Piggie and Gerald, GG

Last Friday was the Piggie and Gerald show in the evening. We couldn't take pictures during the show but I snapped a few before hand.

Gerald was played by a man in gray clothes, and Piggie was played by a blond haired woman in a pink dress and pig ears. They sang and danced and even acted out parts of their books. There were 3 Squirrels (pronounced Squir-ELLS) It was really fun to watch but very late for Nico. In the middle of their first song Nico asked "When are they going to stop singing?" After that he understood that it was a mix of singing and dancing and acting and he got in the groove. Then about 20 minutes before the show ended, he got very tired and asked every few minutes when it was going to be over. I felt bad keeping him out so late!

Saturday morning Nico and I went to GG's house for a visit! Nico always watches TV for the last half hour we are there, he watched My Little Pony this time. GG gave us a bag full of goodies from her pantry and have been using them up. Thanks GG :)

Then Guy took Nico to the skate park so he could ride his bike. He fell off his bike and got his leg scraped up. Guy says he got back on his bike after this. But eventually it hurt too much so they came home and I bandaged him up so they could go back out and go to the library. They've been going to the library on Saturdays to pick out a video for us to watch while we eat pizza. But Nico chose to check out the Magic Tree House books on tape so we could listen to them while we ate pizza instead of watching something.

Saturday afternoon while we were making pizza I noticed that Nico felt very hot, he had a temp of 101.5 and he ate only 2 bites of pizza. On Sunday he wasn't hungry at all and said he had a tummy ache, but nothing came of it and the only outward symptom was the fever.

Grandma and Papa stopped by on Sunday to drop off eggs and they brought Nico a huge book to help him pass the time while he was sick. It is about things underneath the soil and things underneath the water. You start at one end of the book and flip the pages to learn about what's under the soil, until you get to the molten lava center of the earth, then you flip the book over and go backwards back up to the surface but this time through water. Or you can start with the water and then flip it for the soil. Very fun. We spent a long time reading that.

Monday he said he felt better but still had a temp of 99.5 ish so I kept him home from school.

Tuesday morning Nico and I both had a doctor's appointment. They checked him for some food sensitivities and they say he can eat corn and yogurt and a few other things he couldn't eat before. We tried out eggs this morning for the first time in 8 months and the morning didn't actually go very well after that. On the way to school he told me he didn't want to go and kept pulling me to come back home. He said he was tired and wanted to stay home to sleep. We got to the school but he still insisted and wouldn't let me walk away. I wasn't sure what to do so I took him into his classroom to talk to his teacher before the bell rang. She kept him in there and I left. We communicated throughout the day through email, she told me he went out in the hallway with a parent volunteer to read for a while, and then stayed inside with with her during first recess. He slowly recovered and after lunch he was fine.

That's the first time he hasn't wanted to go to school. I hope he's okay about going to school tomorrow!

That's it for this week!

G.G., and a postcard from 1st grade

On Friday Guy worked late and I had a henna booth that I had to leave early for, so Nico got to hang out with Evelyn for a few hours and eat dinner with them. It was a busy henna weekend, I had a henna booth at the Nampa Art Festival all day Saturday and Sunday. Guy and Nico came to say hi on Saturday. I gave Nico a quick owl tattoo and then he played on the playground that was right behind our booth.

Guy and Nico made pizza by themselves on Saturday night and watched Three Stooges and Wallace and Gromit.

Monday we had a play date at the park with just Allicia and kids, no Tiffanie. The kids pretty much know I carry fruit strips with me, so Avery asked me for one even before we left the driveway. When we got to the park I gave them each one and they like to eat it while sitting on this big rock.

On Tuesday we went to see GG! It was a great visit. On Monday night Nico had looked at the calendar and remarked "Tomorrow we go see GG! Yaaay!" Then on Tuesday morning I reminded him what we were doing that day and he said "Awww GG is my favorite Grandma!"

GG had some books for him there, a little book that used to belong to his Great Grandpa Bud. It's a small yellow book called "Bugs of America" the date inside says 1939. It has pictures of bugs and descriptions of them. She also had a book called "Jeremy Draws a Monster" that is very cute. Thank you GG! Nico loves them both. In fact Nico is in bed right now reading Jeremy Draws a Monster.

I had another henna booth on Wednesday at the College of Western Idaho, their new student orientation. Nico spent a few hours with Evelyn since I had to leave before Guy got home from work.

Today he received a post card in the mail from his new teacher, Mrs. Smith! Nico read it.

When he got to the end where she signs off with her name, Mrs. Smith, he says "What??? Mrs SMITH?? But I told them I wanted Mrs. Hoff!" He was pretty sad. He wanted to write a card to Mrs. Smith to tell her that she's not his teacher. With more probing he told me that he liked Mrs. Hoff's classroom and that they get to do lots of fun stuff and go to recess THREE times per day! I assured him that in Mrs. Smith's class he would still get to go to recess three times per day.

A random funny - Nico was leisurely washing his hands in the sink, he was mumbling under his breath like his hands were talking to each other. I turned the water off for him (he can't reach it at the kitchen sink) and he stood there and said softly "I like the rain, and now the rain has stopped. I am not a happy pig!" that is a quote from a Piggie and Gerald book.

