Photronics Phun, and Back to School Night!

A few pictures from last Friday. Nico arrived home from school with an acorn hat on his head. 

After school snack.

Saturday afternoon we watched Detective Pikachu, quite an adorable movie. We coordinated with Allicia so that the whole household could watch it downstairs. We were only missing Jeff, who was out of town. Even some friends of Jeff & Allicia joined us. We all fit just fine on their huge sectional couch. Allicia popped a bunch of popcorn for us.

Right after the movie was over, we came upstairs to make pizza. It was my turn to choose the movie, but since we didn't have a lot of time I said we could watch a Yoshi's Island speed run that Guy wanted to show Nico. I was curious about it, too, and it was fun to watch. Nico has been playing Yoshi's Crafted World on the Switch and has been really into Yoshi.

Nico had a dentist appointment on Tuesday. Nico started talking about braces right away to the dental hygienist and how he wanted them. He said "I wanted glasses, and I got glasses. I want braces, and I hope I can get braces!" The dentist told us now is the time to get the consultation at an orthodontist, so we have that scheduled for November.

Tuesday night was Cub Scouts. Guy told me Nico was the only Webelos there, and that night was the night they planned their events throughout the year, so Nico got to make a lot of decisions.

Wednesday night was the Photronics Phamily Phun Day, to celebrate Photronic's 50th anniversary.

There was a magic man there that also made balloon animals, Nico got a parrot hat.

They had catered BBQ and an ice cream truck with free ice cream. But also 95 degree weather with a trampoline in full sun, plus two bouncy houses. Nico came home a little bit heat exhausted. He felt very sick so I ordered him to lie on his bed for 30 minutes and not move. I gave him an ice pack to put on his chest. At the end of 30 minutes he was completely recovered and was jumping around asking for nachos.

Zoom!

Nachos has been the normal snack every night. He goes through bags of shredded cheese like nobody's business. And speaking of snacks and food: I was not aware of the fact that Nico had money on his school lunch account, he has never had hot lunch or bought anything from the cafeteria. I got an email last week with a low-balance alert saying his account was at a certain level. I got the same email the next day, but the balance was lower. I kind of brushed it off, but then Nico came home from school and told me he had started buying milk from school, alternating between chocolate milk and regular milk. Oh! Ok. That's fine. I reloaded the account so it should last a while.

Tonight was back-to-school-night for the parents! I think I'm really going to like his teacher. I mean, all his teachers have been good, his teacher last year was great, but his teacher this year has a different personality than any teacher he's had so far. She is outgoing, and I have the sense that she likes to have fun, and even may like to be silly at times.

Right outside his classroom window, his class has installed two bird feeders. At any time the children can look through the window and interrupt the class to report a bird sighting. Woah! That's pretty cool.

Here's the note that was on his desk for me. He never finished it, and when I got home, he couldn't remember what he intended to write.

The exciting news this week is that we SIGNED THE LEASE on the house I mentioned in the last blog! Our move-in date is Saturday Sept 7th. I can't believe it happened so fast! Thank you, God!

Nico has had mixed feelings over the matter, but I think he is on board now. After a full day of playing the Switch with the kids downstairs last week, he said, "I don't want to move out. Why don't YOU move out and then me and Dad can come visit you once a week?"

Then after we visited the house last week and we talked about him having his own bedroom, the next day he said "Actually I don't really want to move out." After some gentle prodding, he said he liked having a small space, he didn't want his own bedroom, he wanted to be closer to us.

I picked up some moving boxes today and the preparation begins...

School, Legos, Minecraft,

School is in full swing, and not much else happened this past week! 

Nico has been putting together Legos and wanting to keep them set up, so we've cleared some space to put them. He has also adapted his outlook on Legos, so if he doesn't have a piece he needs according to the instructions, he is OK finding a similar piece. One of his favorite movies is The Lego Movie, which has "Master Builders" in it, the heroes, and they make Legos without instructions. Nico was missing a piece for a set once and all Guy had to say was "Oh, you can just be a Master Builder, and pick a different piece to go there." and Nico was all over that! This is a big deal, because Nico is typically a by-the-books kind of guy.

The other change, perhaps thanks to The Lego Movie, is that he's spending a lot of time playing with the Legos after they are built, instead of just building them and stopping after that.

Tonight was back to school night at the school, the parents met in the gym first to meet the new Principal and to hear from the PTO, then we went to the classrooms. I got to sit in Nico's desk, and his teacher told us all about what they do on a daily basis. His teacher is a recent empty-nester, so she said she really enjoys coming to school and being able to still kind of be a mother. They changed the way they grade - there are no more "E"s for "Exceeds Expectations".

I took a picture of this picture Nico drew of himself.

When I came home from the school, Nico was in bed and he had chosen to write in bed instead of read, and he was writing a story. When he was done, this is what he had:

Nico and Evelyn have started walking to school together by themselves! I'm so grateful he has a walking buddy!

For his birthday we got him a Minecraft account, so now him and Guy can play Minecraft in the same world at the same time. This has been super fun for Nico. Minecraft days are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, where they go downstairs and play together at Guy's desk. Nico uses the laptop that G.G. gave to him. When Nico has iPad time he usually spends it watching Minecraft videos of people doing cool stuff in Minecraft, and then he tries out these cool things when he plays himself. 

Yesterday Nico had a dentist appointment to fill a cavity. It was set to be at 3:30 but Nico was complaining that his tooth was hurting yesterday morning, so I called and had it moved to 11:30. He did such a great job! I think I was more nervous than him. hehe.. They gave him a card to redeem at Bricks and MiniFigs nextdoor for a free Lego MiniFig. He begged to stay home from school for the rest of the day with his numb cheek, and I said yes, so he got some extra time to play Minecraft yesterday afternoon. Last night he asked me, "You said I didn't have to go to school tomorrow, right?" hehe. He sometimes complains that school takes too long. 

After the first few days of school Nico told me to put more stuff in his lunch. He asked specifically for "chips, fruit punch, and red pepper" in addition to his sandwich. So, that's what I've been sending. Last year he very specifically just wanted a sandwich (but I always put some red pepper or other vegetable in his lunch anyway.)

That's all the tidbits I can think of right now! 

Until next week!