Nicky's 1st Day at Parker Chase Preschool

October 14, 2008

Well, the day has finally arrived! Nicky's 1st day of school went off without a hitch! Kris and I both got him up to get ready for the big day & we kept telling him about going to "school"...not that he knows what that means, but it was fun to hear him say it back with enthusiasm! His version comes out more like "cool", but hey - school is cool! He tried putting his backpack all by himself...

So daddy helped him a bit...

We got to school & Nicky walked in with confidence! We went to his classroom (Lower Preschool) and found his teachers, Miss Tulana & Miss Pearl outside with his other classmates. As I spoke with one of the other ladies to make sure we got all our paperwork correct, Kris handed Nicky over. Miss Tulana took Nicky's hand and took him over to a group of kids and gave him a shovel-thing to play with and he was good to go! We waved "bye" to him and he just gave us a funny look...I don't think he quite understood that we were leaving him to stay there for the day.

I picked him up and his teachers told me he did great! When he saw me he ran and picked up a few toys that were on the playground and he started putting them all away. He even yelled at a little girl when she dumped them out! Miss Tulana said Nicky is like a tornado when it comes to clean-up time & he was used as the example to entice the other children to follow his lead! I told him to tell Miss Tulana "good bye" & he immediately stuck out his kissy lips! :) He even gave 2 of his classmates hugs as we were leaving!

Day 2 at school was more fun. He went right to his class and didn't shed any tears. He ate all his lunch, didn't have any accidents & played well with the other kids. He didn't nap, so he was a bit grumpy with momma & daddy after I picked him up...grrrr! We figure with all the excitement and change, we'll give him a little leeway! :) All our fears of him thinking we were "abandoning" him have definitely been assuaged. We are both thrilled & shocked that he is doing so well!

Nicky's 1st Trip to San Antonio

This past weekend Kris and I took Nicky to San Antonio to visit his Nana & Pop and to meet his new extended family. Kris had to work at the fire station on Friday, so in order to extend the time in SA, Nicky and I drove down on Thursday afternoon. The trip that typically takes 4-4 1/2 hours ended up being 6-ish!!! Oy vey! Not a fun trip whatsoever...Nicky was tired of being in the car after 30 minutes - all toys had been thrown on the floor and the screaming/crying had ensued! We stopped for lunch, thinking "great - we'll fill his belly & he'll want to nap!"...didn't happen - unless you count 25 minutes a good nap! Nicky mostly entertained himself by singing songs, which consisted of the limited words in his vocabulary - machina, sabaka, momma, dada, ay yi yi (not sure how to spell that one!), ball and various caveman-like grunts. Now, when I say "singing", what I really mean is saying each word over and over (at times yelling them at the top of the lungs) in a sing-song manner! Needless to say, the hour it took to get through Austin brought about tears and shot nerves to Momma. But - we finally made it and the trip was a lot of fun for all!

Top 10 Fun Things to do in San Antonio While Visiting Nana & Pop...

1. Visit the San Antonio Zoo.

Feeding the Ducks & Fish with Nana

Petting the Goats with Nana
2. Swing in the backyard.

3. Meeting Nana & Pop's Friend & getting fun stuff.

4. Meeting Great Granny & getting fun stuff.

5. Meeting the Mills Family.

Aunt Marsha, Uncle Edward & Marshal

Great Granny & Aunt Pam
6. Getting more fun stuff.

7. Swimming!!!

8. Meeting Great Nana.

9. Meeting Momma & Daddy's Friend Marissa.

10. & most of all...Getting to spend time with Nana & Pop.

Luckily, the trip home wasn't as long as the drive down to SA. Nicky slept for about an hour and since there were two of us, he was well entertained...it will be a while before I try to make that trip by myself again! The sun was in Nicky's eyes, so he covered his face with Daddy's hat!

Thank you for all the gifts and for the fun times! Nicky had a great trip & we can't wait to see everyone again!

