3 & 4

the Infamous Red Nie Nie

3.  Nie Nie*  

*(Our "Nielson word" for blanket.  I could do a 

WHOLE POST on "Nielson words" we speak our own 

language for some things!  But Nie Nie always

has been, and always will be the word for blanket.

I have no CLUE how it ever started, it seems to always

have been in existence.)

All of our kids get a baby blanket when they

are born, usually from Grandma Regular (Kyle's mom).

However, Josh's Nie Nie was a store bought variety.

He carried it, lugged it, played with it, slept

with it, held it, snuggled it, sniffed it, was

with it 24/7 the first few years of his life.

He threw up on it, washed it, bathed with it, loved it.

It went EVERYWHERE with him.  To church, to bed, to 

the grocery store, everywhere.

At some point the only thing left of it was a bunch

of long strings loosely bound together by hope.

It still sits in a baggy in a drawer somewhere in

this house waiting to show his children.

Yes, even to mix & bake dress up goggles are necessary

4. Dress Ups

From year 1 until somewhere around year 6 (or so...)

Josh was constantly "dressed up".  Whether his

garb was cowboy, superhero, football guy, Darth Vader,

Han Solo, Luke Skywalker (there were A LOT of Star

Wars guys in those years!) and so on.

He went on errands with me every day as someone other

than Josh...well, always.

One of his favorite "get ups" was his Dad's old Granite

High football helmet and any random superhero cape

that he happened to grab that day.

He wore that outfit EVERYWHERE!  (And Nie Nie ALWAYS

came too!)

Now he insists on matching (which is a good thing)

and smelling good (doubly good!).