Thanksgiving Pictures, and Dentist

As promised last week... Thanksgiving pictures!

Papa and Nico playing games

This was Guy's set up for most of the morning until the rest of the crew came. MST3K Turkey Day marathon on his iPad while playing on his computer.

Preparing to chop onions

Nico and Lexie stuffed themselves with olives shortly before turkey was served. 

Nico and Lexie playing a game

Other pictures from last week...

Playing in the snow

Well deserved hot cocoa after coming back inside (cacao powder, maple syrup, water)

Now on to THIS week!

We were planning to go to Winter Garden Aglow on Saturday, but the temp that day only got up to 22, and it was super super cold. Not to mention Guy and Nico were getting over colds (well, Guy was just starting to get one...) So we stayed inside! It was a nice 4 day weekend. 

On Monday Nico had a dentist appointment, and they took X-rays for the first time and he had *ahem* 8 cavities. None of his front teeth are touching, but the molars in the back are all touching, and right at the spot where each of them touch the other, that is where the cavities are. So 4 on each side, two on the top and two on the bottom. That will likely tell you how much we FLOSS his teeth. They also said he had a lot of plaque, and recommended buying him a spinning toothbrush. 

He is getting two of his cavities filled on Dec 16th. The other 6 we are letting sit. The dentist agreed to allow me try some stuff to see if we could get them looking better (always an experimenter...) if we come back in 3 months for additional X-rays to see his progress. The two we are getting fixed on the 16th are two that the dentist didn't feel comfortable waiting on. Fine with me, that gives me 6 others to play with :) I'm trying some essential oils and other things... more bone broth too which I'm conveniently making more of this very night. More flossing of course, and a spinny brush that has Mario on it. I went to WinCo Wednesday morning and texted back a picture of the spin brushes they had there so that Guy could show Nico (they were both at home), and Nico chose Mario. We started his new brushing routine last night with some tooth oil and flossing. And I taught him how to spit. Swish swish spit. 

Nico requested pancakes in the shape of letters. We just finished H the other day, but here is the E one. 

This morning he told me to do a number instead, so I did 100. Oh our routines, they are fun, and Nico reminds me if I forget. I'm trying to get him to not tell me I forgot something in a whiny voice. "Mommmmmyyyyyyyyy, you forgot my waaaater!!! Mommmmyyyyyy where's my fish oil??!?! WE FORGOT TO PRAY!!!"

OH, you may not remember, but Nico used to say six as "sickie". He was randomly counting the other day and absentmindedly said sickie instead of six. It was funny, I mentioned it to him and he laughed. It was strange to hear it again, makes me remember that at one point all he knew was signs and couldn't say many words at all! Here's a flashback for you..

On Tuesday I volunteered in Nico's class. For some of the time I was pulling kids out of the class to practice letters. They have a list of letters and they have to say them as fast as they can. They are tested formally on this specific thing every quarter I think. So they practice a lot. And also so they can get used to the test format. They have one minute and I used a timer.

We received an advent wreath with candles for Christmas from the Grandparents Salisbury, so we have been lighting the candle every night since Sunday (except Monday when Guy wasn't here and I forgot). Nico can light the match himself and then the candle. He likes "accidentally" blowing the candle out. (He's been playing with the idea of "accidentally" doing all sorts of things this week!  As his hand is scraping across my keyboard "Oh look, I accidentally typed some letters. It was an accident!" So we've had to talk about calling things accidents when they were actually done on purpose.) 

We've also started our Christmas Tree advent calendar, and the computer one that Grandma Russell buys us every year! We put it on his iPad this year, and left to himself for a while on it he says "Mommy, 3 isn't working"... that's because it's not the 3rd yet. It's a good thing it prevents you from going ahead, or else he'd be all done with it already! It's fun to have something new to do every day on it. Here's one of the snowflakes he made.

Potty Train'd!

It looks like we have a potty trained toddler on our hands! We still have him in diapers at night time, but this morning his diaper was DRY, so we may be cutting out the diapers all together very soon! The first time Nico told me that he had to go potty and then actually WENT potty, it was incredible! The transition from taking him potty every few hours to just letting him tell me when he had to go was a smooth one. He has been wearing pants during the day now instead of just underwear.

So, this past week, we went to visit G.G. in Nampa. It was great to see her. She let Nico play with all the cars that she could find and also a little handheld card game that beeps when buttons are pressed. He enjoyed that! He also had his first away-from-home potty success while we were there! We'll be going back for our next visit in March.

In church on Sunday, I stayed with Nico in the nursery for about half the time, to make sure that he felt comfortable going to the potty if he needed to. I took him to the potty several times, but he never went. Indeed, he didn't go once while we were there, and we even made it home with no accidents to report!

I hadn't hung out with Nico in the nursery for a while, so it was neat to see how his interactions with other children has changed. He approaches the kids now, and tries to "talk" to them using signs. He signed "car" a lot. He also uses his "DAH, DAH" noise to talk to the kids, and increases in volume until he gets a response. The other kids were talking to Nico by saying "DAH DAH" back to him!

