Christmas

The Grandparents Russell came into town on Saturday (Forthwith they will be referred to as Gpa and Gma.) Woohoo! Dinner, playing, "watching the baby". It was a great night. Guy and Gma played Pandemic, and Nico fell asleep on Gpa while snuggling on the couch after dinner. Early bedtime, but oh so sweet to see.

Nico was up the next morning at 3:30 AM, wowza! We all headed to church, which was a blast. G.G. also joined us. Nico got to see his Grandparents Salisbury at Church, he was so happy! Lots of other family was there, too.  We then we headed home for lunch after a quick stop at the Co-op to pick up sandwiches. And a balloon hat for Nico that one of the clerks made for him.

After lunch it was time for presents!

G.G. gave Nico an amazing hand-made car play set that folds up and has a handle for easy transport. When you unfold it, it has a garage where the 4 mini cars are stored. You can pull the cars out and drive them along the road, under a bridge and under a tree. Nico played with this for a very long time. So excited to have this to bring with us to church/doctors offices/anywhere.

Then there were puzzles, digger, construction, books, an amazing "Brown Bear Brown Bear" quilt that Gma made for Nico. He is now sleeping with it on his bed. He's been wandering around the house this whole week reciting the book over and over again. When he sees the quilt it reminds him to start up again. He has got it pretty much memorized I think.

Didn't get a shot of the whole quilt, but here's me snuggled up with it.

On Monday we went to the Outlet Malls for a brief excursion, and more presents were scattered throughout the day. Nico was in heaven and so enjoyed having everyone around to entertain.

Sticker book time. 

They headed back to Washington on Tuesday, but not without a tentative next-arrival-date of April-ish. Woohoo!

Tuesday evening, Jeff, Allicia, Evie and Avery came over and we started a new tradition. We ate a quick and easy meal (rice and ground beef and broccoli), then we stuck a birthday candle in a satsuma and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Then we opened the satsuma and shared the slices. It was so much fun and I hope we can do it again next year. 

Nico had a serious blast with Evie. They got each other so riled up, running around, throwing blankets on each other and having tickle wars with Guy. Evie was enthralled by G.G.'s handmade car garage and spent a good amount of time playing with that. 

Guy worked overtime that night, but didn't have to be there until 9:30 PM, and he got to come home around 5 AM instead of 6:30. Presents were opened on Christmas morning, we ate breakfast, and then spent the whole day playing playing playing playing. The living room has been in a state of Happy Christmas Mess ever since. Just the way it should be.

It has been a blessed week and I am so grateful for all the time we had to spend with family.

One last thing - Nico climbed into a paper sack today and I made sure to take a picture. Like mother like son!

Winter Garden Aglow

For the 4th year in a row we went to Winter Garden Aglow to get our picture taken. Nico had so much fun looking at all the trains running around the tracks. Very cold but at least this year we remembered to bring his mittens.

On Tuesady Nico and Guy got to hang out with Jeff and Evie! I was holding an essential oils class at our house, so they left to hang out with Jeff and Evie while Allicia came to the class. It turns out that it was just her and I there, many people wanted to make it but the time/day didn't work for them. But we had a great time catching up, just the girls, it was very refreshing. And Nico came home sacked, went right to bed after a snack, and woke up an hour later than usual, so, 6 AM instead of 5!

This week at school he's done a lot of Christmas crafts, same as last week, and they're starting to roll in. We hung them all up on our wall. I love it!

Then he turned the camera on me. It's only fair, right?

 And then to himself. Pretty successful self portrait, I think.

Last night we also pulled out the window markers and since it was dark outside and I didn't want the blinds open, we decided to write on the mirror in the bathroom. I drew a Christmas tree and he helped decorate it. We also drew a snowman.

Lots more words. His speech therapist, Susie, sent home a worksheet for us to fill out. A list of words for him to do every day and at the end of the week, return the sheet and he gets a prize! (he got a cool plastic lizard) Words like house, bus, off, cough, tough, yum, game, come. He does all of them really well. He also says home and cave just fine, you can absolutely understand him! 

With all the watching of Finding Nemo, we now have a new "thing" we do as imitation. "Fin" then we bump hands, "Noggin", then we bump heads. "Duuuuude", just like the sea turtles do. He loves doing that.

Random craft time before dinner.

I'm looking forward to this next week with the Grandparents Russell coming into town to celebrate an early Christmas with us. Much fun and pictures will be had!

Until next week.

SNOW!

Saturday morning we woke up to about 4 inches of SNOW! And believe it or not, it is still sticking on the ground. It has been COLD here!

On Saturday we braved the snow and went to the Saturday Market. We found a parking spot right away and walked over. Nico liked walking through the biggest piles of snow on the way there. Boots: Awesome! We ran into his teacher at the market and we met her husband and daughter. Nico was excited about that.

Crossing the street.

