Bye-bye crib!!!

 We decided it was time to get rid of his crib turned daybed and move him up to a larger bed as the daybed was not enough space for him anymore.  So, we ordered him an organic mattress and it arrived while we were in Ohio. 

Picking out a new mattress for Nicholas was killing me.  Of course, price being the reason for the issue.  Because of his issues, we cannot buy him a regular mattress, so we were faced with spending mega-bucks on a natural one.  How screwed up is that.  The chemical free one is more expensive than the one treated with chemicals.  You’d think the more processes the fabric would go through would mean the more expensive it is, but that’s hardly true. 

I tossed and turned over it, let me tell you.  For a full size mattress — just the mattress, I was finding prices varying between $1200 and $1500.  Not being able to afford it was killing me. for. months.  I agonized over the issue of – geez.. my son can’t even breathe clean air when he sleeps and we can’t afford to change that.  Not. Fair.

On a whim, we took a ride to a store here in NJ that sells the organic mattresses – and I have to say, I was impressed.   They really helped me select a mattress that we could afford that took my son’s issues into account, so now I can feel better that he’s not breathing/absorbing antimony or any of the other toxic fumes off-gassing from mattresses these days.  They also had an organic comforter that was to DIE for, so we got that for him too.  Yep, Nicholas has a comforter on his bed that was more than my comforter!   So, in case you’re wondering where I got it from, here’s the link: White Lotus Home

It really was quite comfy and I fell asleep on it and took a nice long nap with no problem whatsoever.  I was skeptical, because it’s not a traditional mattress in the sense that there are no springs in it – but it’s fantastic.  I couldn’t be happier with it.

MB-12 today. 

We brought Gavin one of those really cool remote control helicopters from the sharper image and he actually handed the remote to Nicholas for him to take a turn flying it.  Nicholas not only got it off the ground, but spent quite some time flying it, which is really no easy task.  We could not believe it.

Nicholas was a talking-machine today.  He would not let Chad’s girlfriend pluck his eyebrows – he thought she was hurting him.  He was so protective of Chad, it was adorable.  He spent quite a while cuddled up on the couch with Chad and Gavin – very cute.

He was up til 2am – figured he’d sleep through the 5am trip to the airport and we’d be home free… yeah sure.  Once we hit the airport, he was awake as can be.  When we boarded, he got to see the cockpit and he spent the whole flight on daddy’s chest looking out the window.  He dozed off a little, but was primarily awake for the trip.  He was amazing!!!

Mb-12 given today.

Nicholas had a great day.  He played and played with his new honorary cousin, Gavin.  They played trains on and off all day.  Nicholas was great, joined in like he was part of everything that was going on – not just doing his own thing like we had seen so much of in the past.  He was in the moment and enjoying himself.  Amazing.

So, we flew to Ohio today to visit with some friends – and I had alot of trepidation about this trip, mainly because I had visions of Nicholas having one temper tantrum after another and being pretty much uncontrollable.  Well, let me outline our trip to Ohio for you – given what we went through, Nicholas was excellent – I couldn’t have asked for a better kid!

We left the house around 4:30 pm for a 6:30 flight.  We had to drop off a rental car with Paul’s colleage (and friend), so we got to watch the monorail come and go.  Nicholas was loving every minute of it.  Pointing up, yelling TRAIN.  Saying hi and bye-bye to the train.  He was in his glory.  Then, guess what, we got to ride the monorail into the terminal.  He was loving it.  When we got to our terminal, he did not want to get off.  Anyway, checking in and getting through security was not fun, but it could have been so much worse.  We got to the gate and hung out for a while, got some pizza and just hung around.  The flight was delayed several times and we didn’t end up boarding until almost 11pm.  Thank goodness that our aiport has these people-mover things – we took turns with Nicholas on them for hours.  He loved how he was moving and the rest of the floor wasn’t.  He was running down them, jumping, you name it.  He even grabbed Uncle Mike’s laptop bag and took it with him on his people-mover adventure (and that sucker was heavy!)    So, to break up the monotony, Daddy and Uncle Mike decided to head to the bar and get a drink.  Nicholas was not having it.  So they took him with them.  Yep, 3 year old in an airport bar.  At this point, who cares – you can’t smoke in the airport anyway, so no big deal.  Nicholas finds a pretty girl sitting alone and goes up to her, moves her bag from her chair, climbs up on the chair and sits with her having a lengthy conversation.  I wish I had seen it with my own eyes.  Then, when he’s done, he gets down and blows her a kiss goodbye.  Blows her a kiss??????????  are you kidding me??  we have never seen him do this.  Yep, reserved for the pretty young girls he flirts with.  See, it is in their genes – that is so totally not a learned thing!

So, we finally board the plane – and Nicholas is ready to go.  He jumps into his chair and buckles his own seatbelt.  Holy cow!  He was asleep before the plane took off.  He woke up here and there holding his ears and crying, but wouldn’t eat or drink – but we made it through.  When we got to Ohio, it was really late and we needed to wait for our baggage.  Nicholas got the biggest charge out of watching the bags come down the carousel. 

Once we got to Mike’s house, Nicholas was quickly one of the family.  He was chilling out on the couch sitting with Mike’s family, whom he had never met before.  We were amazed.

Last night was pure hell getting Nicholas to bed.  He had not had his supplements all day – so I was on a mission to get them into him before he went to bed.  Well, 3am rolls around and he’s wide awake like it was 3pm.  Great.  He cried on and off all night, I have no idea why.

His level of awareness continues to reach new levels.  Last night, he saw the veins  in my wrist going up my arm and thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.  All the time, we see things like this…. things that were right in front of his face all along, but he never saw the “details” – my engagement ring sparkling, earrings in my ears, etc.  While driving around this past week, I’ve been stopping to let him see the decorations on people’s houses – he’s actually seeing them.  Our neighbor has a grinch blowup that has a tree and a dog – everytime we stop, he says – Dog!  Tree!  – what more could you ask for!!!  Yesterday, I said “nicholas is in heaven with  his new geotrax” and he yelled GEOTRAX!   He’s been looking at the back of the box – and using it as a guide to put his tracks together — and he’s noticing that he doesn’t have all of the pieces in the picture – yikes – are we really almost to the point where he’s going to ask for a toy….????  Right now, I’d rather buy him something he ASKED for than eat, if that’s what it came down to.   🙂