Of all things the media (read Disney) had to push upon the poor unsuspecting parents of this world, did they have to choose princesses? Sure, while some of the princess fairy tales have some redeeming value in the form of a good moral or something, that is not what is emphasized in all the princess glamor hoopla. Try as we did, we just could not shield Nicole from this one. They get you coming and going. All her friends are doing it. Nicole is our little princess.

As far as I can gather, Cinderella is her favorite. We have checked out several different versions of the story from the city library. I think my favorite was the one that was told from the point of view of a raven. I can't remember the title, but it shared a nice story of love and sacrifice by the ravens to make Cinderella a dress and finally give up their prized golden ring they found. I guess maybe I liked it because it took the focus off the princess. As a side note, Nathan is a fan of Cinderella too, though he calls her Cinderbelly. (In your head, sing the Cinderelly song from the mice in the the Disney version of Cinderella to see where that comes from.)

We have a lot of ground to cover since Christmas. I suppose more frequent updates would alleviate this problem, but what would be the fun in that? I am just going to say that I have been very busy and that will have to suffice for my excuse.

A few weeks ago Nathan and I went 'fishing' with some friends at a local lake that was recently stocked with trout. I made a fishing pole for Nathan out of a stick of bamboo and a piece of small rope. While we didn't catch anything (not that we expected to with the gear we brought), we had a lot of fun. Enough fun that we went again a month later and brought Nicole along with us. Mostly, they just ran around chasing ducks and playing with the other kids while all the dads fished and talked. But it was really a nice relaxing way to spend a Saturday morning. Someday, I might even invest in some real fishing tackle and a license. Until then, we will just have to fill up on our imaginary fish. Or we could always tell the story of the one that got away...

Since I wrote about Nathan and all his super-great qualities, I feel the need to report on our super-duper-great girl as well. I guess it must have become commonplace around here that Nicole is no longer a toddler; Nathan has taken that role. Nicole is a big girl.

In daddy's shoes

The pants that we used to roll up now fit just right. She can dress herself without any help from us. Her words and phrases get more sophisticated every day. And she gets sillier by the minute (I'm not quite sure where she gets that from.)

Her imagination is taking off and we are doing the best we can to make sure it doesn't get stifled. Just yesterday, I was reading a book on the couch next to the kids while they were watching Sesame Street. She saw me reading and pulled out one of her Richard Scarry books and started reading that instead of watching the TV. It made me so happy to see my little bookworm pull her head out of the TV and put it in a book where she could use her imagination. Periodically, she would interrupt me and say things like, "I have never seen pickle car with pig's tail before" or, "I love to eat grapes and raisins."

Nathan has been growing and advancing by leaps and bounds. And of course that is the time I choose to neglect reporting all his stories. Though he is not even 18 months old, he seems to be a two year old to us. Both Nicole and Nathan participated in the library summer reading program. They both read (or were read to) for countless hours over the summer. Still, one of the favorite pastimes is reading books.

little bookworm

In addition to being a bookworm, Nathan is learning to say a handful of new words every day and his comprehension seems to be far above that. He doesn't seem to like to submit to the constant daily quiz that we would give to Nicole at his age: "What does a [cow, pig, horse, dog, etc.] say?"; "Where is your [ear, nose, arm, patella, etc]?"; "Can you say [some new precocious word]?". We put Nicole through these questions constantly because she loved the interaction and praise. Nathan doesn't seem to put up with this kind of testing. But when we give him a pair of folded socks and say, "Go put these away", he takes the socks to his room and puts them in his sock box. I guess what I am trying to say is that Nathan is a freakin' genius in his own way.

We were having dinner with some friends recently, and in an effort to get Nicole to finish her dinner, Lauren hinted that we might have something else to eat (i.e., dessert) when she finished her food. She plowed right past Lauren's hint and exclaimed, "A treat!" Her expectant response prompted one grown-up friend to say, "Wow, Nicole, you must be spoiled!" Nicole piped right up and replied, "I'm not spoiled, I'm a girl!" Looking into the brain of Nicole, I figure she was thinking something along the lines of "They just called me a spoiled. I am not sure what a spoiled is, but I know I am not a spoiled because I am a girl." All that happened in a split second and then she came back with her retort. To her, I figure, she might as well have just been called a boy. She knows she is not a boy, she is a girl.

