Saturday was a fun and full day. We celebrated Grandma Salisbury's birthday at Smokey Mountain Pizza. Our private gathering room has its own door to the parking lot, so I took a video of the kids after they ran out to greet Grandma and Papa when they arrived. Watch the video and beware when Nico starts running back toward me, WHACK! Yeouch!! The video is at the bottom of the blog post!
Happy Birthday (today!) To Grandma Salisbury!
Straight from the party, Guy drove Nico over to JUMP (Jack's Urban Meeting Place) for a Chess tournament/party. They went a little early because JUMP has a slide from the 5th floor of the parking garage that goes all the way down to the ground and Nico wanted to try it. But it was closed! Instead, they climbed on the jungle gym until the party started.
This afternoon I received this email from his chess coach:
We already signed him up for next year chess.
Saturday night we rented Mary Poppins Returns from RedBox, it was my choice. We all loved it. After the movie was over, Nico asked, "I want to watch ALL the Mary Poppins movies, are there any more?" Nope, shucks!
There was one evening this week (I think Sunday night) when Nico was very sad. We had said no to something he wanted. So here is Guy snuggling him on the couch. Guy sang to him the song he used to sing to him several years ago when we lived on Krall st. "The sun is sinking in the west...." Nico remembered the song and started crying. It was a very sweet moment. I'm surprised Nico remembered the song! When Guy put him into bed, he whimpered in his bed and started crying again and said "Daddy I want to spend more time with you." So Guy got up into Nico's bed and they hung out for a while.
On Mondays and Wednesdays, swimming nights, if we get to the Y a little early, Nico is able to play in the kiddie pool. Here's a shot of those shenanigans.
I love the Y swimming lessons. There are 4 life guards on duty. And, the air is very warm, not just the water, which means Nico doesn't get cold and shivery! He's able to make it through the entire 30 minute lesson. I am hooked and will probably never go back to lessons at the Natatorium.
Tuesday night at Cub Scouts, the Birds of Prey were there!
Cub Scouts snack.
Nico has been on a nacho kick lately. He made these by himself.
Nico's friends across the street are moving in June, and I chatted with their mom about it and asked if she'd be willing to share their landlord's phone number with us so we could potentially move in after they move out. If across the street doesn't work out, we plan to move somewhere else THIS SUMMER! The time has come! We would love to stay in this area so we are hoping for the house across the street. We are super excited and being very dreamy about it. We are working hard to make it work!
This week was Nico's first standardized testing day for 3rd grade. It was a math test today. 1-2 hour tests, about 7 tests total in the next few weeks. We ordered him a vibrating wrist band that vibrates every 5 minutes to help keep him on task. I am looking forward to hearing from his teacher how it works for him at school. It will arrive on Saturday!
Last Friday, Nico pulled out his pocket knife and started carving his soap figure for Cub Scouts. He decided on a horse.
For Saturday movie night, Nico chose Ferdinand as the movie to watch. We couldn't find it available to rent on Amazon Prime, but we did see that it was available at the RedBox at M&W Market. So Nico and I walked over there to rent it. As we were leaving I hear someone yell, "Joanna!" and it's Guy, he had stopped at M&W to get gas after he was done running errands, so we rode home with him.
Ferdinand is a VERY good movie. And the pizza, was VERY good.
Earlier on Saturday Nico and I completed his shelf by adding book ends, a pencil holder, and wrapping the edges with a bumper so that he wouldn't bonk his head at night. Here's how it looks!
On Sunday we celebrated Papa's birthday at Smokey Mountain Pizza. I can't believe I got NO pictures from it! But it was fun, Nico and Lexie played games in the arcade, and it was fun to get together, have some food, eat some cake, and celebrate PA!
Bright and early Monday morning was Nico's Auditory Processing testing. We drove out to Amity Elementary school to meet with the audiologist. She remembers Nico from Madison Elementary, where she had come to test all the kiddos' hearing.
Nico went into a soundproof room, and the audiologist went into a different one that was connected by a window they could see each other through. I couldn't hear what they were saying to each other, but I did have a pair of headphones next to me that let me hear what Nico was hearing. He had to go through a gamut of testing.
