Robinson Blog

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Eli's 3rd Birthday Party

Nicholas' sweet friend, Eli, turned 3 and had a super fun birthday bash. His mama is my good friend, Laya. It was a firemen themed party and she did a wonderful job. We started the party w/ a tour of the Bentonville fire station. FYI, the Roger's FD won't bring their trucks out to your house, but the Bentonville FD will. Only problem, Laya doesn't live in Bentonville, thus the tour at the station. Let me tell you, that place was cush. I've only ever seen fire stations on TV, and none of them looked like this. They did a really nice job w/ the tour, you could tell they did it often. Nicholas really enjoyed it. After the tour around the living quarters, the kids got to climb on the fire trucks and ring the bell. Apparently not wanting one fireman to feel neglected, Scott peppered him with tons of questions. Most of them about meth labs and meth lab explosions. That guy looked pretty sure he'd be hearing about Scott on the local news soon.

After the tour, it was back to Eli's house for some pizza and cake. The kids all played outside, even though it was sizzling. After the cake came the pinata, and each kid took a turn. It was funny, when the pinata was cracked open (courtesy of Del) and all the candy came pouring out, Nicholas ran over there and picked up one piece of candy. That's it. Just one. We told him he could have some more, look at all the other kids grabbing candy. He came back with 3 pieces. He was very selective. It made me and Scott laugh. Nicholas had such a good time, he asked to go back to Eli's house the next day. Thanks for having us, Eli!


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend

We made our annual Memorial day trek to Texas last week to see Nick's Magi and Grandad. Though the drive seemed a bit longer for me this time around, it went relatively smooth. We only had one 15 min bout of kicking and screaming, followed by peaceful slumber and not one potty accident the entire trip. Nicholas did really well, too!

Nick was so excited he could talk of nothing else the week leading up to it. He would ask everyday when we were going. He was so pumped the night before, he had a hard time going to sleep, thus the tantrum the next day. Scott and I also look forward to this trip every year. It was a nice relaxing weekend, w/ the weather mostly cooperating. There was plenty of good food, an early birthday celebration for Scott and lots of entertainment by Nicholas. Thanks for having us, we had a wonderful time. Looking forward to seeing you up here in a couple of weeks!

He's cooking baked beans w/ his Magi. They were delicious, btw!

He's worn out from wearing his grandparents out.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Daddy's The Best

Nick has been quite a daddy's boy lately. He follows Scott everywhere, asks for him first thing in the morning, and says that daddy does everything better. My only consolation in all of this is that I'm the one he asks to cuddle at the end of the night. This keeps Scott's smugness from spinning too out of control. So I thought I'd post some pictures of my two boys hanging out together.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Wood(n't) You Know It - 5yrs And Counting

Happy Anniversary to my sweet, sweet hubby!



Monday, May 11, 2009

A Happy Mother's Day And Then Some

I hope everyone had a fantastic Mother's day. I did. Just want to thank my wonderful husband and son for a lovely day. I thought I'd post a few pictures of the gifts Nicholas got me. He made me a cute little ladybug box at MDO. On Thursday, Scott took him to the mall to pick out his present for me. He was pretty pleased w/ himself. When I asked him what he got, he said it was a secret and then immediately told me he got an "A". I had a feeling it was a coffee mug. Close. It was a travel mug, and I think it's the cutest thing! However, my favorite was my card from him. I posted a vid below, turn up your volume so you can hear. After a yummy brunch at Common Grounds, it was off to do some shopping. Scott took care of Nicholas the rest of the day and dinner as well. Of course, he usually takes Nicholas off my hands when he's home from work, so I'm definitely spoiled to begin with.





You know I never win anything, but the tide has turned! It's nothing close to what Beth won the other day, but I'm pretty excited. I entered the LifePlusKids blog contest for free earrings. Found out yesterday I was a winner. I'm going to invest our savings in lotto tickets now.

Also, today is Eat What You Want Day. Seriously, I read that somewhere on the net. I really try to embody that philosophy everyday, but for those of you who have more discipline, here is your free pass. You're welcome. Enjoy.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Let's Catch Up...

Hi, everyone! First, my sincerest apologies to the grandparents, aunts and uncles who've been waiting for a new post on Nicholas. I know I've been slacking in the blog dept, and I'll try my best to update more regularly. But, no promises. It's difficult to find motivation to blog after a long day. I just want to lie on the couch and stare at my big, fat belly in the evenings.

