2010-04-21: Garbage man

Nigel hadn't been feeling well for a couple of days, and had not been sleeping very late in the mornings. Upon his waking this morning, Dad was able to encourage him back to sleep for another hour in his arms.

Afterward, while waiting for some toast to cook for breakfast, the garbage truck came by. Dad took Nigel outside to watch the garbage truck empty cans on the other side of the street. Nigel liked this very much, and requested that the truck come back after it went around the corner. They waited for the truck to empty the cans in the rest of the neighborhood, and got a quick glimpse of it as it went through the street behind the house.

While waiting, anxious to see the garbage truck again, Nigel kept saying, "Man, garbage... man?" Finally, the truck came back around to do our side of the street, and Dad and Nigel happily watched it empty all of the cans visible from the house.

Update 2010-05-10: Ever since that day, Nigel has been very interested in garbage trucks and garbage men. He mentions garbage trucks and the garbage man frequently.

2010-04-12: Finishing Jack and Jill

Dad and Nigel were looking through flash cards, and one of them had the Jack and Jill rhyme pictured on it. Dad started reading it, but stopped just before the word "water", and waited to see if Nigel would finish the rhyme. He did, and loved this new game, requesting it over and over. Nigel also provided the word "paper" at the very end, and even said "head" at its appropriate time the last time through the rhyme.

Nigel was climbing in and out of a laundry basket, saying "in" and "out" (the "out" may have been prompted). He ducked down to hide inside the basket and said, "wheredego," (where'd he go) then "thereheis" (there he is).

2010-04-10: Joining words

Nigel has started joining words together, like "apple juice", or "Dad water" (referring to Dad's water). He is also connecting different books together: he and Dad were looking at the pictures in a farm book Nigel has, and when he saw a star, he asked to hear a star song ("star more sing"), so Dad sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. He also asked to hear a song about mice ("mice more sing"), so Dad sang Three Blind Mice to him.

2010-04-04: Easter at the aquarium

Easter Sunday. Mom, Dad and Nigel went to breakfast at the Belgian Waffle & Omelet Inn, with the Black family, Grandma and Richard. Dad sang songs at the table with the kids (and Grandma and Aunt MaryAnne joined in, of course) while everyone waited for their food. After eating, everyone went to the Living Planet aquarium and played there for a while. KariAnn wanted to touch one of the rays, but was scared to do so. She spent a long time working up the courage to go through with it, and finally, Richard put his hand underneath one of the rays and it flapped halfway up out of the water, right onto KariAnn. That wasn't the way she wanted to touch one of them, but she did get to do it, albeit in a way that was very scary to her.

In the afternoon, Mom, Dad and Nigel went up to Bountiful to have an Easter lunch with Grammy, Aunt Blaire and Brandon. After lunch, the grown-ups played Masterpiece, and Nigel ran around playing with toys and with some of the Masterpiece money.

2010-04-02: Daybreak visit

The family packed up the bikes and bike trailer for the first time this year, and headed out to Daybreak for a ride.  Mom wanted to see the siding on the houses, Dad wanted to ride around the lake, and Nigel just wanted to play at the playground.

Everyone got to do what they wanted: Nigel played in the sand for half an hour; Mom and Dad struggled against the wind, while Nigel ate animal crackers in the trailer; and Mom got pictures of their favorite exterior designs.  Nigel wanted very much to roll down his window ("Open my roof, Dad") and take pictures with the camera, just like Mom was doing.