He had to pick out what someone was saying in one ear, with background noise coming in to the other. He had to identify "High" or "Low" for a series of tones, repeat words that were said in one ear, at the same time as a different word in the other ear. "Which word did you hear in your left ear?"
She said this kind of testing can be hard on kids and that they often take breaks, and indeed we did. Nico needed two breaks. The first one, she came out of her room first and said, "That last one was hard on him so we're going to take a break." He was discouraged that he couldn't get them all right and it was really getting him down. She told us while we were on the break that from what she was seeing that he's actually doing better than most kids his age. That seemed to cheer him up a bit.
The final report was what she had reported earlier - that for all the tests he did, overall he was testing better than kids his age. This means he has NO auditory issues!
The only somewhat "off" thing is the reflexes in his left ear. Like you can test your knee reflexes by hitting them, they test ear reflexes by sending sound into the ear and measuring the reflex response. She said that the reflexes in his left ear are not quite what they should be.
Alos, throughout the testing she saw that he favored his right ear and could generally understand things better when heard through his right ear. She said typically kids tend to favor their right ear. The language center is on the left side of the brain, and when someone hears something in their right ear it goes straight to the left side of the brain, so the response is quick. When something comes in through the left ear, it goes straight to the right side of the brain, so in order to get to the language center it has to cross the hemisphere over to the left, which takes a bit longer and is more pronounced in children.
I think they're mostly done with all the testing at school, and we'll talk about the results in a few weeks at another meeting.
On Tuesday, Guy took Nico to Cub Scouts only to find out they weren't meeting that night. Doh!
Wednesday morning I left on a trip and am still there - in Northern California at a conference. I will return home next Monday.
Nico stayed with Guy Wednesday, and today my Mom picked him up from school after Drama Club. Nico wanted to show her his classroom, so he took her in there, and his teacher was still there, so she was able to meet his teacher. Grandma said she was sweet and that she loves Nico.
Bruce and Rory are also staying the night tonight at Papa's and Grandma's. Mom sent me a picture of a snack bar she made for everyone tonight that was a hit!
And here is Pa reading to Nico before bed. From here it looks like a Richard Scarry book!
We had a nice relaxing weekend at home, taking advantage of having the house to ourselves and watching a movie downstairs for pizza night. The Last Unicorn.
Monday Nico started his Parkour camp. It's a stunt-man camp. When I picked him up after 6 hours there, he was so super sweaty!! And he begged to stay. On Wednesday morning before camp I asked him if he liked camp, and he said "Kinda". I asked what he liked least and he said "doing flips". I asked what he liked best and he said "free time", where he gets to run around the place and do whatever he wants. They've had the chance to play with nerf guns several times which he has a lot of fun with. There is a video at the end of the blog with him jumping off of something very tall.
We have been playing lots of Candy Land.
Wednesday after Parkour, we met friends at the pool. We didn't stay long. Nico got super cold.
Wednesday evening Guy took Nico downtown to pick up his gift card from Rediscovered Books. $10! He picked out a United States Atlas to buy. He has been studying it every chance he gets, and telling us all the facts. He found a very interesting page that shows you which natural disasters happen across the US. He used to ask questions about this all the time, mostly just to make sure that no natural disasters happened in Idaho. The only one was Earthquake on Idaho, but on the east side. Allicia told me that there was a night a few weeks ago that Nico came out to go to the bathroom and Allicia and Ivy and Avery were there, FaceTiming with Evelyn who was at Allicia's mom's house in Twin Falls. Apparently Evelyn was worried about hurricanes happening in Boise but Nico went right to work reassuring her that there were no hurricanes in Boise and that by the time they got here there would be nothing left of them.
But back to the Atlas, tonight part of his prayer was "Pease help me to learn a lot from the Atlas book". He is in bed now studying it.
The Parkour camp is about a 2 minute drive from Papa and Grandma's house. Nico asked if we could go to Grandma's house after Parkour on Tuesday, we weren't able to then, so we went over on Thursday. Grandma had made some yummy banana chocolate chip bread that Nico and I both loooved.
We are preparing for a rearrangement of furniture on Saturday. First things first - get rid of our yellow table. Here's what the space looks like without the table -
Guy and Nico walked to Starbucks in the heat, and I came and picked them up after. They gave him a HUGE Italian Soda!
