Last Friday, Nico woke up feeling a lot better. He was able to get out of bed and sit/stand/walk around. He ate breakfast and by all accounts he was all better! His first order of business after eating breakfast was trying on his Halloween costume.
It fits!
I took him to his doctor's appointment that day for his foot.
Besides it being dry and flaky, he has a huge bump on the bottom that they said was a wart. The doctor froze it off! She told him to raise his hand whenever the pain got too much to bear, and they did it 3 times. She said he will likely need to come back again to get it re-done because it is so big.
On Saturday, Guy drove to Nampa to pick up the tv that GG gave us. It was the one she used to have before she moved. It's huge! Thank you GG! While in Nampa, Guy stopped by a gluten free restaurant that just opened. They sell donuts on Saturday and he bought one of each type for us to try. He had to wait so long for the chocolate donuts that they gave him two. Nico's favorite was the twist donut.
Nico had a chess tournament on Saturday. He got a 1st place trophy, and he won the prize for best costume!
Raking leaves
Trying out his Switch on our new TV
Rough draft TV Stand setup.
Wednesday we had a parent teacher conference. We both LOVE his teacher. She is my favorite by far of the teachers he's had. She said a few days ago that Nico took over teaching the class about what "scale" means on maps. He stood up in front and brought out a ruler to demonstrate on the huge map at the front. He asked her if he could stay up there to teach the whole lesson and she said, well, No. Heehee.
No school today and tomorrow! Nico had scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast this morning.
After lunch we put together our new TV stand.
This afternoon, Allicia picked Nico up and took him to the Farmstead with the other kiddos. Guy met them there tonight because our church is doing the corn maze.
Here's a condensed video of the Trailing of the Sheep parade, plus some video of Nico walking around in his Halloween costume. I left the entire sheep part of the parade in the video, you'll see sheep passing by for 1 minute and 20 seconds. The rest of the parade part of the video is just snippets of the other acts that passed by.
Last Friday I met up with Brianna who was in town for a short while, and she gave me a Christmas gift to give to Nico. It was a game - Jumanji! We all played it the following morning, and many more times on Saturday. We were even planning to watch Jumanji for pizza that night but Nico changed his mind - the trailer looked a bit too scary. It was my turn to choose, so I chose Sherlock Gnomes. Guy had to go to band practice at 4:30 on Saturday so he missed the movie (I'm sure he wasn't too sad about that :)) but I did make him a pizza that he ate when he got home.
Saturday was a fun day. We played a lot of Jumanji, and then after lunch Nico and I went on a bike/scooter ride on the greenbelt. It was so sunny! Nico's leg got sore after a while on the scooter so we walked part of the way home.
Once we got home I told him we were going to the car wash. Here is his reaction to being in the carwash:
He loved it.
Once we got home, we all got in the car and drove about a mile to a nearby open house. After walking through it Guy and I both agreed it was quite a fixer-upper (for $397,000!!!). We're pretty sure for that amount you would just be paying for the location. Just a side note - we go to open houses sometimes, but we are not actively searching for a house to buy. We would like to move soon, but when we do that we will probably be renting!
We bought an adjustable lamp for Nico's shelf above his bed, it has two adjustable LED lamp arms. Now he has so much light at night!
On Monday I received a call from the nurse at Nico's school, that he was complaining of a tummy ache. I talked to him on the phone for a bit and he was set on coming home, so I picked him up from school. He.... was fine. I took him with me to run errands and then told him we could stop for a snack and he could choose between a smoothie or Subway. He chose smoothie. But then when we got there, the smoothie place just happened to be right next to Subway. Sooooo... he got both. This is how you reward kids for staying home sick. Hehe?
Nico has been getting these small rashes on his upper body for a few weeks, mostly his arms. We confirmed that they are not bed bugs (we sanitary washed all the bedding in the house anyway), and they are not ant bites. When we visited his doctor on Tuesday she said she thinks they are related to what's going on in his gut. We discovered some helpful information with a recent test so we began a new treatment Tuesday night. I'm hopeful that the rash will clear up. New ones are still appearing. I'm trying not to fret!
Waiting for his appointment at the doctor.
Guy had expressed sadness that he didn't get a smoothie when I got Nico one on Monday, so we stopped on the way home to get Guy this Chocolate Berry Almond Smoothie from Boise Juice Co.
Nico's first adventure in Drama Club was today after school. He seemed to really enjoy it. They played games in class.
And tonight, he is reading more Tom Gates books! They are a favorite right now.
I came home from Moscow/Pullman last Friday and stopped by to see my Aunt Mary Anne in Lewiston on the way home! Nico stayed Friday night with Papa and Grandma Salisbury, and we picked him up Saturday morning.
A puzzle Nico completed on Friday. I heard him and Papa played a ton of games after school on Friday!
