G.G., Toddler Open Gym, Frozen

On Friday we went to see G.G. I am lovin' the firetruck quilt she is working on! It was great to see her and catch up. Didn't get many photos but here's one!

Then that afternoon I watched Evie and Avery for a while. We listened to the soundtrack from Frozen, both Evie and Nico know all the songs, and they danced and danced and danced. I caught a picture of one of Nico's signature dance moves:

They had a fun time playing togethers. Pretty sure we listened to the whole soundtrack twice.

Did you know, that Nico watches Frozen almost every single day? This evening he even asked me to take a picture of him eating his orange while watching Frozen. I obliged, of course.

Nico has been asking to go back to the Toddler Open Gym. Remember that place? We pass by it whenever we go to the Co-op. He asks to go there and I tell him "It's not open" and then he tells me to go find the key and then we can open it. hehe.. so we put Toddler Open Gym on our calendar so we could be sure to go to it when they're open. That was this morning! We showed up right when they opened, paid our dollar, and off we went to the gym. They have new climbing toys since last we were there!

He met a nice friend named Piper whom he played with very nicely.

When we were leaving, we found some statues outside the entrance that weren't there last time we had been there. In fact, these particular statues used to be located in downtown Boise on the Grove. They have demolished the spot where they used to be, so apparently now they have a new home at Fort Boise Community Center. Lots of memories with these statues when they used to be downtown.

Until next time!

New Preschool, and New Books!

Monday was a holiday, so Nico's first day at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Preschool was on Wednesday. And darn, I did forget to bring my camera to take pictures. I will try to remember tomorrow. When he gets to class the first thing they have him do is wash his hands, then he can play! I brought in a whole bag of safe Nico snacks for them to use as needed. One of the other students, Michael, made Nico a Valentine even though Nico didn't go to their Valentine's Party. Michael and Nico really hit it off as friends, too. Nico came running up to me excitedly while I was talking to his teacher after school, and asked me if he could go play in the grass with Michael and another boy. Michael is also going to Adam's Elementary next year, just like Nico! They are trying for afternoon session, though, and I am vying for mornings. But, it might work out anyway.

Nico did get to go to his Valentine's Party at White Pine, though! Grandma Russell had sent Nico some boxed valentines that she had found in Great Grandma Gohl's stuff, so Nico chose the Spiderman ones and made all his friends a valentine. He wrote their names on the valentines all by himself, and also signed his name. Going down the list of kids in his class, he came to his own name and made himself a valentine, too. To Nico, From Nico. He also made some for his teachers. They were going to decorate cookies in class, so I sent him with a huge gluten free chocolate chip cookie plus some homemade pink frosting and some pink sprinkles from Whole Foods. I couldn't find a good gluten free sugar cookie, so he got to make himself a frosted chocolate chip one :)

So he still loves his pigeon books, but lately he has been really getting into Curious George. He has "The Complete Adventures of Curious George" book that we got him for his birthday 2 years ago, that came with a CD. He loves to listen to the stories and flip through the book. He is getting very good at this, even though the stories that are read aloud do not have that useful sound that tells you when to turn the page. He has figured it out. He is recognizing more and more words. Orange and zoo are two I can think of off the top of my head.

Then a few days ago he pulled out a different Curious George book that he had, and we read it, and then he flipped the book over and saw that there were 7 other Curious George books that he DIDN'T HAVE! So he asked me to get them from the library. I put them all on hold and this morning we picked up the first two. He is turning into quite the reader. I think he would enjoy more read-aloud picture books so I think I will search for some of those at the library. Any suggestions?

Nico had a stuffy nose for the past week, and then on Monday he had a fever, I think it got up to 101 something. I kept him back from school on Tuesday so he could rest. He now just has a slight cough and stuffy nose.

Tonight at dinner Guy and I were talking about this funny website about Women Laughing Alone With Salad. I just happened to be eating a salad so I joked about taking a picture of me eating it while laughing. Nico heard me talk about taking a picture so he asked me to take a picture of him eating his hot dog. So I did. Then I gave the camera to him and he took a picture of me eating my salad while laughing. He did a pretty good job of framing it I think.