We continued our time in Arlington last Friday, we woke up at Cama Beach and had an early morning bird walk. Nico and I got another game of chess in on the big chess board, and a friendly neighborhood cat followed us on our walk.
Part of Grandma's shell collection
After our bird walk we went to the Cafe and got breakfast, then walked back to our cabin to pack up and call the shuttle. We loaded all our stuff into the shuttle and they drove us back up to our cars. From there we drove the 30 minutes back to Arlington.
For lunch we went to La Hacienda, a favorite from our last visit. We got Nico the same thing we got him last time, the Carne Asada, and he gulped it down just like last time.
Friday afternoon Guy and I and Nico drove to Lake Stevens to visit friends of ours, Rusty and Ellen. Nico remembered being there 2 years ago and asked again for the Thomas the Tank Engine toy he remembered playing with. They still had it! So he spent time putting that together while the rest of us talked.
Friday evening I'm pretty sure we just hung out at home, there were lots of books to be read and Grandma Russell helped us quite a bit in finding books to help fill in Nico's book bingo sheet. Before our trip I picked up a book bingo sheet from Rediscovered Books in downtown Boise. Last June they did this same thing, each square has a different kind of book listed (for example, an autobiography, or a book written by a woman, etc), and when you finish reading that type of book you write the name and author in the square. If you get a bingo you are entered into a drawing. If you get a blackout (which is what we're going for), you get to go to an after hours party at the bookstore. While in Arlington Nico read almost 12 books! Most of these were children's books for ease and speed of reading.
Grandma made another trip to the library while we were there, and you might remember that when we lived in Arlington our house was right across the street from the library, so while she was in that area she got a picture for us. Looks about the same!
Saturday morning we had considered going with the Grandparents to the Farmer's Market in Mt Vernon, but we were feeling a little homey that day so we stayed behind. I mixed up an ice cream recipe for use later in the ice cream maker, and then we attempted to put together a 3D puzzle and soon gave up.
The Grandparents arrived home with treats and meat and veggies. They even picked us up a whole bunch of strawberries which we enjoyed eating for the remainder of our trip.
Grandpa showed us part of his knife collection.
Saturday for lunch they went to Tokyo House (I stayed home for napping purposes). Nico enjoyed some fried rice and sushi!
Playing a game of Clue Jr.
Saturday we had pizza! Woohoo!! We watched Mr. Bean which Nico really enjoyed. For dessert we tried to make ice cream but it didn't freeze well enough, so instead we had strawberries covered in the liquid ice cream. Strawberries and cream. It was tasty.
Sunday morning we were able to visit our old church. It used to be Marysville Church of the Nazarene, now they are Generations Community Church. We saw a lot of old friends. After church we stopped at Jimmy John's for lunch before heading to Pullman.
It was sad to leave them, we had so much fun. We will see them again in July for Nico's birthday!
On our way to Pullman.
The drive as about 6 hours, we arrived and were welcomed by my Mom. For whatever reason, Nico was not aware or had forgotten that we would be seeing Grandma Salisbury at the hotel. He was so shocked to see her car there! Grandma took us to our room (King suite with jacuzzi tub!) and then took Nico to Taco Time, bringing back some burritos for Guy. She offered to keep Nico overnight in her room for the two nights we were there, and Guy and I were able to watch a movie late into the night. We watched Hunger Games the first night and the sequel to this the 2nd night. Apparently there are 2 more movies! They are on our list to watch.
Monday morning Guy and I ate breakfast and then drove to Moscow (10 minute drive). We did a little shopping, then picked up lunch at Paradise Cafe at the Moscow Mall and brought it back to my mom's room. Her and Nico had driven to Moscow to pick up my Grandma!!
My mom found a really good cake shop (across the street from our hotel!!), so after lunch we enjoyed a gluten free dairy free cake.
Me and Grammy
A little while after lunch, Nico, Guy, and I got into our swimsuits and went to the hotel pool! We played for about 40 minutes, then Guy and I got out and let Nico play for a while longer. He shivers after a while in the pool so he was going back and forth from pool to hot tub.
Then we said our goodbyes to Grammy. Mom took her home, bringing Nico with her. She took Nico to a park in Moscow afterward before coming back to the hotel. Guy and I went to coffee and then started watching our 2nd movie!
