgic on what a great kid he is. What Sam wrote the other day got me thinking that we tend to fall in the trap of villainizing him a bit because, well, he has the uncanny ability to act a lot like a villain at times. I realize that I spend more time than I should fretting that he doesn’t obey as well as I would like and less time than I should enjoying his more innocent antics. So, to that end, I wanted to share a few Nico-isms, some of the more adorable and/or hilarious things that have come out of his mouth recently. Since he says these things so often, it’s hard to keep track of them, but here are a couple highlights that come to mind.
When we went to pick up two year old Nico from the church nursery at our then new church one Sunday, his teacher said, looking very serious, “We had a little incident today.” Of course, we assumed the worst and were ready to be banned from the nursery forever. She continued gravely, “His name tag fell off today, and when we asked him what his name was, this is what he said.” She then proceeded to turn him around and show us the name tag on his back that read “Luke Skywalker.” And then she giggled uncontrollably.
Nico was always fascinated with animals and could do about twenty animal sounds before speaking with any reliability. Right about the time he turned three, he started having imaginary animal friends. T-Rex’s would follow us home from the store, elephants would take baths in the living room. One day, though, he acquired a new friend, an imaginary mouse that stayed with him for days. When Sam asked what his name was, Nico answered without a pause, “Everything you can be.” Sam said, “Wow, that’s quite a name. Why don’t we call him Canbe for short.” Nico agreed, and Canbe became a fixture in our house, staying with us for a year now and being blamed for everything from a wayward smell to any number of devious tricks that Nico swears are Canbe’s idea.
When Nico fist met Grandmother and Grandpa’s Lhasa Apso, Bear, Nico noticed something different between Bear and our own tail-less dog. Which made him proclaim, “Whoa, that dog has a huge butt!” Hey, tail, butt, who can tell the difference anyway?
Speaking of butts, here’s a lovely one. One day, Nico came running out of the bathroom naked from the waist down and announced to Sam and two therapists, “Dad, I think I just had explode-a-butt!” Nice.
A few months ago at the dinner table, he had an angry outburst after not getting what he was expecting to drink. He said, “Hey, I pacifically requested juice.” At least he didn’t request it atlantic-ly…
The other day, as Sam left for work and called over his shoulder, “Bye big guy, be good for your mother,” Nico replied, “Ok, I will. You be good for your managers.”
One morning at breakfast, Nico caught me half awake and off guard by asking, “Mom, what’s in your heart?” “My heart?” I asked, “Um, I’ve got blood pumping in my heart.” “No,” he said, shaking his head. I said, “Well, buddy, I’m pretty sure I have blood pumping in my heart.” “No,” he said again, “You’ve got a doggie in your heart.” I stared at him confused, and then he busted out into a song I remembered from Sunday School with a little something different thrown in there:
"I’ve got the joy joy joy joy
Doggie in my heart
Where?
Doggie in my heart"
And last is his announcement a few days ago that he could fly. He was standing in his windowsill (only about 12 inches off the ground) wearing the hooded towel from his bath. Now, you might think that his father and I should have said something like, no boys can’t fly, or some other wise and safe thing like that. Instead, we both answered at the same time, “Really? No way! Show us!” So, of course, he jumped off the windowsill, towel spread with his arms like a cape. He hit the ground safely, and we cheered, “Wow, you did fly! Cool!” He just shook his head in disappointment and said, “Actually, I expected myself to have stayed in the air.”
That about sums it up right there. One overly precocious, overly ambitious boy and his insane, inexperienced parents. God help us all.
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