We had a great Easter weekend! It started off Saturday with a library trip. Guy and Nico went together while I did some work. There was a robot there they could play with, and they were able to check one out from the library! There's an app you can download to interact with it. Nico played with it nonstop after they got home. Over the next few days it was one of the only things he did when he had free time. We told him it didn't count as iPad time, since he was "programming". There are some video snippets at the end of the blog!
Saturday afternoon we went to my brother Jonny's house for an Easter BBQ. There was yummy food, and an Easter egg hunt for the kids.
Ready...Set...
Go!
Nico made a new friend while we were there, and as we were leaving, his friend said, "I'm going to miss you. We really had a fun time." It was very sweet. Some video from the BBQ at the end of the blog!
Sunday we were at church early. Guy was running sound, Nico had practice with the kids group because they were going to be on stage for one of the songs, and I had practice for a piano/flute duet I was doing with another gal.
On the way to the church Nico said that he didn't want to do the thing on stage anymore, because he was nervous. I told him I was nervous about my thing, too, and that it's ok to be nervous and it shouldn't keep us from doing the thing. After I finished talking, a Parry Gripp song started playing, his songs are so silly, this one says "there's a young girl talking about herself. You can't stop her." And Nico said "Mommy, this song makes me feel better, because it's about a young girl talking about herself, and she's not nervous about talking about herself."
Engage Boise live streams all their services, so I snuck some screen shots off the video to capture these. Nico was in charge of waving the flag during the song.
And we played "Fairest Lord Jesus" during the offering.
Sunday afternoon, Guy was able to take a good long nap. Afterward, we decided to ride bikes. We biked on the greenbelt and we went far. Nico wanted to keep going but we told him we needed to turn around. It's a good thing we did, because the wind was actually helping us on our way out, and against us on the way back. We stopped every few minutes on our way back to check my map to see how much further. Nico's legs were aching and he was having a hard time riding against the wind. Guy rode in front of us on the way back to help block the wind for us. We were gone about an hour and a half.
Swimming on Monday.
Nico eating nachos, reading Peanuts. He is careful to delineate which of the two Peanuts books is his and which is Daddy's. It's important to keep track.
Nico excavating something from an Egyptian pyramid, from his Little Passports monthly subscription.
On Wednesday Nico passed Swimming Level 2!! It's the end of the swimming session and time to sign up for new classes, so Level 3 for him will start next week! I am very proud of him.
Wednesday morning after Nico left for school, I travelled up to Pullman, WA for a business trip. Since there's family in the area it's always a mix of business and family! My mom was already in Pullman when I arrived, along with my Aunt Mary Anne! My Aunt Liz came today, and I was also able to see my cousins and my Uncle Jerry.
It has been SO fun to be surrounded by family even while being here for business! I travelled to Farmington today for work and will drive there tomorrow as well, returning Saturday to Boise.
Well Hello! It's been a while! I think that was the first time I ever skipped a week. Let's jump right into it!
On March 1st, Friday, Guy woke up sick, with whatever it was that I had while in Redding. I told him to stay home from work and he quickly got worse. He spent all Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in bed, he finally started feeling himself again only a few days ago.
Jumping on the trampoline with Merek on Friday the 1st
Saturday visit to the library. I parked across the street and we took the Greenbelt tunnel to the library. A bit of fresh air.
On our way back to the car with our goodies.
Nico chose our movie on Saturday and he chose one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies. Guy ate a few pieces of pizza and then went to bed while Nico and I stayed up to watch it. Those movies are funny, I enjoyed it.
Nico had told me about a STEM activity they had done in the library on Friday. On Saturday I saw pictures on Facebook that were posted of the event, and downloaded a few of them. Nico won this challenge - how many squares can you fit onto your popsicle stick without them falling over?
Practicing a magic trick
It was Sunday night, while Guy was lying in bed staring at the wall, that he saw a bug crawling up that wall, right next to our bed. He called me over and we identified it as a bed bug. Ah shucks! With a toothpick, Guy went fishing in the crack between the wall and the baseboard, and pulled out a shed bed bug skin. We slept in the bed that night, I was hoping that perhaps those two bug signs would be the extent of it. But, you know that's rarely the case.
Monday afternoon I pulled all the sheets off our beds and scoured the mattresses while sanitizing the sheets in the washing machine. I found NO signs of bed bugs on either mattress. Guy and I were casually talking about how to prevent a bed bug outbreak when he tapped lightly on the wardrobe and I watched as something fell from the spot he tapped, right onto the bare mattress. Boom. Another shed bed bug skin.
That dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach - uh oh - they're in the wardrobe!!
We indeed found bed bugs hiding between the cracks on the back of the wardrobe.
You can only see one bed bug in this picture, but there were about a dozen scattered in the crack right here.