Tuesday morning started our trek back home! We arrived around 4pm and stopped at Taco Time to pick up food on our way into Boise. We unloaded the car and then sat down to eat. Phew!
What a great trip we had! We are almost all back to normal routine now.
Wednesday Nico got a haircut. (tried to get one before the trip but they were booked!)
In the evening Evelyn, Avery, and Nico all went to VBS at Jeff & Allicia's church. It was water night, so they all got in their swimsuits. 90 degree day!
This morning Nico and I parked our car near the library and then walked on the greenbelt to the post office where we found a key to open a package locker. Inside was a package for Nico from the Grandparents Russell, a supplement to his bird journal, a book of birds in the West plus a birding guide.
(By the way, our conversation on the way home: "When I get older I want to live in Caldwell. It has the highest crime rate but I still want to live there because, I don't know, I just do. I'm going to be an ornithologist and I'll live in Caldwell and I'll study birds.")
This evening was another VBS. He took the $20 that Grammy gave him to donate tonight. What he said: "The girls gave more than the boys. If the boys give more, then they'll win!" Allicia texted me after she dropped them off that the boys are now ahead by $10. Heehee.
Ok I think that's it for this week. Enjoy the video!!
Last Friday Nico had a school program, Sunny With a Chance of Leprechaun. Both Evelyn and Nico were in the production. Guy and I and Allicia and the rest of the kiddos went to the 10:00 showing. See the video at the end for the highlights!
Nico has been pretending to be a chicken lately. In fact, when his baseball coach's wife introduced herself (did I mention this already last week?), Nico shook her hand and said "bock bock?" like a chicken. Guy and Nico play this game where Guy says a fact about chickens and Nico acts out the fact. "A chicken can lay up to 300 eggs per year" for example. When the acting out gets annoying, Guy "cuts off" his head and Nico crumples to the floor. Then Guy sews his neck back on and says another fact for Nico to act out.
Anyway, I bring this up now because as soon as Nico got onto his riser for the performance, he started pretending to be a chicken. We noticed the girl next to him on his left (his crush from last year) telling him to stop doing it. Heehee. He stopped for a minute and then started up again.
Saturday was a full and fun day. When Nico and I were snuggling after the day was over, I asked him what his favorite thing was and he said "All of it!"
Guy's work had a family day (Photronics Phun Day) that he took Nico to. I stayed home and precooked our pizza crusts for that night and did some chores around the house. At the Phun Day, they made slime, did a scavenger hunt, and ate hot dogs and hamburgers.
Shortly after they got home, I took Nico to Lexie's birthday party. The theme was Emojis. It was a wonderful party!! So many fun things. They jumped on the trampoline at first, then they made tie dye shirts, played pin the poop emoji on the toilet, then did the Seran Wrap ball game.
Nico and cousins Rory and Lexie, Grandma in the middle.
Two of his prizes
We came straight home afterward and had pizza! We've been taking turns choosing what to watch, since we've had a difficult time agreeing on anything. It was my turn to choose but gave my rights away to Nico. We watched Garfield.
Sunday after church I took Nico to Dicks Sporting Goods to buy him some cleats, it was the last day our 20% off coupon was good. Since he was in a league, they gave him a free towel and a pair of sunglasses too.
Tuesday was our trip to Nampa to see G.G. and Aunt Pat. Aunt Pat was so sweet to let Nico play a game on her computer where he tries to get the grandma to the end safely. We learned that the field behind their house will soon be houses! We picked up Jimmy Johns on the way home, and since it was Tuesday we watched some TV while we ate, Nico chose Garfield again.
Wednesday evening was Ivy's birthday party! Allicia made an incredible spread of Chipotle copy-cat recipes so we could all have burritos or burrito bowls, it was really amazing. I don't have any pictures of this, but it was a fun time!
TODAY Grandma and Grandpa Russell arrived!
We have 4 more days with them, it should be a FUN weekend, I'll update about that next week! Tomorrow starts Nico's Spring Break!
Until then...
I thought I was recording Nico's entire pin-the-poop-emoji-on-the-toilet, but in fact I was NOT, and when I hit the "Stop" button I was actually hitting the "Record" button, so this is the very tail end of his experience with the game. Oh well!