From their house, Guy and Nico went straight to the airport, where they surprised Grandpa and Grandma Russell as they were flying in from Seattle! They came to Boise this past weekend to surprise GG at her 90th birthday party, which was Saturday night.
Before the party, Grandma and Grandpa took Nico to their hotel to take a swim in the pool. Yay! We met them at Jaker's that night, where GG stopped in at 6 PM and was surprised by everyone there.
Nico chose the kid's steak. Oh my goodness does this boy love meat! The kid's steak comes cut into strips. It was so handy, and he ate it all up.
Happy Birthday GG! They had a beautiful cake for her.
Sunday before church, I was resting on the bed after telling Nico to do his chores. He took the trash out and then, on his own, without asking, he started fixing the front doorknob. We discovered Saturday night that it was low on batteries. So he got his toolbox out, and screwdriver, and took the handle off. He discovered it needed a 9V battery, which we didn't have, and this is when I found out what he was doing, because he asked me where the 9V batteries were. We walked over to M&W Market to buy a 9V battery and came back. He had a hard time reattaching the screws. Even with me helping him we couldn't do it, but we soon figured out the problem and reattached the screws. I told him I was so proud of him for seeing something that needed to be done, and doing it without being asked.
After church the boys were able to hang out with the Grandparents Russell for a little bit while I visited my Aunt Liz. They brought over a new brand of Lime Soda Water we had never tried before. It is very good! It is not sweetened and contains no juice, but to me it tastes like lime cotton candy. Crazy! Waterloo brand. They left Sunday afternoon to fly back to Seattle. It was a quick visit but so fun to see them. I am sorry I didn't get more pictures! Can't wait to see them again in a few months for Christmas!
Monday night we did a bit of an assembly line to package up the huge Red Velvet Ribbons we got shipped to us. We needed to put each into a bag, seal it, and then put a label on it, and place it back into the box. There was 60 total. I let Nico do 8 of them Monday night. He was so super careful with each one and did a great job. We would have used our table instead of the floor, but there is currently a puzzle on it! Someday we will own a table just for puzzles, whaddya say?? ;)
There's a short clip at the end of the blog with Nico putting one of the huge ribbons in a bag. You can watch him be super gentle.
6 of the 8 boxes we shipped out Tuesday morning
Tuesday Nico and I had doctor's appointments. I picked him up early from school. After the appointments I took him to a new food and smoothie place I had never been to before - Fresh Deli? Hmm.. Can't even remember the name. It is downtown next to the Edwards Theater. I bought him a Chunky Monkey smoothie, and myself a juice. I asked if they made any of their wraps or paninis gluten free and they said yes. Oh my! Nico picked out the Turkey Bacon Avocado wrap, and I chose a Turkey Pesto Panini for Guy. I can't believe they had gluten free wraps!! I was very impressed. Nico super duper loved it.
I can't believe I didn't snap pictures of all that! I had a really fun time with Nico that afternoon.
Nico checked out a Geronimo Stilton book at the school library last week. He read it and returned it today, and picked up a new one!
Speaking of books, the Grandparents Russell brought Nico the next installment of Dogman!! He has already flown through it.
He has chosen the book he is going to do his book report on next January. Stick Cat: Tail of Two Kitties. He got it approved by his teacher. He has chosen to create a crossword puzzle for his report.
Nico had another game on Saturday. His team has been improving quite a bit, it was a fun game to watch! Nico did very well. After the game we went to Jimmy John's again with Papa!
Saturday Nico was supposed to have a chess tournament, but on Saturday morning I received an email from the chess coach telling everyone they had to cancel it because of a mix up about the reservation at Smoky Mountain Pizza. Nico was sad. But he was able to join us for pizza at home. Nico's turn to choose what to watch and he chose Three Stooges.
On Sunday I was back helping in Children's Church during the service, it's always fun to be there when they sing their songs. They watch a song video and dance along. Nico dances big. It's great.
On Tuesday we all went over to the Pastors' house for dinner for a new member meeting. Pastor Tim talked about what it means to be a member, and then we signed the papers. So, I guess it's official!
Wednesday was the busiest day we've had for a while. Well, I'VE had for a while! Doctor's appointment in the morning for Nico. Just a follow up visit, to give updates on his tummy aches and all that. We are trying to get to the bottom of Nico's increasing car sickness. It is to the point now that he feels sick just driving down Warm Springs from our house. We are trying a few new things and we hope it helps! (On a side note, his "liquified hematoma" has almost disappeared. Nico says he can still feel the lump but it is no longer visible and is causing no pain.) I dropped him off at school after that (10:15am) and then spent the rest of the day grocery shopping. Then I prepared food to take with us to the game (Guy was meeting us there, so I brought him a sandwich), collected snacks for the players (our week to bring treats), and loaded up Evelyn and Nico. Evelyn joined us at the game. She knew several of the kids on Nico's team because of school.
