Crowned with Good Things

Saturday was opening day of the Boise Farmer's Market. This is a different market than the one we went to all last year. The Boise Farmer's Market is a bunch of vendors that have split off from the Capital City Public Market (the one we went to last year)... so every Saturday there will be TWO markets! We will pick the one that has dried apples. Which happens to be the Boise Farmer's Market! We bought some on Saturday and Nico was so happy to have those to eat again.

On Sunday, Guy and Nico and I all went to a Bible Study. Since Guy isn't able to go to church Sunday morning because of work, going to a Bible Study on Sunday night may become a common thing for us. It was fun to be out and about together, and though we couldn't stay long because Nico started melting, we will go back next week!

Nico had his first speech therapy appointment today (Thursday). If you remember, it was supposed to be last Friday, but it was moved to this Wednesday and then moved again to today. But it finally happened! Last Thursday I fed Nico a lot of a tasty food called pemmican. It is 70% beef tallow (FAT) and I think I gave him too much, so he got sick in the middle of the night. He was fine just fine afterward, went right back to sleep, and was his old self in the morning. But I called Marcia anyway (the speech therapist) to tell her. She said that since she works with a lot of medically fragile kids, that she didn't want to risk coming over and exposing herself and then possibly one of them. I agreed, and so we rescheduled for Wednesday. Marcia then had to reschedule that appointment for Thursday.

The first part of the appointment was her doing an evaluation of Nico's current speech skills so that she could report it to the school district for Nico's transition appointment which happens next Wednesday. I'm not sure exactly what this appointment will entail, but they need all the information they can get before they decide whether to accept Nico into the program. I will know more next week!

The rest of the appointment was Marcia and Nico playing with wind up toys. Whenever Nico wanted the wind up toy to go, he had to say something. She focused on the word "More" and "Car", since he has strong M and C sounds already.  He says "Mo" and "Ka" for More and Car. So from here on out we are supposed to have him say Mo or Ka instead of signing the words. He can still sign them, but he will have to say them, too. She was good, and it was cool to see Nico get into the habit of saying "Mo" even after just a little bit.

We took our first trip to the Fish Park this week, in fact we went twice! We spend most of our time in the lobby playing with the stream bed simulator.

This past week I won a contest. My friend Shaylen owns Custom Pop Art Portraits and she has a giveaway every week. I won this past week! I sent her a picture of Nico that Grandpa Russell had taken during Christmas. It is one of my favorite pictures of Nico (if not my favorite). You can see the pic I sent along with her pop art interpretation of it!

I love that it's black and white but his eyes are blue! And the morning after I got this picture from her, I read Psalm 8:5 and Joyce Meyer's commentary on it. Joyce says:

"You have been singled out by God, Who has placed His crown of glory and honor, or favor and excellence, upon your head, according to Psalm 8:5."

Psalm 8:5 says "You have made them [human beings] a little lower than angels and crowned them with glory and honor."

I thought this was pretty timely, considering Nico's crown in the picture. Nico has been singled out by God, and He has placed a crown of glory and honor, favor and excellence on his head. I am overjoyed to be his mom and I can't wait to see his life continue to unfold!

Tonight we went on a walk with the Strider. I adjusted his seat to a good level and Nico moved himself onto the seat instead of walking scooted in front and off the seat. While he's not "riding" it yet, he has started running with it. Soon I think he'll start actually sitting on the seat.

Oh and I can't forget to mention some exciting news about the near future - we will be taking a trip to Arlington! Nico's Great Grandma Gohl is turning 90 years old, and we will get to be there for her birthday. We are all very excited about this! This will be at the end of May.

Speech, Strider, and Spills

Not many pictures this week! I couldn't locate the camera for most of the days. It happened to be right where I always put it, just hiding a bit.

On Saturday we went to visit Nico's cousin Lexie and Uncle Jonny and Aunt Alanna. We gave Lexie her birthday present (she turned 4!) and then hung out for a bit. Nico really enjoyed playing with Lexie's remote control car that she got for her birthday. He preferred moving it around the floor himself instead of using the remote control. Lexie showed him how to play their "Don't Break the Ice" game. We both had fun, it was great to see all of them!

Monday morning Nico had an evaluation with Idaho's Infant/Toddler Program, to determine if he qualifies for free speech therapy. A speech therapist and a developmental specialist both came over on Monday morning and played lots of games with him (aka "testing"). Nico had so much fun! It turns out that he does qualify for speech therapy. The speech therapist we met on Monday, Marcia, will be the one working with him. He will be getting 15 sessions, 45 minutes each. She comes to the house to do the sessions, which is awesome! We are just waiting to hear when they will start. Once Nico turns three (a little more that FOUR MONTHS away!!), he will transition out of the program since it is only for those who are 0-3 years.

One awesome speech development in the last few weeks is Nico's ability to say "Mama". And he correctly uses it to refer to ME! This just completely melts my heart. He has also just started to say "Daddy" and a few weeks back he correctly started saying "Papa" to refer to Papa Salisbury. They may seem like such small steps, but to me these things are HUGE, especially when he inserts a "Mama" into his crying at night. WOW, what a way to get straight to my heart.

On Monday Nico had two falls. He face-planted off of the step stool in the kitchen, and then later that night face-planted off our really tall bed. OUCH. He busted his lip when he fell off the bed, and had a fat lip that night. I iced it for him and tucked him into bed a little late because we needed to snuggle and watch Curious George for a while to calm us down. He also had a bruise on his head. The next morning he woke up with the sniffles, and since then we have been fighting off ear infections (my mom got us an ear scope so I can look in Nico's ears when I suspect infections!) He also has a low grade fever (hovers around 99.0-99.5). I am using melaluca and garlic oil in his ears and it seems to be keeping the infections at bay. I'm hoping we can come out of this without a doctor's visit. At least this time I know that if his temp goes up and he starts doing the inconsolable thing, that his ear is probably in trouble. We've been doing extra snuggles to help out :)

On Tuesday, Guy had his follow up doctor's appointment (remember when I stole his last follow up appointment so that I could get my ear looked at??). She talked to him about diet since his cholesterol is pretty high. We switched his breakfast to oatmeal for now and will address the rest of his food in the coming weeks.

Nico and I have been going to parks, going for walks, and spending time under the carport cleaning up from the fall. Leaves leaves everywhere! I adjusted the seat on his Strider so he could ride it. He helped me a bit there.

We went for a short walk and when he was done, he carried his Strider back to the house and wheeled it into place next to my bike in the shed.

Until next week!