Soap Carving, Auditory Testing, Sleepover!

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!

Ok that's it for this week!

Pinewood Derby!

Last Friday was the Pinewood Derby. Out of 30+ cars, Nico came in 18th. He was very excited. Each car races 4 times and then the scores are tallied up to determine the winners. Since him and Guy had spent so much time working on the car, I think Nico was expecting a bit more winning. His very first of 4 races he came in last place against 3 other cars. The look on his face was sad (checkout video at end of blog), but then in the next race he got 3rd place out of 4 cars and he was SUPER excited! At the end, each person was given an award, Nico got the Lean Green Racing Machine Award. He was very happy about that.

When we first got there, it was imperative to have a little play time first. The other kids were crawling through the chairs and Nico joined right in.

The MC was joking at first about how we'd be there until midnight because Pinewood Derby races take a long time, especially with a whole bunch of kids. But, she explained the rules and the kids generally followed through. We were done in about an hour and a half. When it's time to pay attention, you put two fingers up in the air.

 3rd place in one of the races

 Afterward. Digging the baby interaction in the background.

On Saturday we tackled the huge task of cleaning out under Nico's bed and organizing his toys.

Organization central. We got rid of a trash bag full of stuff.

Afterward.

For pizza that night, Guy chose The Fuller Brush Man to watch, prompted in his desire by a nostalgic text from Grandma Russell about the movie. "Wanna buy a brush?" It's a black and white comedy/murder mystery, and Nico and I both really enjoyed it! I am delighted the way that Nico has been interested in a variety of movies. We were able to watch the movie downstairs, as Jeff and Allicia and the kiddos were out of town for the weekend.

Nico loves the vest that GG got him for Christmas. He wears it almost every day and he says it's his "Lucky Vest" because GG got it for him. He wore it to church on Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, Nico went over to "the boys' house", and soon came back over with 2 of the boys. Since Jeff and Allicia were out of town, Guy and I retreated to the basement so they could play in the Clubhouse as loud as they wanted. 

On Monday, Nico didn't have school, so he came with me to my parents' house where my mom and I were going to do some work together. After lunch Papa took Nico to the park. They batted for a little bit and then Nico played on the playground. It was windy! Papa said they both stopped for a minute to listen to the wind in the trees.

Nico's been on a kick with taking things apart. He has been searching for things to take apart and then put back together. He took apart his remote control car and the remote, some of his game and some of his cars. When Rylan came over on Wednesday, he helped Nico with one of them. Then they went outside with Guy to try to fix the turn signal on the car, as part of the "taking things apart" campaign.

Wednesday morning we had Nico's yearly IEP meeting for speech (Individualized Education Program). In a few weeks we are having his 3 year review. They re-evaluate his need for speech services every 3 years, so he is going to be going through some testing in the next few weeks to determine needs. I love talking about Nico with other adults that know him. We had to list strengths, Guy and I came up with a list, but then hearing a list of strengths from his teacher was very nice. Nico's strengths:

He is very outgoing, makes friends easily, is not scared to be the center of attention when speaking in front of the class, is funny, gentle, interested in a lot of things, loves organizing things and loves science and understanding how things works. 

Nico is reading the next Tom Gates book, and is enjoying Press Start books, he checked out three of those from the library today.

That's is for this week, enjoy the video!

Free Comic Books, and Tin TIn

Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, so we showed up at the library right when they opened. Last year we were a little too late and missed out! Nico's game on Saturday was a little later than usual, so we had some time after the library to go to some garage sales before his game.

It was a good game! Papa met us there. It was the perfect temperature and we found a nice spot in the shade.

It was Guy's turn to pick the movie for pizza that night, we watched Tin Tin! We all loved it. And we showed Nico a picture of him as a 2 year old dressed up as Tin Tin.

Watching Tin Tin while eating pizza

Our flowers hanging outside our door

Bubbles before bed

That's about it this week!

Evelyn at Baseball Game, and Doctor update

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.

Our pretty flowers framing the door.

That's it for this week!

Papa!

Saturday was a full and fun day. Nico had a baseball game in the morning, and Papa came to cheer him on! Grandma is up in Moscow visiting Grammy for a few weeks otherwise she would have come, too!

It was a little chilly at first but once the sun came out it started warming up. I tried to get some slow-motion video of Nico hitting the ball. You can check out the video at the end. I missed his big hit because I was trying to stop/restart the video when I realized I had it portrait instead of landscape.

Afterward, Papa took all of us to Jimmy John's. Thank you Pa! Believe it or not Nico only ate one sandwich. He ate so many snacks during the game itself that he wasn't as hungry as usual. It was such a fun time hanging out with Pa for a few hours!

After lunch we headed over to some church friends' house. Elizabeth and Matthew and their three kids. The four adults played board games while the kids played. They played SO well together, there was no yelling or arguing, and the neighbors even invited them over to run through sprinklers and jump on the trampoline.

In the evening we ordered pizza and then ate cake for dessert.

