Park, Movie, Dentist

Fun times this week. Took Nico and Evelyn for a trip to the Co-op. Allicia provided some money to buy them treats, so I got them each a fruit leather, and then they were enamored by those single serving containers of cream cheese, so I bought them each one. Then we stopped at home to pick up some bread, and we went to the park and they ate cream cheese sandwiches and then played for a little while.  Evelyn picked off all the cream cheese from her sandwich with her finger and left the bread behind. She is a cream cheese lover, just like myself.

On Saturday we went to another sensory friendly movie, this time they played SpongeBob Squarepants. I had never seen the cartoon before, and it really wasn't a very good movie, but Nico really enjoyed it! There was a rap battle at the end of the movie that made me smile though.

We had a few hot days there. We went to the park with Evelyn again one night and came home and Nico was so hot, so we did something we used to do at our old house. I took his socks off and washed his feet in cold water and then let him sit with the water running over his feet.

On Monday Nico had a dentist appointment. He let the hygienist polish all of his teeth this time! I think once he discovered that it tasted good, he was fine with it. His teeth look great, they complimented the wide gaps between his teeth.

One day last week when I took Nico to preschool, we showed up at the same time as someone else so we walked in with them. This has been happening a lot, actually! And Nico is always so excited to see her, her name is Sydney. While we were walking with them he asked her "What did you do last night?" heehee. She told him and then asked him the same question. Sydney's mom commented and said that Nico is the happiest kid she's ever seen.

I've been trying to make more Nico-friendly dinners. For some reason he has lost his taste for chicken!! All he wants now are cheese sandwiches. I am trying to branch out our breakfast, too. I am going to try some breakfast cookies tomorrow instead of making him a chocolate chip pancake. The cookies are made with almond flour, with pecans and dried fruit in them, and maple syrup to sweeten. They are in the freezer right now and tomorrow morning I'll cut them into rounds and bake them. I hope they turn out!

Please pray for: Nico's summer literacy program, that he's able to adapt to the large classroom easily. And for his tummy aches.

That's it! I leave you with a picture of a ladybug that Nico found on the tree out front while we were waiting for the bus on Tuesday. 

More or Less. Mostly Just the Less.

It's been harder to do blog updates since moving, partly because I have gotten completely out of the habit of updating my daily journal with a few lines of what we did that day. So I sit here on Thursday night trying to remember. It is hard!

But here's what I got:

Touch-a-Truck was on Saturday. Guy took Nico to this. Nico got to touch and sit on so many different kinds of trucks. Garbage truck, fire truck, police car, limousine. I am sure there are more but these were the ones that he talked about. Then Guy took him to the bookstore to play with the train. Ever since then Nico has been daily putting together the train that Jeff & Allicia have downstairs. It's the same kind they have at the bookstore. It is so great to have a built in playmate for Nico. And we all take care of each other. I watch the kids while Allicia is out, she watches Nico while I am busy or out, and it's sometimes actually easier to watch 2-3 kids than just one, because they can entertain themselves!

On Monday I had a sore throat that turned into a full blown head cold (or maybe even the flu) on Tuesday. Fever and chills and aches that lasted a long time, laid on the bed all day and Guy took over that evening. He took Nico to the Co-op to have dinner, then went grocery shopping, then played downstairs with everyone else until bed time. Nico also was sick but it didn't hit him as hard. Tuesday was also the day we were supposed to go see G.G. But we missed it. Again! I completely forgot about it, though I would have canceled anyway because I was sick. What a bummer! We are set for next Tuesday and I am excited because IT WILL WORK this time :)

I only have one picture from this last week! We will get into the swing of things soon.

Great news on the job front for Guy! He may be moving to days in a few weeks! His job might be completely changing, too. He is a smartie and he came up with a process change that would save time and money, and they want him to implement it. This means: programming! This is what he has wanted to do for so long, and we think the opportunity is finally here. I am praying that everything goes smoothly. His boss loves him and is pushing for him. The boss' boss' boss main boss is on board, so, that's good news. We have never lived in Boise without Guy working nights. I know it will be an adjustment but I am looking forward to facing it, I am ready! Thank you God for the perfect timing!

Evie and Avery playing upstairs with Nico

Valentines and a Muddy Park

Nico had his very first snow day on Friday! We were still struggling with illness at the time, so weren't able to take advantage of it by going outside much, though we did take a trip to the Co-op. We needed to buy some walnuts because we just got a nutcracker and we needed to try it out. We cracked some walnuts and talked about squirrels.