We decided to go professional, and we called around and found a good place that specializes in bed bugs. The treatment involves spraying a pesticide around the baseboards, then heating up the house to 135 degrees for 6 hours. Afterward, they sprinkle silica around the baseboards.
The guy (Dave) came to take a look before telling us whether he could do it, because we live in a small place he was worried about clutter, which can make the treatment harder to do. He said there wasn't much clutter, just that everything was all together in a small space. He said he could do it! He said it would either be Thursday the 7th or the following Monday, the 11th, that he could do it.
So that night we moved out of the clubhouse and into a hotel for 3 nights. Dave asked us to remove all the clothes from the wardrobe and from our cube storage dresser and heat-treat them in the dryer and then get them out of the house. So I spent the next few days doing that. We slept at the hotel but then came back to the Clubhouse in the mornings for breakfast and school, then after school went back to the hotel.
When we discovered that it would not be Thursday that the treatment would take place, we booked another 5 days at an AirBnb close to downtown. We decided then to stay away from the Clubhouse. The bed bugs, having nothing to eat, would likely migrate. They can sense when someone comes into the room because they can smell the carbon dioxide and feel the heat of a body. If they are hungry, they can move fast to get a quick meal, even if you are standing on the floor for even a few minutes. To prevent migration, we had the door that leads to the main house sprayed with a pesticide. And so we stayed away. The only things we brought with us were heat-treated clothes, food, and plastic bags to put everything in. We left purses, back packs, bags, EVERYTHING, at the Clubhouse. Hmm... except the iPads and the Nintendo DS. We removed those the first day we went to a hotel, so we felt safe that the bed bugs hadn't migrated to them. And because the bed bugs weren't in the bathroom, we were able to bring our bathroom overnight bag filled with all our shampoo and combs.
At the AirBnb
The week that this all took place, my Aunt Liz was in town. I was able to see her on Thursday, and then on Friday there was a get together at my parents' house with Aunt Liz, and other family.
Saturday morning Nico and I researched which library we could go to to get the rest of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. There were four more that he needed to read. We realized after leaving that it didn't open until noon, so we drove to the park that was a few blocks away and I let him play while I stayed in the car figuring out what to do (and because brrrr it was cold I didn't want to get out!) I decided to take him somewhere as a surprise. He tried to guess where we were going the whole way there. He finally got it right when I turned into the parking lot, Lakeshore Learning. I told him he HAD to buy something with MY MONEY or he couldn't leave the store. He seemed pleased with that idea.
He chose some magnetic putty, and an archeological dig activity where he had to excavate five stones from a block of dirt.
We waited until after noon and then ran to the specific library we needed to go to, and we came home with four books for Nico to read.
For dinner that night we chose to go to a place called Asian Cuisine, we ordered to go. Guy chose Dark Crystal for the movie. Nico mostly played with his magnetic putty and came over to see what was going on every once in a while.
We really took advantage of the opportunity to eat out. Sunday we ordered pizza. Monday we had Boise Fry Company, Tuesday was Jimmy Johns. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Breakfast on Sunday (no pancakes, so it was toast with peanut butter and jam. No toaster, so it was microwave-heated bread with peanut butter and jam).
Sunday afternoon we visited the park again, and then got Nico's hair cut.
Monday after school Nico had an eye appointment. He needs glasses, so we chose a pair for him and they should be ready in a few weeks.
Green is Nico's favorite color. These glasses are green on the bottom, and slightly leopard print on the top. They happen to look a lot like Guy's glasses, but not on purpose. It was the green that got him hooked.
Nico is VERY excited about having glasses.
The heat treatment took place this past Monday. We didn't bother coming home Monday evening, because I knew there would be a layer of dust on everything and I would have more time to deal with it the following day.
The next day I spent at the Clubhouse washing sheets and dusting, mopping, etc. No sign of bugs anywhere... yay! We are guaranteed bug free for at least 30 days after treatment. We are thinking that the bites were causing hives on Nico, and that's where his hives were coming from. He's been hive free since we left the Clubhouse.
After school on Tuesday we went to visit GG and Aunt Pat. Melody (Aunt Pat's daughter) stopped by and we got a few handfuls of seeds from her! Peppers, Cucumber, and Radishes. We'd like to plant them out front. We picked up Jimmy John's on the way home, then Guy and Nico went to Cub Scouts that night. There was a magician there that showed them 3 magic tricks and Nico came home with the tricks to show me, they are pretty good!
Wednesday was the parent baseball meeting at Timberline High School. We skipped the spaghetti feed this year, and just showed up for the meeting. It was a quick and informative presentation, and afterward we met Nico's baseball coach. He is on the REDS team. Practices could possibly start next week depending on weather, otherwise they will start closer to April. The coach is very laid back.
On our to do list: Make sure Nico's equipment will still function for another season. He may have grown out of some of his stuff.
