Collecting Bits

As Nate nears his fifth birthday (tomorrow!!!), I've started compiling a list of things he says, quirks he has, habits he's acquired.  Everything (especially at this age!) is so fleeting that I want to grab hold of it and stuff it into a deep dark memory somewhere so I never lose it!  This is a partial list and not nearly everything I'd like to hold on to, but it's a good start...So, in random order:

Some cute things Nate says that I'm going to miss:

"Look, Mom!  It's a salad field!"

"See this?  This is eatin' grass"! (chives)

"What did you said again?"
"Alex just do'd that" (did)
I don't know "eve-ner" (either)

The way he says brother (Brud-duh) reminds me of that song, "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh".  It makes me smile.

He calls Curious George and the Man In the Yellow Hat, "Curious 'N George and Mr. Lell-o Pants"

He is often chased by forehead monsters (cyclops) and zom-mies but is quick to tell Alex that ghosts are just pretend.  He's the perfect blend of imaginative and grounded.

He's always telling stories about "When he was my age" or how when "I was little, he was my brother". I'm constantly reminding him that "he's not 6 years old yet" or "he's never been a girl", or "that Uncle Noah was my brother even when I was a little girl".  Quite a vivid imagination on that one, that's for sure.

He seems to live in movies.  He quotes movies and acts out scenes from things he's seen constantly!!  If you sit close enough to him when he's watching a movie he's seen a hundred times, you can almost hear him reciting all the words under his breath.

He's very dark and morbid for a kid his age.  Everything is death, dying, and destruction.  I'm sure that's the firefighter in him, or perhaps he overhears Daddy talking about his job at 9-1-1, but he's enamored with dark things.  He knows far more than most kids his age about reality.

He's actually a pretty gross kid.  He loves talking about farts, poop, puke...you name it.  He's an incessant booger picker/eater, and despite my insistence that girls will not find that cute or charming as he gets older, he defers not.

He loves the FDNY - he's already worn one FDNY baseball hat to death (that was replaced on our last trip to NYC), has an entire fleet of FDNY fire trucks and police cars, and even specifically requested an FDNY themed birthday party this year!

Suddenly he's too grown up for green blankie, Boo Bankie, Bolt, and Bedtime Bear.  Yet, oddly, when he's "cold" green blankie is always there, and Bolt rarely lets him go on an adventure solo!

Nate is very animated, dramatic, expressive, opinionated, bossy, precocious, helpful, kind, intelligent, creative, mouthy, energetic, independent, fearless, loving, spunky, funny, and so much more!!

I love this boy more than I can possibly express.  I see so much of myself in him (living in his own little world, constantly acting out stories in his head and his actions, expressive to a fault).  He's actually taken to snuggling with me from time to time and is very quick to send me a hug, share a kiss, or shout out an "I love you, Mom" when I need it most.  I love living through his eyes and treasure every moment, every  challenge, and every adventure he leads me on!

Playing in the sandbox

As most of you know, my brother, Noah, is a Tech Sergeant in the Airforce National Guard. A couple weeks ago he deployed to Qatar (North of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East) for a 6-9 month tour of duty. There is a chance he may come home as early as September 22 (thus the countdown to the left) but with the military being the military, we aren't counting too heavily on that.

In the weeks leading up to it, we had been trying to prepare Nathaniel for his beloved Uncle Noah's disappearance. Uncle Noah is one of Nate's best buds and for him to be away for so long, would no doubt be unusual. Throw in several dozen family get togethers with no Uncle Noah sightings and you have the makings for real confusion on the part of a three-year-old. So we did our best to talk to him about it, educate him, and warn him of what to expect. 

On the day he left I told Nathaniel the story of Uncle Noah's plane ride to the desert to fight the bad guys (apparently there are no actual bad guys in Qatar to fight directly, thank God, but the reason he's there is to help in this mission so it works to explain why he's gone). Immediately following, every plane Nate saw he was convinced held Uncle Noah and when he'd go to bed at night, sad yet again that he wasn't going to see Uncle Noah the next day, he'd say "I ride airplane to see Uncle Noah?". Breaks your heart, doesn't it?

Since my brother's departure, we have been fielding constant questions of "Where Uncle Noah?" and "Uncle Noah come over visit all day?" (FYI - "all day" = "today"). But when you ask Nate where Uncle Noah is he'll quickly answer "in the desert" so I know he gets at least some of it.

Well, this morning the day started as any other. I woke to the sound of Alex fussing in his crib. I got up to feed him and then started my morning routine. Shower, dress, hair, make-up. Somewhere in that routine Nathaniel usually wakes up yelling "Where Boo Bankie? Oh, NO! Boo Bankie GONE!"

Today though, he woke up and said "Where's Uncle Noah?". Having answered this question a time or two before, I asked "Where do YOU think Uncle Noah is?". Nathaniel looked up at me with his weery, sleepy dusted, morning squint and said "He far far away in the desert, playing in the sandbox" :) Then he said "crab gonna PINCH him" and started pinching his cheeks with his fingers like claws. It was SO cute. And so genuine.

So when we talk about Uncle Noah, being in the hot desert, fighting bad guys so that the rest of us can sit at home and have our freedoms and our rights, I'm not sure my three-year-old quite gets it. All he really understands is that his favorite Uncle Noah is missing.  There are parts of war, I guess I'd rather he NOT understand right now, though. So for now, I'm ok with him picturing his beloved Uncle Noah playing in the sandbox, getting pinched by the crabs until we see him again.