Evelyn reading a book before the game.
After the game. For the snack I brought some "Popcorners" which I found at Costco on sale. They were a hit with everyone. I brought a few extra bags too. I gave Evelyn one before the game and one after.
And some more random pictures... Here's Guy and some of the kiddos playing Minecraft. Guy has Avery on his lap.
We had a nicely full day on Saturday. Nico and I went to Grandma and Papa's house so that Grandma could explain the Printer Mystery to Nico. Nico had told us about the printer randomly printing pages during Grandma Camp, so Nico texted Grandma on Friday to ask her if she had figured it out yet, he seemed a bit worried about it, so she decided to spill the beans! When we visited them on Satuday, Grandma told him to check the printer. He checked it and found a paper that had been printed on! They read it and then she sent him back to the printer to see if there was anything else. YES there was another paper! (Which Papa had secretly snuck in there). Grandma and Papa worked together like this until about 10 papers had been revealed, each one telling a piece of the Printer Mystery story. View the video at the end of this entry to read through the papers and discover the mystery!
From there, we drove to Timberline High School, where our church was putting on a Glow-in-the-Dark Easter Egg Hunt. Guy was working the sound, and I was set to work at the Face Painting table. We helped set up and then people slowly started to arrive. I realized after a time that between me and Guy, there was no one to watch Nico. It wasn't a big deal when it was just our church there setting up, he could run around the huge field and everyone knew him. But as thousands of people started arriving, I realized I may need to figure this out. The line for face painting was long and I had no visual of the field. Nico would run over every once in a while for water, which made me happy. I told him to keep checking in and then prayed that God would take care of him. The next time he checked in, he had Lexie with him! The next time after that he told me he was going to be with Jonny and Alanna and Lexie. I looked up and Jonny was waving at me. HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF. The crowd was really packed now. I didn't know they were going to be there, but I am so grateful they were!
The face painting line went to ZERO as soon as Pastor Tim got on the mic and started preparing everyone for the countdown. We started cleaning up and I was able to catch a video of the countdown and field rush. (check out video at end of entry)
Thank you to Alanna for taking these pictures!! They estimated 4,000-6,500 people showed up!
Sunday was a relaxing day. We decided to have pizza that night since we weren't able to on Saturday. It was Nico's turn to choose the show, and he chose Garfield.
Monday came along and it was back to school for Nico!
Tuesday was an interesting day! In the morning Nico lifted his shirt up and asked me why there was a painful lump on his stomach right above his belly button. It was about the size of peanut and painful to the touch. I calmly said we would go to a doctor that day to figure it out. I called the office at the stroke of 8, and got Nico in at 9:30. The doc said it wasn't a hernia, but was definitely a lump, she could move it around with her finger (ouch!). The next step would be an ultrasound to determine whether it was "vascular" or just an easily removable cyst. I didn't know what vascular meant, when I asked her she said that if it was vascular it meant that the lump had blood vessels involved with it and it would be harder to remove and could possibly continue growing. The outcome we should hope for would be the cyst. They could them remove it right in their office instead of doing surgery at the hospital. She told me the imaging center would call soon to schedule the ultrasound.
I dropped Nico off at school and then called up my prayer team. My mom and Guy's mom, then texted Aunt Mary and Ellen Gray. I did this from the school parking lot. When I was done, I started driving home. As I was turning onto our street my phone rang. I thought it was the ultrasound place to schedule the appointment but instead it was the doctor's office. She said she consulted with Dr Eck (the main doctor at the office) and he said it sounded like a "liquefied hematoma", which is much less scary and much more common (especially in active children). I don't know much about it, but I understand it to be like an internal bruise where blood is collected in a spot and can produce a lump. The fact that it was very painful was a good sign. She told me to watch it over the next few days and if it became less painful and the slight bruising started turning yellow, that means it's healing and it's not a cyst or other kind of lump. PHEW.
I gave all my prayer team the update. Apparently they're goooood at what they do! I didn't even have time to worry about it before it was resolved. I went back to Nico's school to tell him the news. The doctor had told him all about ultrasounds and said "It might hurt because they'll have to press the spot, BUT, there won't be any needles!" So I'm sure he was relieved at the news.
On Wednesday morning he woke up and I asked him how it felt. Still painful but not as bad... and look it's starting to turn yellow!
I learned that my cousin Rick (Aunt Mary's son) and my Uncle Jerry both had similar lumps like this when they were younger, and they both went away! Not sure if they were the same thing, but it was still reassuring to hear stories of disappearing lumps :)
Wednesday was Nico's first baseball practice. The doc had given us the OK to continue normal physical activity, since it wasn't a hernia. Nico got to wear his new cleats and made sure that I brought the towel that Dick's Sporting Goods gave him, "in case I sweat!" Hehe.
