Spring Break

Late night tonight! Spring break is keeping us busy.

 We saw G.G. on Monday. She gave Nico an old blue car that belonged to her brother. Nico loves it. He also has been asking to go back to "G.G. house" all week. 

 On Tuesday, Allicia and Jeff came over with their kid crew and Guy made everyone pad thai for dinner. It was amaaaazing. It was the first time I had had a full meal of Guy's pad thai. I am so glad there were leftovers for me. We sent home some leftovers with Jeff and Allicia, too. Guy made 3 batches of it! Jeff and Allicia also brought over a flourless cake for dessert, which I hear was excellent. 

Wednesday we made it up to the cabin where we are staying for two nights. Soon after getting here, Nico and Papa went outside and spent some time chopping things. Nico is really enjoying himself, there are a lot of perks to hanging out with grandparents! I let the rules get a little stretchy in these situations. Watching the iPad while he eats and passing on the broccoli for dinner is A-OK. That's what spring break is for, right?

 Then tonight we had an essential oils class at the cabin. Papa and Nico hung out while we were all upstairs. It was a lot of fun. Maybe short and sweet today, also because I left our camera at home and there are no other pictures to share but this one my Mom took of me and Nico this morning.

I'll post the rest of the pictures from this past week in next week's blog. I'm sure we did other fun things, because I remember taking pictures. Just not sure what the pictures are of.

Spring has Sprung!

The Mini Joys came to Nico's school on Friday. Miniature horses! Nico didn't say much about them after school but did agree that he got to see them that day. Grandma Salisbury was here on Friday and got to help get Nico from the bus. Nico was very excited! Grandma got us some sushi (Nico got some skewered chicken) and we ate lunch together.

This past week both Nico and I caught a cold, sore throat and such. We fought it off and have been successful at keeping it under the radar. We did have to miss out on Lexie's birthday party on Saturday because of it, and we skipped church on Sunday. But I did teach Nico how to play Slap-Jack and we played on his drum quite a bit, went through a lot of songs. He knows how to ask for which Tom T. Hall song for me to sing by calling out the song number. "Singa numba one, mommy!" He must practice drumming at school because he beats on the drum pretty well while we sing the ABCs.

Nico had a dentist appointment on Monday. He let them get further than ever before and actually let them polish two of his teeth. A few weeks ago in school they were talking about dentists and I wonder if that had something to do with how comfortable he seemed. He was even quite interested in touching and handling the tools that the dental assistant used. She always asks him if he wants to hold it and touch it and play with it before she uses it on him. He squirted much water onto the carpet and even let her squirt water into his mouth and suck it up with the sucker at the same time! His teeth look fine and she told me to start flossing between his back molars since they're touching.

Tuesday was another essential oils class. Allicia and Avery came to this one, it was a lot of fun. Guy and Nico went out again and had a blast. Guy called right before the class started to tell me that Nico sprained his ankle going down the twisty slide at Old Park. I was telling this to Allicia and she agreed that that particular slide is like a blender, and I think that's what we'll call it from now on. After they went to the park they went to the Co-op and then to the bookstore again to play with the train. I'm so glad they're getting some time together like this, Nico loves it!!

They came home that night and Nico was limping. He is still limping a bit, and we are going to the chiropractor on Monday to make sure everything is straightened out.

This week I forgot to take pictures until today. So all the pictures are from today, but you will see all the different kinds of fun we have in one day. So many exciting little things happen all the time.

Strider ride. Got up the hill and Nico wanted to turn around and go back home so he could "fix" his Strider bike. We got the pump out and the Leatherman, and he pumped up the tires and used the pliers to "turn" the knobs on the wheels. After he was done we went back out to finish our ride.

Spilled water required a change of pants. I come into the living room after telling him to go pick out some new pants, and he is crouching over a glittery shamrock he had decorated at school, with my hat on. He stood up and showed me his hands that were covered in green glitter.

A tasty food that we rediscovered today: olives. I put one on his finger and showed him how to bite it off. He asked for 10 olives in a bowl and he put one on each finger.

Showing Daddy his olives.