A quick update on the pregnancy. I had my doctor's appointment Thurs and everything is looking good so far. I'm showing much more at this point than I was w/ Nick, but I heard that's common w/ your second. Many would say it's due to a lack of muscle tone, but I'd prefer to say it's due to, well, okay lack of muscle tone. My thyroid had been hypoactive, so it's been rough to say the least. But now that it's corrected, I'm feeling so much better. We'll find out in 4 weeks the sex of the baby! Now, on to Nicholas and what he's been up to these past weeks. Sorry there are only a few pictures and they don't really go w/ the subject, but wanted to post them anyway.

**Nocturnal Visits**
When we initially put Nick in his big boy bed a few months ago, he quickly developed the habit every night of casually sauntering out of his room to hang out (7-8 times at least). Not to mention the 4am visits to our room. I had sternly told him no more getting out of bed. He took me at my word. He didn't get out of bed. Ever. Instead he would just sit in bed and sing and/or holler at the top of his lungs until he fell asleep and continued when he woke up. We would have to open his door and tell him to get out of bed. Growing weary of that, we told him it was okay to get out of bed if he needed anything. In fact, we encouraged it.

We're back to the 7-8 visits each night before he nods off, but at least he is more creative this time around. No longer does he come to hang out, he has needs. Drink of water, one last drink of water, I need to pee pee, I need to talk to my mommy, I want to cuddle you, etc... We have to bite our lips not to laugh at times. We still get the occasional middle of the night visits, but it's worth it, especially when he comes bounding into our room each morning and says, "whatchu doin, Daddy?"


**Shameless Promotion**
Are you ready for it? Nicholas can read, write and spell upwards of a hundred words. Don't blame me for the shameless promotion. Blame it on the grandparents, aunts and uncles. I've got an audience I need to appease. Besides, I like to record when he's doing what. I'm sure there are other kids doing this at this age, but we're pretty proud of him nonetheless. He's like a sponge, always asking me, "mommy, what's that word" or "how do you spell...?" It's cute, except when we're in a hurry.


**A Boy By Any Other Name...**
Lately he's been making us call him by different names. Sometimes he's SuperWhy, other times he's the Zinus Kids (Science kid), he's also the Wemones (the Ramones).

Me: Good night, Nicholas.
Nick: SuperWhy. Good night, SuperWhy.

**Green Thumb**
Nick loves working out in the yard w/ Scott. He's gotten quite good at helping Scott plant. Scott took him to the store the other week to pick out a couple of plants of his own. He chose okra and tomato. If you ask him what he's growing, he'll tell you okra and donuts. My kind of garden.


**I'm A Big Boy Now**
Me: I love my baby boy. Are you my baby?
Nick: No. I'm not a baby. I'm a big boy.

Scott: I think you're being a little toot.
Nick: No whittle. I'm a big toot.



Well, that's it for now. Happy Mother's day to all the wonderful mommies out there!!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

100th Post - Celebrate Good Times, Come On...

This is my 100th post! I'm sure many of you have reached this "milestone" already, but I thought I'd celebrate at any rate. So, yay! Alright, I don't have any Easter stuff to update you w/... yet. I will try to get to that this week.

First, we want to say congratulations to our friends, Thao and Alan. On April 9th, they welcomed into the world, Joshua Alan. He is just the cutest little thing. Although I'm a little disappointed at the picture of Thao below. She hardly looks like someone who just gave birth. I, on the other hand, looked like a water balloon after I delivered (not that I'm bitter or anything). Congratulations again, we are so happy and excited for you guys and cannot wait to meet your little man!






Since we're talking about babies and all that, we have some wonderful news to share ourselves. We are expecting our second child. My due date is Oct. 21. I'm almost out of the 1st trimester. Woo hoo. We are ecstatic. We've kicked the idea around w/ Nick to get his reaction. It really depends on his mood. It changes from one minute to the next. Sometimes, he says yes to mommy having a baby, and other times, he says he's the baby. I guess he won't actually get it until #2 comes along and rocks his world. We know it'll be the best thing in the world for him. We have a picture of an early ultrasound we had, but unfortunately it is not in a format that I can post. If I can get it converted, I'll add it. That's it for now. Have a great rest of the week!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Dear Diary

Time outs. They're a frequent occurrence in our house lately. The other day after Nick had been in time out, he was sitting quietly playing w/ his magnadoodle. I could hear him saying something over and over. I finally stopped to listen. He was saying something about me. Curious, I went over there to see what he was doing. He had written a bunch of "words" on his magnadoodle. When I asked him what it said, he replied, "mommy, put you in time out." I had to give him a big kiss after that.