For the Ladies

hi - it's me nicky!

i just wanted to let you hot ladies know that althou i put on a few pounds the last few weeks, i'm not gettin' soft. it's all muscle weight & i'm keepin' my little body in shape with this cool thing my momma & daddy have.

my "fred flintstones" walk at a brisk 1.3 mph and burn 11 calories in 5 minutes! i even keep my abs rock-hard doin' sit-ups with momma! i've also decided to drink my milk again - i went off it for a bit, but momma says i need it to build big muscles & strong bones. i also like to exercise by chasing blitzer & bailey around the house and playing ball with momma & daddy. i'm in training for my upcoming visits to some punkin patches. if i wanna catch me one of 'em punkins, i gotta get in shape!

smell ya later gators! :) nicky j.

ps - i learned my middle & last names today! thanks, pop, for making the letters to hang in my room! :) (this having a family stuff is pretty cool!)

30 Month Check-Up & More

Yesterday was a busy day for Mr Nicky. We had a visit from a lady who works for Early Childhood Intervention - a program that assists with children who are considered to be "at risk". "At risk for what?", you might ask. Well, in Nicky's case developmental and speech delay. The program only covers kids until the age of 3, and that's only 6 mos away, so we wanted to take advantage of it while we could. She did the initial in-take and evaluation, and will return with a speech therapist on the 13th to do the full assessment. If Nicky qualifies, which she seemed to initially think he would, then they would visit with Nicky anywhere from once a week to once every two weeks. The good thing is, Kris and I would not have to miss work as they will visit Nicky at his preschool! Keep your fingers crossed that he is accepted. I think him learning how to better express himself with words, and being able to express his wants & needs will help a TON with the recent tantrums and whining!

The fun didn't stop there for the day! After a much too short nap, Nicky and I went to meet his new pediatrician at the Medical Center of Plano. Nicky is such a good patient! He is so still when being measured (35 1/2 in), weighed (just over 31 lbs), and poked/prodded! He's gained over 2 pounds since we got home! Kris says it's all in his "Fred Flintstones"! :) After a bunch of paperwork and a good look at the little guy, the physician told me of the few immunizations she believed Nicky would need. The kicker - I would be the one to hold him down while the 2 nurses simultaneously "stuck" him 2x each! Oy! I am so not a fan of needles & seconds before I was to do the restraining of my son, I got a flu shot! I have to say - we both did pretty well. I was a bit shaky (nerves a little on edge), and started crying when Nicky screamed in pain as the nurses plunged the needles into his little legs! He recovered quickly as one of the nurses gave him a maraca thing (thanks...like we needed another toy that makes noise!).

Today Nicky is being pretty dramatic about the pain in his right leg (must be the one he got the flu shot in - my arm is pretty sore too). He's limping and keeps rubbing it with the cutest frowny sad face you ever saw! He even rubs my arm and says "owie" with the same face!

We're going to one of our friends' daughter's 1st birthday today, so I hope his little leg "heals" before then, or we could be in for a long, dramatic night!

Words to Know When Traveling to Russia

Kris and I by no means learned how to speak Russian before we embarked upon our whirlwind trip to the motherland. I studied the Cyrillic alphabet over and over before our first trip. I figured I may not be able to pronounce the words, but at least I would be able to transliterate them (take the letters from Russian and change them to English). Come to find out, a lot of the words in Russian are actually English words, just written in Cyrillic! It became a game for me; I got so excited when I was able to actually read a sign, and even more so when the word I was translating turned out to be an English word!


A few key phrases that we did learn to butcher, I mean, to say were: Hello (privyet - means "hi") & good bye (easy version - paka paka); please (pazhalsta) & thank you (spasiba); yes (da) & no (nyet) (we know this one very well now, thanks to our oh so sweet toddler!); and so forth.


Below are a few of the other words we learned to recognize & say. After the picture will be the Russian (transliterated) word, then the word in English, then the word according to the Johnsons! After being in a foreign country for so long, not understanding much around us, we got a bit silly and made up little things to keep us occupied! Plus - it's just kinda fun & making things up to go along with the words really helped us to learn better.