Today was also class picture day at his school. We endeavored to let him pick out his own shirt. We said: "Today is picture day at school, what shirt would you like to wear?" He just happened to be playing with dinosaurs, so he instantly chose to wear his yellow dinosaur shirt. Ok! And he woke up this morning with his entire head as a fluff ball of hair. I had never seen it that ratty before. I combed through it with lots of water and it calmed down a bit.

And tonight Nico had hot chocolate for the first time. I made it with coconut milk, cocoa powder, maple syrup, and water. It was very good!

Well, until we meet again!

Daddy Dinner Date, and Snippets

Saturday Nico and I went to the tire shop to get our tire looked at, it had been leaking air. While they were looking at it, we went for a walk around the block (we were downtown). Stopped into a bike shop and Nico counted all the bikes. One of the clerks said to him "Be sure to tell us how many there are!"

It turns out our tire had a nail in it, but they fixed it (for $15! cheap!) and said it was good as new. Well, ALMOST good as new.

Saw Allicia and Co. on Monday, briefly.

On Tuesday evening I taught another essential oils class. I sent the boys out an hour before it started. They had a GREAT time! Guy took Nico to Red Robin and they ate dinner there. Nico had a hamburger patty with a tomato on it, some broccoli and a few fries. Then they went to Pick-a Park and then off to the bookstore to play with the train-set there. All of those things are Nico's favorite things to do, so he had a lot of fun.

Of course, Strider rides and walks and park visits happened quite a few times this past week. Today we went to TWO parks! One right after the other.

Nico came home from school on Wednesday and without me even asking him what he did in school that day, he started telling me. Rory, Connor, Bailey, Miss Marybeth, T, Timothy the Tiger, t t t t (with hand motions), fix a house, hammer a nail (swings his arm up and down like he's hitting a nail). That seemed to be a pretty fun day for him! They are talking about construction workers and builders this week. His homework is a Bob the Builder activity page.

No pictures this week, so I figured I better put together another snippet video. Thankfully I have a few snippets :) And some pretty good ones, I think. Nico imitates a Clifford episode while watching it, calls Evie and Papa on his play phone, and vacuums his room. There might be another one in there I don't remember.

Papa, Spending Money, and Strider Games

On Friday morning, Nico woke up asking to go to Papa's house. I told him I would see if we could go visit them on Saturday. When he climbed onto the bus that morning, he told the bus driver "a Papa!" The attendant turned to me and asked, "Papa?" And I told her that we might be going to see Papa and that Nico was really excited about it.

So on Saturday morning we took a trip up to the cabin to see Gma and Papa. We had a great time! Nico kept asking to fly an airplane when he found out that Papa was going to be flying an airplane that day. We told him that in 3 years he can go up in the plane with Papa. He kept saying "fly in a airplane a 3 years!"

On Sunday Nico pulled out his piggy bank and wanted to go buy legos with the money. So we told him that on Tuesday we could take him to Fred Meyer to buy some legos. We counted up all his money and he had $36! Guy took him on Tuesday night, and they came home with a toy motorcycle and a "car wash" toy with a car that changes colors when you put it in cold water. Nico had changed his mind! He didn't seem interested in legos when confronted with all the other toy possibilities.

Nico playing with his color-changing car while Guy assembles the "car wash".

On Monday we went to visit Allicia, Evie, and Avery. We always have fun over there!

And warm weather means more Strider rides! I got quite a jog in with this last one. He had just been playing with his new toy motorcycle, so while riding the Strider he all of a sudden said "motorcycle!" and zoomed off fast. He sustained the speed for quite some time.

We've been practicing "STOP!" while on the Strider. I say "STOP!" and he stops immediately. It's a game, so it's fun :) We practice that a lot. Then I also have been showing him where to stop when he gets up to a crosswalk ahead of me and I'm not there yet. Still working on that one. He is precise like me, so he puts his front wheel right on the VERY EDGE where the sidewalk stops and the road starts. I'm trying to teach him to stop a little further back.

He climbed up onto the chair while wearing Guy's shoes.

A common occurrence after lunch: iPad and cashew butter/molasses ("cah-oo appa buttah")