On Saturday we had a special dinner. I had asked on Facebook if anyone had the Cars movie that we could borrow, and someone told me she had two copies and that we could have one. Yay! So on Saturday we picked up the movie, and then for dinner I made buffalo burgers (hamburgers made from ground buffalo) and we watched Cars while eating. For dessert we had freshly made cashew butter with molasses (Nico's current favorite treat). I know, molasses, right? It actually tastes pretty darn good, though :)

Saturday is also when Nico's fever started coming back and I started getting sick again too. We hadn't quite gotten over the last cold before this new one hit us. Guy caught it just yesterday, so he's going through it right now. We stayed home from church on Sunday because Nico still had his fever. But we had fun building parking lots with memory game cards.

Monday it was so sunny! Almost 50 degrees outside. We still had the sniffles, but we ventured out to go to the Co-op, and once that fresh air hit me I KNEW we had to stay outside much longer than the few minutes we were planning. So we went to the Fish Park after the Co-op. Snowy and muddy there still, but fun. We also crossed the big stretch of grass to get over to Municipal Park for a brief stint on the playground. The grass was covered in goose poop and mud holes, and we did NOT make it out unscathed. Nico had a bath when we got home and the shoes stayed outside.

This week in school he is learning about Valentine's Day and the post office. They are having a Valentine's party tomorrow, decorating cookies and handing out Valentines. We got Nico some Cars valentines that we put together on Wednesday. The school provided us with a list of names that we cut out (Nico is so good at cutting straight lines, wow!!) and then glued on.

Nico asked me to take a picture of him with this white clippy thing on his nose. He brought me the camera and said "take-a picka Mommy". 

He's been experimenting with saying "Mom" instead of "Mommy", and still says "Guy" sometimes because he knows we think it's funny. He enjoys telling us what he learns in school, and has started singing along to the songs in the car. My favorite one is the Tom T Hall song where he says "and I love you too".  Hearing Nico say that out loud along with the song is just so sweet. He also quotes long sections of Curious George cartoons, in action and in sound effects and in speech. He has a lot of them memorized. One of his favorite things to do is eat his bowl of cashew butter and molasses while lying on the floor watching Curious George and lining up his cars along the edge of the iPad.

Buses, Friends, and Candles

We had some extended family in town this past week for a wedding, and Nico and I got to see some Aunts and Uncles briefly on Sunday after church. On Monday, my Aunt Mary came over with my Mom to say hello for a little while. It was great to see everyone!

On Tuesday we went to see G.G. in Nampa. She gave us more bounty from her garden. Yum! The next time we go to Nampa to see her it will be a Monday because Nico will be in preschool Tuesday through Friday. PRESCHOOL!

Preschool starts next Wednesday, 6 more days! I can't believe it. We got Nico's bus schedule in the mail yesterday. On Monday while my Mom and Aunt were over, we saw the school bus drive by and stop in front of our house for half a minute or so. I knew she would be doing this to get her route down, but it was neat to see it. It made it all the more real! And then of course, getting his official pickup/dropoff times in the mail made it even MORE real. He will be picked up at 8:35 AM and dropped off at 12:29 PM. Four whole hours he will be gone! It is hard to believe. He won't be taking the bus his first day, we are going to ease into that. I think my Mom and I are going to drop him off in the morning and head over to Target to do some shopping, to distract me from the fact that Nico won't be with me :) Shopping is a great distraction technique!

Next Tuesday is the open house where he will meet his teacher and get to show him around the school. I am looking forward to that.

We got a package today with a backpack in it for Nico - a gift from the Grandparents Salisbury! He chose one that had a car on it. While Guy was leaving for work, Nico noticed he had his bag around his shoulder, which Nico called a backpack (buckabuh). He said "Two buckabuh! Cah buckabuh. Daddy buckabuh." A nice story from Nico - he saw two backpacks. His own car backpack and Daddy's backpack. On our walk tonight he also was talking about puddles (putteh), and told me that the pickup went through a puddle (puckabuh putteh).

Nico wearing his new backpack.

We spent this morning with Evie. We went to see the little family and then took Evie with us for another lunch date. We went to Memorial park and then to the Co-op. A good lesson in handling two kids in a grocery store! It wasn't that bad, as they are both very well behaved. We even went potty in the Co-op. Then we went back home and ate lunch. Evie told me "I'm ready to go home now." after playing for a while after lunch. It was the exact time we were going to leave anyway, so I said "Ok, let's go!" Nico then took a two hour nap. In the video you can see how they typically interact when together. Evie is good at picking up the words Nico says and repeating them back to him. When Nico would say "tickie" for train, Evie would say "Where is the tickie? Where do you see it?"

Tonight we had a flash thunderstorm. We didn't lose our electricity, but I had a sudden urge to do a "candle factory". We used to do these when we were little whenever the lights would go out due to a thunderstorm. Pull all your candles out and light them, then play with the wax on aluminum foil spread over the kitchen table. Playing safely with fire is a good skill to have :) Nico is likely a little too young for this, so we did a slightly modified version of it. We just lit the candles and held them and then blowed them out, and poured some wax onto the foil. Nico loved blowing out the candles. Blowing is an excellent skill to have for speech development. I also had an urge to make some hot chocolate, but we weren't able to do that. An hour later the sun was back out, so we went for a Strider ride. When we came home, our landlord was on our roof cleaning up all the dead and broken branches. Wind storms can really tear up the trees!

