G.G., Pojo's, Paddle Boats!

On Friday Nico had another trip to the cabin and another sleepover! I went up on Saturday to pick him up. We had a great time as always! My brother Jeremy and my nephew Kai were up there helping Papa chop down a tree. They used a chainsaw and I was hoping to see the tree fall, but it is still standing! It is HUGE! The chainsaw started smoking so they figured they'd give it a rest. They had been at it quite a while.

Monday was dance class, and I took a video! Unfortunately Nico didn't want to dance that day, so the video just has Evelyn in it. Well it does have Nico in it for a short second, but he's not dancing. Still, I will post it at the end of this entry. You'll get to see the moves they were learning in class and the dance and the cheer that they learned. Nico was happy that it was over and kept saying instead that he wanted to learn Hip Hop dance, like the dancing found in the video of his favorite song, Ready Set Go by Royal Tailor (I've often caught him singing "Oh! You put my life in motion so Oh! Your Love makes me want to give my ah ah ah ah ah ah ah all, ready set go ready set go oh oh!"). Or one of the songs from VBS, like the marching song, or the power shuffle. I overheard him telling his dance teacher about the Ready Set Go song.

So anyway, interpretive dance, ballet, and cheer, are not forms of dance that Nico enjoys. At least now we know :) Next year we'll choose the Hip Hop class.

On Tuesday we went to see G.G. I got to see her new smart phone. I am so proud of her using that thing! I showed her how to do some things, she is learning fast! I even set up Scrabble on my own phone so that we could play scrabble back and forth with our phones. Speaking of which, let me check if it's my turn... nope not yet :) Playing Scrabble with G.G. has been the highlight of my days since Tuesday. She gave us some green beans, tomato, and cucumber from her garden, yum!! Looking forward to seeing her again next month.

Wednesday was a grocery shopping day. We were planning to go to the School PTO Social at Municipal Park in the evening, but Nico fell asleep in a snuggle a little after 5 PM and slept until 3 AM, when he changed his clothes into PJs and then went back to bed until 5:30. Wow! He must have needed that.

Today I took Nico and Evelyn for a fun adventure. First to the dollar store where they each picked out a toy. Including me. My toy was index cards and some labels. Then I took them to Pojo's where we played for about an hour. Then it was off to paddle boats. I was feeling pretty seasick by the time we returned the paddle boat. I'm sure it was because I was trying to take video while on the water.

Tomorrow is when we go meet his teacher in the afternoon, and bring his school supplies. Nico is excited that Michael and Acelyn from his preschool will both be in his class.

Forgot to add some pictures..

Drinking soda at Whole Foods. He spilled half the can on the floor.

 Dawson Taylor's on Sunday picking up some coffee.

Now to the videos...

Dance Class

Pojo's, Paddle Boats

"Hey Guy!"

Nico and I got re-sick this past week. Over the weekend my sore throat came back worse, with chills, fever, aches. Nico never had a fever, but his congestion got worse. We are still dealing with very stuffy noses and an occasional cough. And I have lost most of my voice.

We were still able to visit G.G. on Monday, though! After finding out that we had lost one of the pull-back cars that goes with the fabric garage that she made him for Christmas, she gave him 3 more! Nico also warmed up to Scamper a bit and actually petted him. 

On Tuesday Guy and I had conflicting appointments, so Grandma Salisbury came by to watch Nico for a few hours. She brought him a jack-in-the-box toy. It was actually a frog-in-the-box with a Sandra Boynton theme. Nico loves it! It looks like they had fun while we were gone, too :)

Tuesday night we went to Fred Meyer as a family and got some shopping done. New shoes and earplugs! 

Nico hit the sack early last night. He ate his supplements at the dinner table and then excused himself because he wanted to "take-a a nap-a". So we let him get into his bed, I tucked him in, and ZONK. He didn't wake up until 2 AM the next morning, when he crawled into bed with me and fell back asleep until 5:30. 12+ hours of sleep is the most he's had in a single night in a VERY long time. And today was a great day for him, only one time-out and was in a great mood most of the day! So Guy and I were trying to brainstorm how to get him to sleep more.

One more food added to Nico's repertoire. Sour cream! He did great with it today, so we will increase slowly. No visible rash on either end, and NO behavior changes after eating it! I was so surprised and so delighted, especially since he loved it and wanted more more more of it. I kept it to a modest spoonful, though, because I didn't want to overwhelm his system. The doc told us to buy Nancy's cultured sour cream, and also to try Nancy's cultured cottage cheese. When she told me to buy the cottage cheese that Nancy makes, I asked her who Nancy was, thinking she was their receptionist, before I realized that it's actually a brand name! :) So we bought Nancy's sour cream at the Co-op.

And here's a glimpse into our mornings. Nico took a picture of himself and you can see me in the background looking out the window, thinking I heard the bus.