Some quick snippets of the past two weeks. We are welcoming the Grandparents Russell into town tomorrow, as Spring Break is upon us! Stay tuned!
On Friday Nico's class had a Mother's Day Tea that I attended. They had the classroom all set up and I sat across from Nico at his desk. He pulled out his journal and we read through the entire thing while we waited for the other mothers to arrive. I can't wait to share some of his journal entries with you all when the journal comes home at the end of the year.
When everyone was there, Mrs. Smith went around the room and each child got to introduce their guest and tell the others why they're special. When it got to Nico, he said "My Mom is special because I love her so much!" And while he was saying "I love her so much" he pretended to faint and laid down on the floor.
After everyone went around, it was time to serve the food. Nico asked me what I wanted and then he went and told Mrs. Smith and she handed Nico my order. I ordered one fruit kabob. After all the moms got their orders, the kids got theirs. Nico ordered a fruit kabob as well and also went and got each of us a glass of apple juice.
After eating, we got to open our gifts. Nico made me a cut out of his hand with clay, signing "I love you" with a rose between his fingers.
It came in a sweet bag.
He said to me this week: "Mommy, when you die... and then when I die, and in heaven, I will come find you because I love you sooooo much!"
Later on Friday we got to see the Grandparents Russell because they came into town!! They came over and hung out until Nico's bedtime. It was so sweet to see Nico snuggling with them! They brought Nico a Bird Bingo game and we played it that night, too!
Saturday morning we drove over to GG's house to visit her. It was the first time Nico and Guy had seen her new place living with her sister Pat. They have a pasture that lines their backyard and they often see horses back there close to the fence. We didn't see any this time, I am sure we'll catch them on one of our visits. The Grandparents met us at GG's house and we played another round of Bird Bingo with everyone, then headed home for lunch. After lunch we headed off to the Aquarium!
We spent about 45 minutes there and then drove over to where the Grandparents were staying so we could take a dip in their hotel pool. Here's Nico and his sweet new spiderman towel!
Then we ventured back home with everyone and made pizza for all of us.
It was a VERY fun and full day and I'm so glad we were able to spend that time with them! We will see them again in June when we *FLY* out there!
On Sunday at church I applied henna to someone on stage during the sermon. The tattoo illustrates the sermon, which was about clothing yourself with inner beauty instead of with fancy clothes.
After church we went over to the Grandparents Salisbury house armed with our Bird Bingo game, and played a blackout round with everyone. Uncle Jonny, Aunt Alanna, and Lexie were also there! Oh fun was had!
On Tuesday, Brianna came over for dinner for the last time before she moves away. She will be visiting every few months so we will get to see her, but not as often as we have been.
Nico worked on his "Day of Learning" project today. It's an optional research and presentation project that anyone at the school can participate in. Nico put together a tri-fold poster presentation about the Purple Martin (bird). He is proud of it, and will take it to school to set up next Tuesday. We are checking out a bird book from the library this Saturday that may inspire him to add more to his poster, but he says he's happy with it the way it is. Fine with me!
Ok that's it for this week! See you guys next time!
Friday was the start of the screenfast for Nico. We got him a dot-to-dot book which he spent most of the day doing on Friday. So far the screenfast is going well. Nico is growing in imagination and interaction and it seems like he's more keen to have conversations now and just "hang out", more than he was before we started. I like it!
On Saturday I had my tap performance for the end of the tap year. We had two shows on Saturday, 4PM and 6PM. For each show our group did 2 dances. I was nervous for the first show at 4PM but the second one was a lot easier. Guy and Nico came to the first one, and they recorded the first dance. Check below for a video!
I am glad the performance is over, and that tap class is also over for the summer. I am glad I did it, not sure I will be going back next year, I need a break right now so ask me again in a few weeks :)
We spent the early part of this week packing up for our temporary move to Jonny and Alanna's house. We are staying two weeks. We trekked over here on Wednesday with all the stuff we'd need and then did some grocery shopping. It is like a mini vacation for us and have been enjoying playing all their board games and listening to Nico's music through their awesome speakers, he loves to dance along. He has started trying to breakdance.
Nico was a little sick early this morning, throwing up. But huzzah we have easily accessible toilets here, he made it every time. I wrote his teacher a note telling her he wouldn't be in school, but after sleeping in until 7 AM he woke up feeling great. I of course made him go slow with the food at first, but he had fully recovered. Sounds like it was a yucky tummy issue, but glad it was over quick for him. I figured it was too late to "cancel" my note to the teacher, so we played hooky and we went and ran errands together (I know, not the best hooky plans, but it was fun). We stopped by the clubhouse to pick up some things we forgot, and Nico got to hold a few of the new chicks that Jeff & Allicia had got. He was super gentle with them.