I've got two videos today! One from Grandparents Russell visit and one from his Birthday party! Enjoy!

Typo ahead...

Grandparents Russell!

Grandma camp finished up with success. They were planning a water fight when the parents got there to pick them up, but Grandma was notified of a water shortage Friday night, so they canceled it. Two wells had run dry and on Sunday they were notified that there was no more water. She was without water until Tuesday! And now they are on a boil order. This means that before drinking the water, you need to boil it. Here's the pictures from Grandma Camp: Movie Marathon!

Nico is reading his book "Stinky" to everyone

On Saturday GG came to visit me at my henna booth, she brought me green beans from her garden and sat and talked for a while. I even gave her a henna tattoo! 

This week Nico and Evelyn and Aadam and Avery have all gone to VBS. Avery is 3 years old now and was able to join the bigger kids. This has been the most fun VBS so far.  Nico says he wants to go to this one ALL the time.

On Tuesday Grandpa and Grandma Russell came into town! We weren't expecting to get to see them that evening, but they got in early enough to head over. Wahoo!

On Wednesday they brought GG with them, and we all went to the Discovery Center. Their new display is called ZAP, lots of things to do with electricity.

Nico also opened some presents.

Grandma and Nico working hard to put all Nico's quarters in his collection folder. 

Reading a book before bed

Today was the last day of VBS. I showed up a bit early to pick them up and they were starting a prayer line so anyone who wanted to pray out loud on stage could get in line. Nico did it! Unfortunately I couldn't hear what he said and the video I took, the background noise was very loud and you can't hear. He told me he forgot what he said when I asked him about it later.

Then we saw Grandma and Grandpa again this afternoon. I put some henna on Grandma Russell! (I'll have to take a picture of this to post next week). Grandma and Grandpa took Nico to the library and they came home with some great books.

Tonight I am putting Nico's presents on the table so that when he wakes up he will see them. He has spent a bit of time this week searching for where I hid them. Heehee. I'm excited for him to open them. 

Here's the video from Jeff and Avery's birthday party. I put it together with them in mind, so it's not really a "Nico" video, but I put it here anyway if you'd like to watch, Nico is in it too. You can see him light the birthday candles, and hit a piñata, and throw water balloons :)

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!

Friends and Family

We visited G.G. on Friday! She got Nico a police car which she had ready for him when he walked in. He was very excited about that. She also shared some of her garden's bounty with us. Onions, beans, lettuce, so yummy! We will get to see her again this weekend at Nico's birthday party. He will be 3 years old!

On Saturday we went up to the cabin for a BBQ. Lots of cousins for Nico to play with. And a Papa, who attempted to build for him the most difficult lego possible, because Nico asked him to :) They have a lot of fun together.

Reading a book with Papa.

Nico's 3 year checkup was good. Right on target for growth, etc.

On Tuesday our friend Josh came over for a visit. We knew Josh in college, and he was the one who played the mandolin at mine and Guy's wedding. He also lived with us for a while when we lived in Washington. He brought us some tools to transfer our VHS tapes to digital. He also gave Nico some Korean coins to put into his piggy bank. He has been a school teacher in Korea for the last few years, and will be heading back there in the next few months. He plans to be at Nico's birthday party, so we will get to see him again soon.

Nico and Josh building towers.

We gave Nico one of his birthday presents early - a $5 sprinkler! He has had so much fun running through it. He liked rotating between running through the sprinkler and playing with his sandbox. He must have been feeling beachy. He also likes picking up little bits of sand and throwing them into the sprinkler.

Nico had his last speech therapy appointment today. He turns 3 on Monday, so he no longer qualifies for the Infant/Toddler Program. He will be a month without speech therapy before he starts school in August. I am so excited for him to go to preschool. He will have so much fun with the other kids. He is quite a socialite these days!

We checked out a "kit" from the library about Music. It has a bunch of instruments in it (tambourine, sticks, other things I don't know the names of) and some books and CDs. Nico looove banging on the tambourine with the sticks. I think he'll like his birthday present from us (a drum!).

The Grandparents Russell are coming this weekend for Nico's Birthday! We have a birthday party planned for Sunday and his actual birthday is on Monday. It will be so much fun, I am looking forward to celebrating my little buddy.

Stay tuned next week for birthday pictures.

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.

Potty Training, snow, books

Potty training has regressed back to diapers! You think you know everything until you try to potty train your toddler in 3 days. When we attempt to potty train him again, we will take a much slower approach. When I put him back in diapers it was a sigh of relief, I could finally just snuggle him on the couch in peace instead of accidentally throwing him and the iPad off the couch when he started peeing.

For Christmas we got Nico a game called "Roll and Play". Anyone with a toddler might find this game fun. It comes with a big stuffed die that the child can roll (er.. THROW), and then depending on the color that is rolled, they pick a card. Then you have to do what's on the card. Most of the time when we play this game, after a few rolls of the die, Nico reverts to manually flipping the die onto the side he wants. After a few of those, he then skips the die entirely and chooses a card color pile to mow through. In the picture, Nico picked the yellow "Make an angry face" card. He clenches up his arms and shivers them back and forth really fast.