On Sunday we all went to church and got to see Nico's cousin Alexis in the Christmas program. She did a great job and was so cute as an animal in the nativity scene.

On Monday we went to visit Allicia, Evie and Avery. They had their Christmas tree set up and Nico really enjoyed playing with the train they have around it. It was great to spend some time with them. Evie made Nico some train tracks on their hardwood floor by putting tape down.

School on Tuesday and Wednesday, but today Nico woke up with the snuffles, so he stayed home from school. He will stay home tomorrow, too, as his temp has gone up a slightly. Not enough to warrant "fever" but enough for me to know that he is fighting something. But today we made huge train tracks in his room and had fun with that for a while. That and watching Finding Nemo, specifically the jellyfish scene, which we rewind to and watch a lot. Sick days warrant more snuggle time.

We've had some trouble with Nico's sleep, as we've tried to nix the afternoon nap but Nico has been ending up over tired at the end of the day. Nap is much harder without a binky, so it is a rough in between stage. We're also working on transitioning away from using the small potty, which is going well so far. 

We also upgraded our SD card on our GoPro camera so that we can record longer clips of video. Excited about that!

That is it for this week, short 'n' sweet.

Advent Time

Catch up on Pictures from Thanksgiving. Thank you to Alanna for setting up this photo op. It was so much fun!

 The Fam

Papa and Nico

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we went Black Friday shopping! For the first time ever, I participated. We went to Fred Meyer. It was crowded, but not bad. I got myself a new scarf and bought Guy a pair of jeans. Grandma Salisbury blessed Nico with two new toys, one of them having a Thomas the Train engine in it, which we have spent many hours this past week playing with. You CAN race your trains around the track FAST for 10 minutes straight without stopping, it's absolutely possible.

Then Grandma came over for lunch, it was a great day!

On Sunday we went to a new church. We are going to start going to the one that my parents and brothers and Aunt go to. I am so excited! Nico got to play with Lexie in the church preschool room. He did just fine. Since he's been in school he has had no trouble saying bye to Mommy and Daddy :) Sunday was also the start of the advent calendars, which we have 3 of this year! (We actually have 4, but decided to save one for next year). Grandma Russell gifted us an interactive computer-based advent calendar (love this tradition!) Every day you get to experience something new. Nico loved the intro scene with an old fashioned car driving around, we repeat that one every day. The ritual for this calendar is to do it when Daddy wakes up every afternoon, after we've eaten dinner. Nico remembers, and asks for it.

The second calendar we have is actually our Christmas tree. We aren't getting a real Christmas tree this year, we are using this little one instead. There are little drawers to open for every day and in each drawer is a new ornament to hang on the tree. Nico gets it, and has strung together one of his longest sentences because of it: "Open number four tomorrow". He says this throughout the day, depending on which number he gets to open tomorrow. Then in the morning he asks "Open number four?" As SOON as four is on the tree, and yes even as he is opening four's drawer, he says, "Open number five tomorrow!"

The tree has lights and can also be wound up to play a song

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

Our third advent calendar is a chain that they made in Sunday School. Each chain has a verse on it and every morning before breakfast we break a chain off and then read the verse while eating. The chain is out of order, so we read about the birth of Jesus on December 1st.

On Monday we went to visit G.G. She had Nico's Christmas present all finished and I was able to see it. He is going to LOVE it and I am SO excited for when he gets to open it! The Grandparents Russell will be coming into town before Christmas and all of them will be coming over to celebrate and exchange gifts. I am so looking forward to seeing them!

Today I volunteered at Nico's school again. Cutting out gingerbread men and stars and making copies of the story of "The Mitten" and "The Hat" - great children's books by Jan Brett. Thanks to Mom Russell (aka Grandma Russell, depending on context) for introducing me to those stories.

I came to the school a little early so I could sit in and watch Nico as he got his speech therapy session. Suzie takes two students into the kitchen area where they have a little table set up. They play games where in order to take a turn you have to first say a word that you're working on. Nico was working on final "M" sounds, like "ham" and "mom". She told me that Nico has learned how to do final "S" sounds and final "F" sounds already (off, house, mouse). He demonstrated while we were there and I was so proud of him. She said she will send home with him a list of words to practice so that he can start to use them consistently instead of saying "bus" correctly at school but not at home. Also, when his friend sat down at the table next to him for the speech therapy session, Nico said "Hi, Ben!" Woah! 

He LOVES speech therapy and was so excited that I was there to share it with him. When I had first arrived and knocked on the door to the classroom, I could hear him say "Mommy!" over and over inside, even though he couldn't see me. I had told him I was coming to see him today, so he was prepared. One of the teachers said "I don't know, is it your Mommy? Let's see!"

I hope I'm not forgetting something.. hmm. YES I am! We went to the Fish Park, probably for the last time this year. We had a mild day outside on Monday so I took advantage of it.