Candle Factory. Yes, this is exactly where Nico burnt his finger.

VIDEO: Evie and Nico Snippets

Preschool?

We were able to go see G.G. again on Friday. She had a brand new toy truck waiting for Nico to play with (and to take home!) He loves it! On our way home I stopped at a park in Nampa that we had never been to before to let Nico play a little bit. New parks are always fun!

On Wednesday we had Nico's transition appointment with the Boise School District. The meeting took place at the Madison Early Learning Center. It used to be an elementary school, but now it just houses preschool types. Nico came with me so they could interact with him and watch him while playing with toys. They said that based on his expressive language skill scores that he qualifies for the program, but he won't be "officially" accepted until all the paperwork is gone over. They told me that the classrooms have 10 kids to one teacher, one assistant, and then a speech pathologist and occupational therapist are also on staff. They even offer door-to-door bussing if we want to take advantage of that. There is an AM and a PM session, Nico would go to one or the other, and it is Tuesday-Friday, though he would only go however many days a week the speech pathologist recommends.

Guy and I still have to talk about whether we want Nico to do this, but I think we are leaning toward YES. School would start August 28th for him. Wow.. school! Already?? I can't believe he's nearly three years old! Where did the time go?

As a result of the meeting, we are going to have Nico's hearing tested. I don't think there will be a problem with it, but with such a speech delay, the speech pathologist at the meeting was concerned. And because of his perforated ear drum a few months ago, it would be a good idea to get it checked anyway.

Also on Wednesday, Nico had his second speech therapy appointment. Since he was eating a snack when Marcia arrived, she had a good look at his chewing. She said that he is still doing the chipmunk chew and isn't using his back molars to grind the food like he should be doing. Next time she comes over (2 weeks from now), we're going to work on that by putting nut butter onto a thin cut celery stalk and having him chew on one side and then the other. She can also put nut butter on the inside of his cheek to require him to use his tongue to remove it. Chewing and speaking are related, so strengthening his tongue and teaching him to chew correctly will help him to make better sounds.

We went to the Toddler Open Gym on both Tuesday and Thursday. We hadn't been there in a while. Nico always remembers the road we turn on to go to the Gym, because nearly every time we pass it, he asks to go down it. Nico spends a lot of time while in the car asking to go places. "Da da!" And when I turn around to look at what he's signing, it's one or another park, or the library, or church. Even if we are on our way to a park already, he asks to go to all the other parks in addition.

Nico playing at the Toddler Open Gym

Nico at the Co-op

A video from this week - at the end you'll hear some of Nico's current words

Adventure

This morning we went to the Saturday market, as usual.

After Guy got up this afternoon, we went on an adventure! First to pick up some coffee beans downtown, then to the Co-op, and then to the new Whole Foods to wander around and check out the goods.

Picture is of us at Dawson Taylor's coffee, Nico is admiring the mural on the side of the counter.

Ankle

Went to church this morning after stopping by the Co-op to get some bananas. Our after church snack on the way home is bananas and cheese, and we were out of bananas!

After Nico's nap, we were playing in his room and I was helping him do a backwards somersault. When he came down on his legs, I heard a loud POP and Nico started crying. I was afraid he had a broken bone, but he was moving around okay, so I think it is just a strain. He isn't able to walk on it, though. I went and bought an ace bandage to stabilize it, and Guy pulled out an ice pack for a while to try to ice it. We also used homeopathic Arnica 30c by mouth and Arnica Gel on his ankle.

We hung out on the bed (not much different than usual), but I DID make him some cupcakes. You can see we put a sock over his ace bandage so that he wouldn't try to pull it off.

Parks

Two parks today. Old park and Memorial park. Memorial park is a relatively new one we've been going to. It's a few streets down from the Co-op. It was a perfect temperature today, and lots of orange leaves on the trees and sun.

To Market To Market

This morning at the market.

We've been buying dried apples with cinnamon. I gave Nico the choice of which ones he wanted and he chose cinnamon. They are delicious!

This evening we went on a family trip to the Co-op. Nico doesn't like being in grocery carts, so having a wing-man is quite handy! Guy can always carry Nico on his shoulders if he gets unruly.

Geese

Today Nico and I saw lots of geese at Julia Davis Park. And a pair of ducks on the water!

Later today Nico drove us to the Co-op.

Sipper

Nico takes every chance he can get to climb up to the table and drink from
our glasses. He IS getting better at it, but if you look closely you can see a stream of water running down his chin. I had to change his shirt after this.

We went to the co-op this morning and to the library this afternoon. Tonight for dinner we ate leftovers.