Nicky Update

He’s a lot more calm and self-contained than Leo. He’ll play happily for hours if nobody’s there to bother him, and doesn’t seem to need other people to look at what he’s doing. In fact, if he’s mad or upset, he would much rather be by himself than have others around. If you try and comfort him before he’s ready, he’ll give you one hell of a look and shout Go Away! The beauty of this attitude is that we’ve had a lot less tantrums to deal with than we did with Leo. He’ll rage to himself, but not to us if we leave him alone. No problem, little man!

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There really isn’t much of the baby left in him now. He still needs a little help every once in a while, but for the most part, he dresses himself, does his shoes, etc. He’s never once had an accident with wetting the bed. He goes to sleep in his and Leo’s bed after story time. All in all, he’s growing up.

We do have to ride him a lot more to put away his toys and not leave things on the floor where we all have to walk. He has none of the tidy freak in him that Leo and I share. In fact, Nicky’s true forte lies in being able to get out every single toy we have in this house (and claim to be playing with them all).

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For all the toys we have, what the boys spend the most time playing with are sticks and stones. They have this whole world of imaginary things outside. This stick is a dragon, that stone is a polar bear, that piece of wire is a… oh, who knows. And the funny thing about it is, they each know them all. Leo will tell Nicky to go and get the purple dragon, and he’ll come back with the right rock (looks like every other rock on the property to us!).

But of all the games played at our house, Nicky’s favorite is fighting. He loves to fight. Not trying to hurt anyone or be mean, but he just loves scraps. He’s a stocky little chap, and very strong and fast for his age. He has a hundred “swords”, which he’ll play with Leo or just by himself (with one hand battling the other). He loves to punch papa, and throws those fists hard and accurate. If we had any kids’ clubs anywhere near us, we would probably let him join some kind of karate school or something.

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His next favorite things, by contrast, are painting and modeling clay. We do “Funday Sunday”, when no work is allowed and everyone in the family gets to say some fun things they want to do. Leo’s is always swimming and the electricity set, whereas Nicky picks painting and board games. It’ll certainly be interesting to see what kind of person this one turns into.