7/23/98, Thursday
Last night Nicole was very tired and became cranky
and incooperative. Basically, she was a bear. Tina
took Nicole to bed and after her bedtime prayer she
added "Lord, help Nicole have a teachable heart.
Amen." After which, Nicole added this "And
help Mommy not to yell so much. Amen."
Nicole has an incredible memory. She remembers
things she's seen or done years ago. I'm always
amazed when she, out of the blue, will remember
something we did or said. I don't think she'll ever
let me live down the fact that I crashed our car last
year. That's an easy one, there are other things we
never would have thought she'd retain, but she does.
7/21/98, Tuesday
I watched Nicole playing a computer game last night.
It was about letters. I saw her sounding out words
like "Plant - Pah, Pah, 'P'". She then
presses 'P' and gets the computer to say Plant like
she wants.
7/17/98, Friday - More Vacation Highlights. A
Special Rainbow
While we were at Grandma and Granddad's house, we all
slept in a large bedroom in the basement. One night,
we put Christopher down in his crib, then a little
later sent Nicole to bed. Christopher hadn't quite
gone to sleep. After a little while I walked by the
room and noticed the Nicole was over by the crib. I
watched for a little while. Nicole was talking softly
to Christopher who was still lying down. When I
walked in the room, Nicole got this panicked look and
jumped into her own bed. She then went on to explain
at length that Christopher kept popping up so she'd
push his face down, but he kept getting up and she
couldn't sleep. As we laughed at her explainations we
moved her to a different room for the night so they
both could get some sleep.
One night there was a beautiful full rainbow in
the sky. I quickly got Nicole since she likes
rainbows. I'll never forget her face. She was
absolutely stunned by the beauty of the rainbow. Her
mouth fell open and after the shock wore off she
began jumping for joy. She had never really seen a
rainbow before. It was quite special.
7/15/98, Wednesday - Vacation
Last week we went to the Grandparents for vacation.
Nicole travelled very well and, of course, she loves
stopping at all the McDonald's along the way.
While there, Nicole played the piano with Grandma.
It was a cute scene. She doesn't play the right
notes, but she's understanding rythm and seems to
enjoy playing.
6/29/98, Monday - Great
Quotes
On Friday I took Nicole shopping. On the way home,
travelling up the freeway, Nicole said "This
is just like a race, isn't it, Daddy. And the end is
our house!"
Yesterday we were having lunch and Nicole,
obviously bothered by Christopher, said the
following: "It's great to be a Grandma or
Granddad because they don't have any babies in their
house."
Well I joined the crowd and upgraded to Windows 98
over the weekend. I like the improvements they've
made to the interface and the system maintenance
utilties look very nice. So far I've had no problems.
Nicole was impressed as well. "Look Mommy,
you can't double-click any more!" (The web
style interface changes the icons to single clicks
instead of double-clicks).
6/24/98, Wednesday
Nicole has been doing very well in swimming
lessons. She's jumping off the diving
board and swiming like a fish.
Last week her two older cousins came for a visit.
Nicole was in heaven. The older girls
were really good with her and Nicole
really liked the attention. Nicole also
went to Six Flags for the first time with them.
She road on some pretty big rides, too.
And did quite well.
6/16/98, Tuesday - Busy June Schedule, Writing.
Nicole has a very busy June schedule.
Here's the list:
Summer Camp (City program)
Piano Lessons
Swimming Lessons
(started yesterday)
Summer Shine
(preschool program)
Nicole can pretty much write the entire
alphabet now. She got frustrated on a couple
letters the other day, but she was tired and cranky.
I know she knew those letters too.
6/8/98, Monday - Piano
Lessons.
Nicole took piano lessons last week. She
really enjoyed them and seemed very
happy after each class. She taught
both Mommy and me how to play her
songs. I marked the letters of the notes
on our piano at home just like they did in
class so she could practice at home too.
One of her songs is "D is for
the doggie with the two black ears".
It's played with just one note. You
guessed it, D. The black ears are the
two black notes that surround the D. They used
that to teach them how to find the notes on the
piano.
6/1/98, Monday - Pet
- again.
Nicole now has a new fish. Her last
one didn't last very long. This time we got
a Betta. It's a beautiful dark
blue with red. It has feathery long
fins and it's supposed to need even less
maintenance than a goldfish.
Today Nicole starts piano lessons. I hope
she likes them.
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