Russian: Apteka
English: Apothecary/Pharmacy
Johnsons: Alpha Pi Teka (the second letter in the word "Apteka" is a "p" and to me it looks like the "pi" symbol.) This became one of our "sororities"...like I said - we got a bit silly! The Alpha Pi Teka's are the sisters to the Kappa Alpha Boobs Epsilon's you'll meet a few pictures down. They're the "good" girls.

Russian: First word: Bar; Second word: Kafe
English: First word: Bar; Second word: Cafe
Johnsons: 1st - Bap; 2nd - kappa alpha boobs epsilon
Explanation: It's kinda fun to really butcher a language, even thou one knows the proper pronunciation sometimes. This was one of our faves...Bap! It's more fun to say "lets go to a bap tonite", than to a bar! Now the second "Kappa Alpha Boobs Epsilon", well, that was the "fraternity" that got it all started! When I was learning the Cyrillic alphabet, the way I learned the letter "f" was to call it a "stick with boobs", thus the fraternity had it's beginning. The guys in the Kappa Alpha Boobs Epsilon house, we decided, were the good guys; the jocks; the ones everyone wanted to hang out with (brothers to the Alpha Pi Teka's). (we had a lot of spare time on our hands while we were awaiting our little one!)

Russian: Vodka
English: Vodka
Johnsons: Bodka (gotta butcher this one...and it's best to say with a deep Russian accent)

Russian: Cankt Peterburg
English: Saint Petersburg
Johnsons: Cankt Peterburg (butchering, again, but this word was a must to learn, seeing as thou that was the city we spent the majority of our 3+ weeks as transplants)

Russian: Kassa
English: Cashier
Johnsons: Well...use your imagination as to how we said this one! :) (think back to "Peter" and "Mockba" bellies!)

Russian: Carl's Jr
English: Carl's Jr
Johnsons: Kris' burger joint (he said it tasted pretty much like any old US burger...I took his word for it!)

Russian: Vihod
English: Exit
Johnsons: Enter (nothing too exciting about that one)

Russian: Vhod
English: Entrance
Johnsons: The Beta Chi Ode's (the last letter in the word is a "d" - to me it looks like a "house" and the Russian word for house is "dom", so we referred to the letter "d" as the "house".) (This was our second sorority, and the sisters to the fratboys of C T O Pi...yet to come. They were the more rowdy girls on campus.)

Russian: STOP
English: STOP
Johnsons: C T O Pi's (This was our 2nd fraternity - they are the guys you would drink & party with and most likely get into trouble with on campus)

Russian: Makdonalds
English: McDonald's
Johnsons: Mc Households (see above re: the explanation of the letter "d"; McD's is a "household name", even in Russia, so it just makes sense!)

Random Words to Know When Traveling to Russia:

Russian: Bank
English: Bank

Russian: Supermarket
English: Supermarket
Johnsons: The Cypermapket (it's just more fun to say it that way!)

Russian: Megafon
English: Megaphone
Johnsons: Megaphone...this was our cell phone service provider, so we thought it was fitting to have a picture of the advert.

Russian: Moskva
English: Moscow
Johnsons: Mockba (again, we enjoyed butchering the language!)

Russian: Akva Minerale (name brand of the water) (Boda = Water)
English: Bottled Water
Johnsons: Much needed staple to avoid both "Peter" and "Mockba" Bellies

Russian: Restoran
English: Restaurant
Johnsons: Pectopah (literal translation...aka butchering)

A Few Pectopah's to note...

Subway

Sbarro

TGI Friday's

Starbuks Kofe
English: Starbuck's Coffee
Johnsons: Lifesaver; nectar of the Gods; yummy; etc

And last but not least, the place we all need to visit at least once a day...

Russian:

Russian: Tualet
English: Toilet

Hope you all enjoyed our little lesson of the Russian Language! I'd have to say, reading signs here in the US is a much easier task, althou, not as fun!