2010-05-02: Well, two out of the last four days have featured SPECTACULAR Niklas meltdowns. You know I don't use the caps lock button much, so you can tell I'm serious. SERIOUS. I may be undercutting my argument there. On to the rarely used exclamation points, then. So! Niklas! Meltdowns! The first (and worst) was Thursday at ice skating. Niklas has routinely demonstrated that he doesn't need the push cart (not really a cart) thing shown here, but he totally freaked out when they wouldn't let him use one on Thursday. Screeching, sobbing, horrible combinations thereof... it was unpleasant. He ended up staying on the ice for about four total minutes. Today, Niklas had a screaming fit about where we were going for lunch. His choice of the Firkin & Pheasant (routinely cited by him as his favorite restaurant) was voted down in favor of the NOT THAT DISSIMILAR (but superior for burger purposes, which is what we were after) Counter. Then, MELTDOWN! In a display of bad judgment, Andrya and I relented and took him into the Firkin & Pheasant where he inexplicably continued screaming until we gave up and went home.
On the plus side, on Friday, Niklas spent about an hour playing with a T-ball set, which he found to be awesome.
2010-05-05: "Daddy, I got a little bit of poop on the carpet." - Niklas Wayne Smith, May 5, 2010
2010-05-06: So, Niklas has been in a better mood the last couple days. I suspect he's like a dog who can sense an earthquake or something but instead of an earthquake it's baby-related changes and instead of drinking out of a toilet, Niklas prefers a sippy cup. Anyway, no major meltdowns the last couple of days. Today was supposed to be his skating lesson, but we're going to pass on that after last week's incident. Instead, I'm going to let him break in his rollerblades. We'll see how that goes. I'll be happy with anything short of mega-disaster.
UPDATE: The rollerblading was only semi-disastrous! Woo!
Here are some new pictures, which while not great, are certainly not mega-disastrous. Win!
2010-05-09: So, Niklas was invited to Jai Patel's sixth birthday party yesterday. Niklas was super excited about going and he was all hyped to "play sports" (the Patel's had rented out a gym) when we loaded him into the car. Then, we ran into a mess of traffic and Niklas fell asleep. When we finally made it out to Hoffman Estates, we had to wake Niklas up. I think I remember one time that I woke Niklas up and he wasn't in a terrible mood. Yesterday was not that day. About an hour into the party, he had some cookies and ice cream and his sullenness abated. Unfortunately, by then it was time to go. Still, in the car on the way home, Niklas said that he "had a good time at the party," so there's that.
Today being Mothers's Day, Niklas just laid low and hung out with Andrya. They made some cookies, played with play doh and drew some pictures. A good time was had by all.
2010-05-23: I don't want to overstate the behavioral difficulties we've been having with Niklas lately, but here's a quote from tonight that I think sums things up pretty well: "I will not follow the rules tonight!" So, there's that. I think things are being driven by changing sleep requirements (he doesn't need a nap everyday, for instance, but that doesn't mean you don't need one ever again, Niklas!) and baby apprehension. Also, if you give him a donut for breakfast, he acts like he's ingested a couple of pounds of trucker speed, but that's just common sense.
2010-05-26: Niklas has been a bit more well behaved the last few days. He's still concerned that the baby is going to eat all of his toys, but I guess that's on me for telling him he couldn't leave his toys out around the baby or she'd put them in her mouth. Anyway, today, we went to the playground and had a picnic, both of which were popular. Then Niklas took a nap, though he later claimed that he did not go to sleep and that he had just "taken a rest". Apparently, he's sticking to his long held belief that sleep is for the weak.