Sunday, March 29, 2009

un-Pleasantville

I think the title says it all. Our little man is sick, so I'm hoping all the crankiness and surliness is temporary. We are so sad we couldn't make it to sweet Jacob's 2nd birthday party yesterday. But trust me when I say that it was really in everyone's best interest that we stayed home. I've been taking the brunt of it. It was nice letting Scott take a few shots this weekend while I listened in the other room. We've been told that the 3's are worse than the terrible 2's. Two wasn't too bad, so maybe we're paying for now.

Me: You don't feel good?
Nick: Yes.
Me: Bless your little heart...
Nick: No little. NO LITTLE!!!

Me: (Yawning)
Nick: Ok, no yawning.
Me: Well that's not very nice.
Nick: No nice. No yawning!

Let's hope your week is going better than ours.


Monday, March 23, 2009

Has It Been That Long??

Now that's what I call a break. As it is officially Spring, I thought it would be appropriate to end my hibernation and spring forth onto the blogging scene once again. Was that too much? I didn't say my posting was going to be better. I'll try to be more diligent about posting. It's just that it had started feeling a bit like an obligation, and really, who needs that? Anyway, you know how it goes sometimes. Scott was out of town, my folks were in town, warmer weather, unbelievable laziness, etc... I'll try to catch you up by starting w/ a birthday party adventure. I'll add more when I get the chance. Baby steps.

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Kale's Super Party

Nick's little friend, Kale, turned 3 this month and we were there to help celebrate it, superhero style. It was at the Jump Zone. I can not tell you how much Nick loved this place. I was a bit stunned initially by the swarm of shrieking kids around us. Nick was not fazed by this, even after he had his poor fingers stomped on by a brute 8 year old girl. All the slides there were like 2 stories high, and I am not prone to exaggeration. Of course those were the ones Nick wanted to go down, so guess who had to climb up those monoliths while pushing his sorry butt up there? Let me tell you, those thing are no joke. The first slide I went down, it took my breath away. I know, I'm a wuss. Anyway, after what seemed like 13 hours of nonstop fun, we finally made our way to the party room for some cake and punch. It was at this point, I realized 2 things. All those shrieking kids, well, they were also part of the birthday party. Secondly, Shannon, Kale's mama, is a superhero herself. As party favors, she made for each kid a cape and a mask. How stinking cool is that? Did I mention there were a ton of kids? Who knew she was so crafty? Check out her tooth fairy pillows here.










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Child Labor

Nike's got nothing on me. Nick likes to "cook", so I let him do it w/ some dry pinto beans sometimes. Apparently, he got bored after a while and decided it would be more fun to sprinkle them on the floor. After dumping two handfuls of pinto beans on the floor, he (very seriously, btw) came over and ordered "mommy, pick it up". You can imagine what my expression was. After a couple of "you pick it up" "no, mommy do it", I thought now would be a good time to teach him the fine art of using a dustbuster.

See that form in the last picture? That is what's known as the "asian squat", so it's genetic. My Asian brethren will know what I'm talking about. Also, please ignore the fact that my child is still in his pjs. It was only early afternoon. I usually manage to change him into regular clothes before his father gets home. Wouldn't want him to think I don't do anything.




Monday, February 23, 2009

Triple Check

I took Nick to the doctor on Friday for his 3 year check up. He did well considering he hates being poked and prodded. The first thing Nick said to the doctor when he arrived was, "no looking at wee wee". I was a bit mortified, but seeing how it didn't faze the man (he just chuckled), I didn't dwell on it. According to the doctor, we have a perfectly healthy, normal little boy. He weighs 32lbs and is almost 38in tall. Both in the 50th percentile, so right on average.

I figured I also take this opportunity to record some of the things Nick is currently doing and saying.

**Pick a Number, Any Number**
N: Mommy. I got a boo boo on a fingah.
Me: You do? Where?
N: Wight here. (Pointing at his right ring finger) Number nine.

He counts to ten on his fingers starting w/ his left pinkie and working his way over to his right pinkie, which is number ten. So each digit has it's own number. Duh.


**Feet Fetish**
He thinks anything w/ the word feet added to it is the funniest thing in the world. Orange juice feet? HI-larious. Brush your teethfeet? Pee in your pants funny! This has gone on for a few weeks now. Oh, well. It could be worse I suppose.

