11 Things

This meme has been floating around my favorite blogs for weeks now, and I was starting to get superbummed that no one tagged me; I’m definitely at the uncool table in the blogger cafeteria. I tweeted about it, though, and Nicci was nice enough to give me a pity tag so now I get to play along, too!

First you have to post a picture of yourself:
Then you tell 11 things that people might not know about you:

1. I am an AMAZING big brother; I love Baby Lulu SO much and am very protective of her. I like to hold her and to give her her binkies, and I *always* tell Mommy when she’s crying and what I think might be wrong.
2. My full name is Nicholas, but we use Cole as a nickname, and that’s what I will answer with if you ask me what my name is. It drives Mommy CRAZY when people question the validity of Cole as a nickname for Nicholas (as opposed to the more common Nick); it is not so different from using Beth for Elizabeth or Becky for Rebecca – you don’t ALWAYS get the nickname from the beginning! And it makes a lot more sense than Jack for James or Dick for Richard… Whatever – I like it.
3. My middle name, Emmett is for my great grandmother AND my great grandfather. The grandmother part is fairly straight forward: her name was Elizabeth, so we took the E. My grandfather was Milton, so you might wonder how that fits. It gets a teeny complicated, but here we go: his initials were M. S. or, phonetically, Emess. In Hebrew, “emess” means truth and honor, AND the “s” and “t” sounds are interchangeable. So M.S. –> Emess –> Emmett. Did you follow that? Daddy has trouble.
4. Last night, for the first night EVER, I went to bed without a binky. And? It wasn’t such a big deal. Mommy hopes the rest of the week goes smoothly as well, but it probably won’t because I have just jinxed it by posting about it.
5. I have never seen Yo Gabba Gabba; we only watch PBS Kids and Disney around here.
6. My favorite color is blue… today anyway.
7. I am a little bit OCD; I have routines and schedules for almost EVERYTHING, and Mommy is the only one who knows all of them. Makes for some interesting times when other people have to watch me.
8. I was over 2 years old the first time Mommy and Daddy left me alone with a babysitter outside the family. Mommy went to a movie and Daddy did some homework at Starbucks; they are very exciting people.
9. I have my own language; I can phonetically pronounce most words, but I have my own names for some things: Gaia is Aunt Angela and Mimi means penguin or ice cream depending on the context.
10. I could do a somersault at 18 months.
11. I have never eaten baby food. We did BLW from when I was 6 months old and never used baby cereal or anything like that; I do eat PlumOrganics pouches, occasionally, but I only started with those from when I was about a year old – I *hated* the texture of purees when I was younger!

Phew! 11 things is *hard!* The next part is to answer Nicci’s questions:

1. If you could be any animal in the entire world, what would you be and why? I would probably be a dinosaur because I like to stomp around and roar… maybe I’d be a pterodactyl so I could fly, too – that would be cool.
2. What’s your favorite way to “escape” a bad day? It depends on what’s making my day go wrong; sometimes I lay on the floor and throw a tantrum, but usually a snuggle with Mommy makes me feel better.
3. The dinner question! What 3 people, living or dead, would you invite to dinner and why? I would invite Grandpa first, to catch him up with everything that I’ve been doing lately – and so he could meet Lulu. Then I’d invite Woody & Buzz because they are probably the coolest ever.
4. RIGHT NOW, how many Twitter followers do you have? 672
5. Be honest. How much time do you spend on the internet a day, not including time for work? Probably about an hour or two at night catching up on friend’s blogs and Pinterest and Facebook and Twitter. And then all of the times we check Mommy’s emails or Twitter from her phone during the day add up to another hour or two…
6. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Ice cream cones, hands down.
7. If you could change your name to anything you’d want, what would you change it to? If you don’t want to change it, did you ever at one point? Or why would you want to keep it? If Mommy had had her way, my name might have been Asher, which means happy in Hebrew. That’s my Hebrew name (Asher Melech), but no one in real life liked it for my English name (except Mommy). I like Cole, and I like the option of Nicholas as a formal name, you know, when I’m President.
8. Coke or Pepsi? Ummmm, apple juice? I’m not allowed soda, but sometimes I share Daddy’s seltzer.
9. Do you have any special, crazy, or unique talents? I can run for, like, 12 hours straight. If that stays with me into adulthood, I’ll be an Olympian for sure!
10. Name something that you are completely, ridiculously scared of – even if it’s something silly. I can’t really think of any phobias; I don’t like wind much, but I’m not sure I’m terrified of it… Mommy is COMPLETELY petrified of birds; that Hitchcock movie? NOT a fan. She totally thinks it could actually happen.
11. You meet your soul mate. However, there is a catch: every three years someone will break both of your soul mate’s collar bones with a crescent wrench, and there is only one way you can stop this from happening: You must swallow a pill that will make every song you hear – for the rest of your life – sound as if it’s being performed by the band Alice in Chains. Do you swallow the pill? So, clearly, I’m supposed to say yes here, but here’s the thing: I’m two years old. The rest of my life is a really long time, and I love music! PLUS, Mommy read somewhere that kids don’t really feel empathy until they are about 4, soooo… Sorry, soul mate.

Now I get to ask YOU 11 questions!

1. What’s your favorite chain restaurant? And your favorite item on the menu?
2. If you could live anywhere in the United States, where would it be? What are your criteria for living somewhere?
3. What is your favorite children’s book?
4. How many kids is the ideal number in a family? Why?
5. What is the number one item on your bucket list?
6. Cats or dogs?
7. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Why?
8. What is your favorite physical characteristic about yourself?
9. If they made a movie of your life, what genre would it fall under and who would play you?
10. What is your biggest pet peeve?
11. What three adjectives describe you?

and NOW, you guys get to play! I’m tagging *everyone* since I was so sad to be left out, but here are some people specifically: WeeMasonsMom, Aunt Rebecca, Gina, Molly, Jennifer, Cathy, & Colleen. If you want to play along, but you don’t have a blog, you can answer any or all of the questions in my comments, or on my Facebook page!