We've had a few warmer days this past week, and sunny ones, we've gone for a few walks in the afternoons. We usually bring home the prizes that he finds. Sticks. Or a pine cone. 

Every Wednesday I roast up a whole chicken. Nico can pack away the chicken when it's fresh from the oven. Reheated leftovers don't go as quickly. I don't blame him, though. A fresh chicken right from the oven is heavenly. I pour him some "chicken juice" (the drippings) into a tiny mug for him to sip on. When he gets tired of that, I use a spoon to scoop up the drippings straight from the pan and between Nico and myself we consume most of it. Then we have a bit of the drippings leftover to heat up on other days.

Nico's least favorite part of chicken night is the fact that he has to eat his vegetables FIRST. Otherwise he just wouldn't eat them.

In the picture below, I'm not sure if you can tell, but he has chicken grease ALL over himself. One thing Nico loves to do is wipe his hands off on his hair, and chicken grease is no exception. He had it on his hair, his face, his hands and arms and all over his shirt. 

We headed to the library today to reset our book collection. On the way back to the car, we were walking down the ramp instead of taking the stairs, and Nico stopped and sat down on the ramp and tried to scoot himself forward. He was sure it was a slide.

Nico has learned a lot of the letters of the alphabet on his own by playing different apps on the iPad. He can say D, P, B, O, R, M, T, E, V, and F. He tries to say a lot of the other ones, too.

Pushing the Stroller

Nico pushing the stroller at the zoo.

We were one of the first in the zoo this morning. When we were heading to the Co-op, Nico signed "zoo" so I told him we could go after dropping off our groceries at home.

We spent a lot of time walking up and down the big hill that leads to the bears. He liked that half of the hill was damp with water and the other half was dry. He wanted to walk on the wet side.

He also approached a group of people and started roaring like a lion. It was so cute, and incredible, he had never done anything like that before. When you ask him "What does a tiger say?" He roars!!

Zoo

Grandma Salisbury took Nico to the Zoo today. He saw a real live giraffe, and was sure to sign it. Grandma also relayed a story of Nico walking back and forth across this one bridge. Back and forth and back and forth, stomp stomp stomp. She said it was adorable.

Here is the bridge in question

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Boy

Sorry folks, Guy again.

After I woke up, Nico and I went to get coffee (for me) and then to the park. Then we went home for dinner, and then back to the park. There were loads of kids at the park and Nico wanted to do everything with all of them; swing, play soccer, climb up the slides, go down the slides, etc.

A funny thing I noticed today is how young children call each other babies. Nico met a girl about his size, and started signing baby. The girl started talking to me, and telling me that Nico was a baby. Fun!

Below is a self portrait by Nico

Here fishy, fishy, fishy.

Hello again, Guy here with the latest in Nico updates.

I thought I forgot a mug at a friends house, so Nico and I went to go get it, but it wasn't really there, it was safe at home in my bag.  So Nico and I went to the fish park.  It was the first time I'd been able to go into the discovery center there with him.

He really likes it there, he pretty much stayed in the first discovery area, pointing out stuffed ducks, and looking at the little fish in tanks on the wall.  Nico also played in the stream bed simulator for the first time today. He used cars to dig up the sand.  Its funny when he gets dirt on his hands, because he stops whatever he's doing until he can get it off (he does the same thing with coffee grounds on his hands when he's helping me with coffee).

Anyway, after the discovery center closed we wandered around the park for a while.  There were three deer chillin' in one of the areas, and Nico started signing something I didn't remember seeing before.  Apparently Nico had made up a sign for deer just before dinner when he was playing with his tiny animals.  I didn't learn that until we got back from the park.

Here is Nico playing with the animals.

Breakfast

Breakfast is two scrambled eggs, with salt and extra parmesan.

Today Guy and Nico ran errands together, and after Guy left for gaming tonight, Nico and I went on a walk. An older lady told me she was admiring Nico's little dance, and I told her that he was signing "car". We sure do see a lot of cars when we go for a walk!

Stuffed Dog

Yesterday, Guy took Nico to Fred Meyers where his cuteness got him a free stuffed dog. Nico attached to it right away and tells us about it all the time by signing "dog" and pointing to it. He brought it to the dinner table tonight and wanted to bring it into the bath, too.

This picture is from yesterday, we were playing with our big bin of Legos. Nico doesn't know the full range of activities to do with Legos, but he likes pulling them apart and playing with a small Lego parrot and a Lego horse.

Coffee Helper

This morning, Guy was up with us while we were preparing breakfast, which is very unusual, so Nico kept walking over to the bedroom door and signing "Goodnight" over and over again, we figured he was telling Guy to go to bed! So, he did! :)

Then this afternoon Guy and Nico went out. They returned something to Home Depot and also stopped at Fred Meyer so Nico could ride in the car carts. I stayed home and slept. Much needed!

Nico is quite the coffee helper, and asks Guy every day to make coffee by signing "coffee" and pointing to the cupboard where he keeps all his stuff.  You can see the pot of soup on the counter too, I made leek and onion soup with ground pork meatballs and Nico was quite the fan! He ate a lot of it.