Playing with Papa, and Parties

I forgot to mention last week a special gift that we received at Christmas, from G.G., a story written by her late husband, Walter Russell. It's called Cowbells and Ice Cream, very cute story about the Boss Cow (the one with the bell around her neck), and how taking care of cows is worth it in the end because you get to make ice cream. She had it bound into a little book with illustrations. I am so happy to have this keepsake!

I caught the cold going around, the next day after writing my last blog post. I am feeling pretty good now. It lasted a few days.

A few pictures from Christmas morning.. Nico putting together a small lego from his stocking

Sunday was special because Papa came over to play with Nico, Alexis with him. They tried going to the park first but didn't stay long, it was coold! They came home with rosy cheeks. I turned on the space heater and they warmed their feet by it. 

Wednesday was also a fun day with Papa. Papa and Grandma Salisbury took Nico out to Chicago Connection for lunch, then Papa and Nico came back here and played for about 3 hours while Grandma and I took a trip to Costco. They played games, and played games, and had a really fun time. 

On Monday our car wouldn't start, so after trying to jump it unsuccessfully, we called roadside assistance and a tow truck came and towed it. Turns out it was just the battery, which lasted almost exactly a year! We upgraded to a better quality one this time, since this is the second time our battery has died within warranty, same brand, the first time the battery had only lasted a few days! 

Today is Evelyn's birthday and we celebrated with her twice! This afternoon she had a party at a ceramics place. Every child got to pick out ceramic figurines to paint. Nico chose a boat, airplane, and tank and painted each one. We left the pieces there so they could fire them in a kiln and then we'll pick them up next week.

Nico asked first before helping Evelyn open aaaaall her gifts

I got some video but that will have to come later. Then this evening we celebrated Evelyn's birthday again but over here at the main house with their family.  None of Allicia's extended family were able to make it because they are sick, so it was just a few of Jeff's extended family. It was a pretty low key party and was very fun! The theme was a hotdog party a la Pigeon. Then we set off fireworks, just like last year. Then before bed Jeff read all the kids "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late." It was very cute. All will be included in a video to be posted later.

Now it's time for the Christmas Snippets Video! I couldn't seem to locate the snippets from the Thanksgiving "Christmas" we had at the cabin. So this video picks up in December some time.

Preschool Changes? And Pigeons and Packages.

Nico got his progress report back last Friday. He has met two of his goals! He can successfully identify emotions and responds to the question "Why is he sad/happy?"

Then on Monday I called the school to ask a few questions about Kindergarten, and I ended up talking to his teacher. She said that she had been talking to Karen, the speech language pathologist and they both thought that perhaps Nico didn't need to come to preschool for all 4 days but could reduce his days to 2 or 3. She said that Nico was doing very well with fine motor skills and academically, so they didn't see the point in him continuing to come for the whole week. She did say, however, that Nico might benefit from being a part of a more traditional preschool with kids that had normal speech development.

So, we've been looking into other preschools. The one that Evie goes to might be an option for us, she goes to Beautiful Savior Lutheran Preschool. But we're still waiting to hear back from Nico's teacher about whether his switching to 2 days is actually going to happen. Right now it's speculation!

Last Friday we also saw G.G., Nico really enjoyed playing with the large lego blocks that she has. He made several of the things that were printed on the side of the bucket. G.G. showed me the Fire Engine quilt she is making. Amazing! I can't wait to see it when it's finished! Then we watched a little bit of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (one of his favorite shows).

So, after last week's update, Grandma Salisbury decided to order Nico the Pigeon Activity Book, the only one he didn't have. She told me the box would be here on Tuesday. I told Nico he would be getting a box on Tuesday and the first thing he said was "With a pigeon activity book in it?"  ha ha! He knew. There is so much to do in that activity book. Guy and Nico have been playing with it. I went out for a bit on Tuesday night and when I got back, there were finger puppets, a bus stop, and they were working on putting together a Newspaper. I was impressed! And there's still so much more to do. Thanks Grandparents Salisbury!

Oh and I forgot to mention, the VERY FIRST THING he did with his pigeon activity book is line it up with the other pigeon books, as it appears on the back of the "Pigeon Takes a Bath" book. Same order and placement. THEN he could go play with the book.

At night while he's in bed he sometimes asks for his books, so I hand him a flashlight and his tall stack of Pigeon books and he reads them while "tucked up" into bed. Out loud, of course, and it's fun to hear him.

