Niko! Not you, the OTHER Niko!

Niko’s full name is Nikola, and this is for a number of reasons. It’s a straight up traditional name in Nesko’s culture, it’s a family name, their Slava is St Nikolaus, and of course there’s Nikola Tesla. It’s also apparently A REALLY FUCKING COMMON NAME and when we go to, say, Nesko’s cousin’s Slava and their friends and cousins are there, there’s always other kids named Nikola/Niko. I haven’t encountered any called Nikatz or Nano, both of which are nicknames we use more frequently, though. but I’m sure we will. So I’ve started expecting Nikolas/Nikos at family gatherings, but I’m still surprised when I encounter a Nikola/Niko in the wild.

We ran into one at Wagner Farm last weekend.

Let me back up.

Historic Wagner Farm is a little slice of history in Glenview, IL. Nesko’s bosses are Rotary Club members, and for the past 3 years they’ve had fund raisers at Wagner Farm that includes a hayride, ice cream, and this year face painting. This is the third year we’ve gone, and it’s a lot of fun. Niko enjoys running around, he likes watching the cows and horses and talking about their poop, he likes looking for the barn cats, and he thinks the chickens are super cute and he wants to take them home. And of course he likes eating the ice cream. Who doesn’t? (me, I don’t. ooooh, lactose intolerance. i want to love you again, ice cream, I do. you’re just… not worth it.) There’s a building with bathrooms and a gift shop and some edutainment museum-ish displays and the ice cream parlor. One of the interactive displays is supposed to be about chicken eggs and collecting and sorting them and candling them, but every time we’ve been it’s just a frenzy of kids grabbing eggs and dumping them down the chute and grabbing more eggs and EGGS EGGS EGGS OH GOD THERE’S EGGS AND BASKETS AAHHHHHHHHHH BEST THING EVERRRRRRRRRR! While Niko was taking part in the eggs and basket frenzy, I heard another woman reminding Niko to play nice and share and not grab. Basically, I’d open my mouth to remind Niko to not be a dick, and then this other woman would say exactly what I was going to say! DUN DUN DUNNNNNN! As it turns out, she has a 3 year old named Nikola also.

I guess it’s just a popular name.

Mirrored from Now Showing!.

SPOILER: Nobody Was Seriously Hurt

Nesko and I were sitting in the living room while Niko kept running into other rooms and making messes then running back to let us know about his messes. He was in a rare mood today. A rare and clumsy mood. At one point he scampered out of the room and Nesko told him to come back because duh every time he left the room he just made some new problem.

This time he came back and said “Uh, mama, I have an owie owie” in a very calm, nonchalant voice. I looked over and HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA BLOOD. All over his hands, his wrists, his snooze-a-saurus pyjama shirt. He didn’t seem too upset or in pain so I calmly herded him into the bathroom and cleaned him up. It was actually difficult to locate the wound, because although it bled a lot it was a small cut on his thumb. He’d just spread the blood around a lot.

What had he done to injure himself so badly?

Why, tried to cut up an apple with a serrated bread knife, of course! WHY NOT.

So we had a talk about Not Touching Knives, and I gave him a boring bandage instead of a cute! fun! Elmo! bandage because I don’t want to reward playing with knives, you know? And now I’m considering teaching him proper knife using. On the one hand, he needs to know which part of the knife is the sharp part and how to respect it. On the other hand, he’s 3 and he’s clumsy and a knife skills lessons could easily turn into some kind of murder-suicide ordeal. On the OTHER other hand (pretend I have three hands, ok?), how sweet would it be if I had a tiny sous chef in my kitchen? Pretty fucking sweet, I tell you.

Mirrored from Now Showing!.