Fresh Air!

This week we finally got out for a big dose of fresh air. After being cooped up inside being sick and/or too cold to go out for long, we were ready to PLAY! We went to Old Park and stayed for at least an hour. The temp was around 60 degrees and it was beautiful and smelled great and both Nico and I really needed it.

We were also able to take Nico's tricycle out for a ride. His legs are finally long enough to reach the pedals and actually use the tricycle, though he prefers to stand up and walk awkwardly while on it, like he does on his Strider bike. We'll have to pull out his Strider bike soon and raise the seat a bit and see if he still prefers walking with it instead of sitting. 

I got Nico his very own knife for use in the kitchen. So, while I'm chopping vegetables, he can stand near me and chop his own vegetables! I need to get him a little cutting board, because cutting on a plate is hard. The knife isn't sharp at all, but it's serrated. Nearly impossible to cut anything with it, but whenever I do soft vegetables (zucchini maybe?) he'll be able to help out. 

Posing for a picture with his new knife.

Church on Sunday. Nico was in the toddler room and asked for me about halfway through the service, so they came and got me. I took him potty (he actually went potty! I forgot to mention last week, that his very first time going on the potty in public was at the pharmacy. While waiting for a prescription he told me that he had to go! Of course, once we started toward the restroom, he tried to take it back.) After I took him potty at church, he didn't want me to leave the nursery, he had the bottom lip quiver. So I stayed. No problem for me, it was fun!

Nico had his follow up doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning. The doc looked in his ears and told me that they both looked pearly white and there was no sign of infection in either of them. His left ear did have some fluid behind the ear drum, she said it is likely just congestion left over from the cold. She said a humidifier would probably help thin it out to get rid of it. She used the word "bubbling" when describing the look of the ear. His right ear, the one that had perforated, looked perfect. No scar tissue and not able to tell at all that it had burst. His blood pressure was 95/55, weight was 131.8 pounds and height was 36 inches.

Drawing while waiting for the doctor.

I'm still unable to hear well out of my right ear. If it doesn't resolve soon then I'll make an appointment to go have it looked at. 

Now to talk about potty training. Nico was having a hard time with pooping, so we decided to allow him to play on the iPad while he tries. This has solved the pooping problem completely, and then some! It has been hard to teach him that he doesn't always get the iPad when he goes potty. He especially likes to ask me to take him potty while we are in the middle of chores, or right before he knows we're going to start cleaning up dinner or lunch. He makes the Potty sign and says "Pah". I say "Ok, let's go potty!" and then he asks for the iPad. When I tell him no iPad this time, he then signs "all done" frantically and does a cute little whine. We'll get the hang of all this soon enough! :)

Another new recipe this week for Nico - banana pancakes. It's just 1 banana mixed with 2 eggs. Fry them up, and then I smothered it in butter. He loved it!

Nico and I took Guy to the airport tonight, he is off to Portland for 4 days. I am so excited for him, he is going to see a comedy show that includes several of the people from MST3K. Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, and Frank Conniff are each doing a comedy routine, and afterward they are live-riffing a movie called Plan 9 from Outer Space. An added bonus is that he gets to stay with his brother Tom! Sweet deal!

Nico and I will be staying with my parents for a night or so. We should have a pretty fun weekend!

Time to sign off, but I leave you with a video from this past week. Nothing big, just some shots from the park and of Nico dancing to one of his favorite Pocoyo episodes.

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.

Docs and Potty Training

They hired nursery workers at church this past week, and it was fabulous! Both Nico and I had a blast on Sunday. He stayed the whole time in the toddler room and I was able to hear the entire sermon! What a blessing. Nico did great and really likes the teacher. He barely knew that I was missing. What a change from a few months ago!

Also this week, we took Nico to his new pediatrician for the first time. The one he used to have retired when Nico was 1 year old, and now he is 2 1/2. I figured it was about time to find a new one! She is a family doctor as well, so we are ALL seeing her! Guy's first appointment was on Monday and Nico's was on Tuesday. Guy got some nifty nose spray for his sinus inflammation, and everyone has to get blood drawn as a baseline. Nico had his blood drawn on Wednesday morning and he did great! As a precaution, one of the nurses held his arm still, but he didn't try to move it anyway. He watched them prick his arm and he barely flinched at all. As they were taking the blood I kept telling him what was happening: "Cooool look at your blood! They're taking blood out of your arm!" The nurse said that she had never seen a calmer kid. Nico does pretty well for himself.

Wednesday is when we started potty training. As soon as we got home from the blood draw in the morning, we started. We are doing the 3-day potty training via 3daypottytraining.com. We bought the ebook, bought tons of underwear, a new potty seat for our toilet, and threw away all the diapers. No looking back! I had Nico throw the diapers away, and then we put some underwear on one of his stuffed bears after putting some on him. He will be running around in underwear for at least 3 days. Near the end of Wednesday, Nico learned how to hold it in, so the number of accidents slowed down considerably. Thursday was a mix of accidents and successes. He has stayed dry during naps, but night time he has been wet. The plan tonight is to wake him an hour after having put him down to take him to the potty. There are other tricks to help with night time peeing, but we will start with that.

I'm unsure if we will make it to church on Sunday! I'm hoping we'll be able to. Staying cooped up without pants on is probably not Nico's idea of fun.

Now for some pictures! (And a video!)

Nico and Guy watching a video on the iPad

And this here is how we broke the crib :)

A normal afternoon in the living room, listening to music and coloring.

And now for a video! I won't be doing these every week, but it's fun to put these together on occasion. 

Nursery

Nico on the big wheels in the church nursery.