Nathan is growing like a weed. He is finally cutting his fourth first-year molar. He loves to eat, so this is a really great advancement for him. Like most one-year-old kids, just about everything goes in his mouth. Just the other day, I was sitting on the couch working on my computer when all of the sudden my foot was suddenly warm. I probably wouldn't have noticed that except that seconds later, the warm spot turned into a spot of sharp pain. I shook the pain off my foot and looked down to see an open mouthed Nathan with matching teeth marks on the top of my foot.

Piles of presents. Noodles, green beans and chocolate cake. I would venture to say it was a nearly perfect Nicole birthday. This year she got toys that are mostly along the lines of helping Mommy. Or little Mommy. A grocery cart with little plastic foods; a little pink stroller; a little kitchen tools set with a rolling pin, wooden spoon, etc.; a pretty dress; and the book "Big Dog, Little Dog." How can you go wrong with a book about dogs? It really was a good thing that she got a stroller AND a grocery cart because Nathan thinks he needs to push one of them and for now, thankfully, is content to play with whichever one Nicole is not playing with.

Nathan has officially been with us for a year. Although, depending on what time you ask us, that might be a very long time or a very short time. He has certainly grown a lot in the past year. He has been the source of many tears and many side-splitting giggle fests. We sure love him lots and lots.

To celebrate the big day, Nathan work up bright and early — screaming at 5:30 A.M. We finally did get him to go back to bed after a little snack (we don't think he ate a big enough dinner last night and woke up hungry). While we were getting his birthday dinner ready, he was a big help in the kitchen; snitching grated cheese, scattering toys underfoot, and banging the kitchen cabinet doors. We had Darren, Lou and Devon over for dinner to celebrate. After dinner, we had the yummy chocolate cake Lauren made and decorated.

If I get even a little bit behind in writing, Nathan overtakes me and suddenly I am writing about ancient history (relative time taken from a 11.74 month old). The little beast has taken to crawling everywhere, just like any little boy does. What is funny and worth writing about is that each little boy hones the crawling model to the point that it is the fastest mode of transport for him in his native environment. Nathan's native environment is about half carpet and half wood or linoleum. The carpet makes for easy travel while the wood and linoleum make for a slick crawl. Without training, Nathan adjusted the standard crawl to make it easier for him. We call it the tripod. Imagine this: Nathan on his left knee with his right leg streched out sideways; put both hands on the floor in front in standard crawling position; bring the right leg forward with all the weight on the other three limbs; bring the left knee forward with weight on the other three limbs; gallop the hands forward one right after the other. He does this at break-neck speed across all flooring surfaces. Granted, crawling on the carpet is slightly faster and he does sometimes go back to that, but most of the time he does the tripod.

There comes a time in every father's life when he knows that his kids love him. Nathan let me know in a kind of bittersweet way. He has always been a mama's boy — if given the choice, he would choose Lauren over me any day of the week. Not too long ago, Nathan cried when I was getting ready to leave for work. While this is very cute and touching for me, it is also a little bit sad for him. The good part about this is that he is also excited to see me when I come home from work. That is every father's delight (I assume). Nathan has also taken to requesting more up time.

I can't remember which of my sisters Nancy or Mary was the first in our family to pray for a false prophet. But during family prayer, she prayed to bless "Spencer W. Dependable" and all who were listening tried our best to keep reverent to let her finish the prayer.

This morning while watching General Conference, Nicole wanted to know who the elderly man speaking at the pulpit was. When we told her it was President Faust, she said, "No, it's President Wrinkly!" We tried to explain that not all of the old, white-haired, bespectacled men are President Hinckley and finally got her straightened out on the whole Wrinkly/Hinckley thing. Then later, she started talking about President Wrinkly again. So I guess it is still not completely clear.