Garbage day fell on the one day this past week that we were flooded with snow (Tuesday). Nico and I made an adventure of our trip to the curb. It took quite a while to haul the trash can through the snow over the grass, but we were sure to pause often for pictures.

On Wednesday we went to the library and got Nico his very own library card. He chose the card with a fish on it. What he mostly likes doing at the library is climbing up and down the stairs to the second floor. 2nd to that is pulling out all the dinosaurs from the toy bin and putting them on the table. Books, he could probably take or leave. I did pick some picture books out so we could check something out on his new card. And we needed some new books for reading time after dinner. Have I mentioned already that after dinner is book time? We read books at other times, but after dinner is when Nico reads books on his own at the kitchen table while I finish the dishes. Then I grab a book and join him at the table. It's a nice routine to have. I've been able to read through 3 juvenile fiction books in the past few weeks because of this!

His favorite of the library books is one called "Animals Home Alone". No words, just pictures. He likes to find the fish on every page.

Today (Thursday) we went to see Allicia and Evie. They had lent us some toddler underwear and waterproof pads for our potty training, so we were returning them. Nico loves going to see Evie.  I saw Nico actually play WITH Evie today, and interact with her to the point of "asking" her to come into the fort with him so that she could follow him out through the fort's window. They play really well together. Nico got real silly and was letting his personality show, it was fun to see.

Oh, and forgot to mention about docs and things. Guy had his blood work done this week. Still haven't heard anything from Nico's blood work (which usually means that he is just peachy). I get my blood work done tomorrow. Then we will all be done with blood and doctors for a while, hopefully!

Crib book

This is what Nico was up to when I went in to wake him up from his nap: already awake and reading a book.

Reading a Book

Trucks

Reading books on the couch

French Reunion

Today was the day of the French Reunion. I went up in the morning with Nico, and then came back down so he could have his nap. After Nico's nap, just Guy and Nico went back up to the cabin. From what I heard, they had a great time!

It was quite a hot day today, and we're trying to figure out how to cool the house down. When it gets this hot, our heat pump stops being very effective. It's at least 83 degrees in here based on our thermostat. We're thinking of utilizing the power of FANS!

No pictures from the reunion, but I'm sure there will be some in the future! Here is Guy reading books to Nico before bedtime. New books for him from Molly! Baby Elmo books.

Books in the Closet

Lately Nico has been going into his closet to read books. He just piles them up next to him after he's done with one. Not sure how this started!

Book Toss

The latest thing Nico enjoys doing is sitting on his rocking chair to "read" books. I stack a pile of books next to him and he looks at maybe two pages of each book before he throws the book over the edge of the chair. We have been through his entire book collection probably ten times so far.

Also today, Guy mowed the lawn for the first time this spring after fixing the lawn mower. There was a lot to fix! It hadn't been used since we lived in Arlington. He also popped the dandelions and raked up fallen sticks and pods from our tree.

Barnes and Noble

Today we went to Barnes and Noble to buy a book.

New heights

So, there's been a dearth of post lately. Most of you know Joanna has been under the weather for a while, and last week she officially put me in charge of the blog. Which I promptly forgot about.

In keeping with the dearth theme, this photo has a dearth of Nico. He was busy on the bookshelf today, and I noticed he was pulling from the third shelf! Below is the aftermath.

New Love Seat

Guy and Nico went up to the cabin today to pick up a love seat that my parents are giving to us. Nico got to see his cousins Bruce and Rory!

Climber and a Weekend Trip

Nico climbed up on the bottom rail of his crib today from the outside! He was trying to get his stuffed dog, which was in the crib.

This weekend Nico is having a vacation at Grandpa and Grandma Salisbury's cabin! He is going to stay there for three whole nights and it will be his very first time away from home for that long. He has everything he needs including his stuffed dog and his favorite books. I miss him, but am trying to take advantage of the extra time I will have for sleeping. Perhaps we will have a picture from Nico's weekend to share for tomorrow!

Fox Hollow

Nico has, on several occasions, done the "sniff sniff" at the appropriate time in the Fox of Fox Hollow song. "And he sniffs with his nose in the wind... sniff sniff!"

We do this new thing where Nico climbs up into the rocker (if I'm in the rocker he first asks me to leave), then he asks for a book. Then he turns the pages and I read him the book while sitting on the floor, barely close enough to read the words. I sometimes have to come up with a guess on the wording.

He's holding one of his favorite books in the picture. He loves the pages with cars on them, and points over and over again to all the cars on the page, expecting me to say "car" every time he does it.

Cabin

This morning Nico and I went to Grandparent Salisbury's cabin. Nico's cousin Alexis was there and they played a whole bunch. Nico loves crawling up and down the stairs. Guy made pesto soup for dinner, yum! In the picture you can see Nico picking out some books for bedtime.

Rainy day

Lots of playing inside today, but also this evening Nico and Guy went to the park to play hard before bedtime. Reading books is part of the bedtime routine.