2011-01: Sitting in the Snow

This all started one day when Aunt Blaire was over and saw Nigel looking out the front window at the snow. He seemed to just be staring, but then he started singing a song:

I looked out the window and what did I see?
Nigel sitting in the snow I see.

When they all went outside later on, Nigel walked over to a pile of snow and said, "Hey, Mom!" When Mom and Blaire looked over, Nigel was grinning and promptly sat down in the snow. This has been a recurring theme for the past week now, with Nigel often laughing and sitting in the snow. It has been very funny.

It is not unusual for Nigel to make up songs, though. Lately, he has come up with any number of them. Most impressively, he always takes care to make them rhyme, sometimes using non-word sounds, but often using real words very creatively.

2011-01: Yanni's Greek Express

One day, while riding in the car, Nigel asked to go to the train store. Mom and Dad did not know what he was talking about at first, but then saw a picture of a train on the side of a Greek restaurant named "Yanni's Greek Express". Mom and Dad told him that it was a restaurant, which only made Nigel want to go all the more.

For the next few days, Nigel kept asking and asking to go to Yanni's Greek Express (and he would say the whole name, not just part of it). That Sunday, they finally agreed to go for lunch, but they arrived to find the place was closed on Sundays. Dad wanted to try going to The Old Spaghetti Factory next, but that was closed on Sundays, as well. Dad and Nigel ended up eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at home while Mom went to a baby shower.

To make up for the Sunday disappointment, Dad took Nigel to Yanni's Greek Express that Thursday, after daycare. They ordered a veggie gyro, salad, fried zucchini (which only Dad liked), and yellow lemon rice, which Nigel loved! Nigel ate most of the rice, along with some salad and a bit of the gyro. Dad finished off what Nigel didn't eat, but hardly got any rice, because Nigel liked it so well. They sat under a fish plate which was hanging on the wall, and on subsequent visits, Nigel would ask to sit at the fish table.

2011-01-22: Trax to the Gateway

Today, Dad and Nigel took a Trax train to the Gateway shopping mall for an adventure. First up was Dick's Sporting Goods, where they played with exercise machines, lifted heavy weights, threw various balls around, took the escalators up and down several times. Nigel worried that the game animals stuffed and mounted on the wall would talk, and he didn't like that idea.

Next up was the Apple computer store, to return an item. Nigel wanted to have a turn playing games on the computers, but they were all in-use, with other kids waiting for a turn, so they left right away and headed over to the fountain and the big fire-pit, which Nigel calls "the big fire".

After that, it was on to the Barnes & Noble bookstore, to play with their train table and get cleaned up. The train table was busy and a bit of pushing took place, with two to four kids trying to play at the table simultaneously.

Finally, they took the train back home, sharing dried apricots and conversation with a man who had a grandson about Nigel's age. He told about how his dog (a mastiff) would carry the grandson around on his back, and when the boy fell off, the dog would go and lie down so the boy could climb back on. It sounded like a lot of fun.

2011-01-22: Nightmare

Nigel had a nightmare this morning, and woke Mom and Dad up at around 1:00 AM, crying and saying something they couldn't understand. Dad went in to see what was going on, and Nigel was saying, "I want it back."
"What do you want back, Nigel?"
"The blue cup."
"Where did it go?"
"Right in front of the moon."
"Oh, I see. Did you have a dream, Nigel?"
"Uh-huh."
"Okay. The blue cup is downstairs in the dishwasher, getting cleaned. We can get it back later. We can get it tomorrow. It's okay, lie down and go back to sleep."
"Okay, Dad."

2011-01-10: Santa sandwich

Kelly Mansfield: Nigel is making his sandwich into Santa's sleigh. You and he are going for a ride.
Christian Mansfield: Fantastic!
Kelly Mansfield: He actually ate it into a sleigh shape.

2010-01-10: Seeming to recognize words

While Nigel was watching a show about the Princess and the Pea, three words were listed on the screen as possible ways that the Princess could get rid of the pea. Dad looked over and asked Nigel what she could do. Nigel said, "She can eat it," and correctly picked out which word was "eats". He may well have seen the show before, but clearly recognized the word.

Nigel and Mom were watching video clips on YouTube, and Nigel asked to watch a different video. Mom asked him which one, and between the icon (a face) and the word "Jump", he identified a video as being "the jumping one". Mom cannot recall his having seen that video clip before.

2010-2011: Misc Nigel Stories

Nigel has repeatedly had dreams about driving an apple car around. This may have been inspired by Richard Scarry's Busytown. Nigel seems particularly fond of the idea of an apple car and laughs about it.

Nigel likes Shadie very much, but she is scared of him, and often bats a paw at him if he comes close. We have talked about how Nigel doesn't like when she does that, and about how that is Shadie's way of saying no. Nigel took a pair of kitchen tongs upstairs one day, then came back down a minute later and said, "Shadie said no tongs."