For the past few weeks, Niko has been wanting to do a lot of things by himself; of course, we supervise him. Franklin cat still hasn’t shown any interest in taking over our duties. Niko can now pick him up! I am serious! This includes using the toilet, brushing teeth, showering, taking a diaper off, putting shoes on or off, getting water from from the fridge, emptying the dishwasher, putting his dirty dishes in the sink, picking out clothes for me and him, getting in and out of the carseat after he is buckled or unbuckled, eating in a real chair at restaurants, and using our iPhones to FaceTime his grandparents!
That is what I have been dealing with and it’s amazing how quickly he figures things out. I think he is smarter than a lot of kids his age. Probably because we treat him like an adult and have adult conversations with him. Plus, we play with him constantly and pay attention to him and his needs. Oh, I also wrestle with him and somehow he always wins. Yesterday, though, in Round 7 of our match, he gave me a cut above my eye and in Round 12, he gave me a cut on my ear. Don’t worry, I am OK, just a little blood!
Since July, I have been doing the nighttime things with Niko; that includes pooping and peeing in the big toilet, bathing him, getting him dressed in his pajamas, feeding him snacks with milk and water, reading him books, reading him more books, brushing his teeth, singing to him, and finally, almost 75 minutes later, putting him down for sleep in the crib. This is by far the best part of my day and I enjoy our time together. For about a month now, Nina has been coming up and helping me brush his teeth and sing to him before we put him in the crib for sleep. It’s nice to get that extra help if only for a few minutes and it allows Nina to see him; otherwise, she won’t see him till the following morning.
Oh, Niko is at the WHY stage! Sometimes, I get WHY’d out and need a breather and he doesn’t seem to mind it; although he does ask WHY? Because my brain is fried and I am tired of talking. Give me a minute so I can quietly meditate! WHY? Because you ask me questions all day. WHY? Because, I want you to be quiet for a minute. WHY? I don’t know! WHY? Because I am your dad! WHY? I just answered it 5 seconds ago, do you remember? WHY? It can be whatever you want it to be!
Wow, that last paragraph was fun to write! WHY? Stop that now because I need to transition to a new thought. WHY?
As for me, I am doing good. I ain’t got no complaints. I am healthy; well, I do want to lose a few pounds, I am happy in my professional life, I am happy with my family life, I am relaxed and have no stress; I have had 10 consecutive days off from work and don’t go back till Wednesday, and I love being a dad to Niko and husband to Nina.
One thing I always contemplate is getting off of Facebook and Twitter; they just don’t do anything for me. It seems it’s the same people who like my stuff! So, should I just ditch both and use Instragram? I am mainly talking about my writings, I don’t share as much stupid crap anymore!
Last year around this same time, we were getting our house ready to sell. Well, our house is still on the market. I am disappointed about that, but can’t really do anything about it. We have already done some minor landscaping and will get some updated pictures and hopefully, that will be enough to get it sold. That reminds me, I need to email somebody about window cleaning and power-washing. We are eager to get rid of it and move closer to things to do especially for Niko.
Right now, we are an hour from San Antonio and also the grandparents (my parents) and about 30 minutes from New Braunfels which is the closest city to us. We do venture out to New Braunfels quite often but not San Antonio. On Friday, though, we did venture into San Antonio. We were planning on walking around an upscale outdoor shopping mall, but at the last minute, we decided to visit my parents and Niko had a great time. We even napped him there and when we knew he was good, Nina and I escaped for an hour and walked around another upscale outdoor shopping mall; I even had my 1st Starbucks drink; a hot chocolate! When we arrived back at my parents house, Niko was ready to be woken up and we did just that. The finale on our day was Niko got to eat Chinese noodles at a restaurant and my parents joined us. It was nice that Nina and I were able to eat without a baby on us; he sat in between my parents and they fed him!
That is all I got so have a great New Year and celebrate safely. Please be quiet with your fireworks as we will likely be sleeping at 11:59pm! I actually suggested to Nina that we do our own countdown earlier in the day.
Wait, I got 1 more thing; man, how can I forget? In February of this year, I published an eBook on Amazon.com. I am very proud of what I did; not many people can say they wrote a book. I CAN!!! I do have more book ideas planned for the future, I just need time!
Now, that is it. See ya next year!