Another thing he just started doing is smelling his feet. He thinks it's hysterical, especially when I give him a strange look.


**Daddy Taught Me**
Nick and I were writing letters together on the Magnadoodle today when ...

N: That sucks!
Me: What did you say?
N: That sucks!
Me: We don't say that, it's not a nice word. Who taught you that?
N: Daddy
Me: Daddy, huh?
N: Mommy.
Me: I don't think so.


**Cry Me a River**
Lately when I get onto him or tell him not to do something, he clenches his eyes shut and opens his mouth wide and forces himself to "cry". It's really pathetic. There's really no sound as the tries to muster up some semblance of a cry. He'll come over all pitiful and try to hug me. I've thought about ignoring him a couple of times, but it's awful hard to do. Even when I know he's full of crap. After I give him a hug, he'll woefully ask me to wipe his nose and then his eyes. You know, the eyes that are brimming w/ non existent tears.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Oh Baby!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a good one. Weather was so-so, but we got to spend time w/ my best friend, Thao, and her husband, Alan. They are expecting their first child. Yay! Scott and I threw them a couples baby shower on Saturday. Congratulations, you guys! We are just so happy and excited for you. You should see her. She's due in April and looks just adorable pregnant. In fact, she barely looks pregnant. I've looked bigger after a normal meal, but I'll leave you to visualize that on your own.

We had the shower at Buffalo Wild Wings since guys were involved. Much easier to coax them to a shower if it's at a sports bar. The restaurant did a really good job and was super helpful. The turnout was good and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

I do want to give a couple of shout outs. Thank you, Heidi, for helping me make the diaper cake. I got tons of compliments on it and Thao loved it. And Nick always loves the chance to play w/ Hanna. Check out Heidi's post on our little adventure. Thanks to my brother, Steve, for "babysitting" Nick. I quote b/c Nick apparently fell asleep on the couch w/ my brother for 2 1/2 hours, approximately the length of time we were gone. He never naps like that for us. We are still appreciative.

Couple of the hour

Excited father-to-be

They're thinking about wings
They got a lot of really cute Razorback stuff

Belly? What belly?!
Take a look at the "delicate" baby's feet on the cake. More like caveman feet. Oh well. At least it tasted good!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Lunch Date

Today, Nicholas and I went over to the Pittmans for lunch. Beth made us her famous chicken salad. It was de-lish! They got Nick an awesome kite for his birthday, which I know Scott is stoked about playing with. With Nick, of course. Thanks, guys. I always love the chance to sit and gab w/ Beth. She is highly entertaining. It was also fun to watch Luke crawl around. Little fella can move now. Nick loves going over there and is quite comfortable. When we got there, he said a cursory hello and headed straight for the playroom. I think he and Kate make good little buddies. Thanks for having us over and for feeding my child!

Don't you just want to squeeze him?

This is the best picture I could get. She's trying to corral the kids. Sorry I cut off your head, Beth, but I got both eyes. That's good, right?

What A Man!

Let me tell you what a good man I've got. On Thursday night, he took me on an early Valentine's date at James at the Mill. It was a sweet, romantic dinner. Saturday, he sent me these gorgeous flowers. I love them.


But the sweetest thing he did for me wasn't for Vday. I was recovering from sinus infection. He was suppose to have Monday off for President's day, but he had to work, so he took his holiday yesterday. On his day off, he got Nick up and ready for MDO and dropped him off. After that, he went grocery shopping for me. I sent a list w/ him and he didn't miss a thing. After he picked Nick up from school, he took Nick out to the mall for the rest of the afternoon so I could rest. They rode the escalator, threw pennies in the water fountain, got jellybeans at the candy store, went to the bookstore AND he changed Nick's poopy pull-up. All this on his day off and w/out complaint. I know he enjoyed his time w/ Nick, but he certainly didn't have to do any of it. So thank you to my wonderful hubby. I love you!

We Heart Haley

My friend Heidi's little girl, Haley, turned ONE over the weekend. We were invited to help her celebrate the big event on Saturday. I can't tell you how much I adore her (and her sister). She is the biggest mess, in a totally good and funny way. My nickname for her is "animal", and I think it's quite apropos.

Heidi always does a good job for parties and this was no exception. The theme was what else? Hearts. We had a fun time, especially Nick. He always has a good time when cake is involved. Thanks to the Kaisers for including us in your celebration. We look forward to seeing Haley tear up your place.