One day last week, Nico realized that he could say "Guy" and get Guy's attention. After Guy went to bed in the morning, Nico walked into the living room and called "Hey Guy! Hey Guy!" And of course Guy tumbled out of bed and ran into the living room to see Nico, because it was just too darn cute not to. We both had a good chuckle. It reminded me of a story my Mom tells about my older brother Jeremy as a youngster, barely learned to talk, called out to them both: "Heeeey Dick! Heeeey Dot!"

Not much else to report this week!

SNOW!

Saturday morning we woke up to about 4 inches of SNOW! And believe it or not, it is still sticking on the ground. It has been COLD here!

On Saturday we braved the snow and went to the Saturday Market. We found a parking spot right away and walked over. Nico liked walking through the biggest piles of snow on the way there. Boots: Awesome! We ran into his teacher at the market and we met her husband and daughter. Nico was excited about that.

Crossing the street.

On Sunday we all went to church and got to see Nico's cousin Alexis in the Christmas program. She did a great job and was so cute as an animal in the nativity scene.

On Monday we went to visit Allicia, Evie and Avery. They had their Christmas tree set up and Nico really enjoyed playing with the train they have around it. It was great to spend some time with them. Evie made Nico some train tracks on their hardwood floor by putting tape down.

School on Tuesday and Wednesday, but today Nico woke up with the snuffles, so he stayed home from school. He will stay home tomorrow, too, as his temp has gone up a slightly. Not enough to warrant "fever" but enough for me to know that he is fighting something. But today we made huge train tracks in his room and had fun with that for a while. That and watching Finding Nemo, specifically the jellyfish scene, which we rewind to and watch a lot. Sick days warrant more snuggle time.

We've had some trouble with Nico's sleep, as we've tried to nix the afternoon nap but Nico has been ending up over tired at the end of the day. Nap is much harder without a binky, so it is a rough in between stage. We're also working on transitioning away from using the small potty, which is going well so far. 

We also upgraded our SD card on our GoPro camera so that we can record longer clips of video. Excited about that!

That is it for this week, short 'n' sweet.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. FaceTime with Grandparents Russell and Great Grandma Gohl. Walk. Shaun the Sheep. Sleeeeep.

Target

Wiped out from our trip to Target with Grandma Salisbury.

All Sorts of Things

Nico is definitely feeling better. He is eating much more and his energy level has returned to normal. This means that we needed to get out of the house more to burn off some energy! Yesterday I didn't read the signs very well so we stuck around the house a bit too much, and it was evident in his sleeping last night. He was up every few hours and woke up for the day an hour earlier than usual. This usually happens when he hasn't been active enough during the day.

We went to the zoo this afternoon after his nap (picture is him climbing up the giraffe slide at the zoo). It is getting colder outside so we tend to do things outdoors in the afternoon instead of the early morning.

Then this evening we went to play with the train at Barnes and Noble after buying some groceries.

His appetite is high for avocados. He has eaten two avocados today. I mix up mashed avocado with parmesan cheese, mustard, and a cut up chicken pancake, put it in a bowl, and he shoves big spoonfuls of it into his mouth. He has also been drinking "juice", which is an apple cider vinegar drink that has added grape juice to it. He loves those.

Oh and check out the picture I added to the VBS entry!

Sleepy and Park Time

When I came home from my chiropractor appointment, I found Guy and Nico snuggled on the couch. Guy was actually asleep and didn't wake up when I opened the door or when I took this picture. Poor sleepy boy.

Also a shot of Memorial Park. We went there twice today. The second time we went, we ran into one of my mommy friends that I met a few weeks ago. It was cool to run into her again! She is a digital artist with a studio downtown. http://redbeanrobot.com

Zoo, Slobber

Today we went to the zoo. I wanted to get in to see the butterflies one last time before they are gone. Their last day is next Monday. This morning was cool, so the butterflies weren't fluttering around everywhere, but that also meant that the butterflies were perched on everything, so we spent a long time looking at all the butterflies perched on twigs and trunks and flowers.

Lately, whenever Nico wakes up from his nap, his sheets are soaked. But not from urine, from slobber! At first I thought it was his water tipping over, but in the mornings after a full night of sleep his sheets are never wet, even if his water is tipped over. It happens only after nap time!

In the picture you can see that his sheets are soaked and his hair is also wet. The wetness went down his shirt, too. You can also see Nico's new bear, Bud.

Sleep

It's about time for a sleep picture, I think! Nico had quite a time falling asleep tonight. Lately he has wanted to be held while falling asleep. I usually don't mind this, because it means that he has his head on my shoulder and both his arms around my neck. He likes to use one of his hands to grab some of my hair and then he extends his arm until the hair falls out of his hand. Then he grabs more hair, and does the same thing over and over again. He tends to do this same thing to the hair on his own head, too. I think it's a comfort thing.

First mobile post

Trying out the blogger app - hope it works! Here's a picture of me and Guy. Nico is sleeping so he was unable to attend.