Speaking of salads, the Grandparents Salisbury have been providing us with sprouts that they have grown. Sunflower sprouts, alfalfa, bean, all kinds! Grandma gave us a tray of sunflower seed sprouts that were still growing in their soil and everything, so I've kept it on the counter to harvest them at will. At dinner time I tell Nico to go pick out two or three for himself and he harvests them and then eats them. He doesn't seem to mind that they're green and vegetable since he gets to pluck them out of the soil himself.

See you all next week!

Low on Pictures, High on Life

I only have one picture from this week - the pile of used boys clothes we inherited from one of Jeff and Allicia's friends. Since Avery won't fit into them for a while, they went to Nico. We have pants, and pants, and shorts, and shirts, and pajamas, all 4T. We were totally blessed! I don't think we'll need to buy any clothes for him for summer.

Take a look at that shirt, totally cute right? I love it!

I'll have more pictures next week :)

I talked more with Nico's teacher about reducing his days at school, and she told me that Guy and I have a major part in the decision, they can't just cut his days without our go-ahead. So we decided we agree that cutting his days to two days per week will be the best, and then on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he will be going to a different preschool. We enrolled him in Beautiful Savior Lutheran Preschool in the afternoons on those days. 12:30 - 3:00. No bussing, obviously, so I will be dropping him off and picking him up, it is about a 10 minute drive from here.

We visited this preschool on Monday afternoon to meet the teacher and the assistant and all of the kids. Nico LOVED it, he jumped right in and started playing with the toys. The teacher answered all my questions about food allergies and we set up a plan for that, I filled out all the forms, we gave them our deposit, and he's all set to start next Wednesday (since Monday is a holiday). He keeps asking to go back to the "New Preschool", so I think he will enjoy himself. And I am excited they have a Bible lesson every day!

Oh boy, I am so excited for Nico, he is blossoming in so many ways. He took an incredible stride forward and is really blowing us away with all of his socialite skills. He is ASKING kids and adults what their names are, when their birthdays are, how old they are, and then introducing himself to them. He is talking more and more and more and in conversational ways, like asking me "Mommy how are you feeling? Did you sleep well?" He's telling stories, and imagining scenarios. The bus driver even told me that he has noticed in the past few weeks that Nico is talking more and interacting with the bus attendant and the other kids. He said that usually you don't see kids change that much in such a small amount of time, especially because Nico has been the same quiet kid since school started… until a few weeks ago! He is chattering about clouds, and books, and all sorts of things while riding on the bus. Last week he gave the bus driver an imaginary letter because he was pretending to be the mailman delivering letters. He says "Hi" to the bus driver now instead of being silent. He is more confident and comfortable in situations. I love to see that!

That's all the news from this past week, I think.

I will bring the camera to his first day of his new preschool next Wednesday and hope to get some good pictures.

Cabin, Hair Cut, Scooter

Nico got another hair cut this week, he's back to short hair now!

On Sunday Nico got to go to the cabin. The Grandparents Salisbury picked him up before church and took him to church with them, then they drove to the farm, then out to the cabin. Lexie was with them, too. Nico had a lot of fun and came home with a new lego set!!!! (Which he has already put together and taken apart about 5 times). Check out the video at the bottom of Nico reading the Bible.

Eating lunch with Lexie while watching the iPad

Nico has really been enjoying watching the movie Frozen. He has memorized a large portion of the movie and recites it throughout the day, and sings the songs. I agree that it is a pretty good movie, I like watching it too.

We went for a our first outing to the park this year. We did it in the evening and we didn't need a car! It was the first time we had entered the park from this direction since way back when we lived on Warm Springs. Nico rode his scooter and I walked.

"It's an emergency!" he said, as he ran to the fire engine

Nico is getting very agile with his scooter. I am very proud of him. He can turn and stop himself using the brakes.

On Monday after eating lunch I noticed that one of my teeth in the upper back right had a big hole in it. I figured a filling had come out, so I called the dentist and went in that afternoon. They said it wasn't a filling, but that a chunk of my tooth had broken off and I would need a crown. My very first crown! They had a cancellation the next morning and I took it. Got it over with. And I'm fine now. Phew!

His teacher also sent some pictures over.

Nico loves looking at these pictures with me.

Lately Nico is enjoying his Curious George read along book. We're kind of on an iPad hiatus the past week, so he has had to entertain himself quite a bit more than usual.

I can't think of anything else that happened this past week. We're still waiting for word from his preschool whether they'll be reducing his days or not.

Video time!