"Nikita Airpene, Too?"

Our friend Riley has come to stay with us again, while his Momma is off enjoying a trip to Sin City. Nicky was so excited to have him at the house, not for his company, but for Riley's fun "fort" that comes with him!

Gina and I went to get Riley's stuff from the car, which was right in front of the house, and I told Nicky to keep an eye on the dogs for me while we were gone. Well...rookie mistake, Momma! During the 3-ish minutes, tops, we were outside, Nicky locked the front door and we weren't able to get in! I had a momentary bout of panic, then started to knock on the door and yell for Nicky to unlock it. Unfortunately, Nicky doesn't know the word "lock" (I have since tried to explain it to him!) so he merely knocked back at me while shouting "Momma!". Luckily I had left both back doors propped open to get a breeze flowing through the house, so I was able to walk around and get in...no broken windows yet! Note to self...need to give our neighbor's a spare key (they had one before, but we changed the locks & never got one to them)!

As Gina was leaving the house, I told Nicky that Gina was going on a trip and that she was gonna fly on an airplane. Nicky immediately said "Nikita airpene, too?!" I told him that we would take a trip this summer and that yes, we would also go on an airplane. Well, Nicky took this to mean that we were going right then and there with Gina and he jumped up off the couch, ran to, and pointed at the DVD player (he had been watching Lion King) and said "bun" (which means button - he knows that's where we turn it off/press pause, etc). He then pointed towards the garage and said "Momma car. Minute.", while running to the basket at the front door where we keep his shoes. As he passed by me on his way, he told me "Momma. Shoes. Airpene.", and proceeded to grab a pair of shoes so he could be on his way! I tried to keep my laughter in check while telling a disappointed, almost three year old, that we weren't going that day, but some day soon. He looked up at me with a sad look on his face & said quite dejectedly, "OK Momma. Minute. Hear me?!" ("hear me"...this is something Kris and I say to Nicky, quite frequently apparently, after telling him something/correcting behavior, in order to incite a response from him. he's recently started saying it to us when doing the same thing...pretty funny to hear it being thrown back at us!) So, yesterday we shopped for plane tickets to visit Nicky's uncle in Florida, and Nicky will be pleased to know that he, too, will soon be traveling on an airpene!