NiklasAndZoe.com
Happy New Year From Cuddles.  Also, Niklas and Zoe.
Niklas will tell Zoe the names of all of these buildings, even if he has to make them up.


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  • February 2013
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  • 2013-01-09: Well, I spent the first week of the year recapping the end of 2012, so you'd think I'd have a lot to say about what's been going on while I was writing about stuff that had already gone on. No, lack of caffeine is making you write in an incoherent fashion. Anyway, here's what's gone on:

  • Niklas has started back to school. He's still not sick of it, so I'm excited about that. They've been doing some addition and subtraction which I'm sure I didn't do in kindergarten.

  • Niklas's reading has improved dramatically adversely impacting the ability of me and Andrya to communicate by spelling things out.

  • Zoe has started a new session of music classes with Little Miss Ann. This is quite popular with Zoe, especially the song where you go around hugging the other kids.

  • I finally got batteries for the last of the battery-less Christmas presents. These are the adverse conditions my children are growing up in.


    2013-01-10:
    So, Zoe was supposed to have her first swimming lesson today, but the facility is still waiting for a city inspector to verify that they didn't use sewage or Sprite or whatever to fill the pool, so we just ran a few errands. We got Zoe some swimming goggles that she insisted upon wearing about the house, so that was fun. We also learned that I don't know how to get a swim cap on a two year old which was less fun, particularly for Zoe. Niklas had a good day at school, which is pretty much par for the course. He knocked his homework out with the quickness and spent the rest of the afternoon watching The Empire Strikes Back for the thousandth time. We also stopped by the Home Depot on the way home from school. I picked up some lightbulbs and then had this exchange with an employee in the kitchen and bath department:

    Home Depot Guy: Can I help you with something?
    Me: No, thanks. These guys just like to look at toilets.
    2013-01-13:
    So Zoe declared today to be Act Like a Jerk Day in the city of Chicago. That didn't go over so well. On the plus side, Andrya does know to put a swim cap on Zoe, so there's that. Other than that, it was a pretty low key weekend. Niklas read some Ninjago books, so he's well versed in ninjas who are made of Legos now. When she wasn't jerking it up, Zoe put together a bunch of puzzles and did some coloring of a furious nature.
    2013-01-14:
    So apparently, kindergarteners are fascinated by frozen puddles. That would explain how I spent twenty minutes watching Niklas and six or eight other 5/6 year old boys jump, slide and fall about a moderately sized sheet of ice. While they were doing that, Zoe ran about in a circle as she is like to do. Earlier in the day, Zoe had t-ball which went fairly well. She seems to have picked up a bit of her brother's "spike the ball into the ground" throwing technique, but she hit the ball well and ran with the quickness.

    I hope to have some new pictures up tomorrow. In other news, I plan on taking some pictures tomorrow.
    2013-01-16:
    So Zoe had music class yesterday. She danced, jumped about and got to act like a dinosaur, which is always a plus for her. After that, Zoe put together pretty much all of her puzzles, which was pretty impressive. Niklas did whatever it is he does at school (he played head's up, seven up and went to the library; that's all I got) and did some math homework.

    Today, I thought Zoe could do with some laying low, which turned out to be quite wrong as she spent the day busting things up and acting a fool. When Niklas got home, we searched the house for 3D shapes. We have more cylinders than cones in the house, so there's that.
    2013-01-20:
    Well, Thursday was a pretty big day. Niklas had a field trip to the aquarium and Zoe had her first swimming lesson. (It's not at the same place Niklas has his; it's in an office park behind a bunch of warehouses.) Here they are to tell you all about that:





    On Friday, both of the kids had dentist appointments. Zoe checked out fine. Dr. Tooth, on the other hand, needs to have another one of his molars removed. That'll be two of those to go with the one he has a crown on. His mouth is more machine than man, now.

    Yesterday, I took the kids to the grocery store while Andrya went to the office in the morning, then we hung out around the house in afternoon. Feel the excitement!

    Today, Zoe spent the day whining and clinging to Andrya and Niklas had his swimming lesson (at the rehab hospital full of underdressed old people). I'm not sure what Zoe's deal was, but she a handful. I'm sure being cooped up inside for the next few days due to artic weather outside will lift her spirits. Anyway,
    here are some new pictures.
    2013-01-21: So, Niklas had the day off from school for Martin Luther King Day, so he got to traverse artic wastes with me and Zoe on our way to t-ball class. Seeing as how we were dependent upon public transportation and as it was a balmy nine degrees when we left, the kids had on about twice as much stuff as normal. We succeded in staying warm, but I heard "Daddy, I can't see" much more than usual. It's hard to coordinate three head coverings so as to permit the wearer to see especially when she won't wear a hairclip and her hair is covering her eyes, Zoe. T-ball was a success, though.

    In the afternoon, we watched Spider-Man on DVD. As one might suppose, Niklas ate popcorn and M&Ms and then ran around the house pretending to be Spider-Man while Zoe worked on a puzzle. It's an odd day when she's the calm one, so there's that.
    2013-01-23:
    Well, yesterday was cold. Some other stuff happened, too, I guess. Zoe and managed to avoid freezing to death on the way to and from music class, so that was a plus. Lady von Z had a fabulous time singing songs and dancing about, as is per usual. After school, we skipped our usual playground time (again, due to the deadly cold) which irritated Niklas and absolutely infuriated Zoe. It was six degrees outside.

    Today, Zoe and I went to the gym so she got to spend some time in the playroom. Her report: "Daddy, I had fun!" Niklas spent the afternoon working on some Angry Birds Star Wars drawings. There are about ten pictures of Pig Death Stars on the table right now. Niklas and I are also reading The Fantastic Mr. Fox. We're through four chapters if you want to read along.
    2013-01-28:
    So, it's apparently flu season at our house. While I go look for a bucket, please enjoy this dog Niklas made in art class:


    It reminds me of this:


    2013-01-30:
    Well, Niklas and Zoe both seem like they're back to 100% (Niklas has been there all week) while Andrya and I are stuck in the 65%-85% range. This gives the children a distinct advantage over us. That's no so great. Everything else is going pretty well, though. Niklas has been doing a bunch of math for school, watching Spider-Man and playing Temple Run. Zoe and I played some t-ball in the house today unless you're Andrya, in which case we watched TV and played with puzzles.

    Here are some new pictures that I posted yesterday but didn't mention anywhere.
    2013-01-31: Zoe had her swimming class today. It was certainly the best performance she's had so far. She's figured out that she needs to close her eyes and mouth when she goes underwater and she finally believes that I'm not going to let her sink to the bottom, so progress has been made. She can even float on her back by herself until she realizes that she's floating on her back by herself at which point she rolls over and sinks (though not to the bottom, as we've established).

    Before I forget, Zoe continues to sing (though much less frequently now) this mash-up of Jingle Bells, that Batman Jingle Bells thing, a song from Prep & Landing and something by Beyonce:

    Jingle Bells, this is cool
    Robin say my name
    Something sink (?)
    Under the mistletoe