Hi everyone! My name is Nicki, and I am excited to be moving my blog to ChicagoNow! Before this, I blogged at http://dupagekids.blogspot.com. I also have a personal blog, Slow Down, Gym Shoe, which you are welcome to check out as well.
I'm a "stay-at-home auntie." I live with and care for my nieces fulltime, and I also babysit for a friend's little boy. I can't stand just sitting around at home with the kids, so we are constantly on the go! I try to take them someplace every day. I've become adept at finding fun places and free events to take them to. In fact, people started calling me to ask for suggestions about where to take their own kids. I decided to start this blog to help DuPage parents find more places to spend quality time with their kids.
Want to meet the wild things?
Here's Little Bear! She's 7 going on 13. By that, I mean, she has attitude! She loves animals and nature, and was thrilled when she got a guinea pig for her 7th birthday. (His name is Buddy-Nipper, because she couldn't decide between the two names!) Little Bear wants to be an animal doctor when she grows up... although she also sometimes says she wants to be a tattoo artist! Little Bear loves dressing up and putting on make up, but she hates to have her hair done. She likes Littlest Pet Shop, iCarly, arts and crafts, and playing make-believe games.
Next comes Pufferfish, who is three years old and a real wild child. By the time she was eighteen months old, she was climbing the ladder of the tallest slide at the playground! At the carnival she wants to go on all the rides, including the ones that she won't be tall enough for for about eight more years! Just last weekend Pufferfish split her forhead open and needed stitches. We thought she'd be a wreck, but she talked and laughed with the doctor as he stitched her up! Pufferfish adores her siblings, and loves to do anything her big sister is doing. She also loves coloring, getting read to, climbing and jumping on anything possible, and Dora The Explorer.
And then there's Rafael, the little guy I babysit. He's seven, and claims to hate girls, but he and Little Bear are best friends! Rafael is another wild little dude who is always in motion. He loves the playground, and anyplace else where he can jump and climb. But the real key to his heart is video games! He would play them 24/7 if he could. Rafael isn't always really motivated to do much other than video games, but if you make him do things, or offer him an incentive, he usually has a great time! He's a great little guy. He just joined a football team, and he's learning how to be tough!
I hope you'll get a lot of use out of this blog. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to email me at AngelNicki79@gmail.com. Have fun!