We found the practice field, and once practice started his team huddled up. The coach talked about the 3 things to remember about baseball:
1 - Have Fun
2 - Work Hard
3 - ?
Hmmm.... Oh well.
The coach showed them how to hold the ball, and they practiced the "creeper stance", while you're in the outfield waiting for the batter to hit the ball.
Video down below with more baseball stuff!
Tonight we had Evelyn over for dinner even though her family was home. Avery felt a little bad about it, I'll have to figure out a way to make it up to him. We had mandarin chicken and fried rice. I don't think I could ever make those two dishes again at the same time. If Guy wouldn't have been home early tonight I would have ruined both dishes!! It requires two people and a few more burners, and a few more dishes.
BUT, it was REALLY tasty and everyone loved it. In the future I could probably make the rice ahead of time so I won't be doing both dishes at once.
Afterwards they did some rough housing. One of their favorite things to do.
Guy and I were without Nico last Friday, we had a quiet day at home sorting through some stuff. Nico came home on Saturday from the Grandparents Salisbury's house. He had so much fun while there. He has been asking ever since when he will be going back.
On Sunday our church dedicated the new construction starting on Monday, to add on to the children's wing. All the kids wore construction hats and were given a shovel to be a part of the groundbreaking. We helped Nico push his shovel through the grass, it was difficult. He dug a big hole and would have kept digging if we hadn't stopped him. It's not often you can dig a hole in the middle of thick grass in a big yard. The rest of Sunday was a lazy day at home! Miss Erin, the children's pastor, asked Nico if he wanted to read a verse in front of the congregation during our Christmas Eve service. He said Yes! He will be reading Luke 2:10-12.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Nico went back to school on Monday after having the week off for Thanksgiving. The book fair has been happening this whole week and we always let him pick out a book to buy. This year he chose a diary with a lock and key on it! He picked it up today and has been working on it all afternoon and is now even working on it while he's in bed (he gets to read for 30-45 minutes before lights out. Most of the time he chooses to do a workbook, or something similar like filling out his diary). It's a diary that asks questions "What do you and your friends like to do for fun?" Or, "Whats pets do you own or want to own?" I don't know most of what he's writing because whenever I look at him he says "DON'T LOOK AT MY JOURNAL!" Heehee. But I have caught snippets of it because he has to ask me how to spell things sometimes. Currently he's filling out a free-write section where he has to write all about his life up until this point. He started with talking about how he was a baby in my belly and all of a sudden at the hospital he popped out. I hope I get to read the rest of it someday!
A few of his other before-bed reading choices this week:
An advent calendar that belongs to Evelyn but Allicia is letting Nico read it until before December 1st comes (we returned it tonight). It tells the story of Christmas in 24 little tiny books. Nico loves to know if something he is reading or watching is real, and he asks us all the time, "Is this real?" He asked me while reading this story if the places were real - Bethlehem, Jerusalem, etc. I said yes and he was very excited and said he wanted to visit Jerusalem someday. Then he got down to the details and asked When. Can I miss school for it? How long will we be gone? :)
Filling out his project journal with bird facts. He chooses a card from his bird deck and first draws a picture of the bird and colors it in, then flips the page and writes down all the facts about the bird as listed on the card. The journal even has a little flap/envelope in the back where he stores the card he is working on. He did 2 1/2 birds over a few days and then it kind of petered out.
Yesterday morning Nico told me it felt like he had an eyelash in his eye. Yesterday evening I noticed a blood bruise on his eye in the corner. When I saw it I freaked out (quietly) and did a quick internet search. That helped quite a bit, and it supposedly just looks worse than it is, especially since it wasn't hurting him or affecting his vision. I figured it happened because he was rubbing his eye too much when he had something in it. But the next morning (this morning) it had grown much larger, so we decided to take him into the doc just to be safe. His finger in this picture is covering up the exact spot on his eye that the red blotch is. This is him in the doc's office signing the word "No". Which means, Mom, stop taking my picture.
Doc said it was nothing to worry about, even though it had grown. Because there is no pain and no restriction of movement in his eye, it is fine. It's like a bruise under the skin but since it's on the eye it's red and it looks so dark because the eyes are white. She explained that his eye was bleeding between two of the layers and Nico asked in shock "SO MY EYE IS BLEEDING?".
After the appointment Nico said it didn't turn out as bad as he thought it was going to. If he was nervous or scared at all he didn't show it one bit. He ate a huge lunch right beforehand (I mention this because when I'm nervous I can't eat!) and was his normal happy self while waiting for the doctor.
I asked him if I could take a picture of his eye for the blog and he said NO.
Tomorrow is Dec 1st! We have our advent tree out ready and waiting, and we received our Jacquie Lawson advent calendar from Grandma Russell, we are looking forward to starting both of them tomorrow!