Nico had baseball practice on Monday and then another game on Thursday (tonight). Papa was able to come again and was actually helping out in the outfield to help coach the kids! He came back for sips of water between innings. We started out with our chairs in the full sun, but the temp was up to 82 degrees and it was hot in the sun, so I pulled my chair back to the shade. They played a good game and Nico got several hits.

Pa helping at 3rd base

Guy has band practice on Thursday nights so he wasn't able to make it to the game.

Nico and I went to the park last Friday to practice hitting and throwing and catching. We did that for about 10 minutes before he said he wanted to play with the other kids at the park, some he knew from school. They played 4 square and then dodgeball. It was hard to drag him away!

I made enchiladas this week, I hadn't made them for several years. Grandma Russell's recipe! Yummy!

So here's the video! The slow-mo is pretty cool, enjoy!

Papa's Birthday!

We celebrated Papa's birthday on Sunday at Smoky Mountain Pizza! We reserved a room and it was perfect! We ate pizza and then ate cake. Papa's favorite dessert is cherry pie, so I made some cherry pie filling to put inside and on top of his cake. Then he opened presents. It was great to see most of the family (Jeremy and Bambi weren't able to make it) and fun to celebrate Papa!! Happy Birthday Pa!

Now unfortunately I forgot to take pictures the rest of the week, doh! Except one tonight when I remembered that I was updating the blog. On Thursdays we are watching Evelyn after school and she eats dinner with us. After dinner I let them play in the clubhouse until shower time. They played with cars and micromachines tonight.

Other things we did this past week, we rented Wall-E on Amazon for Saturday pizza night. Our toaster oven broke and we have ordered the part for it, it will take a few weeks for the part to arrive so we have borrowed a toaster oven from Allicia. In the meantime I purchased gluten free pita pizza crusts from Trader Joe's that will fit in this smaller toaster oven so we can continue to have Saturday night pizza while our oven is broken.

Guy checks out Donald Duck comics from the library and him and Nico enjoy reading them together  before bed. 

Last Friday I drove Evelyn and Nico to chess class before school. I drove because I had a doctor's appointment directly after. Instead of pulling into the school parking lot, I pulled over and parked on Warm Springs, then got out with them and waited as they crossed at the crosswalk light. While they were crossing the crosswalk they decided to start asking me questions about why I drove them to school. 

Nico: Why did you drive us?

Me: I have a doctor's appointment.

Evelyn: Why do you have a doctor's appointment? (I couldn't hear what she said, they were across the street from me)

Me: Huh?

Nico: *YELLING* WHY DO YOU HAVE  A DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT?

Me: INSURANCE!

Evelyn: Is she getting a flu shot? (again I couldn't figure out what she said)

The crosswalk light turns green for the cars so the cars start zooming by.

Nico: ARE YOU GETTING A FLU SHOT???

Me: WHAT?

Evelyn: ARE YOU GETTING A FLU SHOT??

Me: NO!

Evelyn: WHAT??

ME: NO!

They run off.

Heehee.

That's it for this week!

Sleepovers, Birds of Prey, Whiffle Ball!

Last Friday Nico went over to the Grandparents Salisbury's house for a sleepover because of my Rock the Village event and Guy working late. Nico met a friend at the park nearby and they planned to meet back there the following Tuesday at the same time, when Nico was going to be there again for the last Grandma Camp of the summer. (His friend never showed up on Tuesday though! 😞)

Saturday, Jeff and Allicia and the kids were out of town so we ate our pizza downstairs and watched Chicken Little.

On Monday Nico decided to spend some of his money to rent Boss Baby on Netflix, which we watched 2 1/2 times that day.

Tuesday morning, Nico was off again to the Grandparents Salisbury's house! I stayed for lunch before heading home. Nico was the only grandkid able to attend this last Grandma Camp! He stayed Tuesday night and Wednesday night. Here's some fun things they did...

Grandma took him to the Birds of Prey.

Nico asked the presenter a few questions, including "How do you catch the Condors?" So I asked Nico how they catch Condors and he told me they put out the Condor's favorite food and put a net next to it. When they eat the food, they catch the Condor with the net.

An American Kestrel

He got all of them right

Playing whiffle ball. After doing really well, he told them to call him "Mr. Batter". 

Grandma took him to his dentist appointment

Then out to Red Robin!

Thank you Grandma and Papa for the fun time!!

Video at the end of more Whiffle Ball!

After dinner tonight we went to the park to play ball, and Nico searched around for some kids and found some, so he asked them if they wanted to play ball with us, so they took turns hitting the ball, and even throwing it.

Making Nico's bed after washing his sheets is a dual effort. He stands on our bed as I throw each of his stuffed animals to him from his bed. I have to say the name of each as I throw them. Then I make the bed and he throws them back, naming each as he throws them. Today we were able to add a new one to the bunch - Red. He is a Red Tailed Hawk.

Here's the Whiffle Ball video!