A tour for Nicholas

This is a tour of my Iowa City apartment for Nicholas' benefit.

The real first day

So I haven't had a chance to update this blog, but I did survive my first week of law school -- even though it was "just" orientation. I also choked on my first exam, a multiple choice and essay test that I muddled through. Two words: Pass/fail.
The good thing is I was able to spend Saturday and Sunday with Nicholas. We went to Magic Waters where he wanted to go on every single ride: the tube slides, the tunnel slides, the water "roller coaster," the kid-sized body slides, the wave pool, and the lazy river. I was exhausted, but we had fun.
Anyway, today is the real first day of law classes. For me that's Torts, Contracts and then Legal Analysis, Writing and Research. It's a long day. Torts begins in 40 minutes with Vosburg v. Putney, the sad tale of a sickly Wisconsin teenager from the late 19th century who gets kicked in the shin and develops a nasty infection that causes lameness. The boy who kicked him (tapped with his foot, really) is found liable for the damages: $2,500. Morale of the story is you're on the hook even if you didn't intend the harm and the damage is grossly magnified by the victim's own fragility.

Nicholas loves dogs

I'm staying with a friend who has a large chocolate Labrador, Charlie. I've had Nicholas spend the night several times with me. He loves this dog. Now he begs to visit so he can play with him.
Earlier this week after I got him ready for bed, he decided that it was time for Charlie to go bed too. Here's video of him singing a lullaby to the dog in its cage.

Waterproof?

I'm giving Nicholas a taste of camping tonight by sharing a tent with him in the orchard at the farm where my parents are staying this summer. But I'm getting a pretty good mouthful too. It's about midnight and it's POURING rain. As a former Boy Scout, I knew how to pitch this tent to stay dry. But I can't help but wonder if the waterproofing will hold up under this torrent when tiny droplets of water are hitting my skin.
At least Nicholas is sound asleep. Wish I was too...
The rain smells good though. And the thunderclaps are immense.

Lightning strike

Whoa! Nicholas and I were just driving to the store in a thunderstorm and we saw a lightning strike blow up a transformer - from about half a block away!
Ok, that was pretty cool.

Aspirations

Nicholas was watching a DVD show with firefighters this morning. They put out fires, he told me.
Do you wanna be a firefighter? I asked.
No, he replied.
What do you wanna be when you grow up?
A bumblebee.

Wild cats

Spoken by Nicholas while looking outside for his mom's cat:
"Where's Willow? I think she's having a cat party with all her friends. I had a party when I turned 5."

Memorial Day pics

I posted photos of Nicholas at the Memorial Day parade on my Flickr site yesterday.
After about 45 minutes, we both got bored and decided to head back to the car. But first we stopped at Millenium Fountain. I ran into some friends who have four kids of their own, plus some stragglers. Seeing some kids was all it took for Nicholas to run right into the water and get soaked. The dad from the other family saw his kids run in and started to call out to stop them -- but caught himself. It's Memorial Day and you're only a kid once.

My child is brilliant...

Yesterday, I desperately needed to mow the lawn. The grass was so tall that safari groups were losing their way in it for days. But Nicholas was with me so I asked him if he wanted to come outside and ride his bike while I mowed so I could keep an eye on him. He said, no, I'd rather watch a movie.
So I told him he could come outside whenever he finished. I left the back door open and absentmindedly shut the door between the kitchen and the back porch -- forgetting that even though that door has no lock, Nicholas can't twist the 90-year-old doorknob enough to open it himself. So I had unwittingly locked him in the house.
About 10 minutes later, I'm blazing away on the lawn, oblivious to any sound other than the roar of the mower. My neighbor's son runs up and yells that my car alarm is going off. I run around to the garage and as I do, I look up at the living room window and see Nicholas inside, tears streaming down his face.
He was beside himself because he couldn't get out of the house. He must have tried to get my attention through the windows because his stuffed bunny was lying next to the front door glass. But I couldn't hear him. So possessing advanced critical thinking skills at the age of 5, he pushed the panic button on my car key fob and set off the alarm to alert me.
After I calmed him down, he confirmed my theory. I didn't even know he understood what the red horn button meant on my key chain. But he figured out a way to get my attention. My child is a genius...
And I am a horrible father.

Perks

Today I'm working from home because I don't have child care. So I'm sitting at a picnic table at a park watching Nicholas play and writing stories on my laptop.
I should work from home more often.

Playground photos

I just put up new photos of Nicholas on my Flickr site. They're from our trip to the "Castle Park" today. That's what he calls the old Project Playworks, a massive wooden playground that I played on as a kid. Come to think of it, I also made out with a girl there as a teenager.
It was moved from northeast Rockford out near the Speedway in Machesney Park.
Anyway, discerning viewers will notice that Nicholas is wearing the exact same shirt in both the playground shots and the bowling pics from February. That's because he chose his own clothes today.

Nicholas' impact on me

I realize after that last post what a normative effect Nicholas has had on me during the last year and a half. Meegan and I separated in November 2006 and since then he's lived with me.
The pain of the separation then was so great that I really just wanted to give up. As a recovering alcoholic, that meant anesthetizing myself with gallons of booze. As in, Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. But I couldn't do that because Nicholas lived with me. So I went to AA and stayed sober instead. I don't know if I would've done that initially without his presence.
Now I realize as I face feelings of loneliness again that Nicholas gets me out of myself and forces me to act like an adult (or my closest imitation of one). So in some ways, he's been my salvation.

A pinwheel spin

Here's Nicholas enjoying a birthday present from his grandparents in China. Warning: video may cause dizziness.

Mixing metaphors

On Saturday it was so windy that Nicholas & I lost a kite. But before that, we were driving down the street & he said:
"The grass is blowing like a shimmering volcano."
Yeah, he's a poet.