2013-12: Beardy, Goo-Goos and Other Cuddling

Nigel enjoys touching and snuggling, and is almost always moving when snuggling. He still likes playing with Dad's beard, now having nicknamed it "Beardy". He enthusiastically calls Mom "Goo-Goos" (and sometimes Dad, too).

He and his good friend from school, Crosby, can get pretty huggy sometimes, too. Crosby has a backpack with the red Angry Birds character on it, which he calls "Red". Nigel has a jacket with a bear face on the hood, which he calls "Beary". They also give Red and Beary loving attention, with pats and hugs.

2013-11-24: Ackbar's Pizza Store

Nigel got a number of Lego kits for his birthday, as well as some Angry Birds Star Wars characters (small finger puppets in the shape of birds dressed as Star Wars characters). He was very interested in playing pretend games with these characters, and they were tending toward fighting, as that is what has been represented to Nigel those characters do.

Dad wanted to change the story to something peaceful, and to encourage more sensitivity, and was asking some questions about what else they could play. Nigel came up with the idea for a Lego house kit to be Ackbar's pizza store, where all the characters would come to get pizza and drinks. Dad thought this was such a neat idea. Ackbar was given a glass to hold, and always held it up as if to cheer people. All the characters were excited to go to the pizza store. Dad and Nigel had a lot of fun over the next few days playing out many scenarios with the Legos and Angry Birds, but many featured the pizza store, and always, it was Ackbar's.

2013-11-23: Nigel's 5th Birthday Party

Nigel wanted to have his birthday party at the ice rink again this year. Kids from his class were invited, along with family and neighborhood friends. Dad spent much of the time helping kids around the ice, often along with Grandpa. Mom kept things rolling around the food tables and among the non-skaters.

Nigel's classmate Kaden plays hockey there at the arena and was a great skater. He was already at the facility, with Nigel getting to watch the end of one of his games. Kaden's dad coaches his team and also helped kids skating around. Some of the group skated all the way through the public session. Sometimes a chain of five people were skating together, and all the kids seemed to really enjoy their time. In addition to Kaden, Helena and Nigel's best friend, Crosby, attended from his school. From the neighborhood, Ashton, Nic and Alyssa came, and all the Black family, Grandpa and Grandma M. and Grammy were there.

Nigel had requested an Angry Birds Star Wars cake, with Pluto represented (the dwarf-planet). Mom came through in typical fashion, with small rubber Angry Birds Star Wars figures positioned on a planetary outer-space cake.

2013-11-22: Mining Play

Nigel has been featuring mining lately in a lot of his play. Iron and gemstones seem to be his interests, and he frequently has superheroes doing the mining. Mom and Dad have no clue where this has come from.
Nigel is also very fixated on the idea of powers of the elements (water, fire, lightning, ice, etc.), and of each one having a "nemesis", as he puts it. He is a bit unclear which element is the nemesis of which.

2013-11-08: Spelling Long A Words

Nigel has been getting assigned groups of spelling words each week at school. This week's words feature long A sounds:
sail
play
lake
stay
wait
take
came
rain
safe
late

It has been fun to work with him on getting the right long A spelling with the right word. He got 100% on his test of these on Friday.

2013-11-01: Commutative Property

Nigel and Dad were working on math today with the Cuisenaire rods. Dad demonstrated the commutative property, and Nigel picked it up pretty quickly. Both were excited about that achievement.

2013-10: Frankula Berry

Nigel has been excited to eat monster cereals. He refers to Franken Berry as "Frankula Berry".