Then today, Nico and I went to the post office. He doesn't often come with me but this time he did, and there was a KEY in our box to open another box. This is his favorite thing ever. It's like opening treasure boxes. And this time was sweet because when we opened the 2nd box, the package inside had HIS name on it! He was so excited. What a morning, too, because we were on our way to the dollar store to spend two of his dollars. He purchased a Mickey/Donald/Pluto puzzle, and a car.

The package contained a few boxes of Valentines that Grandma Russell found in Great Grandma Dee's stuff. Nico can use them for Valentine's Day at school! There was also a Curious George look-and-find book, which we read through immediately. This is the book he took to bed tonight with a flashlight. There was also a picture in the package that Grandpa Russell had drawn for Nico. Nico said "OOOOOOOH".  Thanks Grandparents Russell!

Nico tried to catch Avery in a bucket as he came down the slide.

That's all for this week. Sorry for being a day late! I remembered about the blog this morning while we were running errands. Whooops!

Ice skating and pigeons

We went to the ice skating class on Saturday again, and Nico seemed excited at first, but as soon as he got on the ice he just kinda stopped. He stayed in the middle of the rink for the whole class and didn't want to get off the ice and didn't want to join his class. There was the teacher for the class and a volunteer helping out with the class, and one of them was always over with Nico trying to convince him to come to the class, or to come over to where I was so he could get off the ice. He wouldn't let anyone touch him and when they talked to him he would turn his back to them. When they tried to pick him up under his arms to try to move him to the class or closer to me, he said No and wriggled free. So, 30 minute class. After it was over, Lexie skated up to him, where he was with both the teacher and the volunteer trying to talk to him. The teacher asked her "Is he your brother?" No, cousin. "Great, can you help him? We're having trouble." She gracefully brought him back to the exit with no problem or resistance on Nico' part. Then he wanted back on the ice so Lexie helped him over to the coned off section. There were no "ice walkers" that they could play with, so he just stood in the coned off section for a while before making it back to the exit, with a little help from Lexie.

I talked briefly with the teacher, who said that it might be that he's just not ready to take a class. I think she's right.

When I sat down with Nico a few days after that to talk to him about it, he told me he didn't want to go back to class but instead wanted to go to the rink with just me. "Just you and just me" So that's the plan. We didn't go this week at all, but will try to go next week.

Pictures from school. He pointed to one of his friends and told me her name was "Erra", to which I said, "Erra?" and he said "No, Erra!" I obviously was hearing him wrong so he SPELLED her name for me. I was impressed. "E, L, L, A" OHhhh.. "Ella!" Of course!

So, Nico memorized his Pigeon books, both of them. See the video below! There is one page that says SPLASH! You can notice how he says it loud first, then soft, then loud again. The soft version is when he covers up the exclamation point at the end of SPLASH! Guy taught him that the exclamation point makes things loud. So he covers it up (you can see him do this in the video) and whispers <splash> , then takes his finger off the exclamation point and says it loud again SPLASH!

Nico noticed the list of other Pigeon books on the back of one of his, and asked about them, so I logged onto the library website and looked them all up and put them ALL on hold. Except the activity book, which a library would obviously not have anyway. I told him that I'd receive an email from the library when they were ready for us to pick up. We got to experience the excitement of picking up pigeon books TWICE this week, 3 new books each time. "Nico! I just got an email! Guess where I got the email from?" "Library?" And then he would literally watch the clock for the next three hours until the library opened.

When we got the books back home, he attempted to read the books with me by following with his finger on the words and repeating what I was saying. It became confusing because the book was new to both of us and our words became a jumbled mess. So I told him I would read it to him first, and then he could read it to me. He is halfway to memorizing all these other pigeon books too.

A few nights ago he was cracking himself and me up while we were reading the Bath book before bed. He was being silly and saying the wrong words sometimes while "reading", and the word he always used was "car".

"Don't let the pigeon take a car!""wash wash car" "That is a matter of car". Or he would add the word car to the end of the sentence, "Don't let the pigeon take a bath car!" or would leave off the last word of a sentence "Don't let the pigeon take a"

Then he'd laugh hysterically and read it the correct way. This was really hilarious to see him read himself the whole book while I was holding it flipping the pages for him, saying every sentence wrong and then laughing.

That's it for this week. Enjoy the video!